武汉大学2010年硕士研究生英语期末考试试题

English Examination for Graduates (Paper A)

(January 18th, 2010)

I.Listening Comprehension (20%)

Directions: In this part, you are going to listen to four passages. At the end of each passage, you will hear some questions. Both the passages and the questions will be read only once. After you hear a question, you must choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C, and D. Then mark your answer on the Answer Sheet.

Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage.

1. A. Because they don’t know the custom.

B. Because they emphasize equality of the sexes.

C. Because it’s customary for ladies to push chairs for men at a dinner table in America.

D. Because usually the host or hostess pushes the chairs for women at a dinner table .

2. A. Americans hold the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left while Europeans do the

opposite.

B. Americans use both hands while Europeans use only one hand when eating.

C. Europeans hold the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left while Americans do the

opposite.

D. Europeans keep the knife in the right hand and the fork in the left while Americans use just

one hand and keep the other one on their lap.

3. A. Europeans are more apt to drink coffee after the meal while Americans between bites.

B. Americans are more apt to drink coffee after the meal while Europeans between bites.

C. Americans drink coffee before the meal while Europeans after the meal.

D. Europeans drink coffee before the meal while Americans after the meal.

4. A. Leaving a spoon in a soup bowl or a coffee cup.

B. Leaving a spoon in any dish.

C. Putting a coffee spoon on the saucer or a soup spoon on the service table.

D. Putting all the spoons on the tablecloth.

5. A. As long as you like. B. Two or three hours.

C. As long as the host and hostess ask.

D. Less than one hour.

Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage.

6. A. Indifferent. B. Positive. C. Negative. D. Neutral.

7. A. Discipline, discovery, mutuality, locality, potentiality, enhancement.

B. Discipline, discovery, mutuality, locality, historicity, enhancement.

C. Discovery, mutuality, locality, historicity, potentiality, enhancement.

D. Sustainability, discovery, mutuality, locality, potentiality, enhancement.

8. A. It believes that the community is only a socially constructed experience.

B. It believes that the community is only an ecologically grounded place.

C. It denies conflicts among stakeholder groups.

D. It is a community tourism planning approach uniting the themes of social development and

ecological sustainability.

9. A. Because it not only generates hospitality that helps make a community a desirable

destination, but also helps share scarce resources.

B. Because it helps mitigate conflicts arising over resource distribution and use.

C. Because it respects individual perspectives.

D. Because it provides capital to tourism community.

10.A. Sustainable Tourism. B. Travel Ecology.

C. Sustainable Tourism Models.

D. Community Tourism Models.

Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage.

11.A. Because they don’t know the relationship between tobacco and disease.

B. Because they have a strong inclination to smoke.

C. Because they have been forbidden to smoke by the governments.

D. Because there were no institutions which persuade them not to smoke.

12.A. Because they are unusually subject to cigarette advertising.

B. Because tobacco taxes take up a large part of their revenue.

C. Because they don’t think tobacco can do harm to people’s mind.

D. Because they are innocent of the link between tobacco and disease.

13.A. Cigarette advertising only appeals to the young men.

B. Cigarette advertising appeals to adults.

C. Cigarette advertising is attractive to people who already smoke.

D. Cigarette advertising also appeals to kids.

14.A. Because they regard smoking as a symbol of sexual ability and even success.

B. Because they are addicted to nicotine.

C. Because they want to get more tobacco taxes.

D. Because they regard smoking as a kind of sports.

15.A. Smoking and tobacco taxes. B. Smoking in developing countries.

C. Smoking and cigarette advertising.

D. Tobacco industry.

Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage.

16.A. Putting a roof on a barn. B. Harvesting water reeds

C. Using stone as a building material

D. Daily farm operations

17.A. Clay tiles. B. Slate or stone.

C. Wooden shingles.

D. Reeds or straw.

18.A. Later colonists did not know how to thatch.

B. Thatching was considered dangerous.

C. Other roofing materials were available.

D. Thatching was unsuitable for the climate.

19.A. It’s manufactured to be strong. B. It bends without breaking.

