Малыш умнее президента?

Михаил Али стал самым молодым членом организации Mensa International, которая, по ее собственному определению, объединяет людей с максимальным IQ.

Мальчику всего 3 года от роду, а он уже знает арабский алфавит, умеет складывать и вычитать 4-значные цифры и изучает умножение. Кроме того, Михаил любит шутить с родителями, произнося слова в обратном порядке. IQ трехлетнего ребенка составляет 137, что позволяет ему входить в те самые два процента жителей Британии с высочайшим в стране коэффициентом.

Этот малыш, если верить тесту, умнее многих известных политических деятелей. Этот жесткий вывод ученых основывается, в частности, на исследованиях IQ нынешнего и бывших хозяев Белого Дома. Как выяснилось, у Джорджа Буша этот показатель составляет всего 91 балл. Своему предшественнику Биллу Клинтону он уступает интеллектом ровно в два раза. Клинтон, имеющий показатель 182, признан самым умным среди президентов-демократов.

Нормальный коэффициент IQ среднего американца составляет около 100 баллов. До Джорджа Буша ниже этого уровня оказался только один президент США – отец нынешнего главы правительства – Джордж Буш-старший.

Helpful Vocabulary

Ex-president (бывший президент), to yield to s-b in s-th (уступить к-л в ч-л), to recognize (признавать).

Text 3

Pre-reading task

Try to answer these questions. It’s difficult to do, isn’t it?

1. What day of the week were you born on?

2. What day of the week did your tenth birthday fall on?

3. What day of the week was 1 April 1966?

Reading

Read the text and find the answers to the following questions.

1. What is autism?

2. When was autism first named?

3. How many children are born autistic?

4. Which fact is about an ‘autistic savant’ (autistic savants are autistic people with particularly highly developed skills)?

The Mysterious Power of the Brain

Autism is a mental disease which prevents those who suffer from it from communicating with the outside world. Victims seem to live in a world of their own which, even now, doctors are unable to penetrate. The illness was first given a name in 1943, and yet doctors have made very little progress in their understanding of the disease since then. According to statistics, between two and four children out of every 10.000 are born autistic.

Often victims are not able to speak, read or write. But what is most extraordinary about the illness is the fact that in other areas many of the children can use their brain in ways which are almost super-human. One of the most common skills these so-called autistic savants have is calendrical calculation, that is the ability to say which day of the week a particular day falls on. Jackie, for instance, who is now 42, could do this from the age of six, when she first began to talk. She can tell you what day of the week it was on 1 April 1955 with scarcely a moment’s hesitation. But if you ask her how she does it, she will say she doesn’t know.

Leclie Lemke only has to hear a piece of music once and he can play it back on the piano note-perfect. Yet he has never had any formal musical training, is blind and with an IQ of only 58 is typical of the majority of autistic savants, who have well-below-average intelligence quotients. If you ask Richard the route of any bus in the London district, he will give you an answer immediately. Stephen Wiltshire has exceptional artistic talents and, like both Lestie and Richard, combines this talent with a remarkable memory, and can draw buildings with complete architectural accuracy, sometimes only hours after seeing them for the first time. Other savants are able to carry out amazing mathematical computations in their heads, but cannot add up simple numbers.

How savants perform such tricks is as puzzling to the medical world as it is to Jackie and the others like her. Certain common characteristics have, however, emerged. Strangest of all, perhaps, is the fact that about 85 per cent of all recorded cases are male. What no one knows either is why the range of savant skills is so restricted. These include music (usually the piano), calendrical or other mathematical calculation, art, extra-sensory perception, extraordinary sensitivity of touch or smell and (more usually) mechanical ability.

It has been suggested that autistic people do not suffer, that they are perfectly happy to remain in their own world and that a cure is only necessary in order to reduce the terrible pain of rejection felt by the victims’ families. This controversial opinion is, however, only held by a few.

The subject became the focus of particular media interest after Dustin Hoffman won an Oscar for his brilliant performance in the film Rain Man, where he plays the part of an autistic savant. This has increased public awareness of the disease and hopefully will result in more money being given to research and a cure being found sooner rather than later.

Task 1

Choose the best answer.

1. What is particularly unusual about autistic people is that many of them have

1. extremely poor memories

2. larger than average brain

3. incredible mental abilities

4. higher than average intelligence

2. What does the writer mean by ‘restricted’ in line 39?

1. extraordinary

2. limited

3. varied

4. extensive

3. Medical research has discovered that

1. autism does not affect the sexes equally

2. autistic people feel rejected by their families

3. only a few autistic people suffer intense pain

4. all autistic savants have a wide variety of skills

4. Following the success of the film Rain Man

1. people have given more money to research on autism

2. the media have shown a greater interest in autism

3. the public have become knowledgeable about autism

4. researchers have found a care for autism

5. What does ‘This’ in line 52 refer to?

1. The Oscar

2. The film

3. The performance

4. The media interest

Task 2

Find other words in the text which have similar meanings to the words given.

Disease, extraordinary, computation, ability, opposite, treatment, wonderful, to appear, to concentrate.

Task 3

Match these words from the text with meanings a-e.

Mental Penetrate Controversial Focus Awareness

enter and understand causing discussion and disagreement main source or object of something of the mind realization that something exists

Task 4

Render the text into English.