阅读理解 "I see this as a vanguard in a revolution in education," said Prof. Lukasz Turski, a physicist with the Polish Academy of Sciences who lobbied the government to build the Copernicus Science Center, which opened in November.
The idea is to overcome a view of the hard sciences as inferior to the arts and humanities, a lingering perception that is today hampering Poland's efforts to advance. It is a concrete reminder of just how much history shapes and defines the present.
Many nations have struggled to excite their children about math and science. But in Poland, it is different. In a nation that struggled to remain a nation even while it did not exist, geographically wiped off the map for more than a century, the arts proved to be a thread that bound generations of Poles together, preserving an identity and a rich language. The only form to create national identity was literature. So the humanities were important to Poland's survival, while math and the sciences languished. So lots of people just skipped math—a legacy that Poland's fledgling high-tech sector is struggling with today. Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, a Polish daily newspaper, recently reported that job opportunities in these areas outnumbered applicants by 10 to 1.
Economists say that Poland lags far behind other nations of comparable resources in patent applications, and that in 2012 Poland will probably lose out on European Union financing for research and development.
"I am not qualified to be considered intelligentsia in this country," Professor Turski said, shouting with the enthusiasm of a man on a mission. "It is more important to sit and discuss Plato than to know how the chip in the computer works."
The decision to make math studies optional was finally reversed this past May, Professor Turski said, part of a long, slow process of trying to persuade Poles to forge values relevant to the modern world, and to get past values that evolved in very different times.
But that struggle is not just relevant to math, because it is essentially about reconstructing an identity free from suffering, free from occupation, free from the moral certainty that resistance is always the moral choice.
It is not even clear, Professor Turski said, that there is a general understanding and agreement on the need to improve education in science and math, if for no other reason than to help propel Poland's already successful post-cold-war economy.
"The only way for this country to move forward is for it to educate its own people, and our politicians don't understand this," Professor Turski said. "You cannot move a country without great ideas."
单选题 6.The opening of the Copernicus Science Center aims to______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】属事实细节题。通过题目中首字母大写内容定位至文章第一段。选项A犯了无中生有的错误,尽管这个科学中心以哥白尼命名,但不意味其建立就是为了纪念哥白尼,故错误。选项B犯了偷梁换柱的错误,原文中提到Lukasz Turski说服政府成立了这个中心,而并非成立中心来游说政府提供资金,故错误。其实成立科学中心的目的可在第二段中找到,第二段开头即说“theidea is to…”,即是为了纠正自然科学逊于人文科学的观念,也就是想唤起波兰人对自然科学的兴趣,故选项C正确。选项D犯了移花接木的错误,将文章倒数第二段最后提到的economy置于此处,故错误。
单选题 7.It can be inferred from Paragraph 4 and 5 that______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】属信息推断题。选项A犯了曲解文意的错误,第四段第二句提到高科技领域的工作职位远超应聘者,比例甚至达到10:1,而非供不应求,故错误。选项B同样犯了曲解文意的错误,第四段第一句提到波兰的高科技行业是fledgling,意为“新手”,也就是刚刚起步的,而非完全发展的,故错误。文中第五段中提到,波兰的专利申请远少于与之拥有差不多资源的其他国家,专利申请其实就是人们科技创新的体现,故选项C符合题意。选项D犯了夸大其词的错误,文章第五段只是说欧盟可能停止资金支持,而非确定停止,故错误。
单选题 8.Humanities are of more significance to Poles because______.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】属信息推断题。选项A犯了因果倒置的错误,选项A的内容实为题目内容的结果,而非原因,故错误。文章第三段第三句讲到,艺术保持着民族认同感,像一根无形的线连接着世世代代的波兰人,故可知选项B符合题意。选项C犯了移花接木的错误,文中提到很多国家都努力让孩子们学习数学和科学,而波兰曾努力维持国家的延续,选项C将两句揉为一句,故错误。选项D犯了移花接木的错误,将文章第五段第一句内容的含义改变后置于此处,故错误。
单选题 9.The words said by Lukasz Turski in Paragraph 6 suggest that in Poland______.
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】属信息推断题。文章第六段中教授义愤填膺的一番话大意为:在波兰,像他这样的研究自然科学的科学家都不能被称为知识分子,而后以柏拉图和电脑芯片为例说明了这一点,故选项C符合题意。选项A、B、D均是对原文含义的曲解,故均错误。
单选题 10.Which of the following will the author most probably agree?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】属观点推断题。从第九段内容可以判断,虽然波兰已开始发展自然科学教育,但很多人都不知道其中的原因,故选项D符合题意。选项A、B、C均犯了曲解文意的错误:文章最后一段指出波兰的政治家们并没有意识到教育是让国家前进发展的唯一方式,故选项A错误;文章第八段暗示出波兰人一直都倾向于抗拒发展自然科学,故选项B错误;文章第九段提到,波兰的经济在冷战结束后(1989年以后)一直很成功,而选项C恰好与此相反,故错误。