Passage 5
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 lalger 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. Unpredictabllity is part of the essential nature of research. If you don' t have unpredictable things, you don' t have research. Scienltists 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 scienlists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression
that they find the "scientific melhod" a substitute for imaginative 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 "the data are still
inconclusive." "We know that, " the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you
think? Is it 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 writ-
ings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them him-
self, 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 indi-
cate , 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 ex-
actly 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 "odd balls a-
mong researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers who "work well with the team. "
67. 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
68 . The author asserts that sclentists __
[A] shouldn't replace "scientific method" with imaginative thought
[ 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
69. 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 "scientific method"
70. 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
Part IV: English-Chinese Translation
71) While there are almost as many definitions of history as there are historians,modern
practice most closely conforms to one that sees history as the attempt to recreate and explain the
significant events of the past. Caught in the web of its own time and place, each generation of
historians determines anew what is significant for it in the past. In thls search the evidence found
is always incomplete and scattered; it is also frequently partial or partisan. The irony of the histo-
rian' s craft is that its practitioners always know that their efforts are but contributions to an un-
ending process .
72) Interest in historical methods has arisen less through external challenge to the validity of
history as an intellectual discipline and more from internal quarrels among historians themselves.
While history once revered its affinity to literature and philosophy, the emerging social sciences
seemed to afford greater opportunities for asking new questtons and providing rewarding ap-
proaches to an understanding of the past. Social science methodologies had to be adapted to a dis-
cipline governed by the primacy of historical sources rather than the imperatives of the contempo-
rary world. 73) During this transfer , traditional historical methods were augmented by additional
methodologies designed to interpret the new forms of evidence in the historical study.
Methodology is a term that remains inherently ambiguous in the historical profession. 74 )
There is no agreement whether methodology refers to the concepts peculiar to historical work in
general or to the research techniques appropriate to the various branches of historical inquiry. His-
torians, especially those so blinded by their research interests that they have been accused of "tun-
nel method , " frequently fall victim to the "technicist fallacy. " Also common in the natural sci-
ences , the technicist fallacy mistakenly identifies the discipline as a whole with certain parts of its
technical implementation. 75 ) It applies equally to traditional historians who view history as only
the external and intemal criticism of sources, and to social science historians who equate their ac-
tivity with specific techniques.
Part V Writing (15 points)
76 . Directions:
A. Study the following graphs carefully and write an essay in at least 150 words.
B. Your essay must be written neatly on ANSWER SHEET Ⅱ.
C. Your essay should cover these three points:
l . effect of the country's growing human population on its wildlife
2 . possible reason for the effect
3 . your suggestion for wildlife protection
1999年全国硕士研究生入学考试英语试题 第3页答案
答案:
1. D 2. B 3. A 4. C 5. A
6. D 7. B 8. D 9. C IO. A
11. D, were 12. D, saving
13. C, family-run 14. C, environmental
15. B, that 16. A, in
17. C, to make 18. D, skinned
19. B, great 20. D, until
21. A 22. D 23. C 24. B 25. A
26. C 27. A 28. B 29. D 30. C
31. C 32. B 33. D 34. C 35. C
36. B 37. A 38. B 39. D 40. B
41. D 42. A 43. B 44. A 45. B
46. C 47. D 48. C 49. A 50. D
51. B 52. C 53. A 54. D 55. A
56. C 57. D 58. B 59. B 60. D
61. C 62. A 63. B 64. C 65. D
66. A 67. A 68. B 69. D 70. A
71．几乎每个历史学家对史学都有自己的界定，但现代史学家的实践最趋向于认为历史学是试图重现过去的重大史实并对其做出解释。
72．人们之所以关注历史研究的方法论，主要是因为史学界内部意见不一，其次是因为外界并不认为历史是一门学问。
73．在这种转变中，历史学家研究历史时，那些解释新史料的新方法充实了传统的历史研究方法。
74．所谓方法论是指一般的历史研究中的特有概念，还是指历史探究中各个具体领域适用的研究手段，人们对此意见不一。
75．这种谬误同样存在于历史传统派和历史社科派；前者认为历史就是史学界内部和外部人士对各种史料来源的评论，后者认为历史的研究是具体方法的研究。