Passage Three
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is
impossible to predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definition unknown in
advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either have science or you don' t, and if
you have it you are obliged to accept the surprising and disturbing pieces of information, along
with the neat and promptly useful bits.
The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are
profoundly ignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred
years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating piece of news. It would have amazed the
brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment(啟蒙運(yùn)動(dòng)) to be told by any of us how little we
know and how bewildering seems the way ahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the
depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th century
science to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things
worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up stories to fill the gaps. Now that we have he-
gun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far
from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you are
totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance, the worst
spots and here and there the not - so - bad spots, but no true light at the end of the tunnel nor
even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.
But we are making a beginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are
probably no questions we can think up that can' t be answered, sooner or later, including even the
Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage:
It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is
impossible to predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definition unknown in
advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either have science or you don' t, and if
you have it you are obliged to accept the surprising and disturbing pieces of information, along
with the neat and promptly useful bits.
The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are
profoundly ignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred
years of biology. It is, in its way, an illuminating piece of news. It would have amazed the
brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment(啟蒙運(yùn)動(dòng)) to be told by any of us how little we
know and how bewildering seems the way ahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the
depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th century
science to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things
worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up stories to fill the gaps. Now that we have he-
gun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far
from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you are
totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance, the worst
spots and here and there the not - so - bad spots, but no true light at the end of the tunnel nor
even any tunnels that can yet be trusted.
But we are making a beginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are
probably no questions we can think up that can' t be answered, sooner or later, including even the