翻译题
It has become an obvious truth by now that scientists are not mere knowledge-acquisition machines; they are guided by emotion and intuition as well as by cold reason and calculation. 【F1】Scientiste are rarely so human. I have found, so at the mercy of their fears and desires, as when they are confronting the limits of knowledge. The greatest scientists want, above all, to discover truths about nature (in addition to acquiring glory, grants, and tenure and improving the lot of humankind); they want to know. They hope, and trust, that the truth is attainable, not merely an ideal, which they eternally approach. Scientists who harbor this belief are often accused of arrogance. Some are arrogant, supremely so. But many others, I have found, are less arrogant than anxious. These are trying times for truth seekers. Moreover, science itself, as it advances, keeps imposing limits on its own power. For the most part, strong scientists have only one option: to pursue science in a speculative, post empirical mode that I call ironic science. 【F2】Ironic science resembles literary criticism in that it offers points of view, opinions, which are, at best, interesting, which provoke further comment. But it does not converge on the truth. It cannot achieve empirically verifiable surprises that force scientists to make substantial revisions in their basic description of reality. 【F3】As empirical science become stereotyped, journalists such as myself, who feed society's hunger, will come under more pressure to promote theories that supposedly transcend the big bang theory or natural selection. Journalists are, after all, largely responsible for the popular impression that fields such as chaos and complexity represent genuinely new sciences superior to the dull old reductionist methods of Newton, Einstein and Darwin. 【F4】Journalists, myself included, have also helped quantum (量子) theories of consciousness win an audience much larger than they deserve given their poor standing among professional neuroscientists. I do not mean to imply that ironic science has no value. Far from it. At its best ironic science, induces wonder in us; it keeps us in awe before the mystery of the universe. But it cannot achieve its goal of transcending the truth we already have. 【F5】And it certainly cannot give us—in fact, it protects us from—The Answer, a truth so potent that it quenches our curiosity once and for all time. After all, science itself decides that we humans must always be content with partial truths.
问答题11.【F1】
【正确答案】我发现，当科学家们遇到知识的局限时，很少和常人一样，被恐惧和欲望所支配。
【答案解析】①本句是复合句。句中包含so…as…的比较结构，旨在说明科学家在某特定时期与常人不同的表现：此特定时期即when引导的时间状语从句所说的“当他们遇到知识局限之时”。②I have found为插入语，结构独立，表明这是“我”的发现；at the mercy of…意为“任凭……摆布，受……支配”。③rarely“很少地，罕见地”，表否定含义，在主句中修饰两个so…结构，后面的so at the mercy of their fears and desires是对so human的解释说明，表示常人经常受恐惧和欲望的支配。
【答案解析】①本句是多重复合句。主句主干为journalists such as myself will come under more pressure；句首的As引导主句的时间状语从句，表示“随着……”。②who引导定语从句修饰主句主语journalists。③to promote theories…作后置定语，修饰pressure；that引导定语从句修饰先行词theories。④the big bang theory应理解为普通术语“宇宙大爆炸理论”。
【答案解析】①本句是相对简单的复合句。破折号之间的内容为插入成分，结构相对独立，可起补充说明的作用。②a truth是The Answer的同位语，解释说明The Answer在此的具体所指；其后的so．．．that．．．为修饰a truth的后置定语，其中包含结果状语从句。③once and for all time是结果状语从句中的状语，意为“彻底地，一劳永逸地”。