TU || Flax Golden Tales || Four Levels of Interpretation Lesson 11

Level: B.A/ B.B.S || Lesson 11 “Surelu You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” –Richard P. Feyman, USA (1918-1988) With Ralph Leightion

Words Meaning

Surely = Certainly

Joking = To tell somebody something in a funny way

Elegance = Brightness

Manners = Behaviors

Ingenious = Original

Phage = Bacteria infesting virus

Pipette = A narrow tube

Crackle = Laugh

Sloppy = Careless

Fundamental = Basic

Extracted = Taken

Fantastic = Unbelievable

Grossest = Very disgustiry

Contaminate =To make dirty

Promptly = Quickly

Organism = Living being

Imitate = Copy

Summary

Feynman wants to make graduate degree from MIT but his professor Mr. Slater advise him to join another college. Then he joined Princeton University. One day the dean of that university invited them for tea. The dean Mr. Eisenhart gave the comers warm welcome. Mr. Eisenhart asked Feynman if he liked milk or lemon tea. Then others laughed. Feynman understood that he made a mistake asking for both kind of tea.

At Princeton Students used to wear gowns. In the beginning he felt difficulty in wearing gowns. Feynman wanted to see a type of machine named cyclotron. Anyone could see cyclotron easily how it worked. It was on the ground floor. It was well managed and wires were all over the room. While he was studying, he used to sit with different groups of students and philosophers. He took much interest in electron. Feynman found some students weak in their studies. He also showed interest in biology because he could ask several questions but in physics it needed deep knowledge to ask many questions.

He involved with Watson and Crick who had discovered the DNA spiral He deeded to take phage course. When he did research work, he learnt many things. He worked on ribosome’s. But it was boring job for him. He committed lots of mistakes. If he had got success on ribosomes, he would have stood first to do that work. After this he went to Harvard where he met Watson. Watson asked Feynman to work in phages. He also got good opportunities to meet great scholars there but his interests of studying physics remained unfulfilled.

Four Levels of Interpretation

  1. Literal Comprehension:

Feynman wants to make graduate degree from MIT but his professor Mr. Slater advised him to join another college. Then he joined Princeton University. One day the dean of the university invited them for tea. The dean Mr. Eisenhart asked Feynman if he liked mild or lemon tea. Then others laughed. Feynman understood that he made a mistake asking for both kind of tea.

At Princeton Students used to wear gowns. In the beginning he felt difficulty in wearing gowns. Feynman wanted to see a type of machine named cyclotron. Anyone could see cyclotron easily how it worked. It was on the ground floor. It was well managed and wires were all over the room. While he was studying, he used to sit with different groups of students and philosophers. He took much interest in electron. Feynman found some students weak in their studies. He also showed interest in biology because he could ask several questions but in physics it needed deep knowledge to ask many questions.

He involved with Watson and Crick who had discovered the DNA spiral. He decided to take phage course. When he did research work, he learnt many things. He worked on ribosome’s. But it was boring job for him. He committed lots of mistakes. If he had got success on ribosome’s.

  1. Interpretation:

Here, Richard Feynman shows the importance of studying more disciplines. He says that if someone has knowledge of all the subjects he can view the world better than others. First he was the student of physics but later on he involved in biology as well as worked with philosophers that helped him to enrich his abilities to view the world. So, view the world well, we must gain knowledge.

  1. Critical Thinking:

To some extent, I agree with the writer. Having knowledge of many disciplines is good to view the world. He says interdisciplinary approach to learning is good but it is difficult to gain such knowledge. It is difficult to study lots of subjects and to gain deep knowledge in each subject. I haven’t seen such people who are perfect in all disciplines.

  1. Assimilation:

After reading this text I learnt that we should study different subjects so that we can become a perfect man. People view the world differently because they study different disciplines. We have seen the people who studied Sanskrit, view the world differently than the people who study science. The study of different disciplines makes us view the world differently.

Possible question

  1. How do you feel about the strange title of Feynman’s essay? Do you think it captures the point Feynman is trying to make about life and education?