单选题
Early in the sixteenth century, Francis Bacon proposed that science consisted in the elevation of the authority of experiment and observation over that of reason, intuition, and convention. Bacon thought that as more and more reliable and precise particular facts accumulate, they can be classified and generalized, resulting in an ever-expanding hierarchy of useful "axioms". This is what he meant by "induction". Although many people today continue to regard the collection of facts and their arrangement by induction into theories as the heart of scientific method, Bacon's conception of what facts and theories are and of the relationship between them was hopelessly unrealistic even in his own time. The most important early scientific discoveries — such as those made by Galileo about the movement of the earth, by Keppler about the elliptical shape of planetary orbits, and later by Newton about the "force" of gravity — could never have been made if Bacon's rules had prevailed. Determined to avoid all premature speculations, Bacon proposed that data gathering be carried out by illiterate assistants with no interest in whether an experiment turned out one way or another. Plain facts, properly arranged, would automatically lead to certain knowledge of the universe. Nothing could be more misrepresentative of the actual problem-solving techniques of the scientific method. That plain facts do not speak for themselves is evident from Bacon's own acceptance of the errors contained in what appeared to be the most "obvious" of facts. For Bacon, that the earth did not move was a fact because it could be seen not to move; and for Bacon it was a fact that life was being spontaneously generated because maggots always developed in putrid flesh and frogs appeared after every rain. What is clear is that the great breakthroughs of Newton, Darwin, or Marx could never have been achieved solely on the basis of Baconian fact gathering. Facts are always unreliable without theories which guide their collection and which distinguish between superficial and significant appearances.
单选题
According to Bacon, facts______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】解析：细节推断题。根据第三段最后一句“For Bacon，that the earth did not move was a fact because itcould be seen not to move；and for Bacon it was a fact that life was being spontaneously generated because maggotsalways developed in putrid flesh and frogs appeared after every rain．”可知，对于培根来说，地球没有运动是一个事实，因为可以看到它不动；对于培根，生命是自发生成的，这是一个事实，因为蛆总是在腐烂的肉中形成，青蛙都是在雨后出现。由此推断，培根认为地球是由观察决定的。所以，答案是A。
单选题
Data collection should be performed by illiterate assistants,______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：根据第三段第一句“Determined to avoid all premature speculations，Bacon proposed that datagathering be carried out by illiterate assistants with no interest in whether an experiment turned out one way oranother．”可知，培根决定要避免所有过早的猜测，他建议让没有文化且对实验结果不感兴趣的助理收集数据。所以，答案是B。
单选题
According to Bacon, knowledge can be obtained______.
【答案解析】解析：推理判断题。根据文章第三段第四句“That plain facts do not speak for themselves is evident from Bacon’sown acceptance of the errors contained in what appeared to be the most“obvious”of facts．”可知，培根自身已经接受似乎最“显而易见”的事实中包含的错误，很明显，普通的事实本身没有为自己辩护。据此推断，答案是C。