1 . Science is increasingly central to our lives — from its role in creating day-to-day objects such as the smartphones in our pockets, to the big challenges of tackling disease, addressing climate change and focusing on biodiversity loss.
Many of the changes that the discipline brings are hugely beneficial, but they often come with potential downsides that demand public debate. Will artificial intelligence take people’s jobs or destroy elections with false news? How fast can we practically achieve a net zero economy?
For the crucial public debate that is needed on all this to take place, we must have a scientifically literate population. But there is a divide between the scientifically minded and those who choose not to engage with science.
It saddens me that our culture now views science as difficult, which discourages many from taking an interest in it. A British Science Association (BSA) survey recently suggested that only around a third of 14- to 18-year-olds find scientists inspirational or consider the subject to be relevant to their lives.
In fact, science is interlinked with every aspect of our existence and people from all walks of life and of all ages should be able to access it easily. The invention of the printing press was crucial to the Enlightenment because it democratised (普及) knowledge. So, in this increasingly science-centred world, the same attention should be given to popular science writing as is given to other forms of literature.
The Royal Society Science Book Prize is the only one in the world to promote popular science writing. Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, which was shortlisted (把……列入入围名单) for the prize in 1989, was written for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics and has since become a universally recognised text on the universe.
Democratising science has never been more important. There are so many scientific stories to be told that can help us better understand ourselves. A society equipped with a solid understanding of the issues of the day is a society more able to respond to them in a better way.
1. What does the underlined part “all this” in paragraph 3 refer to?| A．Beneficial scientific advancements. |
| B．Challenges facing human beings. |
| C．Potential downsides of science. |
| D．Disagreements between scientists and the public. |
| A．They have great respect for scientists. |
| B．They feel disconnected from science. |
| C．They know little about the Enlightenment. |
| D．They wish to land a career in the scientific field. |
| A．It won an international book prize. |
| B．It focused on important life issues. |
| C．It was written by a highly-honoured author. |
| D．It democratised knowledge about the universe. |
| A．The crisis of science in our modern life |
| B．We must rely on science to tackle our problems |
| C．Popular science books have never been more important |
| D．Public debate about science could never be more necessary |
1. What does the woman plan to do with the books at first?
| A．Sell them. | B．Throw them away. | C．Keep them at home. |
| A．He’s a teacher. | B．He’s a writer. | C．He’s a librarian. |
