Jonathan Agnew recently described “unofficial interviews” as those where you agree that it’s “between you and I”. And a Times journalist wrote about someone who had “made Jenny and I feel so welcome”. They are both intelligent people with the ability to express ideas fluently and logically. And yet they wrote “I” where they meant “me”.
It’s happening more and more. We are scared of the mistake like “Terry and me went to the pub”. We’ve all been taught that it should be “Terry and I went to the pub”. Plus we’ve heard the Queen say “my husband and I” a lot. So we begin to use “and I” even when it should be “and me”.
But my point here is not to support the correct usage. It’s the opposite: I want to reject the idea that there’s such a thing as “correct” English at all. Language isn’t like maths, where you can show that two plus two is four. Language has no fundamental rights and wrongs, only conventions. You cannot definitively prove that any are “right” and others “wrong”.
Sometimes correct language sounds absurd. Look at Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) who came up with a new rule. Primary school children now have to be taught that “inverted commas” is right, while “speech marks” is wrong. You and I know that those terms are interchangeable. And the child who looks at those marks on the page can see that both make perfect sense. That’s because a primary school child is more intelligent than the Ofsted turkey who came up with this rule.
As the teacher who told me about the ludicrous rule pointed out, there is no doubt that in a few years’ time, the “incorrect” term will become the “correct” one. But the truly horrible thing about an education system like this is that it destroys children’s love of language. It tells them they have to worry about rules, instead of encouraging them to read and write for its own sake. Let them read for fun and they’ll absorb the rules — or conventions — anyway. Have them shaking in fear about English tests, and you’ll increase their insecurity about getting language “right”.
Then one day that insecurity will have them saying “and I” even though they mean “and me”.
1. Why do people use “and I” when it should be “and me” according to the text?| A．The Ofsted sets a rule. |
| B．“and I” is the correct English. |
| C．The Queen makes a similar mistake. |
| D．People feel insecure about using “and me”. |
| A．Rules benefit children’s language learning. |
| B．Language learning is more complicated than maths. |
| C．Language is based on commonly accepted rules. |
| D．A primary school child is smarter than the Ofsted. |
| A．Influential. | B．Particular. |
| C．Conventional. | D．Ridiculous. |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. |
| C．Favourable. | D．Indifferent. |
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【推荐1】English is the international language of science, but most of the world’s scientists speak it as a second language. We shoulder an extra career challenge: Not only must we gain a command of science, but we must also be able to write in a foreign language to communicate that science.
My mother tongue is Hebrew. I’m now a researcher at Monash University. There are six people on my research team, five of whom are non-native English speakers. Writing highly technical English is crucial to our science. Our topics embrace cell biology, materials science and chemistry, so our text must make sense to both non-experts and experts.
To me, English is suitable as an international language in a number of ways. On the surface, it’s easy enough to convey basic meanings when conducting trade, business and tourism, as well as on social media. In most contexts, it doesn’t matter if you misuse “the” or “-ing,” or get the word order wrong. Although the spelling is chaotic, once you get a feel for the typical patterns, it’s not too hard.
But when meanings are complex and technical, precision is a must. Then, English becomes a difficult beast to wrestle with.
The Australian poet Clive James once called English “big and baggy.” I can’t disagree. The vocabulary is large. Furthermore, the grammar is extraordinarily flexible, leaving us often confusing. There lies the problem: Such rich language makes it easy to produce long writings of questionable quality.
Worse still, we outsiders to English are likely to have been taught to use complicated wording and long sentences to show our authority on a topic. However, English is the opposite: The language is at its most elegant when plain and simple. But simplicity is hard in English!
Another shock to me was the importance English speakers place on front-ending their messages. In many languages, you might expect readers to stay with the text throughout. In English, however, I’ve developed healthy fear that my readers will skim-read unless I state the essence at the opening of a paragraph, then walk backwards while explaining it.
My language teacher says that working with me makes him reflect on English in ways he wouldn’t otherwise. Full disclosure: he read this piece, and made a few helpful suggestions.
