【导语】英语四级考试中，作文是考生复习的重点和难点，日常关注一些作文素材有助于作文得高分，下面是四六级频道为大家整理的《2018年英语四级美文：Versatile Man》一文，希望给大家带来帮助，预祝大家高分通过考试。

　1

　　Versatile Man

　　2

　　It is, perhaps,

　　3

　　no accident that many of the outstanding figures of the past

　　4

　　were exceptionally versatile men.

　　5

　　Right up until comparatively recent times,

　　6

　　it was possible for an intelligent person

　　7

　　to acquaint himself with almost every branch of knowledge.

　　8

　　Thus, men of genius like Leonardo da Vinci or Sir Philip Sidney,

　　9

　　engaged in many careers at once as a matter of course.

　　10

　　Da Vinci was so busy with his numerous inventions,

　　11

　　that he barely found the time to complete his paintings;

　　12

　　Sidney, who died in battle

　　13

　　when he was only thirty-two years old,

　　14

　　was not only a great soldier,

　　15

　　but a brilliant scholar and poet as well.

　　16

　　Both these men came very near

　　17

　　to fulfilling the Renaissance ideal of the “universal man”,

　　18

　　the man who was good at everything.

　　19

　　Today, we rarely, if ever,

　　20

　　hear that a musician has just invented a new type of submarine.

　　21

　　Knowledge has become divided and sub-divided into countless,

　　22

　　narrowly-defined parts.

　　23

　　The specialist is respected;

　　24

　　the versatile person, far from being admired,

　　25

　　is more often regarded with suspicion.

　　26

　　The modern world is a world of highly-skilled “experts”

　　27

　　who have had to devote the greater part of their lives

　　28

　　to a very limited field of study

　　29

　　in order to compete with their fellows.

　　30

　　With this high degree of specialization,

　　31

　　the frontiers of knowledge are steadily being pushed back

　　32

　　more rapidly than ever before.

　　33

　　But this has not been achieved without considerable cost.

　　34

　　The scientist,

　　35

　　who outside his own particular subject is little more than an idiot,

　　36

　　is a modern phenomenon;

　　37

　　as is the man of letters who is barely aware of the tremendous strides

　　38

　　that have been made in technology.

　　39

　　Similarly,

　　40

　　specialization has indirectly affected quite ordinary people

　　41

　　in every walk of life.

　　42

　　Many activities which were once pursued for their own sakes,

　　43

　　are often given up in despair:

　　44

　　they require techniques,

　　45

　　the experts tell us,

　　46

　　which take a life-time to master.

　　47

　　Why learn to play the piano,

　　48

　　when you can listen to the world’s greatest pianists

　　49

　　in your own drawing-room?

英语四级美文听力原文_2018年英语四级美文：Versatile Man

http://m.scabjd.com/yingyu/167671/