C. Thatchers nail it down securely.

D. The winds can pass through it easily.

20.A. If people had more time to learn how to do it.

B. If its cost went down.

C. If it could make buildings more attractive.

D. If people realized its many advantages.

II. Vocabulary (25%)

Directions: There are 25 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four choices marked A, B, C, and D. Choose the one that best completes the sentence. Then blacken the corresponding letter on the answer sheet with a single line through the center.

21. We have a certain stereotypical ______ of a person from a culture and we interpret his/her

behaviour according to this preconception, whether or not the reason for the behaviour is what we think it.

A. connotation

B. preconception

C. recuperation

D. ambiguity

22. Gap in educational investment across regions will ______ the national economic development

as a whole.

A. warrant

B. ration

C. thwart

D. retard

23. Opening the labor market might risk some increase in inequality in wages at least in the short

run, as the wages of skilled workers are ________.

A. bid for

B. bid on

C. bid up

D. bid to

24. The market will goods that yield social benefits in excess of private benefits and will

consequently produce too few of these goods.

A. undervalue

B. devalue

C. underweight

D. value

25. You have taken a ______ hatred to Peter; and you are unreasonably angry with me because I

won’t hate him.

A. persevering

B. perverse

C. perfect

D. previous

26. One of the conditions of ______ is that you must keep the land under cultivation.

A. tenant

B. terminal

C. temperament

D. tenure

27. Even the increase proposed will put pressure on Congress to hold down other spending or dip

into funds for Social Security.

A. marked

B. commissioned

C. earmarked

D. commanded

28. Unfortunately, what the farmers had gained in the autumn harvest was ______by the heavy

losses caused by a snowstorm in the winter.

A. offset

B. optimized

C. subsidized

D. unleashed

29. The Arabs, on the other hand, coming from a culture where much closer distance is the norm,

may be feeling that the Americans are being _______.

A. friendly

B. warm

C. standoffish

D. selfish

30. Most little children want a dog or a cat, and they continually ______ their mothers and fathers

until they get one. It is only when the sweet little thing has been brought home that the parents realize how much time a nd money must be spent on “Tom” or “B ill”.

A. peter

B. pester

C. worry

D. whine

31. As television, and to an extent the internet have _____further through our society, the effects

are perhaps more significant than even we realize.

A. perpetuated

B. persecuted

C. persisted

D. permeated

32. “John has no______. So when his parents passed away, he inherited everything from the

family---properties, bank savings, stocks and a big house. He’s really living on easy street.”

A. siblings

B. soberings

C. sibilants

D. stillbirths

33. Great efforts have been made to coordinate unemployment ______ and economic development

throughout the country.

A. aggravation

B. exaggeration

C. elimination

D. alleviation

34. Upon this, Jones began to beg earnestly to be let into this secret, and faithfully promised not to ______ it.

A. divulge

B. dispense

C. dissolve

D. disperse

35. In Sudan, deforestation in the last decade led to a quadrupling of the time women spent

gathering fuel wood. This stimulated efforts to promote _______ .

A. deforestation

B. afforestation

C. forests

D. forestry

36. In Egypt, I saw the pyramids and the damaged face of the Sphinx, smiling a (an)_______ smile.

An amazing journey!

A. incurious

B. sweet

C. incredulous

D. inscrutable

37. There was so much pain there, _______ caused by both sides over the years. I didn’t want to

hurt them, nor they me, but the harm had done and it was irreversible.

A. invisibly

B. inappreciably

C. inadvertently

D. inadequately

38. Nobody will support such a government that ______ on the rights of individuals.

A. encroaches

B. invades

C. involves

D. interrupts

39. The development of national ______ will be sped up if its officials at all levels become more

conscious of its significance in economic growth.

A. substructure

B. portfolio

C. infrastructure

D. asset

40. With the rapid development of modern society, the ______ of the ancient civilization in the

town is being erased （擦掉）step by step.

A. prestige

B. vestige 遗迹

C. fame

D. symptom

41. The ______ of “white” in Chinese includes something unhappy. At funerals, Chinese pay

respect to the dead and express their sorrow by wearing white. In the West, however, white is the traditional color for the bride at weddings, and to wear white at funerals would be offensive.

