雅思阅读真题（Part 3）
明星员工：天赋固定论为何有害
本篇也叫：明星员工、明星表现者、天才员工、顶尖人才、明星绩效者、天赋固定论
Part 3 · 考频：中频 · 最近考试：2026.3.21
本篇为雅思阅读真题（Part 3）《Star performers》，共 14 题，2026.3.21雅思考试真题回忆，页面提供完整原文、题目、答案与解析，并支持在线机考模式免费练习。本页同时提供 Markdown 版本 供 AI 助手与搜索引擎直接读取。
文章讨论组织中“明星员工”的假设：天赋是否固定、能否被可靠识别。作者引用心理学家Dean Keith Simonton的研究，以音乐界16位作曲家创作半数西方古典音乐为例，说明各领域确实存在表现突出者，但单次评估易出错，且判断标准会变化，因此天赋固定论既 flawed 又有害。
A
One widely held assumption about talent is that it is a reasonably fixed characteristic and it is therefore the job of organizations to identify, recruit and retain star performers. This belief affects the way people are managed in the workplace. Most recruitment decisions are influenced by the skills and abilities of an individual rather than their aptitude and attitude. In terms of career development, organizations invest in staff who have been selected to reach higher-level positions while ignoring front-line employees and people with less perceived potential. This idea—that talent is a fixed, identifiable characteristic and that those firms with the best people do the best—is both flawed and harmful to people and organizations. There is a lot of evidence on this point, and it is useful to highlight some of the most pertinent arguments.
B
First, are there stars? There is no question that in every field, from sports to computer programming to music, there are people who are better than the rest. As psychologist Dean Keith Simonton, who has spent his career studying greatness, has said, "Wherever you look, the same story can be told". Identify the ten per cent who have achieved the most in a certain endeavour. Count the accomplishments they have to their credit. Now tally the accomplishments of the remaining 90 per cent. The first tally will equal or surpass the second. For instance, in music, 16 individuals have produced about 50 per cent of the Western classical music that is performed and recorded today, while another 235 composers have produced the remaining half. The more interesting questions concern not the existence of stars, but whether these stars can be reliably identified and, even more importantly, whether their talent is a fixed aspect or can be altered.
C
Identifying the best people, whether we are talking about professors or footballers, is tricky. If performance naturally varies, any measurement taken at a single point in time, such as when someone is being hired, will have error and imprecision. Therefore, single assessments of talent are likely to contain mistakes in their categorization of people. Also, judgements about performance and ability depend on the standards used to judge what is good and bad. It should surprise no-one that for Bach to be considered a great musician, standards of music needed to change to embrace the qualities that his compositions possessed. Similarly, artists and art come in and out of fashion, which means that what is genius depends not only on a person's ability, but on the prevailing standards used to evaluate output.
D
Finally, it is difficult to evaluate people and their abilities with precision. In the domain of work, research shows that the best predictors of job performance tend to be measures of intelligence, but even these measures correlate only loosely with performance. This means that more than 80 per cent of the variation in performance is unexplained by even the best predictors. Even in the sports arena, where one would think natural ability would be readily assessed because sports teams spend lots of resources on identifying talent, mistakes get made. Basketball star Michael Jordan was dropped by his high-school basketball coach and a number of top American football quarterbacks were available early in their careers because they were not considered good enough by various teams.
E
This leads on to the next question: is talent born or made? Should organizations assume that almost anyone can become a star performer, which implies that there ought to be a greater emphasis on motivation and development, or do they just figure out who is good and who isn't? Here the evidence is clear: talent is at least as much 'created' as inherent and, more importantly, the customary way companies think about identifying talent almost certainly works to destroy a lot of untapped potential. Decades of research by K. Anders Ericsson show that exceptional performance doesn't happen without around ten years of nearly daily, deliberate practice for about four hours a day, by people who with the assistance of their coaches have access to the best techniques. Once achieved, exceptional performance can't be maintained without relentless effort. So performance may be as much a consequence of training as it is of innate ability, which suggests that performance can be altered by how people are managed.
F
Further research by Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck shows that the tendency of organizations to see performance results as an opportunity for an 'assessment' of ability results in lower performance and poor motivation. Dweck identified two sets of goals that people bring to a performance context: 'performance goals', where the purpose is to validate one's ability or avoid demonstrating a lack of ability, and 'learning goals', where the aim is to acquire new knowledge and skills. People with performance goals have been shown to be more prone to helpless behavior and debilitation after a setback, while people with learning goals strive for higher performance. The implications for managing people and talent are clear. Seeing talent as fixed and job performance as a way of classifying people creates a self-fulfilling prophecy in which ability and intelligence do become fixed. By contrast, seeing ability as malleable leads to a different sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, in which individuals and their employers may invest in ways to enhance performance.
