Cambridge 8 | Test 3 | Passage 2

The Nature of Genius

To think of geniuses and the gifted as having uniquely different brains is only reasonable if we accept that each human brain is uniquely different. The purpose of instruction is to make us even more different from one another, and in the process of being educated we can learn from the achievements of those more gifted than ourselves. But before we try to emulate geniuses or encourage our children to do so, we should note that some of the things we learn from them may prove unpalatable. We may envy their achievements and fame, but we should also recognize the price they may have paid in terms of perseverance, single-mindedness, dedication, restrictions on their personal lives, the demands upon their energies and time, and how often they had to display great courage to preserve their integrity or to make their way to the top.

emulate (verb) [transitive]

to copy something achieved by someone else and try to do it as well as they have

unpalatable (adjective) [formal]

unpleasant and not easy to accept

single-mindedness (noun) [uncountable]

the quality of being very determined and thinking only about achieving a particular thing