A. configuration

B. conjunction

C. connotation

D. connection

42. When people can’t explain a new phenomenon using the ir knowledge, they will firstly try to

understand the new phenomenon using the logic reference of______.

A. comparison

B. analysis

C. counterpart

D. analogy

43. He has more endurance; he can swim longer and ______ a canoe better than any of his people.

A. conquer

B. dominate

C. steer

D. lead

44.There’s this new girl coming to my school, and I like her a lot. I want to _____ our friendship

before I start a serious relationship.

A. cement

B. lime

C. clay

D. concrete

45._______implies an active choice to cling to something, not passively being carried along out

of inability to imagine anything else.

A. Tenancy

B. Tenacity

C. Tendency

D. Tension

III. Reading Comprehension (20%)

Directions: Read the following passages and choose the best answer to each question.

Passage 1

Science fiction (SF) can provide students interested in the future with a basic introduction to

the concept of thinking about the possible futures in a serious way, a sense of emotional forces in

their own culture that are affecting the shape the future may take, and a multitude of extrapolations

(prediction) regarding the results of present trends . There is one particular type of story that can be especially valuable as a stimulus to discussion of these issues both in courses on the future and in social science courses in general----the story which presents well-worked-out, detailed societies that differ significantly from the society of the reader. In fact, whatever the reliability of its predictions, SF is actually a more important vehicle for speculative visions about macroscopic social change. At this level, it is hard to deal with any precision as to when general value changes or evolving social institutions might appear, but it is most important to think about the kinds of societies that could result from the rise of new forms of interaction, even if one cannot predict exactly when they might occur.

In performing this “what if …”function, SF can act as a social laboratory as authors ruminate upon (think about) the forms social relationships could take if key variables in their own societies were different, and upon what new belief systems or mythologies could arise in the future to provide the basic rationalizations for human activities. If it is true that more people find it difficult to conceive of the ways in which their society, or human nature itself, could undergo fundamental changes, then SF of this type may provoke one’s imagination to consider the diversity of paths potentially open to society.

Moreover, if SF is the laboratory of the imagination, its experiments are often of the kind that may significantly alter the subject matter even as they are being carried out. That is, SF has always had a certain cybernetic effect on society, as its visions emotionally engage the future-consciousness of the mass public regarding especially desirable and undesirable possibilities. The shape a society takes in the present is in part influenced by its image of the future; in this way particularly powerful SF images may become self-fulfilling or self-avoiding prophecies for society. For that matter, some individuals in recent years have even shaped their own life-styles after appealing models provided by SF stories. The reincarnation (reappearance) and diffusion of SF futuristic images of alternative societies through the media of movies and television may have speeded up an augmented SF’s social feedback effects. Thus SF is not only change speculator but change agent, sending an echo form the future that is becoming into the present that is sculpting it. This fact alone makes imperative in any education system the study of the kinds of works discussed in this section.

It must be noted that this perspective of SF has been questioned by some critics. It is often pointed out that, however ingenious they may be about future technologies, many SF writers exhibit an impact conservative bias in their stories, insofar as social projections (new ideas ) are either ignored or based on variations of the present status quo or of historical social systems reshuffled whole-cloth into the future. Robert Bloch has conveniently summarized the kind of future society presented by the average SF writer as consisting of a totalitarian state in which psychochemical techniques (the use of mind- altering drugs) keep the populace quiet; an underground which the larger-than-life hero can join; and scientists who gladly turn over their discoveries to those in power. Such tales covertly assume that human nature as we know it will remain stable and that twentieth-century Anglo-American culture and moral values, especially traditional economic incentives, will continue to dominate the world. Most SF authors have found it as hard as most other mortals to extrapolate (guess)social mores different from those operating within their own milieu (environment), so that, it has been charged, far from preparing the reader for future shock, SF is a literature that comfortably and smugly reassures him that the future will not be radically different from the present.

