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
考研
The next time you take a deep breath, think for a moment of Joseph Priestley, the 18th-century British scientist widely credited
The next time you take a deep breath, think for a moment of Joseph Priestley, the 18th-century British scientist widely credited
admin
2016-10-15
57
问题
The next time you take a deep breath, think for a moment of Joseph Priestley, the 18th-century British scientist widely credited with discovering oxygen.
As Steven Johnson explains in his engaging study of Priestley, The Invention of Air : A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America, the circumstances surrounding Priestley’ s signature achievement are "far more vexed than the standard short-form biographies suggest". That’s because "discovering ’oxygen’ is not like ’ discovering’ the Dead Sea Scrolls... It is closer to, say, discovering America: the meaning of the phrase depends entirely on the perspective and values you bring to the issue".
Along with his contemporaries Antoine Lavoisier and Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Priestly isolated oxygen gas and was the first to draw connections between "pure air" and blood. Like a laboratory Moses, Priestly pointed the way for others to a destination at which he could not quite arrive.
By the time he died in America in 1804, Priestly had managed to isolate and name 10 gases, become known as "the father of modern chemistry," and, perhaps most wonderfully, invented soda water. He had emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1794, after inspiring an English mob to burn down his laboratory due to his radical Unitarian views, which blended respect for Jesus’ moral teachings and an insistence on his lack of divinity.(That may be Priestley’ s most amazing achievement: Stoking people to violence through Unitarianism!)He was a major influence on his friend Benjamin Franklin and other leading scientists of the day, and his political and pedagogical work left a huge impression on Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson.
Johnson paints Priestley not as a man of the past but precisely the sort of figure the world needs more than ever: A searcher who shared his discoveries openly and willingly, crossed disciplinary boundaries with impunity and insight, who conceived of the world as a large laboratory. As important, Priestley exemplifies " the temperament that we expect to find at the birth of America—bountiful optimism, an untroubled sense that the world must inevitably see the light of reason".
We live in troubling times, filled with signs of a great economic apocalypse, politicized science on topics from birth control to climate change, and religious zealots who kill innocents rather than live peacefully with them. This is exactly the moment to learn from Priestley, who survived riots, threats of prosecution, and other hardships and yet never doubted that "the world was headed naturally toward an increase in liberty and understanding". Ironically, The Invention of Air underscores that there is nothing natural about progress and liberty, each of which must be fought for and defended every single day by visionary individuals.
The author regards Joseph Priestley as a great historical figure primarily because of______.
选项
A、his brilliant achievement in circumstances beyond control
B、his remarkable accomplishment in discovering oxygen gas
C、his spectacular success in many fields other than chemistry
D、his fame as an outstanding thinker of the eighteenth century
答案
B
解析
根据第一段中的“…Joseph Priestley…widely credited with discovering oxygen”,B应为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/QQoZ777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
Fordecades,ferryboatscrossedthecoldwatersofMichigan’sStraitsofMackinac,shuttlingpeopleandvehiclesbetweenthetw
Menaregenerallybetterthanwomenontestsofspatialability,suchasmentallyrotatinganobjectthroughthreedimensionsor
InthefirstyearorsoofWebbusiness,mostoftheactionhasrevolvedaroundeffortstotaptheconsumermarket.Morerecentl
Itwasjustafootnotecomparedwiththemoreinfectiousdisasterthatkilledmillionsmorepeoplein1918,butthe1957influen
Itwasjustafootnotecomparedwiththemoreinfectiousdisasterthatkilledmillionsmorepeoplein1918,butthe1957influen
LatinoyouthsneedbettereducationforArizonatotakefulladvantageofthepossibilitiestheirexplodingpopulationoffers.A
IntheUnitedStates,thefirstdaynursery,wasopenedin1854.Nurserieswereestablishedinvariousareasduringthe【C1】_____
Lawyersarelessthan1%ofAmericanadults,【C1】______theyarewell-representedingovernment.Boththepresidentandthevice-p
Mothersinterferewiththeirchildren’slivesevenmorethanmostoffspringrealize.Thattheynagabouteatinghabitsiswellk
Ifyouhaveeverwonderedhowanelephantsmells,scientistshavetheanswer.ResearchershavediscoveredthatAfricanElephants
随机试题
可影响胆固醇吸收的药物是
下列有关环境质量标准的说法不正确的是:()
明代国有土地的主要组成部分是()。
某企业财务主管前往税务师事务所咨询,企业发生的下列经济业务均取得了增值税专用发票,需注明的增值税额允许从当期销项税额中抵扣的情形是()。
某汽车制造厂将排量为2.0的自产A型汽车4辆转作固定资产,6辆对外抵偿债务,上述业务的A型汽车作价为180000元/辆,国家税务总局核定的最低计税价格为190000元/辆。另外,一辆已缴纳车辆购置税的汽车,因交通事故更换底盘,国家税务总局核定的同型号新车最
下列句子中划线字的意义和用法完全相同的一项是()。
幼儿教师在组织语言活动时,只是让幼儿坐在位置上听讲的做法违背了()原则。
根据以下资料,回答问题。2012年,Z省W市实现文化及相关产业增加值比上年增长9.6%。在文化产品制造业中,文化印刷、文化用品制造和工艺美术品制造三大主导行业,2012年分别实现增加值21.82亿元、11.57亿元和6.62亿元。2011年
网络传播的媒介特征。(中国传媒大学,2011年MJC真题)
实现依法治国,建设社会主义主义法治国家,就必须尊重法律权威。原因在于,尊重法律权威
最新回复
(
0
)