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  3. It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossible to predict. If the thi

It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossible to predict. If the thi

admin2012-01-27  102
问题     It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossible to predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definition unknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either have science or you don’t, and if you have it you are obliged to accept the surprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat and promptly useful bits.
    The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating (启发性的) piece of news. It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment (启蒙运动) to be told by any of us how little we know and how bewildering (茫无头绪的) seems the way ahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th century science to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up stories to fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you are totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no true light at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.
    But we are making a beginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably no questions we can think up that can’t be answered, sooner or later, including even the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may well be questions we can’t think up, ever, and therefore limits to the reach of human intellect which we will never know about, but that is another matter. Within our limits, we should be able to work our way through to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention.
It can be inferred from the passage that scientists of the 18th century______.
选项 A、were afraid of facing up to the realities of scientific research
B、knew that they were ignorant and wanted to know more about nature
C、did more harm than good in promoting man’s understanding of nature
D、thought that they knew a great deal and could solve most problems of science
答案D
解析 根据题干中的scientists of the 18th century将本题出处定位到第二段第四句。由该句提到的“如果我们当中任何一个人要告诉18世纪启蒙运动中最聪明的人，我们的知识有多么地少，未来看起来是多么地让人困惑，这都会让他们大吃一惊的”可推断出，18世纪的科学家们自认为已经知道很多了，故答案为[D]。
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