TEST – 23
In discussing the relative difficulties which the
exact and inexact sciences face, let me begin with
an analogy. Would you agree that swimmers are less
skilful athletes than runners because swimmers do
not move as fast as runners? You possibly would not.
You would quickly point out that water offers
greater resistance to swimmers than the air and
ground do to runners! Agreed, that is just the
point. In seeking to solve their problems, the
social scientists encounter greater resistance than
the physical scientists. The circumstances under
which the social scientists must work would drive
physical scientist frantic. Here are five of these
conditions. He can make few experiments; he cannot
measure the results exactly; he cannot control the
conditions surrounding the experiments; he is often
expected to get quick results with slow-acting
economic forces; and he must work with people, not
with inanimate objects.
1. An inexact science is one
a) involving various experiments with chemical
substances
b) that all physical scientists are involved in
c) that offers great resistance to scientists since
they conduct many experiments |
d) which can be considered as a newly born science
e) that doesn't enable the scientist to make
accurate observations and measurements
2. The author makes a comparison.................
a) to illustrate why exact sciences can't make many
experiments
b) between a runner and a scientist dealing with an
inexact science
c) between a social scientist and a swimmer,
comparing a physical scientist to a runner
d) to imply that physical scientists ought to
experiment with people to see how burdensome it is
e) in order to draw the reader's attention to some
scientific areas
3. ………..is not among the difficulties which a social
scientist encounter.
a) finding appropriate lifeless objects
b) inaccurate measurement
c) conducting fewer experiments
d) controlling the circumstances of the experiment
e) lacking financial resources
The shocking death of Pamela Basu spurred a series
of official actions to cope with carjacking. Within
days of her murder, the D.C. City Council passed a
law mandating 15-year prison sentences for armed
carjackers. Last month the President signed a law
that makes carjacking a federal crime carrying a
life sentence if it leads to someone's death.
Motorists are scrambling for their own protection.
At Auto stores in Detroit, customers can buy a
device which silently signals a monitoring station
if a car is moved while the alarm system is on.
Others want security systems equipped with a "panic
button" that activates a siren and flashing lights
from inside a car. There is also increased interest
in bullet-resistant glass. Jittery motorists hope
these measures will buy them some safety till law
enforcement can put the brakes on a singularly
frightening crime.
4. In accordance with the newly passed law, any
thief that uses a gun. in stealing a car
will...................
a) get the gallows.
b) be hanged.
c) be sentenced to 15 years in jail.
d) spend his whole life in prison.
e) be tried in the federal court.
5. The new law signed by the
President.........................
a) includes life sentences for unarmed thefts.
b) includes life imprisonment for carjacking causing
deaths.
c) has caused carjackers to take measures not to be
easily caught.
d) increased the sale of ear-protection equipment.
e) is improbable to curb carjacking in suburbs.
6. It is inferred from the passage
that...................
a) before Pamela's death the punishment for
carjacking was the same all over the U.S.A
b) the president was forced by the public not to
rarity the resolution to change the criminal act
c) Pamela was killed in the latest of the,
carjacking attempts that have occurred recently
d) it was such a new deterrent law that car
protection equipment was no longer selling well
e) if a crime is a federal one, its punishment is
applicable only in one of the states of America
While the 1970s had demonstrated the importance of
the Gulf region, the 1980s provided evidence of its
fragility. In September 1980 Iraq launched an
offensive into Iran that turned into a bloody
eight-year of attrition. The war left hundreds of
thousands dead, disrupted vital oil tanker traffic
in the Gulf, and led to U.S. intervention in the
form of naval escorts for Kuwaiti oil tankers.
Meanwhile the economies of the Gulf states, all of
which depend to some degree on oil, were devastated
by the crash of oil prices in the mid-1980s.
Plummeting oil revenues forced the Gulf states to
cut back severely on domestic development projects
and services.
7. Owing to the sudden steep reduction in the income
from oil in the mid-1980s,
a) the gulf states developed economically.
b) Kuwaiti oil tankers were escorted by the U.S.
ones for protection.
c) oil prices were also on the decrease.
d) the economies of the Gulf states retrogressed
seriously.
e) the need for oil rigs became urgent again.
8. Any destabilisation of the Gulf region brings
about global problems as
a) before Pamela's death the punishment for
carjacking was the same all over the U.S.A.
a) the bloodiest wars which involved many nations
have occurred here.
b) it is accountable for the significant part of the
world's need for oil.
c) such wars are disruptive of oil tanker traffic
between the gulf states.
d) Iraq and Iran have historical enmity toward each
other.
e) in such a case oil companies would become very
rich since it leads to higher oil prices.