1. Why does the author think English is suitable as an international language?| A．It can be easily used to get basic meanings across. |
| B．It has relatively simple grammar and spelling rules. |
| C．It is spoken by the majority of the world’s population. |
| D．Its huge vocabulary helps express complex meanings. |
| A．To declare the importance of English |
| B．To illustrate English is easy to learn |
| C．To give opinions about the status of English |
| D．To provide a contrast to technical English |
| A．skimming for the main idea of the text |
| B．expressing ideas at the end of the text |
| C．presenting key messages at the beginning |
| D．having a thorough understanding of the text |
| A．how to convey complex and technical meanings precisely |
| B．how to produce professional writings in simple English |
| C．how to establish their authority in the field of science |
| D．how to make scientific writings accessible to non-experts |
【推荐2】No student of a foreign language needs to be told that grammar is complex. By changing the order of the words and by adding a range of auxiliary verbs (助动词) and suffixes (后缀), we can turn a statement into a question, state whether an action has taken place or is soon to take place, and perform many other word tricks to convey different meanings. However, the question which many language experts can’t understand and explain is — who created grammar?
Some recent languages evolved due to the Atlantic slave trade. Since the slaves didn’t know each other’s languages, they developed a make-shift language called a pidgin. Pidgins are strings of words copied from the language of the landowners. They have little in the way of grammar, and speakers need to use too many words to make their meaning understood. Interestingly, however, all it takes for a pidgin to become a complex language is for a group of children to be exposed to it at the time when they learn their mother tongue. Slave children didn’t simply copy the strings of words used by their elders. They adapted their words to create an expressive language. In this way complex grammar systems which come from pidgins were invented.
Further evidence can be seen in studying sign languages for the deaf. Sign languages are not simply a group of gestures; they use the same grammatical machinery that is found in spoken languages. The creation of one such language was documented quite recently in Nicaragua. Previously, although deaf children were taught speech and lip reading in the classrooms, in the playgrounds they began to invent their own sign system, using the gestures they used at home. It was basically a pidgin and there was no consistent grammar. However, a new system was born when children who joined the school later developed a quite different sign language. It was based on the signs of the older children, but it was shorter and easier to understand, and it had a large range of special use of grammar to clarify the meaning. What’s more, they all used the signs in the same way. So the original pidgin was greatly improved.
Most experts believe that many of the languages were pidgins at first. They were initially used in different groups of people without standardization and gradually evolved into a widely accepted system. The English past tense—“ed” ending — may have evolved from the verb “do”. “It ended” may once have been “It end-did”. It seems that children have grammatical machinery in their brains. Their minds can serve to create logical and complex structures, even when there is no grammar present for them to copy.
1. What can be inferred about the slaves’ pidgin language?| A．It was difficult to understand. |
| B．It came from different languages. |
| C．It was created by the landowners. |
| D．It contained highly complex grammar. |
| A．No consistent signs were used for communication. |
| B．Most of the gestures were made for everyday activities. |
| C．The hand movements were smoother and more attractive. |
| D．The meaning was clearer than the previous sign language. |
| A．English grammar of past tense system is inaccurate. |
| B．Children say English past tense differently from adults. |
| C．The thought that English was once a pidgin is acceptable. |
| D．Experts have proven that English was created by children. |
| A．The Creators of Grammar | B．The History of Languages |
| C．Why Pidgins Came into Being | D．How Grammar Systems Are Used |
【推荐3】“Man is by nature a social animal,” the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote more than 2,000years ago. From the time you enter this world, you start communicating. Your first cry is your first attempt at verbal (口头的) communication. And as you start growing, you find newer ways of communication. You learn to form words and sentences to communicate.
Verbal communication means effectively presenting your thoughts verbally.
Verbal communication is a broad topic. There are various elements that help us organize our thoughts around it. They include the tone, speed, and volume of your speech.
A variety of challenges may arise in verbal communication. Although difficulties with verbal communication can’t be entirely avoided, it is possible to increase your chances of communicating successfully. Consider the message you wish to communicate before speaking and communicate with respect for the recipient’s point of view.
| A．Pay attention to what you say and how you say it. |
| B．Its relevant skills are essential in the world of business. |
| C．Verbal communication can be classified into two main types. |
| D．This is the beginning of the real sense of verbal communication. |
| E．Language barriers are a major cause of confusion in verbal communication. |
| F．Everyone has a unique style of communicating and understanding messages. |
| G．Additionally, grammar and vocabulary are critical aspects of verbal communication. |
【推荐1】Roughly the size of a soda can, sitting on a bookshelf, a relatively harmless device may be turning friends away from your home. The elephant in your living room is your Internet-connected camera, a device people are increasingly using for peace of mind in their homes. But few stop to think about the effect these devices may have on house guests. Should you tell your friends, for instance, that they’re being recorded while you all watch the big game together?
