厦门大学考博英语-1
Ⅰ **prehension
Part A
There are three reading passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.
厦门英语 If there is one thing scientists have to hear, it is that the game is over. Raised on the belief of an endless voyage of discovery, they recoil (畏缩) from the suggestion that most of the best things have already been located. If they have, today' s scientists can hope to contribute no more than a few grace notes to the symphony of science.
A book to be published in Britain this week, The End of Science, argues persuasively that this is the case. Its author, John Horgan, is a senior writer for Scientific American magazine, who has interviewed many of today's leading scientists and science philosophers. The shock of realizing that science might be over came to him, he says, when he was talking to Oxford mathematician and physicist Sir Roger Penrose.
The End of Science provoked a wave of denunciation (谴责) in the United States last year. "The reaction has been one of complete shock and disbelief," Mr. Horgan says.
The real question is whether any remaining unsolved problems, of which there are plenty, lend themselves to universal solutions. If they do not, then the focus of scientific discovery is already narrowing. Since the triumphs of the 1960s--the genetic code, plate tectonics (板块构造税), and the microwave background radiation that went a long way towards proving the Big Bang--genuine scientific revolutions have been scarce. More scientists are now alive, spending more money on research, than ever. Yet most of the great discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries were made before the appearance of state sponsorship, when the scientific enterprise was a fraction of its present size.
Were the scientists who made these discoveries brighter than today's? That seems unlikely. A far more reasonable explanation is that fundamental science has already entered a period of diminished returns. "Look, don't get me wrong," says Mr. Horgan. "There are lots of important things still to study, and applied science and engineering can go on for ever. I hope we get a cure for cancer, and for mental disease, though there are few real signs of progress."
1. The sentence "most of the best things have already been located" could mean ______ .
A. most of the best things have already been changed
B. most of the best things remain to be changed
C. there have never been so many best things waiting to be discovered
D. most secrets of the world have already been discovered
2. John Horgan ______ . Ⅰ. has published a book entitled The End of Science Ⅱ. has been working as an editor of Scientific American Ⅲ. has been working many years as a literary critic Ⅳ. is working as a science writer
A. Ⅰand Ⅱ B. Ⅰonly
C. Ⅰand Ⅳ D. Ⅰ,Ⅱand Ⅳ
3. There have not been many genuine scientific revolutions in the past few decades because
A. there have been decreased returns in the research of fundamental science
B. there are too many important things for scientists to study
C. applied science and engineering take up too much time and energy
D. today's scientists are not as intelligent as those in the past
4. The term "the Big Bang" probably refers to ______ .
A. the genetic code theory
B. a geological theory
C. a theory of the origin of the universe
D. the origin and the power of atomic energy
5. The best title of this passage can be ______ .
A. Great Scientific Discoveries Will Never Be Possible
B. The Harsh Challenge Has to Be Met by Modem Scientists
C. The State Sponsorship and Scientific Enterprise Are All in Vain
D. The Chance for Great Scientific Discoveries Becomes Scarce
Astronaut Jim Voss has enjoyed many memorable moments in his career, including three space flights and one space walk. But he recalls with special fondness a decidedly
earthbound (为地球引力所束缚的) experience in the summer of 1980, when he participated in the NASA-ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program. Voss, then a science teacher at West Point, was assigned to the Marshall Space Flight Center's propulsion (推进) lab in Alabama to analyze why a hydraulic fuel pump seal on the space shuttle was working so well when previous seals had failed. It was a seemingly tiny problem among the **plexities of running the space program. Yet it was important to NASA because any crack in the seal could have led to destructive results for the astronauts who relied on them.
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