2010级大学英语第一学期期末考试(A卷)

Jan., 2011

Part II Reading Comprehension (30 %)

Directions: There are four passages in this part. Each passage is followed by some questions or

unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and

D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on the

Answer Sheet with a single line through the center.

Passage One

Science is not a set of unquestionable results but a way of understanding the world around us.

Its real work is slow. The scientific method , as many of us learned in school, is a gradual process

that begins with a purpose or problem or question to be answered. It includes a list of materials, a

procedure to follow, a set of observations to make and, finally, conclusions to reach. In medicine,

when a new drug is proposed that might cure or control a disease, it is first tested on a large

random group of people, and their reactions are then compared with those of another random

group not given the drug. All reactions in both groups are carefully recorded and compared, and

the drug is evaluated. All of this takes time and patience.

It’s the result of course, that makes the best news—not the years of quiet work that

characterize the bulk of scientific inquiry. After an experiment is concluded or an observation is

made, the result continues to be examined critically. When it is submitted for publication, it goes

to a group of the scientist’s colleagues, who review the work. Einstein was right when he said:

“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right, a single experiment can at any time

prove me wrong.”

In August 1996, NASA announced the discovery in Antarctica of a meteorite（流星） from

Mars that might contain evidence of ancient life on another world. As President Clinton said that

day, the possibility that life existed on Mars billions of years ago was potentially one of the great

discoveries of our time.

After the excitement wore down and initial papers were published, other researchers began

looking at samples from the same meteorite. Some concluded that the “evidence of life” was

mostly contamination from Antarctic ice or that there was nothing organic at all in the rock.

Was this a failure of science, as some news reports trumpeted?

No! It was a good example of the scientific method working the way it is supposed to.

Scientists spend years on research, announce their findings, and these findings are examined by

other scientists. That’s how we learn. Like climbing a mountain, we struggle up three feet and fall

back two. It’s a process filled with disappointments and reverses, but somehow we keep moving

ahead.

21. The author’s main purpose in writing this passage is to state that ____________.