Our brains work in complex and strange ways. There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two. Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write.
Dr. J. Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887. He called these people idiot savants. An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental injury, such as in autism (自闭症) or retardation. At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people. The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory. One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, an American doctor. His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724. It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds. Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.
Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s. Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5,000 musical pieces beautifully.
In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.
Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment. Yet not all brain injury leads to savant skills. Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills. However few people wish to participate in such experiments. There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one’s brain. The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate. Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.
5. The first paragraph is presented by ________.
A. stating the background of the text
B. making a definition of “idiot savant”
C. giving examples to lead in the topic
D. making comparison to show our brains work
6. According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
A. The concept “idiot savant” was first out forward by Dr. Rush.
B. Thomas Fuller who could calculate quickly is poor in art.
C. The idiot savant played by Dustin Hoffman is good at calculation.
D. Tom Cruise has the ability to perform rapid complex calculations.
7. From the last paragraph, we know that ________.
A. brain impairment is a kind of incurable disease
B. the idiot savant may result from the purposeful interruption of the brain
C. experiments on one’s brain are harmful
D. idiot savants are actually very clever in certain fields
8. The text mainly talks about ________.
A. the understanding of idiot savants
B. mental impairment in our work
C. the way that our brains work
D. how to be an idiot savant