There is much truth to this analysis of SF. It is not easy to explain why so many stories seem to take as their future social settings nothing more ambiguous than the current status quo or its totally evil variant. Part of the answer may be that many authors of commercial SF writing received their professional training in science and engineering prior to World War II and were therefore not equipped or inclined to devise sophisticated social backgrounds in their plots. Be that as it may, the situation has changed dramatically in recent decades. There are an increasing number of stories which explicitly assume that future social patterns of family, government, religion, and the like need not be exactly the same as those of the present and that the forces which motivate men may also be subject to change. It is from such stories, and their predecessors in classical SF, that one may study examples of the impact of SF on the individual and collective imagination.

46. Science fiction shows us happen in the future.

A. what may

B. what must c. when changes will D. what we wish to

47. Science fiction plays an important role in .

A. forming social value and institutions

B. providing the basic rationalizations for human activities

C. predicting the future society

D. providing the possible vision of social change in macro-scope

48. A self-fulfilling prophecy is one that .

A. predicts something unpleasant

B. predicts something pleasant

C. helps prediction to come true

D. does not come true

49. Science fiction images will surely .

A. influence the images of the present society partially

B. influence the images of the present society negatively

C. influence the images of the present society positively

D. influence the images of the present society imperatively

50. The author’s opinion appears to be that SF .

A. has little to offer society

B. can help to shape the way we behave in the present society

C. is always conservative

D. is unable to prepare the reader for future shock

51. The inability of some SF writers to imagine alternative forms of society was

due to their professional training.

A. possibly

B. definitely

C. occasionally

D. known to be

52. The author thinks the criticism that SF writers usually show a conservative bias

is .

A. just

B. unjust

C. becoming less true than it was

D. only true of classical SF

53. In some critics’ eyes, classical science fiction is a literature .

A. that displays the radically different social images in the future

B. that reveals what science fiction writers sincerely believed

C. that does not show totally imaginary images of the future society

D. that informs readers of the future society

54. The author’s main aim would seem to be to show how useful SF can be to .

A. politicians

B. scientists

C. cyberneticists

D. students

55. The overall tone of the piece is best described as .

A. ironic

B. humorous

C. indignant

D. informative

Passage 2

1 Many years ago trying to help people with every kind of trouble left me with one sure conviction: In case after case the difficulty could have been overcome --- or might never have arisen --- if the people involved had just treated one another with common courtesy.

2 Courtesy, politeness, good manners --- call it what you will, the supply never seems to equal the demand. “It’s not so much what my husband says,” a tearful wife confides, “as the way he says it. Why does he have to yell at me?”“I hate my boss,” a grim-faced office worker mutters. “He never shows appreciation for anything.”“All we get from our teenagers,” a harassed parent says, “is a sullen surliness.”

3 Such complaints are not limited to people who sit in my study. Human beings everywhere hunger for courtesy. “Good manners,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson, “are the happy way of doing things.” And the reverse is equally true. Bad manners can ruin a day --- or wreck a friendship.

4 What are the basic ingredients of good manners? Certainly a strong sense of justice is one; courtesy is often nothing more than a highly developed sense of fair play. A friend once told me of driving along a one-lane, unpaved mountain road. Ahead was another car that produced clouds of choking dust, and it was a long way to the nearest paved highway. Suddenly, at a wider place, the car ahead pulled off the road. Thinking that its owner might have engine trouble, my friend stopped and asked if anything was wrong. “No,” said the other driver. “But you’ve endured my dust this far; I’ll put up with yours the rest of the way.” There was a man with manners, and an innate sense of fair play.

5 Another ingredient of courtesy is empathy, a quality that enables a person to see into the mind or heart of someone else, to understand the pain or unhappiness there and to do something to minimize it. Recently in a book about a famous restaurant chain I came across such an episode.

6 A man dining alone was trying to unscrew the cap of a bottle of catsup but his fingers were so badly crippled by arthritis that he couldn’t do it. He asked a young busboy to help him. The boy took the bottle, turned his back momentarily and loosened the cap without difficulty. Then he tightened it again. Turning back to the man, he feigned a great effort to open the bottle without success. Finally he took it into the kitchen and returned shortly, saying that he had managed to loosen it --- but only with a pair of pliers. What impelled the boy to take so much trouble to spare the feelings of a stranger? Courtesy, compassionate courtesy.

