Question

Can you believe everything that you read? It seems as if every day, some new articles come out about a new discovery about this or that. For example, water is bad for you, or good for you. The answer depends on which scientific study has just come out. People cannot decide which food items are healthy, how pyramids were constructed, and why dinosaurs disappeared. When we look for answers we sometimes can believe persuasive researches and scientists. But how trustworthy are they really? Here are two examples of scientific hoaxes (騙局).

As far back as 1726, Johann Beringer was fooled by his fellow scientists into thinking he had made an amazing discovery. The fossils of spiders, lizards, and even birds with the name of God written on them in Hebrew were unlike anything that had been found before. He wrote several papers on them and was famous for those only to have it revealed that they were planted by jealous colleagues to ruin his reputation.

When an early human being was discovered in 1912, scientists at this time were wild with excitement over the meaning it had for the theory of evolution. There were hundreds of papers about this Piltdown man over the next fifty years until it was finally discovered to be a complex hoax. The skull (頭骨) of a man had been mixed with the jawbone of an orangutan (猩猩) to make the ape (猿) man.

The next time you read the exciting new findings of a study of the best scientist, do not automatically assume that it is true. Even qualified people can get it wrong. While we certainly should not ignore scientific research, we do need to take it with a grain of salt. Just because it is accepted as the truth today does not mean it will still be trustworthy tomorrow.

1.What does Paragraph 1 want to say?

A. Researchers and scientists are not perfect.

B. Something that we read may not be true.

C. Researchers and scientists know everything.

D. People don’t know whether water is good or bad.

2.What is the reason why Johann Beringer was fooled?

A. His fellow scientists wanted to make fun of him.

B. His workmates are eager to become famous too.

C. These scientists made a mistake because of carelessness.

D. His colleagues envied him and did so to destroy his fame.

3.The excited scientists thought that this Piltdown man ______.

A. was in fact a complex hoax

B. was a great scientific invention

C. contributed to the theory of evolution

D. had the skull like that of an ape

4.What does the underlined phrase “with a grain of salt” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A. Happily.B. Generally.C. Doubtfully.D. Completely.

5.What can we learn from the passage?

A. Hebrew is probably a kind of language.

B. Truths of science will never be out of time.

C. People believe scientists because they are persuasive.

D. We are advised to believe famous scientists.

 

Answer 1

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.C

5.A

【解析】

試題分析: 每天報紙上都會出現(xiàn)一些關(guān)于科學(xué)新發(fā)現(xiàn)的文章，那么這些文章的可信度究竟是多少呢？在文中作者通過幾個例子向讀者說明：新發(fā)現(xiàn)有時候只是一種騙局，或者是一種假象，所以我們對待任何事情都要持有一種懷疑的態(tài)度。

1.Can you believe everything that you read?然后列舉生活中的例子，最后揭示中心話題But how trustworthy are they really? Here are two examples of scientific hoaxes (騙局).由此推斷對于我們每天所讀到的東西不可能都是對的。故選B。

2.……only to have it revealed that they were planted by jealous colleagues to ruin his reputation.可以判斷他被嫉妒他的同事們愚弄了。故選D。

3.

4.While we certainly should not ignore scientific research,可以判斷后面句子和前面內(nèi)容構(gòu)成轉(zhuǎn)折關(guān)系，應(yīng)該是建議人們不要過分看重科學(xué)發(fā)現(xiàn)，由此推斷該短語指對某件事情或某人說的話有所保留，將信將疑，持懷疑態(tài)度，答案選C。

5.The fossils of spiders, lizards, and even birds with the name of God written on them in Hebrew可知在這些蜘蛛，鳥的化石上寫著God字樣，由此推斷Hebrew是一種語言，選A。

考點：考查社會知識類短文閱讀。