1. How are the author, Oppenheimer, Dirac, Spender, Auden related to each other?

回答：

Dirac came to Princeton in 1958 and went to a seminar of Oppenheimer’s. The author was also present Spender met Oppenheimer in Princeton in 1956. Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty had once been the wife of a communist who dies fighting in Spain in 1937 and Spender was also in Spain.

2. Comment on the style of writhing of the following statements, paying attention to structure, diction, tone, rhetorical devices.

回答：

(1) He had on a club tie of some sort.

A club tie is a tie with the insignia or symbol of the club on it. Many American universities also have university ties. A club usually is an exclusive institution, rendering service is only to its members. Membership fee may be expensive but the environment is very nice and service is very good Being a club member is usually a status symbol. The author’s purpose in mentioning the tie is the same with mentioning the shirt, to show Spender’s taste and sense of status.

(2) That is what great poetry and great physics have in common: both are swept along by the tide of unanticipated genius as it rushes past the merely very good.

The function of this last paragraph serves as concluding remark imparting the key message to the readers.

(3) Some years later i learned that this was part of a small collection he had inherited from his father to which he had never added.

The sentence is written with an ironical tone implying that Oppenheimer’s taste in painting was only for show.

3. How is Auden first brought up?

回答：

Spender’s being at the conference—Spender’s obsession with Auden—great versus merely very good.

4. How is Oppenheimer first brought up in the article?

回答：

The author is making decisions to go to the conference» when he recalled an anecdote of Robert Oppenheimer.

5. What are the things the author wants to tell the reader?

回答：

Great poetry and great physics cannot be imitated. As Dirac put it, “ the really great in physics are had by only one person.” To be original and profound, one has to be focused. As the author says, Auden and Dirac focused like laser beams. This, according to the author, is the cause of the difference of being great and merely very good. Besides, great poetry and physics are driven ahead by unanticipated genius. The merely very good cannot contribute to the development of either poetry or physics.

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