7 Yet another component of politeness is the capacity to treat all people alike, regardless of all status or importance. Even when you have doubts about some people, act as if they are worthy of your best manners. You may also be astonished to find out that they really are.

8 I truly believe that anyone can improve his or her manners by doing 3 things. First, by practicing courtesy. All skills require constant repetition to become second nature; good manners are no exception.

9 One simple way is to concentrate on your performance in a specific area for about a week. Telephone manners, for example. How often do you talk too long, speak abruptly, and fail to identify yourself, keep people waiting, display impatience with the operator or fail to return a call?

10 One difficult but essential thing to remember is to refuse to let other people’s bad manners goad you into retaliating in kind. I recall a story told by a young man who was in a car with his father one night when a driver in an oncoming vehicle failed to dim his lights. “Give him the

brights, Dad!”the young man urged in exasperation. “Son,”replied the father, “that driver is certainly discourteous and probably stupid. But if I give him the brights he’ll be discourteous, stupid and blind --- and that’s a combination I don’t want to tangle with!”

11 The second requirement for improving your manners is to think in a courteous way. In the long run, the kind of person you are is the result of what you’ve been thinking over the past 20 or 30 years. If your thoughts are predominantly self-directed, a discourteous person is what you will be. If on the other hand you train yourself to be considerate of others, if you can acquire the habit of identifying with their problems and hopes and fears, good manners will follow almost automatically.

12 Nowhere is thinking courtesy more important than in marriage. In the intimacy of the home it is easy to displace disappointment or frustration or anger onto the nearest person, and that person is often a husband or wife.

13 “When you feel your anger getting out of control,” I have often said to married couples, “force yourself for the next ten minutes to treat your married partner as if he or she were a guest in your home,” I knew that if they could impose just 10 minutes of good manners on themselves, the worst of the storm would blow over.

14 Finally, to have good manners you must be able to accept courtesy, receive it gladly, rejoice when it comes your way. Strangely, some people are suspicious of gracious treatment. They suspect the other person of having some ulterior motive.

15 But some of the most precious gifts in life come with no strings attached. You can’t achieve a beautiful day through any effort on your part. You can’t buy a sunset or even the scent of a rose. Those are the world’s courtesies to us, offered with love and no thought of reward or return. Good manners are, or should be, like that.

16 In the end, it all comes down to how you regard people --- not just people in general, but individuals. Life is full of minor irritations and trials and injustices. The only constant, daily, effective solution is politeness --- which is the golden rule in action. I think that if I were allowed to add one small beatitude as a footnote to the other it might be: Blessed are the courteous.

(1048 words)

56.In Para.1, the underlined part “one sure conviction” is the closest in meaning to ______.

A. a convinced belief

B. an assured thought

C. a definite evidence

D. a deep idola

57.Courtesy is important to human relationships for the reason that _________.

A.it can help people avoid troubles

B.it can eliminate complaints

C.people need to be treated politely

D.it is so scarce

58.In the first sentence of Para.10, there is a word “retaliating”. Which of the following do you

think is similar to it?

A.guiding

B. imitating

C. stimulating

D. revenging

59.In the author’s opinion, courtesy is a matter of __________.

A.how you control yourself

B. how you look at other people

C. how you compromise

D. how you communicate with others

60.Which of the following statements is not mentioned in the passage?

A.Good manners are the golden rule in interpersonal relationships.

B.People are often easy to get out of control in front of their intimate persons.

C.People can be directed by their thoughts about what kind of persons they will be.

D.Bad manners account for part of the difficulty of interpersonal relationships.

61.Courtesy is especially important in marriage, because ___________.

A.the intimacy of family life makes people forget manners

B.people tend to be rude to their husband or wife

C.husband and wife are disappointed with each other

D.at home people have more difficulties

62.In paragraph 14, the underlined part “rejoice when it comes your way” means ________.

