单选题
When facts are ______ and data hard to come by, even scientists occasionally throw aside the professional pretense of ______ and tear into each other with shameless appeals to authority and arguments that are unabashedly ad hominem.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】Under certain circumstances scientists attack each other with ad hominem arguments (personal attacks) and shameless appeals. When is this likely to occur? When facts are established or demonstrable or ineluctable (unavoidable)? Hardly. Under such circum-stances they would rely on facts to establish their case. It is when facts prove elusive that they lose control and, in doing so, abandon their pretense of objectivity.
单选题
In the tradition of scholarly ______, the poet and scholar A.E. Housman once assailed a German rival for relying on manuscripts "as a drunkard relies on lampposts, for ______ rather than illumination."
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】The key word here is assailed. Housman is attacking his rival. Thus he is in the tradition of scholarly invective (vehement verbal attack), criticizing his foe for turning to manuscripts merely for confirmation or support of old theories and not for enlightenment or illumination. Again, note the use of figurative language, in this case the simile of the drunkard.