Text  3

    Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many  places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place? Why didn’t they fall out of the sky? The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and planets.

    How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree? Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don’t have unpredictable things, you don’t have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it.

    In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather the impression that they find the “scientific method” a substitute for imaginative thought. I’ve attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said “the data are still inconclusive.” “We know that,” the men from the budget office have said, “but what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on? What do you think we might expect?” The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate.

    What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the “odd balls” among researchers in favor of more conventional thinkers who “work well with the team.”  (474 words)

注：最后一句译文：如果科学家和他的著作似乎所反映的一样，都渴望得到规律性和与标准模式的一致性，那么就不应该责备管理人员歧视研究人员中的“标新立异者”，也不能责备管理人员支持能与他们合作的循规蹈矩者。

1. The author uses the example of Isaac Newton in the first paragraph to show that __________.

   A. science advances not so much through scientific experiments as because of inquiring minds of scientists.
   B. scientists are capable of predicting anything if entirely devoted to their research work.
   C. a scientist is certain to succeed in his research if he has unpredictable things.
   D. all scientists believe unpredictability to be the essential nature of research.

2. By the second paragraph the author intends to render the idea that _____________.

 A. the history of science is flooded with examples of predictability in scientific research
 B. scientists should attach great significance to speculating on unpredictable things
 C. it is important for scientists to work on more elaborate reports for technical journals
 D. confidence in one’s research discoveries is essential to scientific experiments

3. It can be inferred from the third paragraph that some young scientists _____________.

 A. are lacking in experience in dealing with unpredictable things
 B. often attend research conferences where they are asked to speculate on the future
 C. tend to replace a “scientific method” with imaginative thinking
 D. are liable to overestimate the value of “scientific method” and reluctant to speculate

4. We can learn from the last paragraph that it often happens that _____________.

 A. scientists concentrate on their research work rather than on practical application
 B. industrial and business management expects too much to meet their needs
 C. the results of scientific research may fall short of expected commercial profits
 D. management tends to underestimate the practical value of scientific research

5. The best title for the text may be _____________.

 A. Scientific Method and Inventive Thinking
 B. Importance of Independent Thinking in Science
 C. Readiness for Unpredictability in Scientific Research
 D. Theoretical Science and Its Experiments

Text  4  (课外阅读)

    In recent years, railroads have been combining with each other, merging into super-systems, causing heightened concerns about monopoly. As recently as 1995, the top four railroads accounted for under 70 percent of the total ton-miles moved by rails. Next year, after a series of mergers is completed, just four railroads will control well over 90 percent of all the freight moved by major rail carriers.

    Supporters of the new super-systems argue that these mergers will allow for substantial cost reductions and better coordinated service. Any threat of monopoly, they argue, is removed by fierce competition from trucks. But many shippers complain that for heavy commodities traveling long distances, such as coal, chemicals, and grain, trucking is too costly and the railroads therefore have them by the throat.

    The vast consolidation within the rail industry means that most shippers are served by only one rail company. Railroads typically charge such “captive” shippers 20 to 30 percent more than they do when another railroad is competing for the business. Shippers who feel they are being overcharged have the right to appeal to the federal government’s Surface Transportation Board for rate relief, but the process is expensive, time consuming, and will work only in truly extreme cases.

    Railroads justify rate discrimination against captive shippers on the grounds that in the long run it reduces everyone’s cost. If railroads charge all customers the same average rate, they argue, shippers who have the option of switching to trucks or other forms of transportation would do so, leaving remaining customers to shoulder the cost of keeping up the line. It’s a theory to which many economists subscribe, but in practice it often leaves railroads in the position of determining which companies will flourish and which will fail. “Do we really want railroads to be the arbiters of who wins and who loses in the marketplace”? asks Martin Bercovici, a Washington lawyer who frequently represents shippers.

    Many captive shippers also worry they will soon be hit with a round of huge rate increase. The railroad industry as a whole, despite its brightening fortunes, still does not earn enough to cover the cost of the capital it must invest to keep up with its surging traffic. Yet railroads continue to borrow billions to acquire one another, with Wall Street cheering them on. Consider the $10.2 billion bid by Norfolk Southern and CSX to acquire Conrail this year. Conrail’s net railway operating income in 1996 was just $427 million, less than half of the carrying costs of the transaction. Who’s going to pay for the rest of the bill? Many captive shippers fear that they will, as Norfolk Southern and CSX increase their grip on the market. (449 words)

Notes: merge合并；acquisition收购；allow for 考虑到；rate relief费用补贴；on the grounds that因为；keep up维持；subscribe to 订购，同意；surge汹涌；高涨；cheer on向…鼓气，欢呼；grip v./n. 掌握，控制。
                                   
1. According to those who support mergers, railway monopoly is unlikely because ________.

  A. cost reduction is based on competition            B. services call for cross-trade coordination
  C. outside competitors will continue to exist          D. shippers will have the railway by the throat

2. What is many captive shippers’ attitude towards the consolidation in the rail industry?

  A. Indifferent.            B. Supportive.          C. Indignant.          D. Apprehensive.

3. It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that ________.

  A. shippers will be charged less without a rival railroad      B. there will soon be only one railroad company nationwide
  C. overcharged shippers are unlikely to appeal for rate relief  D. a government board ensures fair play in railway business

4. The word “arbiters” (line 5, paragraph 4) most probably refers to those ________.

  A. who work as coordinators                     B. who function as judges
  C. who supervise transactions                     D. who determine the price

5. According to the text, the cost increase in the rail industry is mainly caused by  ________.

  A. the continuing acquisition                         B. the growing traffic
  C. the cheering Wall Street                       D. the shrinking market