Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring, for ornament, is in discourse, and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. 讀書足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以長才。其怡情也，最見於獨處幽居之時，其傅彩也，最見於高談闊論之中，其長才也，最見於處世判事之際。(培根《論讀書》，王佐良譯)
A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as masculine or feminine.
"House," in French, is feminine -- "la maison." "Pencil," in French, is masculine -- "le crayon."
One puzzled student asked, "What gender is computer?"
The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French dictionary. So for fun she split the class into two groups appropriately enough, by gender, and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a masculine or feminine noun. Both groups were required to give four reasons for their recommendation.
The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the feminine gender ("la computer"), because: 1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic; 2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else; 3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval; and 4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your pay check on accessories for it.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine ("le computer"), because: 1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on; 2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves; 3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and 4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
2 Comments:
Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring, for ornament, is in discourse, and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.
讀書足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以長才。其怡情也，最見於獨處幽居之時，其傅彩也，最見於高談闊論之中，其長才也，最見於處世判事之際。(培根《論讀書》，王佐良譯)
GENMDER OF Computer
A language instructor was explaining to her class that in French, nouns
unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as
masculine or feminine.
"House," in French, is feminine -- "la maison."
"Pencil," in French, is masculine -- "le crayon."
One puzzled student asked, "What gender is computer?"
The teacher did not know, and the word wasn't in her French
dictionary.
So for fun she split the class into two groups appropriately enough,
by
gender, and asked them to decide whether "computer" should be a
masculine
or feminine noun.
Both groups were required to give four reasons for their
recommendation.
The men's group decided that computers should definitely be of the
feminine gender ("la computer"), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers
is
incomprehensible to everyone
else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for
possible
later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself
spending
half your pay check on accessories for it.
The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be
masculine
("le computer"), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time
they
ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you'd waited a
little longer, you could have gotten a better model.
The women won.
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