改错
Until the very latest moment of his existence, man has been bound to the
planet on which he originated and developed. Now he has the capability to
1
leave that planet and move out into the universe to those worlds which he has
known previously: only directly. Men have explored parts of the moon, put space-
2
ships in orbit around another planet and possibly within the decade will land into
3
another planet and explore it.
Can we be too bold as to suggest that we may be able to colonize other
4
planet within the not-too-distant future? Some have advocated such a procedure as
5
a solution to the population problem: ship the excess people off to the moon. But
we must keep in head the billions of dollars we might spend in carrying out the
6
project. To maintain the earth"s population at its present level, we would have
to blast off into space 7500 people every hour of every day of the year.
Why are we spending so little money on space exploration?
7
Consider the great need for improving many aspects of the global environment, one
8
is surely justified in his concern for the money and resources that they are poured
9
into the space exploration efforts. But perhaps we should look at both sides of
the coin before arriving hasty conclusions.
10
When Christopher Columbus landed in the New World,
the North American continent was area of astonishing ethnic
11
and cultural diversity. North of the Rio Grande, which now
marks the border among the United States and Mexico, was a
12
population of over 12 million people representing approximately
400 distinct cultures, 500 languages, and a remarkable
variety of political and religious institutions and physical and
ethic types. Compared to the Europeans, the Indian peoples
13
were extraordinary heterogeneous, and they often viewed
the Europe as just another tribe.
14
These varied tribal cultures were as diversified as the
Land the Indians lived. In the high plains of the
15
Dakotas, the Mandan developed a peaceful communal
Society centered around agriculture. Only a few hundred miles
off, however, in the northwestern Montana, the Black feet
16
turned from agriculture and began to use horse, which had been
introduced by the Spaniards. As skilled riders they became
17
hunters and fighters and developed a fierce and aggressive
culture centered around the buffalo. In the eastern woodlands
surrounding the Great Lakes, the Potawatomis were expert
fisherman, canoe builders, and hunters. In the Northeast the
six Iroquois nations were among the most political
18
sophisticated people in the world, formed the famed Iroquois
19
confederation, that included the Senecas and the Mohawks.
20
This confederation, with its systems of checks and balances,
provided a model for the United States constitutions.
As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is
because so much depends on it. They are the mark of success
21
or failure in our society. One"s whole future may be decided on
one fateful day. It doesn"t matter that he wasn"t feeling very
well, or that his mother died. Things like that don"t
count on: the exam goes on. No one can give of his best when
22
he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely
what the examination system expects you to do. The moment
23
a child begins school, he enters into a world of vicious competition
24
where success and failure are clearly defined and measured.
Can we wonder at the increasing number of "drop-outs": young people
who are written off as utter failures before they have even embarked
25
a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?
A good education should, among other things, train one to
think for himself. The examination system does nothing but that.
26
What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus, so the student
is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student
to read widely, but restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek
27
more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the
standards of teaching, for they deprive teachers off all freedoms.
28
Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and
instead of teaching their subjects, they are reducing to training their
29
students in exam techniques which they despise of. The most
30
successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are
the best trained in the technique of working under duress.
Usually, there are two reasons to pursue scientific knowledge: for
the sake of the knowledge itself, and for the practical use of that knowledge.
Because this second aspect of science effects the lives of most people,
31
it is much more familiar than the first. Knowledge must be gained,
however, after it can be applied, and often the most important technological
32
advances arise from research pursued for its own sake.
Traditionally, new technology has concerned with the construction
33
of machines, structures, and tools in a relatively large scale. The
34
development of materials for building bridges, skyscrapers or highways
is an example of this, as it is the development of the internal-combustion
35
engine and the nuclear reactor. While such activities involve all sections
of the sciences, the overriding goal has been the same, that is, improve
36
the human condition by finding good ways to deal with the macroscopic world.
37
Since World War Ⅱ, the focus of technological activity underwent
a major change. While the old activities are still pursued, they have been
largely superseded by applications of technology at the microscopic level.
Instead of building large-scale structures and machines, modern-day
technology tends to concentrate on finding improving ways to transfer
38
information and to develop new materials by studying the way atoms come
together. The silicon chip and microelectronics typify this new technological
trend, as did the blossoming of genetic engineering. The trend can be
39
expected to continue for the foreseeable decades.
40