Science develops through objective analysis, instead of through personal belief. Knowledge gained in science accumulates as time goes by, building on work performed earlier. Some of this knowledge-such as our understanding of numbers-stretches back’ to the time of ancient civilizations, when scientific thought first began. Other scientific knowledge such as our understanding of genes that cause cancer or of quarks (the smallest known building block of matter) -dates back less than 50 years. However, in all fields of science, old or new, researchers use the same systematic approach, known as the scientific method, to add to what is known.41__________. For example, in 1676, the English physicist Robert Hooke discovered that elastic objects, such as metal springs, stretch in proportion to the force that acts on them. Despite all the advances that have been made in physics since 1676, this simple law Still holds true.42__________. Sometimes scientific predictions go much further by describing objects or events that are not yet known. An outstanding instance occurred in 1869, when the Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev drew up a periodic table of the elements arranged to illustrate patterns of recurring chemical and physical properties.43__________. At the time, most geologists discounted Wegener’s ideas, because the Earth’s crust seemed to be fixed. But following the discovery of plate tectonics in the 1960s, in which scientists found that the Earth’s crust is actually made of moving plates, continental drift became an important part of geology.Through advances like these, scientific knowledge is constantly added to and refined. As a result, science gives us an ever more detailed insight into the way the world around us works.44__________. However, with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, this rapidly changed. Today, science has a profound effect on the way we live, largely through technology--the use. of scientific knowledge for practical45__________. The refrigerator, for example, owes its existence to a discovery that liquids take in energy when they evaporate, a phenomenon known as latent heat.A. Scientists utilize existing knowledge in new scientific investigations to predict how things will behave. For example, a scientist who knows the exact dimensions of a lens can predict how the lens will focus a beam of light. In the same way, by knowing the exact makeup and properties of two chemicals, a researcher can predict what will happen when they combine.B. For a large part of recorded history, science had little bearing on people’s everyday lives. Scientific knowledge was gathered for it sown sake, and it had few practical applications.C. During scientific investigations, scientists put together and compare new discoveries and existing knowledge. In most cases, new discoveries extend what is currently accepted, providing further evidence that existing ideas are correct.D. Tile principle of latent heat was first exploited in a practical way in 1876, and the refrigerator has played a major role in maintaining public health ever since. Tile first automobile, dating from the 1880s, made use of many advances in physics and engineering, including reliable ways of generating high-voltage sparks, while the first computers emerged in the 1940s from simultaneous advances in electronics and mathematics.E. Some forms of technology have become so well established that it is easy to forget the great scientific achievements that they represent.F. In science, important advances can also be made when current ideas are shown to be wrong. A classic case of this occurred early in the 20th century, when the German geologist Alfred Wegener suggested that the continents were at one time connected, a theory known as continental drift.G. Other fields of science also play an important role in the things we use or consume every day. Research in food technology has created new ways of preserving and flavoring what we eat. 44
Like street comer prophets proclaiming that tile end is near, scientists who study the earth’s atmosphere have been issuing predictions of impending doom for the past few years without offering any concrete proof. So far even the experts have had to admit that no solid evidence has emerged that this is anything but a natural phenomenon. And the uncertainty has given skeptics-especially Gingrichian politicians--plenty of ammunition to argue against taking the difficult, expensive steps required to stave off a largely hypothetical calamity. Until now, A draft report currently circulating on the Internet asserts that the global temperature rise can now be blamed, at least in part, on human activity. Statements like this have been made before by individual researchers-who have been criticized for going too far beyond the scientific consensus. But this report comes from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a respected UN sponsored body made up of more than 1,300 leading climate experts from 40 nations. This shift in scientific consensus is based not so much on new data as on improvements in the complex computer models that climatologists use to test their theories. Unlike chemists or molecular biologists, climate experts have no way to do lab experiments on their specialty. So they simulate them on supercomputers and look at what happens when human generated gases-carbon dioxide from industry and auto exhaust, methane from agriculture, chlorofluoro carbons from leaky refrigerators and spray cans-are pumped into the models virtual atmospheres. Until recently, the computer models weren’t working very well. When the scientists tried to simulate what they believe has been happening over the past century or so, the results didn’t mesh with reality; the models said the world should now he warmer than it actually is. The reason is that the computer models had been overlooking an important factor affecting global temperatures: sulfur dioxides that are produced along with CO2 when fossil fuels are burned in cars and power plants. Aerosols actually cool the planet by blocking sunlight and mask the effects of global warmning. Once the scientists factored in aerosols, their models began looking more like the real world. The improved performance of the simulations was demonstrated in 1991, when they successfully predicted temperature changes in the aftermath of the massive Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines. A number of studies since have added to the scientists confidence that they finally know what they are talking about-and can predict what may happen if greenhouse gases continue to be pumped into the atmosphere unchecked. The new findings about global climate change are based on______.
A. new data
B. the virtual models
C. lab experiments
D. scientists’ observation
Everything seemed to have become a weapon of war. Our enemies had (1) the most familiar objects (2) us, turned shaving kits into holsters and airplanes (3) missiles and soccer coaches and newlyweds into involuntary suicide bombers. So it was (4) the President and his generals to plot the response.That is because we are (5) one enemy but two: one unseen, the other inside. Terror on this scale (6) to wreck the way we live our lives-make us flinch when a siren sounds, (7) when a door slams and think twice before deciding (8) we really have to take a plane. If we falter, they win, (9) they never plant another bomb. So after the early helplessness, what can I do I’ve already given blood-people started to realize that (10) they could do was exactly, as precisely as possible, (11) they would have done if all this (12) .That was the spirit (13) in New York and Washington and all across the country, faith and fear and resolve in a tight braid. Because the killers who hate us did the (14) , nothing is unthinkable now. A plume of grill smoke venting from a Manhattan steak house (15) the evacuation of midtown office towers. After the Pentagon (16) , generals called their families and told them (17) the water, it could be poisoned. Sales of guns and gas masks spiked. The National Football League (18) its games for the first time ever; bomb scares emptied 90 sites on Thursday in New York City (19) . People wore sneakers with their suits (20) they had to fly fast down the stairs. Read the following text Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1.2()
A. fight
B. struggle
C. against
D. opposite