It is a curious paradox that we think of the physical sciences as "hard", the social sciences as "soft", and the biological sciences as somewhere in between. This is interpreted to mean that our knowledge of physical systems is more certain than our knowledge of biological systems, and these in turn are more certain than our knowledge of social systems. In terms of bur capacity to sample the relevant universes, however, and the probability that our images of these universes are at least approximately correct, one suspects that a reverse order is more reasonable. We are able to sample earth"s social systems with some degree of confidence that we have a reasonable sample of the total universe being investigated. Our knowledge of social systems, therefore, while it is in many ways extremely inaccurate, is not likely to be seriously overturned by new discoveries. Even the folk knowledge in social systems on which ordinary life is based in earning, spending, organizing, marrying, taking part in political activities, fighting and so on, is not very "dissimilar from the more sophisticated images of the social system derived from the social sciences, even though it is built upon the very imperfect samples of personal experience. In contrast, our image of the astronomical universe, of even of earth"s geological history, can easily be subject to revolutionary changes as new data comes in and new theories are worked out. If we define the "security" of our image of various parts of the total system as the probability of their suffering significant changes, then we would reverse the order of hardness and see the social sciences as the most secure, the physical sciences as the least secure, and again the biological sciences as somewhere in between. Our image of the astronomical universe is the least secure of all simply because we observe such a fantastically small sample of it and its record-keeping is trivial as compared with the rich records of the social systems, or even the limited records of biological systems. Records of the astronomical universe, despite the fact that we see distant things as they were long ago, are limited in the extreme. Even in regard to such a close neighbor as the moon, which we have actually visited, theories about its origin and history are extremely different, contradictory, and hard to choose among. Our knowledge of physical evolution is incomplete and highly insecure.
单选题
According to the author, we should reverse our classification of the physical sciences as "hard" and the social sciences as "soft" because ______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：本题为作者观点题。首先应当排除与作者的观点不符的两项。"相对于自然科学来说，我们在社会科学方面的研究能力更强"，文中并未指出这一点。可从文中Our knowledge of social systems...is not likely to be seriously overturned by new discoveries可找到答案选项的出处。
单选题
The chances of the physical sciences being subject to great changes are the biggest because ______.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析：本题为推理判断题。按文意，our image of the astronomical universe，of even of earth"s geological history，can easily be subject to revolutionary changes as new data comes in and new theories are worked out一句已指出，由于新的发现和资料源源而来，可能与先前的理论相悖，自然科学面临的变数也就更大。
单选题
The author believes that our knowledge of social systems is more secure than that of physical systems because ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】解析：本题为作者观点题。从文中Our image of the astronomical universe is the least secure of all simply because we observe such a fantastically small sample of it and its record-keeping is trivial as compared with the rich records of the social systems及其上下文可以判断，社会科学之所以更可靠些是因为可供研究的records更多，也就更全面。
单选题
We know less about the astronomical universe than we do about any social system because ______.
【正确答案】
C
【答案解析】解析：本题为细节题。文中提到astronomical universe时说，Records of the astronomical universe，....are limited in the extreme．也就是说，我们在宇宙天文方面可供研究的样本太少了，所以相对社会科学来说，我们所知的就很少。