单选题 Read the following passage carefully and then decide whether the statements which follow are true(T)or false(F). Most serious scientists spend a good part of their waking hours amid papers and preprints, equations and equipment, conducting experiments, talking about graphs and data, arguing about ideas and theories, teaching, and writing grant proposals. But if they browse in bookstores or glance in the book review sections of journals, they cannot fail to find a fascinating phenomenon in the scientific landscape; books proclaiming the extrarational implications of science are proliferating. Religion and mysticism are inching their way back into the arena of science whence(some thought)they had been gradually weeded out during the past two centuries. Right from the days of Kepler and Galileo, scientists have generally had a religious side to them: After all, except when they encounter faiths of a different shade, religions normally have only civilizing effects on the human heart. Isaac Newton believed in a personal God, explicitly calling himself His servant. Leonard Euler was deeply religious, and so were Augustin Cauchy and Michael Faraday. One author has written a 100-page volume filled with quotations from eminent scientists expressing their religious convictions. No reflecting scientist can be immune to the awe and majesty of the physical world, nor insensitive to the deep mystery underlying life and consciousness, though some troy not express it in traditional ways. But the scientific worldview arrived at by collective and extensive inquiries, fortified by countless instruments and carefully-erected conceptual tools, has been in awkward contradiction to explanations of how the world began and behaves, or how life emerged, as reported in the holy books of human history. As a result, ever since the Copernican revolution, there have been confrontations between scientific theories and religious worldviews. In 1896, A. D. White published his erudite work, which was an embarrassingly candid exposure, instance after instance, of the dogged obstinacy of the religious establishment in upholding ancient doctrines in the face of mounting scientific evidence to the contrary. After a full century, however, the situation seems to have changed drastically. A plethora of extrapolations of science are cropping up whose goal is to reestablish prescience. Many popular books, TV specials, magazine articles, and conference papers are joyously declaring that the ancients were not as much in the dark as Bacon and company had imagined; that, if anything, they had, through intuition and revelation, pretty much summed up the essence of twentieth-century physics and cosmology: from the strange physics of vacuums to the big bang. In the view of quite a few writers(including some practicing scientists of repute), physics has shown that Hindu mystics were right in picturing the cosmos as the Dancing Divine; that Chinese philosophers were on target when they spoke of yin and yang, for these referred implicitly to the conservation of matter and energy; and that the Book of Genesis formulates the principle of evolution in metaphorical meters. It has been claimed that receding galaxies provide experimental confirmation of what cabalists had already recognized in medieval times, and inklings of the esoteric formulations of quantum physics(the so-called S-matrix theory)have been detected in Buddhist sutras. Whether or not mainstream professional scientists take note of it, whether or not they attach weight to such claims, a significant fact in the closing decade of our century is that mysticism and old-time religion are back in full vigor in public consciousness, not just as enriching dimensions of the human spirit, nor even as competing modes of knowing or perceiving, but as profound intuitive visions that have at long last been "scientifically proven". A good deal of academic discussion is dedicated either to showing how limited and misleading the intellect is or to proving that nonrationally-derived insights have been confirmed by the most recent scientific theories.
单选题 Scientists in the west have cherished a tradition of keeping their religious beliefs since the time of Kepler and Galileo.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:由题干人名定位到第二段首句。该句指出,从开普勒和伽利略时代开始,科学家基本上都有宗教信仰,因为宗教对人心有潜移默化的影响;紧接着作者列举出了牛顿、欧拉等科学家的例子,并且在段尾句指出,即使有些科学家的宗教信仰没有用传统的方式来表达,但没有科学家能免疫于自然世界的雄伟,能对神秘的生活和意识无动于衷,可见西方科学家有珍爱宗教信仰的传统,题干所述正确。
单选题 According to A. D. White, religious authorities simply turned a deaf ear to the growing amount of scientific evidence contrary to their worldviews.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:文章第三段末句提到了题干中人物“A.D.White”的观点:1896年他出版的书籍中暴露了这样一个尴尬的事实,在日益激增的科学证据面前,不乏顽固的宗教保守派支持古老教义的例子。可见在与宗教权威的观点相对立的科学证据日益增多的时候,宗教权威们并没有充耳不闻,题干所述不符合文意,错误。
单选题 The last decade of the 20th century saw a change of view in the science field regarding ancient wisdom: after all, profound intuitions are valuable as they successfully predicted contemporary scientific findings.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:文章第四段作者提到,古代人并不像我们想象的那么无知,他们的直觉和发现可以很好地概括20世纪物理和宇宙的本质;紧接着作者在第五段给出了多个例子来说明古代人直觉与科学相吻合的例子,如印度神秘主义、中国的阴阳哲学、量子物理学形成迹象等。可见,在20世纪,人们对古老智慧的态度有所改变,因为有些深奥的直觉发现确实成功地预测了当代的科学发现,题干论述正确。
单选题 As science writers suggest, hints of the modern "S-matrix theory" of quantum physics can be found in Buddhist teachings.
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】解析:文章第五段列出了许多作家(包括一些知名科学家)的观点,来举例说明一些古老智慧与科学发现相吻合,其中在该段末句中作者指出,所谓的S一矩阵理论,即量子物理学神秘形成的一些迹象早就在佛教经典中被察觉出来了,故题干所述正确。
单选题 The coming back of old-time religion and mysticism in the arena of science is not surprising, as insightful ancient intuitions and recent scientific theories have arrived at similar worldviews.
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】解析:文章首段末句作者便提到,宗教和神秘主义在历经过去两个世纪的消亡后,正在渐渐“重返科学的竞技场”,对此作者在文章末段给出自己的看法:神秘主义和古宗教重现活力说明那些深刻的直觉最终得到科学证明——或者是局限和误导的,又或者是可以得到科学理论的证实的。可见,古宗教和神秘主义的重现并不惊奇,但并不是因为它们最终与近代科学理论达成类似的世界观,而是这些深刻的古代智慧可以在科学理论下得以验证,题干所述错误。