考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析--1999年part5

考研英语历年阅读理解真题精析

--1999

年

part5

Part Five

Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the

preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton

supposedly

discovered

gravity

through

the

fall

of

an

apple.

Apples

had

been

falling

in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton

for

years

had

been

curious

about

the

cause

of

the

orbital

motion

of

the

moon

and

planets.

What

kept

them

in

place?

Why

didn't

they

fall

out

of

the

sky?

The

fact

that

the

apple

fell

down

toward

the

earth

and

not

up

into

the

tree

answered

the

question

he

had

been

asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets.

How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the

tree?

Newton

did

because

he

was

not

trying

to

predict

anything.

He

was

just

wondering.

His

mind

was

ready

for

the

unpredictable.

Unpredictability

is

part

of

the

essential

nature

of

research.

If

you

don't

have

unpredictable

things,

you

don't

have

research.

Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the

technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it.

In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the

impression that they find the

thought. I've attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what

he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist

has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said

know that,

worthwhile

going

on?

What

do

you

think

we

might

expect?

The

scientist

has

been

shocked

at having even been asked to speculate.

What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his

own

writings.

He

has

put

forward

unquestioned

claims

so

consistently

that

he

not

only

believes

them

himself,

but

has

convinced

industrial

and

business

management

that

they

are

true.

If

experiments

are

planned

and

carried

out

according

to

plan

as

faithfully

as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for

management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents.

It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly

where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the

necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the

microscope.

Nor,

if

regularity

and

conformity

to

a

standard

pattern

are

as

desirable

to

the

scientist

as

the

writing

of

his

papers

would

appear

to

reflect,

is

management

to be blamed for discriminating against the

of more conventional t

inkers who

17. The author wants to prove with the example of Isaac Newton that ________.

[A] inquiring minds are more important than scientific experiments

[B] science advances when fruitful researches are conducted

[C] scientists seldom forget the essential nature of research

[D] unpredictability weighs less than prediction in scientific research

18. The author asserts that scientists ________.

[A] shouldn't replace

[B] shouldn't neglect to speculate on unpredictable things

[C] should write more concise reports for technical journals

[D] should be confident about their research findings

19. It seems that some young scientists ________.

[A] have a keen interest in prediction[B] often speculate on the future

[C] think highly of creative thinking[D] stick to

20. The author implies that the results of scientific research ________.

[A] may not be as profitable as they are expected

[B] can be measured in dollars and cents

[C] rely on conformity to a standard pattern

[D] are mostly underestimated by management

Unit 6

（

1999

）

Part 5

重点词汇：

edly

（大概；据推测）即

suppose+

（

e

）

d+ly

，

（猜想；假设）

，

-ed

形容词

后缀，

-ly< /p>

副词后缀。

ularly

（特别地；显著地）即

Particul+ar+ly

，

Particul

（

=Parti cle

）微粒，

-ar

形容词后缀，< /p>

-ly

副词后缀，

substitute

（

v.

替代< /p>

n.

替代物）即

sub+stitute

，

sub-

在下

，

stitute

词根

放置

，于是

在下面放置的

→

准备用作替换的

→替代或替 代物。

ative

（富想象力的）

即

imagin

（

e

）

+ative

，

imagine

（

v.

想象 ）

，

-ative

多

< br>......

的

。

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.

一个人能够想象出的任何

东西都会有别人 把它变为现实。

ence

（会议； 协商）即

con+fer+ence

，

con-

一起，

fer

词根