“It’s certainly new territory (领地), especially as home security cameras become easier to fix,” says Lizzie Post, president of the Emily Post Institute, America’s distinguished manners advisors. “I think it will be very interesting to see what manners appear in terms of whether you tell people you have a camera or not, and whether guests have a right to ask that it be turned off, if it’s not a security issue.” Post wants to make clear that she’s not talking about legal rights, but rather personal preference.
When it comes to security cameras, Post says it’s a host’s responsibility to make sure guests feel comfortable within their home. If the host casually acknowledges that there is a camera in the room by telling a story about, it that may be enough to provide an opening for a guest to say if they are uncomfortable.
However, if a contractor (合约工) is working in your home, you don’t need to tell them that there are cameras watching. Then again, the camera can also work in contractors’ favor. “If anything does go wrong while they’re in the house, they don’t want to be blamed for it,” she says. “In fact, the camera could be the thing that proves that they didn’t steal the $20, or knock the vase off the table.”
1. What is Lizzie Post mainly discussing about the use of home security cameras?| A．Legal rights. |
| B．Moral issues. |
| C．The possible impact on health. |
| D．Likes and dislikes of individuals. |
| A．Indicating its position. |
| B．Turning it on all the time. |
| C．Making their guests feel at ease. |
| D．Having a casual talk with guests. |
| A．It can prove their innocence. |
| B．It can record their working progress. |
| C．It can prevent the accidents happening. |
| D．It can make their work more enjoyable. |
| A．Negative. | B．Pessimistic. |
| C．Favorable. | D．Objective. |
【推荐2】In an ideal world, we might be able to live free from discrimination. But not this one, in which we are constantly dividing everything into “us" and “them".
This is especially true during times of fear, like now, when the novel coronavirus is spreading across China and the world. It's a time when “us" means safe and clean while “them" means infectious and risky. Or at least we'd like to believe so.
But this is actually a misbelief, which has been fueled and promoted by fear, and sadly, the media. When the outbreak first started, the term “Wuhan virus" was used in some news, creating hostility （敌意）toward people from Wuhan and Hubei as a whole. There were reports of hotels refusing to accept guests from Hubei and some hospitals denied their entry even when they needed treatment for other medical problems.
Elsewhere in the world, German magazine Der Spiegel labeled the virus on its cover as “Made in China". Australia's Herald Sun, meanwhile, printed, “China Kids Stay Home" on its front page, implying that all kids from China are carriers of the virus. It's also reported that Chinese people overseas have faced harassment （骚扰）and even violence.
This kind of misbelief is exactly why and when the World Health Organization （WHO） was trying to come up with a name for the disease, it had to be careful. “We had to find a name that did not refer to a geographical （地理的）location, an animal, an individual or group of people," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, on Feb 11. And COVID-19 was the final decision.
World leaders and institutes are also sharing sensible voices. "There is no place in our country for discrimination driven by fear or misinformation," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a Lunar New Year celebration in Toronto on Feb 2. Cornell University also sent an email to students and faculty, saying, “We need to remember to care for one another and not make assumptions about others' symptoms or any characteristics of identity."
It's understandable that during times like this, we want to go to extreme lengths to make sure we're safe. But fear is never part of the cure. Only love and independent thinking takes you further.
1. What is the main purpose of Paragraphs 3 and 4?| A．To explain what has brought about misbelief. |
| B．To show how some news media misled the public. |
| C．To compare how different countries responded to COVID --- 19. |
| D．To present what Chinese people overseas suffer from COVID --- 19. |
| A．show positive attitudes in face of COVID ---19 |
| B．explain why it is important to prevent discrimination |
| C．describe different opinions of the influence of the virus |
| D．introduce measures taken by foreign countries to fight COVID---19 |
| A．Neutral. | B．Supportive. | C．Opposed. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．We should always be willing to care for others. |
| B．Fear and discrimination are as contagious as a virus. |
| C．We shouldn't let misinformation influence our own judgment. |
| D．The media should give people confidence during times of fear. |
One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, additional learning trials(尝试) increase the length of time we will remember it.
In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.
The multiplication tables(乘法口诀表) are an exception to the general rule that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood.
The law of overlearning explains why cramming(突击学习)for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one's future development.
