Child prodigies, it turns out, rarely go on to change the world. When psychologists study history’s most eminent and influential people, they discover that many of them weren’t unusually gifted as children. And if you assemble a large group of child prodigies and follow them for their entire lives, you’ll find that they don’t outshine their less precocious peers from families of similar means.
1.rarely…：表示很少有...是一种委婉表达否定的说法，相当于not often.
例句：50% of Britons say they rarely eat meat. 50%的英国人称自己很少吃肉。
2.eminent：杰出的，显赫的（人），famous and respected.
比如说：an eminent lawyer
3.assemble：聚集，集合，if you assemble a large number of people or things, or if they assemble, they are gathered together in one place, often for a particular purpose.可以与gather/collect等做同义替换。
例句：A large crowd had assembled outside the American embassy. 一大群人聚集在美国大使馆外。
4.outshine：优于，使…黯然失色，to be more impressive than sb/sth.
例句：Several new players outshone the veterans. 几名新选手使老将们黯然失色。
除了outshine，outperform也可以表达“胜过…”，另外一些带有out词缀的词：
outlive/outlast：比…持久/活得长
outrun：比…跑得快
outargue：辩得赢
outnumber：比…多
5.precocious：a precocious child shows intelligence or skill at a very young age, or behaves in an adult way - sometimes used to show disapproval in British English 早熟的，智慧超前的
比如：a precocious child who walked and talked early 走路和说话都早的早熟儿童
6.means：在这里有“收入、钱”的意思，the money or income that you have.
例句：
1.Paying for your children to go to a private school is beyond the means of most people (=too expensive for most people) . 出钱送孩子上私立学校是大多数人无力承担的
2.His father was a man of means (=a rich man) . 他父亲很有钱。
Intuitively, this makes sense. We assume that what gifted kids have in book smarts, they lack in street smarts. While they have the intellectual chops, they must lack the social, emotional, and practical skills to function in society. When you look at the evidence, though, this explanation falls short: Less than a quarter of gifted children suffer from social and emotional problems. The vast majority are well-adjusted—as delightful at a cocktail party as in a spelling bee.
7.intuitive：（出于）直觉的，an intuitive idea is based on a feeling rather than on knowledge or facts.可以与instinct做同义替换。
例句：He seemed to have an intuitive awareness of how I felt. 他好像凭直觉就知道我的感受。
8.book smarts/street smarts：
Highlights from Day 28
9.intellectual chops：chop在这里可以解释为能力、技能，the ability, skill, or experience needed to do something well. intellectual chops就是聪明才智。
例句：She just doesn't have the chops for this demanding role.
10.fall short：表示没有达到预期，to not reach a desired amount or standard:.
例句：They needed 60 votes to pass the bill, but they fell short by 12 votes.
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