A.take it for granted when you meet it

B.behave happily when it happens to you

C.enjoy it when it stands on your way

D.refuse it in your deep heart when you come across it

63.Which of the following is not true of courtesy?

A.Courtesy is offered without expecting return.

B.Courtesy is the happy way of doing things.

C.Courtesy is an innate quality rather than a learnt skill.

D.Courtesy should be applied to every individual.

64.In paragraph. 15, what does the author mean by saying “with no strings attached”?

A.without extra cost

B.without concern or consciousness

C.without additional thoughts about return or reward

D.without motives and expectations.

65.Which of the following is not mentioned as the basic ingredients of good manners?

A.The capacity to treat all people alike.

B.The quality to understand the pain or unhappiness of others.

C. A strong sense of fair play.

D. A feeling of compassion and self-control.

IV. Translation (15%)

Part A Directions: Translate the following sentences into English. (7%)

1. 中国是个大国，百分之八十的人口从事农业，但耕地只占土地面积的十分之一，其余为山脉、森林、城镇和其他用地。(2分)

2. 有一项调查发现，不吸烟的妇女，如果在吸烟的家庭环境中生活40年或更长的时间，那

么就有加倍患肺癌的危险。（2分）

3. 在我们这个时代，任何人想要在社会上起到所希望的作用，必须接受必要的教育。随着

科学的进步，中小学开设了越来越多的课程。与过去相比，现代教育更重视实用性。(3 分)

Part B Directions: Translate the following sentences into Chinese (8%)

4. Stereotypes are stumbling blocks for communicators because they interfere with objective

viewing of stimuli —the sensitive search for cues to guide the imagination toward the other persons’ reality. （2分）

5. When economists first began to measure the sources of economic growth, what previously had been considered an unexplained residual became identified as human capital. Human capital —the skill of the population —plays a major role in explaining differences in productivity and inequality among nations. （3分）

6. The synergies between the goals of gender equity, poverty alleviation and environmental

sustainability are explored below in terms of addressing poverty among women —including energy and water poverty, health, climate change, natural disasters and creating sustainable livelihoods by empowering women in the realms of agriculture, forest and biodiversity management. （3分）

V. Writing (20%)

Directions: For this part, you are to write a summary of either of the two articles that are presented to you in the following. Your summary should be about 200 words. Remember to write neatly.

Passage 1

Science and Humanity

The twentieth century saw more momentous change than any previous century: change for better, change for worse; change that brought enormous benefits to human beings, change that threatens the very existence of the human species. Many factors contributed to this change but—in my opinion—the most important factor was the progress in science.

Academic research in the physical and biological sciences has vastly broadened our horizons; it has given us a deep insight into the structure of matter and of the universe; it has brought better understanding of the nature of life and of its continuous evolution. Technology—the application of science—has made fantastic advances that have affected us beneficially in nearly every aspect of life: better health, more wealth, less drudgery (单调沉闷的工作), greater access to information.

Sadly, however, there is another side to the picture. The creativity of science has been employed to the detriment(损害) of mankind. The application of science and technology to the development and manufacture of weapons of mass destruction has created a real threat to the continued existence of the human race on this planet. We have seen this happen in the case of nuclear weapons. Although their actual use in combat has so far occurred only in 1945—when two Japanese cities were destroyed—during the four decades of the Cold War, obscenely huge arsenals(武器库) of nuclear weapons were accumulated and made ready for use. The arsenals were so large that if the weapons had actually been detonated (爆炸) the result could have been the complete extinction of the human species, as well as of many animal species.

William Shakespeare said: "The web of our life is of a mingled (混合的) yarn, good and ill together. " The above brief review of the application of only one strand of human activities—science—seems to bear out this adage (格言). But does it have to be so? Must ill always accompany good deeds? Are we biologically programmed for aggression and war?

I am not an authority in genetics, but from my readings and life-long observation I do not see any evidence that we are genetically condemned to commit evil. On the contrary, on very general grounds I would say that genetically we are destined to do things that are of benefit to the human species, and that the negative aspects are mistakes, transient errors in the process of evolution. In

other words, I believe in the inherent goodness of Man.

