新视野大学英语课件_Book1－8Birth of Bright Ideas.pptVIP

Unit 8 Birth of Bright Ideas Background Information: Richard Wagner(1813-1883): He was the greatest composer of German opera, made a major addition to the nature of opera through his writings about and the creation of music drama. His works include “The Ring of the Nibelung”, a set of four operas based on historical German stories Background Information: La Spezia It is an industrial port and Italy’s chief naval station in northwest Italy. Wagner visited here in 1853 when he left his exile in Switzerland to which he had escaped during World War II. Henri Poincare (1854-1912): a great French mathematics and theoretical science professor at the Sorbonne (University of Paris), had a highly original influence on the development of pure and applied mathematics. He also worked on functions that changed celestial mechanics, helped pioneer algebraic topology and co-discovered the special theory of relativity. Background Information: Descartes, Rene (1596-1650): a famous French philosopher, mathematician and scientist, was one of the most influential thinkers in history. He is considered the founder of both modern philosophy and analytic geometry. During his life, established ideas were being challenged, so he tried to develop a way to reach the truth. He based his theory that the world is made up of mind and matter on a concept that came to him in a dream. Cogito ergo sum is Latin for “I think; therefore, I exist”, a key point in Descartes’ philosophy. He claimed that the only thing anyone can be certain of is that s/he thinks and therefore, s/he exists. The “I” is the mind which can exist without being extended so that it can in principle survive the death of the body. Text Structure Analysis: Part One (Paras.1-3): Introduction—establish an argument Creative thoughts depend on what was unknown becoming known. This is easily seen in the famous creative people. Good Ideas come from the unconscious mind or brain activity us