机器人英语-辉煌的意思
Don’t always believe what scientists and
other authorities tell
you!
不要总是相信科学家们告诉你的事
Don’t always believe
what scientists and other authorities tell you! Be
skeptical! Think critically! That’s what I
tell my students. Early in my career, I
was a
conventional science writer, easily impressed by
scientists’ claims. But
doubt gradually
weakened my faith. Scientists and journalists, I
realized, by
continuously boasting scientific
“advances”—from theories of cosmic (宇宙的)
creation and the origin of life to the latest
treatments for depression and cancer,
made
science seem more powerful and fast-moving than it
really is. Now, I urge
my students to doubt
the claims of some scientists. This isn’t science
anymore; I
declare in class, it’s only
science fiction with equations! To drive this
point home,
I assign articles by John
Ioannidis, an epidemiologist who has exposed the
weakness of most peer-reviewed research. In a
2005 study, he concluded that
“most published
research findings are false.”
So how do my
students respond to my skeptical teaching? Some
react with
healthy pushback, especially to my
suggestion that the era of really big scientific
discoveries might be over. “On a scale from
toddler knowledge to ultimate
enlightenment,
man’s understanding of the universe could be
anywhere,” wrote a
student named Matt. “How
can a person say with certainty that everything is
known or close to being known if it is
incomparable to anything?”
Other students
embrace skepticism to a degree that shocks me.
Cecelia, a
biomedical-engineering major,
wrote: “I am skeptical of the methods used to
collect data on climate change, the analysis
of this data, and the predictions made
based
on this data.” Pondering (思索) the lesson that
correlation does not equal
causation, Steve
questioned the foundations of scientific
reasoning. “How do we
know there is a cause
for anything?” he asked.
In a similar way,
some students echoed the claim of radical (激进的)
postmodernists that we can never really know
anything for certain, and hence that
almost
all our current theories will probably be
overturned. Just as Aristotle’s
physics gave
way to Newton’s, which in turn yielded to
Einstein’s, so our current
theories of physics
will surely be replaced by completely different
ones.
After one especially harsh paper,
I responded, “Whoa!” Science, I lectured
sternly, has established many facts about
reality beyond a reasonable doubt,
embodied by
quantum mechanics, general relativity, the theory
of evolution, the
genetic code. This knowledge
has yielded applications—from vaccines to
computer chips—that have transformed our world
in countless ways. It is
precisely because
science is such a powerful mode of knowledge, I
said, that you
must treat new pronouncements
skeptically, carefully distinguishing the genuine
from the false. But you shouldn’t be so
skeptical that you deny the possibility of
achieving any knowledge at all.
My
students listened politely, but I could see the
doubt in their eyes. We
professors have a duty
to teach our students to be skeptical. But we also
have to
accept that, if we do our jobs well,
their skepticism may turn on us.
(选自researchgate)
1. Why was the
author’s faith in science weakened?
A.
Because some essays from his peer scholars cast
strong doubt on science.
B. Because
scientists often presented an overly optimistic
picture of science.
C. Because he was tired
of reading too much science fiction with
equations.
D. Because an academic figure
claimed that most published research findings
were false.
2. Which of the
following was NOT one of the students’ responses
to the
author’s skeptical teaching?
A.
Some doubted his suggestion of the limitation of
scientific discoveries.
B. Some questioned
the way of data collecting and scientific
reasoning.
C. Some launched harsh criticism
against the author’s advocacy of skepticism.
D. Some claimed there was no certainty for any
established theory.
3. What did the author
think of his students’ responses?
A. He
considered them as a display of their creativity.
B. He viewed them a must in order to
understand the spirit of science.
C. He
treated them as an extreme application of
skepticism.
D. He regarded them as a kind of
respect paid by students to their teacher.
4.
Which might be the best title for this article?
A. When Teaching Critical Thinking Backfires
B. Skepticism Makes Teaching More Fun
C.
No Doubt, No Science
D. Students Turn Out
Better Than Teacher
译文:
不要总是相信科学家和其
他权威人士告诉您的内容!持怀疑态度!认真思考!
