文章大意:这是一篇说明文。本文向大家介绍了搞笑诺贝尔奖。搞笑诺贝尔奖每年九月在哈佛大学举行,授予那些能让评委“乍看之下令人发笑,之后发人深省”的成果奖励。尽管这些研究成果听起来很傻,但是其中一些还是有科学实用性的。这些不太可能的事情不仅能使科学更加有趣,还能推进创新。
Science not always so serious
Did you know that if you attach a weighted stick to the back of a chicken, it walks like a dinosaur?
No, you did not know (or care to know) such things, but now you do! Thanks to the winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes! The Ig Nobel Prize is the goofy younger cousin of the honoured Nobel Prize. It applauds achievements in the fields of medicine, biology, physics, economics, literature, etc. Every September at Harvard University, awards are presented in 10 categories that change year to year, depending on-according to the organization — what makes people “laugh, then think”.
The ceremony officially begins when audience members launch paper planes at an assigned human target on the stage. The new winners only have 60 seconds to make an acceptance speech. In previous years, the one-minute rule was imposed by a young girl-nicknamed Miss Sweetie Poo-who would go up to the platform and repeat the words “Please stop. I’m bored!” in a sharp tone until the speaker left the stage.
Fortunately for the new winners though, the Ig Informal Lectures are held afterwards on Saturday to give these winners more time to explain the crazy things they worked on.
The experiments can seem more like the brainchildren of teenage boys than of respectable adults. Justin Schmidt won the physiology and entomology Ig for creating the “Schmidt Sting Pain Index”, which rates the pain people feel after getting stung (蛰) by insects. Smith pressed bees against 25 different parts of his body until they stung him. Five stings a day for 38 days later, Smith concluded that the most painful sting locations were the nostril (鼻孔)and the upper lip. Ouch.
As silly as it sounds, not all of the Ig awards lack scientific applicability. A group of scientists from 12 different countries won in the medicine category for accurately diagnosing patients with appendicitis(阑尾炎)based on an unusual measurement: speed bumps (减速带). They found that patients are more likely to have appendicitis if they report pain during bumpy car rides.
All these weird experiments have just one thing in common. They’re improbable. It can be tempting to assume that “improbable” implies more than that-implies bad or good, worthless or valuable, trivial or important. Something improbable can be any of those, or none of them, or all of them, in different ways. And what you don’t expect can be a powerful force for not only entertaining science, but also for the boundary-pushing science we call innovation.
16. According to the passage, what can we know about the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony?
A.It is held at a fixed place. |
B.Candidates should know how to fold paper planes. |
C.Miss Sweetie Poo is one of the hostesses. |
D.The Ig Informal Lectures give the new winners 60 seconds to finish their speeches. |
17. The example in paragraph 6 is used to illustrate that the Ig Nobel Prizes ________.
A.celebrate the diligent work of researchers |
B.offer another opportunity to those who miss the Nobel Prizes |
C.serve as a platform for the creative and practical achievements |
D.amuse the audience |
18. Among the four candidates below, who is most likely to win an Ig Nobel Prize?
A.A chemist who invents a chemical method to partially un-boil an egg. |
B.A novelist who criticizes social injustice severely. |
C.A physicist who studies the origin of the universe. |
D.An economist who achieves a breakthrough in the study of international trade. |