We are thus faced with a daunting (威吓，使胆怯) dilemma. As a process of natural evolution, science should be allowed to develop freely, without restrictions. But can we afford the luxury of uninhibited research in the natural sciences, with its awesome (可怕的) potential of total destruction, in a world in which war is still a recognized social institution?

The preservation of the human species and its continuing enhancement demand that we learn to live with one another in peace and harmony. But this learning process has been slow and arduous (费力的), and is not yet complete. Due to the harsh conditions under which primitive man lived, he often had to fight with other human beings for survival. Individual killing and, later, collective killing—war—thus began to be seen as a natural phenomenon.

We are still not organized for a war-free world. But in the meantime, the human species may be brought to an end by the use of the tools of destruction, themselves the product of science and technology.

In my opinion, the problem has to a large extent arisen from the uneven rate of advance in the different areas of human activities, in particular, between the progress in the natural sciences—which include the physical and biological disciplines, and the various social sciences—economics, sociology, politics (with psychology perhaps at the interface between the two major groups). Undoubtedly, there has been much faster progress in the natural sciences than in the social ones.

Why have the natural sciences, especially the physical sciences, advanced so much faster than the social sciences? It is not because physicists are wiser or cleverer than, say, economists. The explanation is simply that physics is easier to master than economics. Although the material world is a highly complex system, for practical purposes it can be described by a few general laws. The laws of physics are immutable (不可改变的). They apply everywhere, on this planet as well as everywhere else in the universe, and are not affected by human reactions and emotions, as the social sciences are.

How can we tackle this unevenness in the rate of progress of different areas of science? Two ways come to mind:one, by accelerating the rate of progress in the social sciences; two, by slowing down the rate of advancement of the natural sciences in some areas, for example, by the imposition of ethical codes of conduct.

Clearly, the former is by far the preferable way. What we would like to see is faster progress in the social sciences, leading to the establishment of a social system which would make war not only unnecessary but unthinkable; a system in which the existence of old, or the invention of new, weapons of mass destruction, would not matter, because nobody would dream of using them; a system in which people will be able to say: “nuclear weapons: who cares?”

Responsibility for one's actions is, of course, a basic requirement of every citizen, not just of scientists. Each of us must be accountable for our deeds. But the need for such responsibility is particularly imperative for scientists, if only because scientists understand the technical problems better than the average citizen or politician. And knowledge brings responsibility.

In any case, scientists do not have a completely free hand. The general public, through elected governments, have the means to control science, either by withholding (抑制) the purse, or by imposing restrictive regulations harmful to science. Clearly it is far better that any control should be exercised by the scientists themselves, through a self-imposed code of conduct. The establishment of an ethical code of conduct for scientists is an idea whose time has come.

Passage 2

China Sees Opportunities in Climate Change

UNLIKE America’s leaders, China’s bosses are not much troubled by recalcitrant（顽强的）legislatures. The government has therefore had no difficulty in executing a smart volte face（完全改变）on climate change. Around three years ago its fierce resistance to the notion of any limit on its greenhouse-gas emissions started to soften. It now seems to be making serious efforts to control them.

One reason for this change i s the country’s growing awareness of its vulnerability to a warming world. The monsoon（季风）seems to be weakening, travelling less far inland and dumping its rainfall on the coasts. As a result China is seeing floods in the south-east and droughts in the north-west. At the same time the country’s leaders are deeply concerned about the melting of the glaciers on the Tibetan plateau, which feed not just the Ganges, the Indus, the Brahmaputra and the Mekong but also the Yangzi and Yellow rivers .

A second reason is China’s growing sense of global responsibility. The country is not only the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases; it now regards itself, and is regarded, as one of the world’s leading powers, and therefore expects to work with the other big powe rs to tackle global problems such as the economic crisis, nuclear proliferation（核扩散）and climate change.