1. What is the main idea of paragraph 1?| A．People remember well what they learned in childhood. |
| B．Children have a better memory than grown-ups. |
| C．Poem reading is a good way to learn words. |
| D．Stories for children are easy to remember. |
| A．presenting research findings |
| B．setting down general rules |
| C．making a comparison |
| D．using examples |
| A．a result of overlearning |
| B．a special case of cramming |
| C．a skill to deal with math problems |
| D．a basic step towards advanced studies |
| A．Commonly accepted rules. |
| B．The multiplication tables. |
| C．Things easily forgotten. |
| D．School subjects. |
| A．It leads to failure in college exams. |
| B．It's helpful only in a limited way. |
| C．It's possible to result in poor memory. |
| D．It increases students' learning interest. |
【推荐1】Having your nose in a book might seem a little anti-social at times—but reading could actually make you a kinder, more considerate person, a study has found. Readers were more likely to act in a socially acceptable manner, while those who preferred watching television came across as less friendly and less understanding of others’ views, researchers said.
123 participants in the study were quizzed on their preferences for books, TV and plays at Kingston University, London. They were then tested on how much they considered people’s feelings and whether they acted to help others. Researchers told the British Psychological Society conference in Brighton yesterday that fiction fans showed more positive social behavior.
Readers of drama and romance novels were also empathetic, while lovers of experimental books showed the ability to see things from different directions. Comedy fans scored the highest for relating to others. The study suggested reading allows people to see different points of view enabling them to understand others better.
The researchers added, “Exposure to fiction relates to a range of empathetic abilities. Engaging with fictional prose and comedy in particular could be key to improving people’s empathetic abilities.”
However, the authors warned the study did not prove cause-and-effect. So it could be that reading causes positive behavior, or it could be that thoughtful, well-mannered people are more likely to prefer reading. So it is a good idea to pick up a book to begin your travel with the author. Each author will show how they would react to certain situations through their characters. Everyone can view the same situation differently, and from 1,001 different angles. The more you read, the much better you can understand other peoples’ opinions.
1. Why did the writer mention the result of watching television?| A．The writer is a anti-social reporter. | B．The writer shows benefits of reading. |
| C．The writer is a considerate person. | D．The writer becomes socially acceptable. |
| A．The skills of communicating. | B．The time of reading books. |
| C．The places of getting new books. | D．The ways of expressing feelings. |
| A．Readers of drama. | B．Writers of romance novels. |
| C．Readers of comedy. | D．Readers of experiments. |
【推荐2】Colleague's sharp comment keeps replaying in your mind. Two of your students are trapped in a "he said/she said" battle. When you reflect on your emotional reactions, you sometimes get caught up in cycles of negative feelings, which can make you feel even worse. If so, the answer may lie in a skill called "self-distancing", the ability to take a step back and view yourself more objectively. According to a research, when people adopt self-distancing while discussing a difficult event, they make better sense of their reactions, experience less emotional suffering, and display fewer signs of stress.
But what might self-distancing look like in action? Consider a typical “he said/she said” student conflict where they are each focusing on their own feelings. One is thinking, "I can't believe he did that to me." And another insists, "She really hurt my feelings." However, if you ask them to take the self-distancing, they might step outside of themselves and ask broader questions: "Why was he so hurt in this situation?" or "How did her anger affect him?"
Although this approach may sound too simple to be effective, studies indicate that a change in point of view can have a powerful effect on the way people think, feel, and behave. Here are several different techniques you can try.
First, consider how a thoughtful friend might respond after quietly observing their situation. Besides, avoid using the pronoun “I” . Focus on using third-person pronouns, he, she, they, and they were able to see the stressful event as challenging rather than threatening. Finally ask yourself, "How would I feel about this one week from now or ten years from now?" This form of mental time travel may be effective because our attention is directed away from our immediate, concrete circumstances(具体情况).
1. What is self- distancing?| A．Getting stuck in negative emotions. | B．stressful situation. |
| C．A study on relieving emotional stress. | D．Reflecting on yourself objectively. |
| A．giving examples | B．making definition |
| C．analyzing cause and effect | D．presenting the process |
| A．I'm angry with him. |
| B．How I wish I could go back to the past! |
| C．How did these two people get to this point? |
| D．He grabbed my notes, and then, and then. |
| A．To explain why self- distancing matters, |
| B．To instruct how to change your point of view. |
| C．To introduce how to break the cycle of negative reflection. |
| D．To stress the importance of focusing our attention on emotions. |
【推荐3】The 1953 painting"Goyita"by Rafael features his mother with a red scarf on her head,a determined look on her face,and heavy expression lines,a portrait(画像）of a working-class woman that broke from traditional ones of the time that focused largely on wealthy men.
“Goyita"is one of more than 350 paintings from Puerto Rico that Google Arts&Culture digitized(数字化）for the first time with help from"Hamilton"creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, who started the online exhibition that features works from four Puerto Rican art institutions.
