2006年考研英语预测试题一及答案精析

Directions:

In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41-45, choose the most suitable one from the list A-G to fit into each of the numbered blank. There are two extra choices, which do not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on Answer Sheet 1.

William Lanouette’s biography of Leo Szilard, Genius in the Shadows, does more than reveal the life of a brilliant physicist and social activist; it sheds a perceptive light on the role of scientists in public policy. World War II is usually recognized as the coming of age of science in U.S. politics. Albert Einstein had become the world’s first science celebrity and a person to whom presidents felt obliged to listen. (41) Bush laid the foundation for a postwar science policy that would put government in the dominant role in funding basic research.

What is instructive about Szilard’s life, however, is not the political influence of scientists as a group. (42) He believed that scientists should have more influence in policymaking in general—not because of their knowledge but because of their ability to think rationally. This faith in reason was a weakness in Szilard’s political thinking, however, because it prevented him from understanding the emotional forces that must also be taken into account.

(43) And although he often used the reputation of his friend Einstein to gain access to decision makers, he believed firmly that it was the power of his ideas that deserved attention. He felt the same way about science. Even as an unemployed and relatively unknown physicist, he expected the giants in the field to respect his ideas if they made sense.