2. 考研
  3. The idea of ownership is everywhere. Title deeds establish and protect ownership of our houses, while security of property is as

The idea of ownership is everywhere. Title deeds establish and protect ownership of our houses, while security of property is as

admin2014-02-27  66
问题     The idea of ownership is everywhere. Title deeds establish and protect ownership of our houses, while security of property is as important to the proprietors of Tesco and Sainsbury’s as it is to their customers. However, there is a profound problem when it comes to so-called intellectual property(IP)— which requires a strong lead from government, and for which independent advice has never been more urgently required.
    The myth is that IP rights are as important as our rights in castles, cars and corn oil. IP is supposedly intended to encourage inventors and the investment needed to bring their products to the clinic and marketplace. In reality, patents often suppress invention rather than promote it: drugs are "evergreened" when patents are on the verge of running out — companies buy up the patents of potential rivals in order to prevent them being turned into products. Moreover, the prices charged, especially for pharmaceuticals, are often grossly in excess of those required to cover costs and make reasonable profits.
    IP rights are beginning to penetrate into every area of scientific endeavour. Even in universities, science and innovation, which have already been paid for out of the public purse, are privatised and resold to the public via patents acquired by commercial interests. The drive to commercialise science has overtaken not only applied research but also "blue-skies" research, such that even the pure quest for knowledge is deteriorated by the need for profit.
    The fruits of science and innovation have nourished our society and economy for years, but nations unable to navigate our regulatory system are often excluded, as are vulnerable individuals. We need to consider how to balance the needs of science as an industry with the difficulty of those who desperately need the products of science.
    Clearly it is vitally important that we continue to protect science and enable it to flourish. Science and the many benefits that science has produced have played a crucial part in our history and produced vast improvements to human welfare. It would be negligent of us if we failed to recognise the importance of science as an industry and investment in research to national and regional economic development; but against these economic concerns an overriding consideration must be the interests of the public and of humanity present and future. Science as an industry may be booming, but the benefits of science need to be more efficiently and more cheaply placed in the service of the public.
    For science to continue to flourish, it is necessary that the knowledge it generates be made freely and widely available. IP rights have the tendency to block access to knowledge and the free exchange of ideas that is essential to science. So, far from stimulating innovation and the dissemination of the benefits of science, IP all too often hampers scientific progress and restricts access to its products.
According to the author, scientific research is commercialised due to______.
选项 A、profit-making desire
B、innovative demand
C、basic human need
D、public policy pressure
答案A
解析 题干中的scientific research is commercialised把考点带到第三段最后一句：The drive to commercialise science has overtaken not only applied research butalso“blue-skies”research．such that even the pure quest for knowledge isdeteriorated by the need for profit．科学研究的商业化就是为了“逐利”(need forprofit)。选项A把need替换成为desire。选项B显然与A进行对照，逻辑方向正好相反。选项C的内容属于“幻想”类，完全与本文无关。选项D讲到“公众压力”更多涉及下一段，与题目要求无关。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/4XO4777K
0

考研英语一

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)