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1、2001 Passage 1 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 o
2、nly 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, t
3、he 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, imp
4、lied 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 geologica
5、l 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 ow
6、n 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 e
7、ntrance 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 th
8、is 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, where as the amateurs have tended either
9、 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
10、 generally, however, the nineteenth century must be reckoned as the crucial period for this change in the structure of science. 专业化可被视为针对科学知识不断膨胀这个问题所做出的反应。通过将学科细化,个人能够继续处理这些不断膨胀的信息并将它们作为深入研究的基础。但是专业化仅是科学领域内一系列影响交流过程的有关现象之一。另一现象是科学活动的日益职业化。 在科学领域内,专业与业余之间没有绝对的区分:任何规律都有其例外。但是“业余”这个词的确具有特殊的含义,那就是所指的那个
11、人没有完全融入某个科学家群体,具体地说,他可能并不完全认同这个群体的价值观。世纪的专业化的发展,以及随之而来的对训练的长期性和复杂性的要求,对业余人员进入科学界造成了更大的困难。特别是在以数学和实验室训练为基础的科学领域,这种倾向自然尤为明显,这可以通过英国的地质学发展过程得到证实。对过去一个半世纪的英国地质出版物进行比较,我们不但发现人们对研究的重视程度在不断增加,而且人们对可以接受的论文的定义也在不断变化。因此,在19世纪,局部的地质研究本身就可形成一种有价值的研究;而到了20世纪,如果局部的研究能够被专业人员接受,那么它越来越倾向于必须体现或思考更广阔的地质面貌。另一方面业余人员继续以旧
12、的方式从事局部的研究。其整体的结果是使业余人员进入专业性地质学杂志更加困难,而审稿制度的全面引进使这个结果得到加强,这一制度开始是在19世纪的全国性杂志进行,进入20世纪后也在一些地方性地质杂志实行。这样发展的必然结果是出现了针对专业读者和业余读者的不同杂志。类似的分化过程也导致专业地质学家聚集起来,形成一两个全国性的团体,而业余地质学家则要么留在地方性团体中,要么以不同方式组成全国性的团体。 虽然职业化和专业化过程在19世纪的英国地质学界中已经得到迅速发展,但是它的效果直到20世纪才充分显示出来。然而,从科学这个整体来看,19世纪必须被视为科学结构发生变化的关键时期。 2001 Passag
13、e 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, wer
14、e 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 m
15、ore 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 div
16、ide 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 weve ever had. Of course, the use of the Internet isnt 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 wi