2014年考研英语翻译模拟试题(二)

二、科学与技术

The meanings of “science”and “technology”have changed significantly from one generation to another. More similarities than differences, however, can be found between the terms, (46)Both science and technology imply a thinking process, both are concerned with causal relationships in the material world, and both employ an experimental methodology that results in empirical demonstrations that can be verified by repetition. (47)Science, at least in theory, is less concerned with the practicality of its results and more concerned with the development of general laws, but in practice science and technology are inextricably involved with each other. The varying interplay of the two can be observed in the historical development of such practitioners as chemists, engineers, physicists, astronomers, carpenters, potters, and many other specialists. Differing educational requirements, social status, vocabulary, methodology, and types of rewards, as well as institutional objectives and professional goals, contribute to such distinctions as can be made between the activities of scientists and technologists; but throughout history the practitioners of “pure”science have made many practical as well as theoretical contributions.

(48) Indeed, the concept that science provides the ideas for technological innovations and that pure research is therefore essential for any significant advancement in industrial civilization is essentially a myth. Most of the greatest changes in industrial civilization cannot be traced to the laboratory. Fundamental tools and processes in the fields of mechanics, chemistry, astronomy, metallurgy, and hydraulics were developed before the laws governing their functions were discovered. The steam engine, for example, was commonplace before the science of thermodynamics elucidated the physical principle underlying its operations.

In recent years a sharp value distinction has their bitter opponents, but today many people have come to fear technology much more than science. (49) For these people , science may be perceived as a serene, objective source for understanding the eternal laws of nature, whereas the practical manifestations of technology in the modern world now seem to them to be out of control.

(50) Many historians of science argue not only that technology is an essential condition of advanced, industrial civilization but also that the rate of technological change has developed its own momentum in recent centuries. Innovations now seem to appear at a rate that increase geometrically, without respect to geographical limits or political systems. These innovations tend to transform traditional cultural systems, frequently with unexpected social consequences. Thus technology can be conceived as both a creative and a destructive process.

答案

　　46.科学与技术都包含有一种思维的过程，两者都涉及到物质世界的因果关系，两者都运用了一套实验的方法论，这种方法论所产生的是能够通过重复得以验证的经验性的实证结果。

　　47.至少在理论上，科学较少地关心其研究成果的实用性，而更多地关注于归纳出普遍的法则;但是在实践中，科学与技术却相互关联，无法割裂。

　　48.人们认为科学为技术创新提供理念，因此，对于工业文明中的任何一次意义重大的进步，纯理论的研究是必不可少的，当然，这种观念其实是个神话。

　　49.对于这些人来说，科学或许被看成是一种平静的、客观的理解自然永恒法则的出发点，而如今在他们看来，现代世界里技术的实际运用似乎已失去控制。

　　50.许多科学史家认为，技术不仅是先进的工业文明必不可少的条件，而且在最近的几个世纪里，技术变革的速度已形成了自身的势头。

总体分析

　　本文介绍了科学和技术之间的关系以及对人类的影响。

　　第一段：科学和技术之间的相似性要大于差异性，它们之间的相互影响反映在各个行业的发展中。

　　第二段：技术的发展不依赖科学的发展，两者之间的价值分歧越来越尖锐。而且，现在很多人对技术的恐惧甚于对科学的担心。

　　第三段：技术的发展既有创造性也有毁灭性。

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