考研英语阅读理解命题思路透析和真题揭秘(39)

1996年Passage 5

Rumor has it that more than 20 books on creationism/evolution are in the publisher's pipelines. A few have already appeared. The goal of all will be to try to explain to a confused and often unenlightened citizenry that there are not two equally valid scientific theories for the origin and evolution of universe and life. Cosmology, geology, and biology have provided a consistent , unified, and constantly improving account of what happened. "Scientific" creationism, which is being pushed by some for "equal time" in the classrooms whenever the scientific accounts of evolution are evil, is based on religion, not science. Virtually all scientists and the majority of nonfunda mentalist religious leaders have come to regard "scientific" creationism as bad science and bad religion.

The first four chapters of Kitcher's book give a very brief introduction to evolution. At appropriate places, he introduces the criticisms of the creationists and provides answers. In the last three chapters, he takes off his gloves and gives the creationists a good beating. He describes their programmes and tactics, and, for those unfamiliar with the ways of creationists, the extent of their deception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise. When their basic motivation is religious, one might have expected more Christian behavior.

Kitcher is a philosopher, and this may account, in part, for the clarity and effectiveness of his arguments. The nonspecialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data and argument that support evolutionary theory. The final chapter on the creationists will be extremely clear to all. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay Gould says: "This book stands for reason itself." And so it does-and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate.

69. From the passage we can infer that__
[A] reasoning has played a decisive role in the debate
[B] creationists do not base their argument on reasoning
[C] evolutionary theory is too difficult for non-specialists
[D] creationism is supported by scientific findings

[答案] B

[解题思路]

本题的对应信息在文章最后一段，该段最后一句话指出"And so it does-and all would be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate"（ 的确如此--如果理性是创世纪论和进化论之争的惟一评判标准，那么一切问题就迎刃而解），A选项显然与原句不符，因为原文只是假设理性起评判标准的作用，但事实并非如此。根据文章最后一句的意思，推断应该决定这番辩论中哪一方是正确的，而作者的态度一直都是反对创世纪论，因此可以推断creationism不是以理性为基础，B是正确选项。C选项与最后一句第二句话"The nonspecialist will be able to obtain at least a notion of the sorts of data and argument that support evolutionary theory"（非专业人士至少可以了解支持进化论的各种数据和观点）的意思不符，可以排除。D选项明显与原文观点违背，是错误选项。

[题目译文]

从文中我们可以推断              。
[A] 逻辑推理在辩论中发挥了决定性的作用。
[B] 创世纪论的观点不是基于逻辑推理
[C] 进化论对于非专业人士来说太难了
[D] 创世纪论者得到了科学发现的支持