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1、全新版大学英语综合教程第一 册03Unit 3 Understanding Science Part I Pre-reading Task Listen to the recording two or three times and then think over the following questions: 1. Who is it about? 2. What questions interest him? 3. What makes his achievements so remarkable? The following words in the recording may be
2、new to you: universe n. 宇宙 muscle n. 肌肉 engage v. 与订婚 Part II Text A Professor Hawking thinks it important to keep everybody in touch with what science is about. In this article he explains why. PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD SCIENCE Whether we like it or not, the world we live in has changed a great deal
3、in the last hundred years, and it is likely to change even more in the next hundred. Some people would like to stop these changes and go back to what they see as a purer and simpler age. But as history shows, the past was not that wonderful. It was not so bad for a privileged minority, though even t
4、hey had to do without modern medicine, and childbirth was highly risky for women. But for the vast majority of the population, life was nasty, brutish, and short. Anyway, even if one wanted to, one couldnt put the clock back to an earlier age. Knowledge and techniques cant just be forgotten. Nor can
5、 one prevent further advances in the future. Even if all government money for research were cut off (and the present government is doing its best), the force of competition would still bring about advances in technology. Moreover, one cannot stop inquiring minds from thinking about basic science, wh
6、ether or not they are paid for it. The only way to prevent further developments would be a global state that suppressed anything new, and human initiative and inventiveness are such that even this wouldnt succeed. All it would do is slow down the rate of change. If we accept that we cannot prevent s
7、cience and technology from changing our world, we can at least try to ensure that the changes they make are in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that the public needs to have a basic understanding of science, so that it can make informed decisions and not leave them in the ha
8、nds of experts. At the moment, the public is in two minds about science. It has come to expect the steady increase in the standard of living that new developments in science and technology have brought to continue, but it also distrusts science because it doesnt understand it. This distrust is evide
9、nt in the cartoon figure of the mad scientist working in his laboratory to produce a Frankenstein. It is also an important element behind support for the Green parties. But the public also has a great interest in science, particularly astronomy, as is shown by the large audiences for television seri
10、es such as The Sky at Night and for science fiction. What can be done to harness this interest and give the public the scientific background it needs to make informed decisions on subjects like acid rain, the greenhouse effect, nuclear weapons, and genetic engineering? Clearly, the basis must lie in
11、 what is taught in schools. But in schools science is often presented in a dry and uninteresting manner. Children learn it by rote to pass examinations, and they dont see its relevance to the world around them. Moreover, science is often taught in terms of equations. Although equations are a brief a
12、nd accurate way of describing mathematical ideas, they frighten most people. When I wrote a popular book recently, I was advised that each equation I included would halve the sales. I included one equation, Einsteins famous equation, E=mc2. Maybe I would have sold twice as many copies without it. Sc
13、ientists and engineers tend to express their ideas in the form of equations because they need to know the precise values of quantities. But for the rest of us, a qualitative grasp of scientific concepts is sufficient, and this can be conveyed by words and diagrams, without the use of equations. The
14、science people learn in school can provide the basic framework. But the rate of scientific progress is now so rapid that there are always new developments that have occurred since one was at school or university. I never learned about molecular biology or transistors at school, but genetic engineeri
15、ng and computers are two of the developments most likely to change the way we live in the future. Popular books and magazine articles about science can help to put across new developments, but even the most successful popular book is read by only a small proportion of the population. Only television
16、 can reach a truly mass audience. There are some very good science programmes on TV, but others present scientific wonders simply as magic, without explaining them or showing how they fit into the framework of scientific ideas. Producers of television science programmes should realize that they have a responsibility to educate the public, not just entertain it. The world today is filled with dangers, hence the sick joke tha