9. In the mid-1980s...................
a) Iraq waged a war against Iran.
b) the U.S. interfered in the Iran-Iraq war with its
aircraft.
c) the amount of income the Gulf states gained from
oil decreased sharply.
d) the war between Iran and Iraq was going on
outside the gulf region.
e) all economic projects and services to be carried
out in the Gutt" were stopped.
If science has become remote from everyday
experience, it has also broken from conventional
notions of discovery. In virtually every
cutting-edge field, from astrophysics to molecular
genetics, the object of discovery is frequently
totally inaccessible to the senses, and the process
of discovery has become inferential rather than
direct. When Wolszczan "discovered" the first
planets outside our own solar system, he did not spy
them through a telescope: he inferred their presence
by the pattern of radio beeps coming from the pulsar
they orbit. When chemists "discovered" a substance
in broccoli that may prevent cancer, they did not
peer at the stalks through a microscope: they looked
for the chemical's footprints in the wavy printout
of a chromatograph. In palaeontology one can still
stub a toe and, by God, definitely and directly
discover a fossil. But in other fields, "no one
looks at the thing itself anymore," says physicist
Nick Samios, director of Brookhaven National
Laboratory in New York. "We look at what the thing
does, at the traces it leaves behind."
10. What was conventionally understood from the
conception of discovery was
a) the unavailability of the thing discovered.
b) to sense directly the thing discovered.
c) that the discovered thing was sensed only by
instruments.
d) that discoveries were inferential rather than
direct.
e) the presence of the thing discovered was inferred
from the traces it left.
11. Which of the discoveries below is directly
accessible to the senses?
a) The discovery of a new star through a detector.
b) The indirect discovery of a substance in another
one.
c) The inferential discovery of an asteroid.
d) the visual, spotting of a new plant in a jungle.
e) The discovery of a new heart tumour using a
cardiograph.
12. It isn't right to say that...................
a) Palaeontology is a science that deals with
fossils.
b) telescope is an instrument used for observing
objects in the outer space.
c) microscope; is an instrument used for observing
small things inaccessible to the naked eye.
d) the process of discovery was inferential in old
ages, but there are advanced instruments now.
e) nowadays discovery is achieved by looking at the
traces the object leaves behind rather than looking
at it itself.
Finns are the best readers in the industrialised
world. The world's highest percentage of engineering
is in the former Czechoslovakia. The Swiss are tops
at math and science. Canada has turned out the
highest proportion of university graduates. The
Japanese spend proportionately less on education
than everybody else. And after a decade of school
reform, the United States compares more favourably
-though still not impressively - with the rest of
the industrialised world than it has in the past,
according to a study released last week by the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD). The research, based on figures
obtained in 1991 offers the most comprehensive
comparison ever made among the educational systems
of the world's wealthiest countries.
13. The passage is about...................
a) the educational systems in underdeveloped
countries.
b) the educational systems in developing countries.
c) where the industrialised nations stand in terms
of educational performance.
d) the educational systems in industrialised
countries.
e) the proportion of successful pupils in the USA.
14. According to the
paragraph,.........................
a) after ten years of school reform, the US has
succeeded in surpassing the developed countries to a
great degree.
b) in spite of a decade of school reform, the US has
not yet outranked the other industrialised nations
satisfactorily in educational success.
c) the Swiss are unsuccessful in math and science.
d) the biggest proportion of engineering graduates
in the world are in the new Czechoslovakia.
e) the US was better in educational performance in
the last than it is now
15. The research released by the
OECD.........................
a) was conducted to know whether the US students
have outperformed their counterparts in other
countries in education.
b) shows that the wealthiest country turns out the
poorest figures.
c) indicates that the Japanese comparatively have
greater investment in education.
d) was carried out to compare the educational
systems and achievement rates the world's richest
nations.
e) is indicative of the fact that the US is very
willing to know about the educational systems in
other countries.
No place is absolutely safe for travellers; tourists
have recently been taken hostage in Turkey, wounded
in cafe bombings in Egypt and shot down in the
streets of Manila. But it wasn't easy to escape the
conclusion that the prevalence of guns in American
hands has given deadly force to festering social
frustrations. The Washington based Travel Industry
Association of America, the leading tourism trade
group, joined Disney in calling for gun control last
week. But there was no such call from Florida. The
toughest
proposal now circulating would ban hand guns for
those under 18 unless they are used for hunting, gun
classes or target shooting. Whether that would have
any impact is arguable In a city like Miami locked
in its own urban arms race.