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答案：A
原文定位：This idea—that talent is a fixed, identifiable characteristic and that those firms with the best people do the best—is both flawed and harmful to people and organizations
同义替换：「Disagreement」↔「flawed」，「employing talented people」↔「firms with the best people」，「achieve top performance」↔「do the best」，「view」↔「idea」
答案：E
原文定位：Decades of research by K. Anders Ericsson show that exceptional performance doesn't happen without around ten years of nearly daily, deliberate practice for about four hours a day, by people who with the assistance of their coaches have access to the best techniques
同义替换：「on a regular basis」↔「nearly daily」，「improve their performance」↔「exceptional performance」
答案：B
原文定位：There is no question that in every field, from sports to computer programming to music, there are people who are better than the rest. As psychologist Dean Keith Simonton, who has spent his career studying greatness, has said, "Wherever you look, the same story can be told
同义替换：「evidence」↔「There is no question」，「exceptional talent exists」↔「people who are better than the rest」，「all areas of life」↔「every field」
答案：F
原文定位：Dweck identified two sets of goals that people bring to a performance context: 'performance goals', where the purpose is to validate one's ability or avoid demonstrating a lack of ability, and 'learning goals', where the aim is to acquire new knowledge and skills. People with performance goals have been shown to be more prone to helpless behavior and debilitation after a setback, while people with learning goals strive for higher performance
同义替换：「at work」↔「performance context」
答案：C
原文定位：If performance naturally varies, any measurement taken at a single point in time, such as when someone is being hired, will have error and imprecision. Therefore, single assessments of talent are likely to contain mistakes in their categorization of people
同义替换：「the time when an assessment is carried out」↔「a single point in time」，「affects its accuracy」↔「contain mistakes」
答案：B
原文定位：Identify the ten per cent who have achieved the most in a certain endeavour. Count the accomplishments they have to their credit. Now tally the accomplishments of the remaining 90 per cent. The first tally will equal or surpass the second. For instance, in music, 16 individuals have produced about 50 per cent of the Western classical music that is performed and recorded today, while another 235 composers have produced the remaining half
同义替换：「particular area of achievement」↔「a certain endeavour」，「different talented individuals」↔「the ten per cent who have achieved the most」
答案：16
原文定位：For instance, in music, 16 individuals have produced about 50 per cent of the Western classical music that is performed and recorded today, while another 235 composers have produced the remaining half
答案：Bach
原文定位：It should surprise no-one that for Bach to be considered a great musician, standards of music needed to change to embrace the qualities that his compositions possessed
同义替换：「composer」↔「musician」
答案：coaches
原文定位：Decades of research by K. Anders Ericsson show that exceptional performance doesn't happen without around ten years of nearly daily, deliberate practice for about four hours a day, by people who with the assistance of their coaches have access to the best techniques
同义替换：「help improve」↔「with the assistance of」，「people practicing daily」↔「nearly daily, deliberate practice」
答案：FALSE
原文定位：Most recruitment decisions are influenced by the skills and abilities of an individual rather than their aptitude and attitude
同义替换：「hire」↔「recruitment」
答案：FALSE
原文定位：In the domain of work, research shows that the best predictors of job performance tend to be measures of intelligence, but even these measures correlate only loosely with performance. This means that more than 80 per cent of the variation in performance is unexplained by even the best predictors
同义替换：「accurately predict」↔「correlate only loosely」，「work」↔「job」
答案：NOT GIVEN
原文定位：Even in the sports arena, where one would think natural ability would be readily assessed because sports teams spend lots of resources on identifying talent, mistakes get made. Basketball star Michael Jordan was dropped by his high-school basketball coach and a number of top American football quarterbacks were available early in their careers because they were not considered good enough by various teams
答案：TRUE
原文定位：Even in the sports arena, where one would think natural ability would be readily assessed because sports teams spend lots of resources on identifying talent, mistakes get made. Basketball star Michael Jordan was dropped by his high-school basketball coach and a number of top American football quarterbacks were available early in their careers because they were not considered good enough by various teams
同义替换：「talented sportspeople」↔「top American football quarterbacks」，「have been overlooked」↔「was dropped」
答案：NOT GIVEN