The aim is to expose the world to Puerto Rican art,preserve it,and help museums in the U.S.that are struggling to exhibit paintings because of limited space and budget cuts.
Puerto Rico's artwork joins Google's current online exhibitions and stories from around the world.As part of the project,Google brought its so-called"art camera"for the first time to Puerto Rico.The camera has an extremely high resolution(分辨率）thanks to a 400 millimeter zoom(镜头）that uncovers details invisible to the human eye,including brush strokes(笔法）。It also allowed those at the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture to find the signature of a pioneering female artist.
The camera took thousands of pictures to digitize 48 pieces of Puerto Rican art as it went inches by inches to cover an entire painting,a job that took 30 minutes to several hours depending on the size of the artwork,said Simon Delacroix,U.S.lead for Google Arts&Culture.
As Mr.Delacroix showed the power of the zoom on a painting called"El Gobernador Don Miguel Antonio de Ustariz",a collective"Wow"escaped from the audience attending the project at the Museum of Puerto Rico.The crowd could appreciate details in the background including someone that appears to be laughing from a balcony.
Google Arts&Culture already allows users to explore more than 2,000 museums and historic sites including Nelson Mandela 's prison cell.In total,it offers more than 6 million photos,videos,and other documents.
1. What do we know about the painting"Goyita"?| A．It is a traditional portrait. | B．It is a painting by Miranda. |
| C．It describes a wealthy man. | D．It features a working-class woman. |
| A．Its world-famous stories. | B．Its humour and complexity. |
| C．Its depth and richness. | D．Its historical backgrounds. |
| A．Amazed. | B．Terrified. | C．Confused. | D．Disappointed. |
| A．Google bans its painting show | B．Google digitizes Puerto Rican art |
| C．Google helps museums to survive | D．Google launches its high-tech camera |
【推荐1】A planet the size of Jupiter has been discovered and it is one of the hottest ones known to us. This has made scientists think about how planets are formed.
Planets such as Earth have more oxygen than carbon, but what if the composition（组成）is just the opposite? This is a question opened up by a recent discovery of a diamond planet by US and UK scientists. The planet is 1200 light years away from Earth and was observed using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Dr Marek Kukula explained that researchers initially used the Super WASP(Wide Angle Search for Planets) robotic observatories operating continuously, all year around. They detected the planet, then it was observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which detected the heat coming from the planet, and from that heat signature they can tell what this planet is made from.
The planet is very different to Earth. "It's giant planet," explains Dr Kukula, "a gas planet, a bit like Jupiter in our solar system. But the interesting thing that they've discovered is that it has a very different composition to the planets in our solar system. This planet has more carbon than oxygen." This suggests that there is more than one way to make a solar system and the range of planets in the universe could be much wider than previously thought.
Dr Kukula says that if there are smaller planets in the same solar system with a similar composition, rich in carbon, their rocks could be rich in minerals such as carbon and diamonds, unlike Earth which has silica（硅石）, the sand that rocks on Earth are made from. "This is where this diamond planet idea comes from; they haven't actually detected a diamond planet yet," explains Dr Kukula.it' s hypothetical（假设的）, "but you can imagine strange landscapes with black graphite rocks lying around and the surface could be covered with sticky liquids instead of water".
1. What planet has been discovered recently?| A．A planet with more oxygen. | B．A planet with more carbon |
| C．A planet hotter than others. | D．A planet bigger than Jupiter. |
| A．By its heat. | B．By its size. |
| C．By telescope. | D．By distance. |
| A．It is in our solar system. | B．It looks like Earth. |
| C．It is completely different from Jupiter. | D．It contains a lot of gas. |
| A．It is rich in carbon. | B．It is rich in silica. |
| C．It is rich in water. | D．It is rich in sticky liquids. |
【推荐2】Running on Empty
For almost a century, scientists have assumed, tiredness—or exhaustion—in athletes originates(起源于) in the muscles. Precise explanations have varied, but all have been based on the “Limitations Theory”. In other words, muscles tire because they hit a physical limit: they either run out of fuel or oxygen or they drown in harmful by-products(副产品).
In the past few years, however, Timothy Noakes from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, has examined this standard theory. Tiredness, he argues, is caused not by signals springing from overtaxed muscles, but is an emotional response which begins in the brain. The fundamental nature of his new theory is that the brain paces the muscles to keep them well back from the edge of exhaustion. When the brain decides it’s time to quit, it creates unbearable muscle tiredness. This “Central Governor” theory remains controversial, but it does explain many puzzling aspects of athletic performance.