16. What has caused the American society to feel
annoyingly irritated is -
a) the ever increasing number of guns carried by
Americans.
b) the violence caused by tourism agencies.
c)the establishment of a deadly force against
tourist molesters.
d) the suggestion to prohibit carrying guns.
e) the disunity of travel agencies over preventing
tourists from carrying guns.
17. It is suggested that...................
a) no one apart from security forces should carry
guns.
b) possession of all kinds of guns be banned in
tourist attractions.
c) possession of guns be banned for those under 18
except that they are not to be used for hunting, gun
classes or target shooting.
d) no strict rule to ban should be introduced
e) all tourism agencies should invite to overcome
threats against tourists.
18. It is doubtful...................
a) that those bombing cafes in Egypt did so to on
purpose harm tourists.
b) whether Florida will join other states in the US
in calling for gun control.
c) whether the proposal to take arms possession
under strict control will have any
favourable influence in Miami.
d) whether the prevalence of guns in the US will
heighten the number of casualties in tourist attacks
in the future.
e) whether arms sales can be controlled in the near
future.
In their private councils, Beijing policy-makers are
engaged in a vigorous dispute on how to fight
inflation. One thing is clear to all sides: China
needs better tools for fighting inflation. New
national taxes introduced this year are supposed to
provide the central government with more revenue so
it has to print less new money - however its success
at tax collecting in the unruly provinces has been
spotty. Beijing also wants to create a strong
central bank to regulate the money supply and credit
creation. But such a bank will have trouble
deploying its main anti-inflationary weapon - higher
interest rates - as long as state enterprises would
be the first to suffer. The disorganized state
enterprises will not be phased out for years, until
a social security system is devised to give workers
a new safety net and until the private sector
creates enough jobs to absorb unneeded state
employees.
19. Beijing policy-makers engaged in discussing how
to curb the inflation all agree that...............
a) new national taxes ought to be introduced
regardless of how to collect them.
b) a new central bank should be set up to increase
the money in circulation.
c) the private sector recruits workers more than
necessary, causing unnecessary pays.
d) all unnecessary state employees should be
dismissed from their present jobs.
e) more well-organized strategies are required for
China to stop the inflationary rise.
20. New taxes levied lately...................
a) are estimated to provide more earnings for the
central government although it is not so successful
at collecting taxes in uncontrollable provinces.
b) should provide the central government with more
earnings although it has to print less money.
c) are expected to provide more income for the local
governments, but tax-collecting is not possible in
some regions.
d) caused some people to revolt against the central
government.
e) have decreased the number of state employees.
21. Another thing that Beijing wants to do is
a) to use a sophisticated weapon to curb the
inflation.
b) to set up a strong central bank to control the
money supply and credit creation.
c) to introduce higher interest rates.
d) to decrease the number of workers employed by
private sectors.
e) to send away more workers this year than previous
years.
The media have come to be seen as a destructive
force in American life, vastly more interested in
tearing things down than in providing the
information people really need to know. Americans
populate two overlapping realities, the one they
live every day and the one they experience
vicariously in what they are shown or told. It is
the media, directly or indirectly, that shape
opinion about how America is doing as
society, and the picture they present is not a
pretty one. Local newscasts pile up the bodies at a
rate of a murder a minute, tabloid TV feeds on the
sins of the rich and famous. Call-in radio has
become a festival of complaint. Attack politics
assures voters that all seekers and holders of
public office are corrupt. Commercials tantalise
consumers with the unattainable. "The press likes to
think of itself as representing the public voice
when it does not at all," Yankelovich says. "It
represents the voice of the press, with its own
language, its own culture, its own interests."
22. The media is criticised in the paragraph
a) for covering up news about murders.
b) that it does not represent the political beliefs
of politicians.
c) for its vicarious picture of what is happening in
the U.S.
d) for improperly shaping view about how the
American society is getting on
e) for directly and correctly providing the
information people really need to know
23. It is inferred from the paragraph
that...................
a) the American media have come to a financial
deadlock.
b) the media is the only way to know the realities.
c) what is shown on TV is irrelevant to the sins of
the rich and well-known.
d) the press always represents the public opinion.
e) society is suffering deeply from often occurring
murders.
24. Yankelovich is of the opinion
that...................
a) there are times when the press represent the
public opinion.
b) the press alleges to represent the public voice
even when it does not.
c) those who own the press have their own culture
different from the Americans.
d) even if the press is not right at some points,
people believe it wholeheartedly.
e) as the public is unresponsive to the press
misrepresentation of the public needs.
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