A third reason is energy security. Although China has large coal reserves, it is also a big importer. Concerns about excessive dependence on foreign fos sil fuels sharpened when China’s oil imports rocketed and, in 2005, the attempt by CNOOC（China National Offshore Oil Corporation), China’s largest offshore oil and gas company, to buy America’s Unocal was rebuffed. China’s push into nuclear and renewable energy has been driven by its need to diversify its energy sources.

The fourth reason is economic. The Kyoto protocol has given China an incentive to clean up its act. China has received $2 billion through the CDM（Clean Development Mechanism) for cleaning up its industrial processes and building clean-energy capacity—half the money that has flowed through the CDM. That is expected to rise to $8 billion by 2012.

But a longer-term economic motive springs from a shift in the way China thinks about growth. In the past, its all-out drive for growth has led it to rebuff（拒绝）pressure to cut emissions. Attempts to control pollution foundered （失败）on the performance-assessment system for officials at all levels of government, which prioritises growth. But that has been adjusted to encourage energy efficiency, and at the same time the leadership has started to argue that growth and greenery are compatible.

Since Wen Jiabao took over as prime minister, the leadership has tried to define economic growth as something broader and longer-term than GDP figures imply: the emphasis has been on a “harmonious society” and “scientific development”. Nobody was sure what the latter meant, but Mr Wen has recently been talking about a more “resource-efficient environmentally friendly society” and Hu Jintao, the president, has referred several times to a “low-carbon economy” and a “green economy”.

Local pollution may help to explain the shift. Residents are infuriated by filthy air and water that kills people and damages unborn children. Policies to cut carbon-dioxide emissions—through reducing the energy used to produce goods—can help clean up China’s cities at the same time.

More interesting is the idea that clean energy might be a source of growth rather than a constraint on it. China, so the argument goes, missed out on the computer revolution. It makes hardware, but American firms own most of the valuable stuff—the intellectual property for the software. “You can’t get rich making socks and toys,” explains Lin Jiang, director of the China Sustainable Energy Programme at the Energy Foundation in San Francisco. “They’re looking for the next growth industry. Clean energy clearly has huge potential. And no country dominates the industry yet. It’s a wide-open field.” Hu Angang, an economist at Tsinghua University, calls this “a huge opportunity for China. The country will become the largest renewable-energy market, bio-energy market, clean-coal market, nuclear-power market, carbon-exchange market, environmental-technology market, low-carbon economy, exporter of low-carbon products and low-carbon-te chnology innovator.”

The government is giving the economy a shove in that direction. In 2006 the five-year plan set a target for a 20% cut in the energy intensity of GDP by the end of 2010. The start was slow, but by the end of last year it had managed 10% and it now looks on track for its target. According to Mr Lin, that would mean a reduction in carbon emissions of 1.5 billion tonnes per year by 2010, more than the Waxman-Markey bill’s caps for domestic industry would take out of America’s economy by 2020. China has relatively tight vehicle fuel-efficiency standards . Electric vehicles are being generously subsidised ($8,800 for a car and $73,500 for a bus) and the government plans to build the capacity to produce half a million a year by 2012.

The most v isible changes have come in renewable energy. In 2005 the National People’s Congress passed legislation to offer subsidies for renewable energy—around twice the amount for coal. For wind energy, the target was set at 20GW of capacity by 2020. The subsidy generated so much building that China now expects to hit that target by the end of this year and is aiming for 150GW by 2020. “It’s like a gold rush right now,” says Mr Lin. The target for solar energy, similarly, has been raised from 1.8GW to 20GW by 2020.

To put this in context, wind currently generates only 0.4% of Chinese electricity. Coal generates 80%. And, although China’s government does not have to jump the legislative hurdles faced by America’s president, it sometimes struggles to get policy implem ented on the ground. Yet if China’s many layers of government can be persuaded that green means growth, they will cleave （坚持）to this policy; and the leadership seems keen to make that happen.

China, thus, is after the same “green jobs” that Americans have been promis ed as part of their road to economic recovery. America has huge advantages in terms of technology and capital, but China has a couple of things going for it too: cheaper labour and a leadership unconstrained by the need to get re-elected every four years. China can play a long game, which helps when dealing with climate change.