首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance,
Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance,
admin
2010-05-14
39
问题
Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance, were determined by technologists, artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers using non-scientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in the mind by a visual, nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology, it has been non-verbal thinking, by and large, that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details of our material surroundings.
Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them. The creative shaping process of a technologist’s mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For example, in designing a diesel engine, a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the combustion chamber? Where should the valves be placed? Should it have a long or short piston? Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience, by physical requirements, by limitations of available space, and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions, such as wall thickness and pin diameter, may depend on scientific calculations, bat the nonscientific component of design remains primary.
Design courses, then, should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking, a central mechanism in engineering design, involves perceptions, the stock-in-trade of the artist, not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail "hard thinking," nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering, the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engineering students, but rather students attending architectural schools.
Its courses in design, which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem-solving, are not provided, we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example, early models of high-speed railroad cars loaded with sophisticated controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations; they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics. (447)
Which of the following statements would best serve as an introduction to the passage?
选项
A、The assumption that the knowledge incorporated in technological developments must be derived from science ignores the many non-scientific decisions made by technologists.
B、Analytical thought is no longer a vital component, in the success of technological development.
C、As knowledge of technology has increased, the tendency has been to lose sight of the important role played by scientific thought in making decisions about form, arrangement, and texture.
D、A technologist thinking about a machine, reasoning through the successive steps in a dynamic process, can actually turn the machine over mentally.
答案
A
解析
推理判断题。作者并非一开篇就提出nonverbal thinking这一概念的,而是先对科学的和非科学的思维方式进行了区分,再由后者引出本文主要讨论的问题。因此,作为本文的引子,从连贯性上考虑,应与科学/非科学这一对概念相关。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/6ZqO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Psychologistshavemanytheoriestoexplainhowwerememberinformation.The【C1】______isthatmemoryworksasakindofstorage
WhenmypredecessorsatTimereviewedecologistRachelCarson’sbookSilentSpring50yearsagothismonth,theywerelessthan
Tea-takingisavery【B1】______customandvery【B2】______thing.Locatedin【B3】______London,theRitzhotelisespeciallywellkno
HungerandfoodinsecurityhavebeencalledAmerica’s"hiddencrisis."Atthesametime,andapparentlyparadoxically,obesity
LatenextmonthEurope’spoliticalleaderswillmeetinBerlintomarkthe50thanniversaryoftheTreatyofRome.Today’sEurop
It’swidelyknownthatmorethanhalfofallcorporatemergersandacquisitionsendinfailure.Likemanymarriages,theyareof
Variationsamongstateinsurancelawscancauseproblemsforfamilies.Ifyoudoyourhome-
Variationsamongstateinsurancelawscancauseproblemsforfamilies.Ifyoudoyourhome-
WestminsterPalaceistheseatof______
随机试题
Whenyouarewritingbusinessletters,youneedtonoticethefollowingtips:LimitThemtoOnePageBydefinition,busines
解码器就是一种用来从电子控制单元的存储器中读取_______、解释_______,显示_______的仪器。
护理质量控制以预防为主。护理部质控组运用PDCA的管理办法,定期到临床进行查找存在问题,在检查中注重要素质量、环节质量和终末质量及发现产生质量问题的原因,针对主要原因定出具体实施计划,贯彻和实施预定的计划和措施,反馈预定目标执行情况,并总结经验教训,将存在
凡取得房地产估价师执业资格的离退休人员,都可以办理房地产估价师注册。()
某工程项目,采用钢筋混凝土剪力墙结构,施工顺序划分为基础工程、主体结构工程、机电安装工程和装饰工程四个施工阶段。施工承包单位对该工程的施工方法进行了选择,拟采用以下施工方案。(1)土石方工程采用人工挖土方,放坡系数为1:0.5,待挖土至设计
影响固定资产折旧的因素有哪些?
关于振动、噪声测量的叙述中,正确的是()。
某幼儿园的4名小朋友做游戏,4名小朋友身高互不相同。现要求4名小朋友站成前后2排,并且每列前后两名小朋友总是后排的个高,问站排的方式有()种。
生命是如此的复杂,以至于几乎每一位生物学家都只能在一个很小的领域进行探索。尽管在每一个领域都产生了大量的描述性数据,但是科学家能够从这些海量的数据中得出一个整体的概念吗?例如,生物是如何运作的?系统生物学这门正在形成的科学为回答这些问题提供了一些希望。它试
Inthepastfewdecades,remarkablefindingshavebeenmadeinethology,thestudyofanimalsocialbehavior.Earlierscientists
最新回复
(
0
)