歷年考研英語閱讀理解2001年01
[00:03.61]2001 Passage1
[00:11.16]Specialisation can be seen as a response to the problem
[00:14.87]of an increasing accumulation of scientific knowledge.
[00:19.40]By splitting up the subject matter into smaller units,
[00:23.03]one man could continue to handle the information
[00:26.26]and use it as the basis for further research.
[00:29.68]But specialisation was only one of a series of
[00:32.91]related developments in science
[00:35.33]affecting the process of communication.
[00:38.85]Another was the growing professionalisation
[00:41.99]of scientific activity.
[00:44.91]No clear-cut distinction can be drawn
[00:47.29]between professionals and amateurs in science:
[00:50.93]exceptions can be found to any rule.
[00:54.91]Nevertheless, the word 'amateur' does carry a connotation
[00:59.35]that the person concerned is not fully integrated into
[01:03.37]the scientific community and,
[01:05.21]in particular, may not fully share its values.
[01:10.35]The growth of specialisation in the nineteenth century,
[01:13.90]with its consequent requirement of a longer,
[01:16.92]more complex training, implied greater problems for
[01:20.67]amateur participation in science.
[01:24.50]The trend was naturally most obvious in those areas of
[01:28.73]science based especially on a mathematical
[01:31.55]or laboratory training,
[01:33.78]and can be illustrated in terms of the development
[01:36.79]of geology in the United Kingdom.
[01:40.62]A comparison of British geological publications
[01:43.90]over the last century and a half reveals not simply
[01:47.74]an increasing emphasis on the primacy of research,
[01:51.17]but also a changing definition of
[01:53.50]what constitutes an acceptable research paper.
[01:57.33]Thus, in the nineteenth century,
[01:59.54]local geological studies represented worth while
[02:02.68]research in their own right;
[02:05.12]but, in the twentieth century,
[02:07.13]local studies have increasingly become acceptable to
[02:10.17]professionals only if they incorporate,
[02:13.37]and reflect on, the wider geological picture.
[02:18.02]Amateurs, on the other hand,
[02:19.94]have continued to pursue local studies in the old way.
[02:23.87]The overall result has been to make entrance to
[02:27.20]professional geological journals harder for amateurs,
[02:31.12]a result that has been reinforced
[02:33.54]by the widespread introduction of refereeing,
[02:36.98]first by national journals in the nineteenth century
[02:40.65]and then by several local geological journals
[02:43.67]in the twentieth century.
[02:46.29]As a logical consequence of this development,
[02:49.41]separate journals have now appeared aimed mainly towards
[02:53.55]either professional or amateur readership.
[02:57.78]A rather similar process of differentiation
[03:01.00]has led to professional geologists coming together
[03:04.15]nationally within one or two specific societies,
[03:08.48]whereas the amateurs have tended either to remain
[03:11.51]in local societies or to come together nationally
[03:15.05]in a different way.
[03:17.37]Although the process of professionalisation
[03:20.29]and specialisation was already well under way
[03:23.82]in British geology during the nineteenth century,
[03:27.45]its full consequences were thus delayed
[03:30.17]until the twentieth century.
[03:33.10]In science generally, however, the nineteenth century
[03:36.83]must be reckoned as the crucial period
[03:39.76]for this change in the structure of science.