我就是这么告诉我的学生的。在我职业生涯的早期,
我是一名常规科学作家,
科学家的主张给他留下了深刻的印象。但是怀疑逐渐削弱了我的信念。我意识到,科学家和新闻工作者不断吹嘘科学的“先进性”,从宇宙创造理论和
生命起源到抑郁症和癌症
的最新治疗方法,使科学似乎比真正的强大和快
速发展。是。现在,我敦促我的学生怀疑一些科学家的说
法。这不再是科学;
我在课堂上宣布,这只是带有方程式的科幻小说!为了说明这一点,我分配
了流行病学家约翰·约阿尼迪斯的文章,他揭露了大多数同行评审研究的不
足之处。在2005年的一项
研究中,他得出的结论是“大多数已发表的研究
结果都是错误的。”
那么我的学生对我的怀疑
教学有何反应?有些人做出了健康的回应,尤其
是对我的建议:真正的重大科学发现时代可能已经结束。
一位名叫马特的学
生写道:“从幼儿的知识到最终的启蒙,人类对宇宙的理解无处不在。”
“一个人如何才能确定地说,如果一切都无法比拟,那么一切都是已知的或
接近已知的?” <
br>其他学生对这种怀疑表示震惊。生物医学工程专业的Cecelia写道:“我
对用于收集气候变
化数据的方法,该数据的分析以及基于该数据所作的预
测表示怀疑。”在思考“关联不等于因果关系”这
一课时,史蒂夫质疑科学
推理的基础。 “我们怎么知道有什么原因?”他问。
以类似的方式
,一些学生回应激进的后现代主义者的主张,即我们永远不可
能真正知道某些事情,因此,我们目前几乎
所有的理论都可能被推翻。正如
亚里士多德的物理学让位给牛顿的物理学,而牛顿的物理
学又让其屈服于
爱因斯坦的物理学一样,我们当前的物理学理论肯定会被完全不同的理论
所取代
。
收到一张特别苛刻的论文后,我回答:“哇!”我严厉地讲过,科学已经建立
了许多关于现
实的事实,这超出了合理的怀疑范围,其中包括量子力学,广
义相对论,进化论和遗传密码。这种知识已
经产生了从疫苗到计算机芯片的
各种应用,这些应用以无数种方式改变了我们的世界。我说过,正是因为
科
学是一种如此强大的知识模式,所以您必须怀疑地对待新的声明,仔细区分
真伪。但是您不应
该如此怀疑,以至于您完全否认获得任何知识的可能性。
我的学生礼貌地听着,但我能从他们的眼神中
看出疑问。我们的教授有责任
教我们的学生持怀疑态度。但是我们也必须接受,如果我们做好工作,他们
的怀疑可能会打扰我们。
答案及解析:
■
1. B
细节题,考查文中具体信息
解析:
第一段提到:科学家和记者们不断鼓吹科学的发展,夸大了科学的力量和发
展速度(more
powerful and fast-moving than it really
is),这削弱了作者对科
学的信念。
■ 2. C
细节题,考查文中具体信息
解析:
从第二段到第四段可以看出,面对“我”对科学的质疑,学生们有的进行了
温
和反驳,有的态度激进,全面支持怀疑主义,但没有人对“我”提出激烈
批判,所以C错误。
■ 3. C
考查理解作者的意图、观点和态度
解析:
第五段中提到,
“我”在收到一篇过于激进的论文后,严肃地告诫学生,怀
疑精神意味着要学会区别真实与谬误(dis
tinguishing the genuine from the
false),但并不是鼓励他们完全否认人类认知的可能性(deny the
possibility
of achieving any knowledge at
all),学生们的做法是把质疑精神推向了极端。
本题选C。
■ 4. A
主旨题,考查主旨要义
解析:
本文主要讲述了作者尝试培养学生对科学的质疑精神
,结果学生们却把质
疑精神推向了极端。可见,批判性思维教学也会产生副作用。本题选A。