Specialisation can be seen as a response to the problem of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge. By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units, one man could continue to handle the information and use it as the basis for further research. But specialisation was only one of a series of related developments in science affecting the process of communication. Another was the growing professionalisation of scientific activity.
No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between professionals and amateurs in science: exceptions can be found to any rule. Nevertheless, the word 'amateur' does carry a connotation that the person concerned is not fully integrated into the scientific community and, in particular, may not fully share its values. The growth of specialisation in the nineteenth century, with its consequent requirement of a longer, more complex training, implied greater problems for amateur participation in science. The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of science based especially on a mathematical or laboratory training, and can be illustrated in terms of the development of geology in the United Kingdom.
A comparison of British geological publications over the last century and a half reveals not simply an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research, but also a changing definition of what constitutes an acceptable research paper. Thus, in the nineteenth century, local geological studies represented worthwhile research in their own right; but, in the twentieth century, local studies have increasingly become acceptable to professionals only if they incorporate, and reflect on, the wider geological picture. Amateurs, on the other hand, have continued to pursue local studies in the old way. The overall result has been to make entrance to professional geological journals harder for amateurs, a result that has been reinforced by the widespread introduction of refereeing, first by national journals in the nineteenth century and then by several local geological journals in the twentieth century. As a logical consequence of this development, separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards either professional or amateur readership. A rather similar process of differentiation has led to professional geologists coming together nationally within one or two specific societies, whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain in local societies or to come together nationally in a different way.
Although the process of professionalisation and specialisation was already well under way in British geology during the nineteenth century, its full consequences were thus delayed until the twentieth century. In science generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science.
53. The author writes of the development of geology to demonstrate ________.
[A] the process of specialisation and professionalisation
[B] the hardship of amateurs in scientific study
[C] the change of policies in scientific publications
[D] the discrimination of professionals against amateurs
[答案] A
[解题思路]
第三段关于geology的例子在文章中占了很大的篇幅，这个例子必然是围绕着本文的中心思想展开的。而文章主要讨论的就是specialization和professionalization两个趋势的发展，因而正确答案为A选项。B和C选项都涉及文章细节，但不是主题。而D选项谈的discrimination在文中并无涉及。
[题目译文]
作者描述地质学的发展是为了说明 。
[A] 专业化和职业化的过程
[B] 业余人员在科研中经历的艰辛
[C] 科学论文发表政策的变化
[D] 专业人员对于业余人员的歧视
2001年Passage 2
A great deal of attention is being paid today to the so called digital divide-the division of the world into the info(information)rich and the info poor. And that divide does exist today. My wife and I lectured about this looming danger twenty years ago. What was less visible then, however, were the new, positive forces that work against the digital divide. There are reasons to be optimistic.
There are technological reasons to hope the digital divide will narrow. As the Internet becomes more and more commercialized, it is in the interest of business to universalize access-after all, the more people online, the more potential customers there are. More and more governments, afraid their countries will be left behind, want to spread Internet access. Within the next decade or two, one to two billion people on the planet will be netted together. As a result, I now believe the digital divide will narrow rather than widen in the years ahead. And that is very good news because the Internet may well be the most powerful tool for combating world poverty that we've ever had.
Of course, the use of the Internet isn't the only way to defeat poverty. And the Internet is not the only tool we have. But it has enormous potential.
To take advantage of this tool, some impoverished countries will have to get over their outdated anti-colonial prejudices with respect to foreign investment. Countries that still think foreign investment is an invasion of their sovereignty might well study the history of infrastructure (the basic structural foundations of a society)in the United States. When the United States built its industrial infrastructure, it didn't have the capital to do so. And that is why America's Second Wave infrastructure-including roads, harbors, highways, ports and so on-were built with foreign investment. The English, the Germans, the Dutch and the French were investing in Britain's former colony. They financed them. Immigrant Americans built them. Guess who owns them now? The Americans believe the same thing would be true in places like Brazil or anywhere else for that matter. The more foreign capital you have helping you build your Third Wave infrastructure, which today is an electronic infrastructure, the better off you're going to be. That doesn't mean lying down and becoming fooled, or letting foreign corporations run uncontrolled. But it does mean recognizing how important they can be in building the energy and telecom infrastructures needed to take full advantage of the Internet.
57.The writer mentioned the case of the United States to justify the policy of _________.
[A] providing financial support overseas
[B]preventing foreign capital's control
[C] building industrial infrastructure
[D]accepting foreign investment
[答案] D
[解题思路]
美国的例子出现在文章的第四段。该段先指出一些国家因持有反殖民的偏见而反对外国投资，随后用较大的篇幅说明美国人在英国殖民时期就充分利用了外国资金来建设本国的工业基础设施，从中大大获益并促进了国家的发展。暗含的意思是美国发展到现在如此强大，很大原因就是当年建基础设施时充分利用了外国资金，那么现在那些缺乏资金的发展中国家为何不效仿呢?因而正确答案自然是D选项。A选项意思与原文相反，B和C选项都不是举例的目的。
[题目译文]
作者提到美国的例子是为了证明 政策是合理的。
[A] 向海外提供资金援助
[B] 防止国外资本的控制
[C] 建设工业基础设施
[D] 接受国外资本
2001年Passage 3
Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deepsintosa long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.
But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates (patterns)sintoswhich they plug each day's events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.
There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard templates" of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.
Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.
This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.
59. What is the passage mainly about?
[A] needs of the readers all over the world
[B] causes of the public disappointment about newspapers
[C] origins of the declining newspaper industry
[D] aims of a journalism credibility project
[答案] B
[解题思路]
本文开篇第一句话就提出了一个问题"Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers"(为什么那么多美国人不相信自己在报纸上读到的东西)，而全文都是围绕着这个问题来讨论的，可见该问题就是文章的主题，因此正确答案为B，其中选项的disappointment对应于原文的distrust。A选项谈到"readers all over the world"，但本文主要讨论的是"American readers"，因而A选项错误。C选项"declining newspaper industry"的表述过于严峻和悲观，与文章的事实不符。D选项涉及到文章的一个细节，并不是文章的主题。
[题目译文]
这篇文章的主要内容是什么?
[A] 全世界读者的需求
[B] 公众对报纸的失望
[C] 报业衰落的根源
[D] 一向新闻可信度调查的目的
