A little more than a century ago, Michael Faraday, a noted British physicist, managed to gain audience with a group of high gove

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问题     A little more than a century ago, Michael Faraday, a noted British physicist, managed to gain audience with a group of high government officials, to demonstrate an electrochemical principle, in the hope of gaining support for his work.
    After observing the demonstration closely, one of the officials remarked bluntly, "It’s a fascinating demonstration, young man, but just what practical application will come of this?"
    "I don’t know," replied Faraday, "but I do know that 100 years from now you’ll be taxing them."
    From the demonstration of a principle to the marketing of products derived from that principle is often a long, involved series of steps. The speed and effectiveness with which these steps are taken are closely related to the history of management, the art of getting things done. Just as management applies to the wonders that have evolved from Faraday and other inventors, so it applied some 4,000 years ago to the workings of the great Egyptian and Mesopotamian import and export firms...to Hannibal’s remarkable feat of crossing the Alps in 218 B.C. with 90,000 foot soldiers, 12,000 horsemen and a "conveyor belt" of 40 elephants...or to the early Christian Church, with its world-shaking concepts of individual freedom and equality.
    These ancient innovators were deeply involved in the problems of authority, division of labor, discipline, unity of command, clarity of direction and the other basic factors that are so meaningful to management today.  But the real impetus to management as an emerging profession was the Industrial Revolution. Originating in 18th-century England, it was triggered by a series of classic inventions and new processes, among them John Kay’s Flying Shuttle in 1733, James Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny in 1770, Samuel Crompton’s Mule Spinner in 1779 and Edmund Cartwright’s Power Loom in 1785.
The anecdote about Michael Faraday indicates that ______.

选项 A、politicians tax everything
B、people are skeptical about the value of pure research
C、taxes are uppermost in scientists’ minds
D、government should support scientists

答案B

解析 有关迈克尔·法拉第的轶事表明人们对纯理论研究的价值持怀疑的态度。根据第二段,一位官员密切注视法拉第的演示以后,直截了当地说:“年轻人,这是一次令人着迷的演示,但这种演示会有什么实际用途呢?”这位官员的话有一定的代表性,让人想起当时的人都对纯理论研究的价值持怀疑的态度。
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