1999年考研英语阅读理解第五篇答案和全文翻译--考研网上

??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.

实际上，科学的进步依赖于做实验，但更依赖于实验的观

察者（即做实验的人）有所准备的头脑。

Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple.

据说艾萨克·牛顿爵士是从苹果落地现象中发现了万有引力。

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.

多少个世纪以来，许多地方一直都有苹果落到地面，成千上万的人也都看过苹果落地。但多年来只有牛顿一直对月球和行星沿轨道运行的起因感到好奇。

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.

是什么使它们保持在现在的位置？它们为什么不从天上掉下来？苹果向下落到地面而不向上飞到树上，这一事实回答了他长期以来一直对天空中更大的“果实”——月球和行星所存有的疑问。

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

多少人会考虑过苹果向上飞到树上的可能性呢？

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.

牛顿这样做了，因为他不想对任何事情进行预测。他只是怀有好奇心。他的头脑在准备思考不可预测的事。不可预测性是科学研究的一个基本特征。

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.

如果没有不可预测现象的产生就无所谓科学研究了。科学家们在为学术刊物撰写呆板的例行报告时往往会忘记这一点，而历史上这样的例子却比比皆是。

In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the “scientific method” a substitute for imaginative thought.

在和一些科学家，特别是年轻科学家交谈时，你可能会有这样一种印象：他们认为“科学方法”可以代替创造性思维。

I’ve attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment.

我出席过一些科研会议，会上有人问一位科学家继续某项实验是否是明智之举。

The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said “the data are still inconclusive.”

那位科学家皱了皱眉，又看了看图表，然后说：“数据还是不够确定。”

“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.

预算部门的人说：“这点我们知道，但你的意见如何？你觉得值得做下去吗？你觉得我们可以期待什么呢？”这位科学家感到很震惊，他没有料到人们会让他做出预测。

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

当然，这几乎等于说：这位科学家成了自己所写报告的受害者。

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.

他所提出的种种论断是如此不容置疑、如此一致，以至于不仅他自己相信了，而且也说服了工商界的管理者相信其正确性。

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.

假如科学实验像科学杂志报告显示的那样完全按事先的计划去规划和实施，那么，对管理层来说，期待研究能够产生可用美元、美分衡量的结果是完全合理的。

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.

审计人员也完全有理由相信，确切知道自己的目标并知道如何实现这一目标的科学家们根本没必要分心：用一只眼盯着现金计数器的同时，用另一只眼睛盯着显微镜。

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” among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers who “work well with the team.”

如果像他们的论文所反映的那样，科学家渴望规律性和与某种标准模式的一致性，那么管理人员歧视研究人员中的“标新立异者”，而赞赏“善于合作”的具有传统思维模式的人，也就是无可指摘的。

试题：

51. 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

52. The author asserts that scientists.

[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

53. 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”

54. 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

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