A recent discovery that Noakes calls the “lactic acid paradox” made him start researching this area seriously. Lactic acid is a by-product of exercise, and the increase of it is often mentioned as a cause of tiredness. But when research subjects exercise in certain conditions created artificially, they become tired even though lactic acid levels remain low. Nor has the oxygen content of their blood fallen too low for them to keep going. Obviously, something else was making them tire before they hit either of these physiological limits.
Noakes conducted an experiment with seven cyclists. It has long been known that during exercise, the body never uses 100% of the available muscle fibres(纤维). The amount used varies, but in some tasks such as this cycling test the body calls on about 30%. His team found that as tiredness set in, the electrical activity in cyclist’s legs declined—even when they were making a great effort to cycle as fast as they could.
To Noakes, this was strong evidence that the old theory was wrong. “The cyclists may have felt completely exhausted,” he says, “but their bodies actually had considerable reserves that they could theoretically tap by using a greater amount of the resting fibres.” This, he believes, is the proof that the brain is regulating the pace of the workout to hold the cyclists well back from the point of extreme tiredness.
1. Which of the following is supported by “the Limitations Theory”?| A．Tiredness is caused by signals from brain. |
| B．Athletes feel tired when they use up all their energy. |
| C．The body uses 100% of the muscle fibres in exercise. |
| D．Athletes become tired though lactic acid levels remain low. |
| A．muscle fibres control athletes’ movements |
| B．Lactic acid levels remain high in cycling test |
| C．mental processes control the symptoms of tiredness |
| D．different exercises use different amount of muscle fibres |
| A．lactic acid is produced in muscles during exercise |
| B．the oxygen content in blood may rise after sports |
| C．tiredness is a harmful by-product of exercise |
| D．the energy in human bodies can be balanced |
| A．The description of a new test. |
| B．The explanation of the theory. |
| C．The puzzling evidence of a study. |
| D．The whole process of the research. |
【推荐3】Scientists often complain that people are not rational (理性的) in their opposition to technologies such as nuclear power and genetically modified (GM) crops. From a statistical perspective, these are very safe, and so peopled fear can be explained only by emotion, strengthened by ignorance. Electricity from nuclear power has led to far fewer direct deaths than has coalfired power, yet many people are afraid of it, and hardly anyone is afraid of coal plants. Similar arguments can be made about GM crops, which studies have shown are generally safe for most people to eat.
Scientific illiteracy (无知) may be part of the problem. Most of us are afraid of things we don’t understand, and studies have shown that scientists tend to be more accepting of potentially risky technologies than laypeople. This suggests that when people know a lot about such technologies, they are usually reassured.
But there’s more to the issue than meets the eye. It is true that many of us fear the unknown, but it is also true that we don’t care enough about routine risks. Part of the explanation is complacency: we tend not to fear the familiar, and thus familiarity can lead us to underestimate risk. The investigation into the Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill (原油泄漏) in 2010 showed that complacency—among executives, among engineers and among government officials-was a major cause of that disaster. So the fact that experts are unworried about a threat is not necessarily reassuring.
Scientists also make a mistake when they assume that public concerns are wholly or even mostly about safety. Some people object to GM crops because these crops facilitate the increased use of chemicals. Others have a problem with the social impacts that switching to GM organisms can have on traditional farming communities or with the political implications of leaving a large share of the food supply in the hands of a few corporations.
Geoengineering (地球工程学) to lessen the impacts of climate change is another example. Laypeople as well as scientists are more concerned about oversight (监管) than safety. Who will decide whether this is a good way to deal with climate change? If we undertake the project of setting the global temperature by controlling how much sunlight reaches Earth’s surface, who will be included in that “we” and by what process will the “right” global temperature be chosen?
Can we say which group’s view is closer to an accurate assessment?
1. The underlined word “complacency” in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.| A．overconfidence | B．prediction |
| C．underestimation | D．carelessness |
| A．safety is not the whole concern of the public |
| B．geoengineering is highly recognized by scientists |
| C．the public are unnecessarily troubled by climate change |
| D．lessening the impacts of climate change is a great challenge |
| A．Scientific illiteracy is a major cause of disasters. |
| B．The safety of technologies can be accurately assessed. |
| C．Scientists misjudge people’s opposition to technologies. |
| D．People are unworried about risks with proper oversight. |
| A．Ignorance or Safety |
| B．Who Is Rational About Risk |
| C．Why Can’t People Trust Technology |
| D．Should Scientists Have a Say in Risk |
