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  3. If there is one thing scientists have to hear, it is that the game is over. Raised on the belief of an endless voyage of discove

If there is one thing scientists have to hear, it is that the game is over. Raised on the belief of an endless voyage of discove

admin2011-06-29  71
问题     If there is one thing scientists have to hear, it is that the game is over. Raised on the belief of an endless voyage of discovery, they recoil (畏缩) from the suggestion that most of the best things have already been located. If they have, today’ s scientists can hope to contribute no more than a few grace notes to the symphony of science.
    A book to be published in Britain this week, The End of Science, argues persuasively that this is the case. Its author, John Horgan, is a senior writer for Scientific American magazine, who has interviewed many of today’s leading scientists and science philosophers. The shock of realizing that science might be over came to him, he says, when he was talking to Oxford mathematician and physicist Sir Roger Penrose.
    The End of Science provoked a wave of denunciation (谴责) in the United States last year. "The reaction has been one of complete shock and disbelief," Mr. Horgan says.
    The real question is whether any remaining unsolved problems, of which there are plenty, lend themselves to universal solutions. If they do not, then the focus of scientific discovery is already narrowing. Since the triumphs of the 1960s--the genetic code, plate tectonics (板块构造税), and the microwave background radiation that went a long way towards proving the Big Bang--genuine scientific revolutions have been scarce. More scientists are now alive, spending more money on research, than ever. Yet most of the great discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries were made before the appearance of state sponsorship, when the scientific enterprise was a fraction of its present size.
    Were the scientists who made these discoveries brighter than today’s? That seems unlikely. A far more reasonable explanation is that fundamental science has already entered a period of diminished returns. "Look, don’t get me wrong," says Mr. Horgan. "There are lots of important things still to study, and applied science and engineering can go on for ever. I hope we get a cure for cancer, and for mental disease, though there are few real signs of progress."
The best title of this passage can be ______ .
选项 A、Great Scientific Discoveries Will Never Be Possible
B、The Harsh Challenge Has to Be Met by Modem Scientists
C、The State Sponsorship and Scientific Enterprise Are All in Vain
D、The Chance for Great Scientific Discoveries Becomes Scarce
答案D
解析 本题是一道主旨题。纵观全文，文章在第一段中讲到大多数最神秘的东西已经被发现，科学发现的中心已经缩小了。第四段中介绍从20世纪60年代取得成功以来，真正的科学革命已经稀少了。在最后一段中道明了原因：基础科学已经进入一个回报减少的时期。同时在最后一段也指出：有许多重要的东西仍然需要研究，应用科学与工程科学可以永远持续下去。综上我们可以看出，本文主要围绕“真正的科学革命已经稀少了”这个问题来展开的。
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