歷年考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解1999年05

[00:03.79]1999 Passage5 [00:07.41]Science, in practice, depends far less [00:10.29]on the experiments it prepares [00:12.59]than on the preparedness of the minds of the men [00:15.71]who watch the experiments. [00:18.55]Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity [00:21.69]through the fall of an apple. [00:23.81]Apples had been falling in many places for centuries [00:26.93]and thousands of people had seen them fall. [00:30.62]But Newton for years had been curious [00:33.04]about the cause of the orbital motion [00:35.36]of the moon and planets. [00:37.88]What kept them in place? [00:39.80]Why didn't they fall out of the sky? [00:42.82]The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth [00:46.35]and not up into the tree answered the question [00:49.68]he had been asking himself [00:51.56]about those larger fruits of the heavens, [00:54.49]the moon and the planets. [00:57.39]How many men would have considered the possibility [01:00.16]of an apple falling up into the tree? [01:03.79]Newton did because he was not trying [01:06.21]to predict anything. [01:08.02]He was just wondering. [01:10.54]His mind was ready for the unpredictable. [01:13.88]Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. [01:19.24]If you don't have unpredictable things, [01:21.45]you don't have research. [01:23.37]Scientists tend to forget this when writing their [01:26.25]cut and dried reports for the technical journals, [01:29.67]but history is filled with examples of it. [01:32.99]In talking to some scientists, [01:35.06]particularly younger ones, [01:37.18]you might gather the impression that they find [01:39.70]the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. [01:45.25]I've attended research conferences [01:47.48]where a scientist has been asked [01:49.23]what he thinks about the advisability [01:51.82]of continuing a certain experiment. [01:54.85]The scientist has frowned, [01:56.87]looked at the graphs, [01:58.38]and said "the data are still inconclusive." [02:02.31]"We know that," the men from the budget office have said. [02:06.25]"But what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on? [02:10.77]What do you think we might expect?" [02:14.00]The scientist has been shocked [02:15.87]at having even been asked to speculate. [02:20.12]What this amounts to, of course, [02:21.93]is that the scientist has become [02:23.65]the victim of his own writings. [02:26.36]He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently [02:30.47]that he not only believes them himself, [02:33.59]but has convinced industrial [02:35.41]and business management that they are true. [02:38.93]If experiments are planned and carried out [02:41.86]according to plan as faithfully as the reports [02:45.19]in the science journals indicate, [02:47.50]then it is perfectly logical for management [02:50.28]to expect research to produce results [02:53.29]measurable in dollars and cents. [02:56.71]It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe [02:59.75]that scientists who know exactly [03:02.06]where they are going and how they will get there [03:04.87]should not be distracted by the necessity [03:07.94]of keeping one eye on the cash register [03:10.84]while the other eye is on the microscope. [03:14.46]Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern [03:18.90]are as desirable to the scientist [03:21.41]as the writing of his papers [03:23.03]would appear to reflect, [03:24.91]is management to be blamed [03:26.79]for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers [03:31.03]in favor of more conventional thinkers [03:33.75]who "work well with the team."

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