1、第六课 从天窗中消失1. How does the writer substantiate his statement that science is committed to the universal?There are broad agreemants about the basic concepts of science, for example, there is only a single science of thermodynamics whose basic concepts are accepted by all countries, including such dive
2、rse countries as China, Americaor the Soviet Union. For a short time there were two genetics, a Soviet genetics as proposed by Lysenko and a Western genetics. However, Soviet Lysenko s theories were refuted and in 1956 the Soviet Union accepted the Western genetic concepts.2. How does technology exh
3、ibit this universalizing tendency?It makes the world look more and more uniform. Different styles in architecture, dress, music and eating that exist in various countries and among different people are tending to disappear. They are being replaced by more uniform styles or world styles. The houses t
4、he people live in, the cars they drive, etc. , are becoming more alike.3. How does the automobile illustrate this universalizing tendency?A technological innovation in the manufacture of automobiles like streamlining or all-welded body construction may be initiated by one company in one country, but
5、 when it proves to make cars more efficient and cheaper, it is soon adopted universally by all automobile manufacturers. Today, the basic features of an automobile are to be found in automobiles in general, no matter who makes them. Besides this feature, all large automakers are now international co
6、mpanies. Americans have auto plants in Europe, Asia and South America, and Europeans and Japanese have plants in America and South America, and so on.4. How has man become cosmopolitan?He drives cars that have the same basic features. When he goes shopping, he finds the climate in all the shops is t
7、he same because they are all similarly air-conditioned. When he travels he finds all the airports to be familiar because they are all constructed along similiar lines and the hotels to have the same amenities. In a word, he finds himself at home in all countries and places.5. What are the advantages
8、 and disadvantages of being a cosmopolitan?He no longer has a fixed home with all the emotional ties144 that are usually attached to such a home with its fixed location surrounded by well-known neighbors, etc. His home is now everywhere and he is always surrounded by all kinds of neighbors. He feels
9、 the old home limited his activities and his emotions.6. What does Madame Gabrille Buffet-Picabia say about “machine aesthetic“?She says in the past artists regarded machines and machinelike structures like the Eiffel Tower in Paris as ugly and irreverent. After 1949 the artists discovered a new bea
10、uty in machines which could now be shaped and moulded very easily into various artistic designs.7. What is the “real world“ according to the writer?The writer doesnt t directly answer the question. He says science has now thrown doubt on “the thingliness of things“. It does not produce the material
11、objects we see with our eyes but images, geometric and mathematical, of the reality underlying these things. It has made the world rather “insubstantial“. The writer in his prologue states: “Today, nature has slipped, perhaps finally, beyond our field of vision. We can imitate it in mathematics - we
12、 can even produce convincing images of it - but we can never know it. We can only know our own creations.8. How is the playfulness of modern aesthetic displayed?. It is displayed in the architectural styles found in cities of the developed world - styles that typify collage city and urban adhocism.
13、It is also displayed in the mosaic architecture of facadism and the playful theme parks and museum villages. It abounds in images and sounds and values utterly different from those of the world of natural things seen from a middle distance.9. Why do the banks appear to be disappearing through their
14、own skylights?The banks are no longer the solid, ponderous buildings of the past but airy structures Of steel and glass. People need not go to the banks directly for many financial transactions which can now be carried out in stores or trailers with slot- machinelike terminals linked to the banks. M
15、oney is now recorded, erased, processed and reprocessed as digital signals by a computer. Questions on appreciation:1. Sum up the main views of the writer and comment on how they are organized and presented.2.Comment on the use of topic sentences.3.Comment on the use of the present tense and univers
16、al statements.4.Comment on the use of some figurative language. Cite examples.5.What stylistic features of scientific English are to be found in this piece.9 Cite examples.1.In the passage, the writer puts forward his central theme of “disappearance“ - nature disappears, history disappears and even
17、the solid banks disappear. Besides expressing the central theme of the book, the metaphorical phrase, “Disappearing Through the Skylight“, is used also specifically in this chapter to describe the changed appearance of modern banks which seem to be disappearing. The second important idea he puts for
18、ward is the universalizing tendency of science and technology. The basic concepts of science are understood, accepted and adopted by scientists all over the world. There is only one science of thermodynamics, genetics, etc. This universalizing effect is reflected in architectural styles, dress style
19、s, musical styles, etc. They all tend to become world styles. The third concept is, “If man creates machines, machines in turn shape their creators. “ The modern man is no longer a unique individual, the product of a special environment and culture. The homogeneous world he now lives in universalize
20、s him. He becomes a cosmopolitan, a citizen of the world. Finally, the disappearance of history is a form of liberation and this feeling of liberation is often expressed through play. the playfulness of science has produced game theory and virtual particles, in art it has puoduced the paintings of P
21、icasso and Joan Miro and so on.2. The writer s views are generally clearly and succinctly presented as a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph and then developed or illustrated in the paragraph itself. or by succeeding paragraphs. For example, the first sentence in the opening paragraph
22、is a topic sentence that presents a very important view of the writer, “Science is committed to the universal. “ This idea of universality is developed and illustrated in the five paragraphs that follow and each paragraph that follows also has its own topic sentence. The organizational pattern is ve
23、ry clear and logical. 3. The writer uses tha present tense and universal statements to attain the goal of objectivity. 4. The writer uses figurative language freely to make his ideas more vivid and forceful. Readers can find many metaphors, analogies, rhetorical questions, repetition and balanced st
24、ructure, etc. in this piece. The very title of this piece, “ Disappearing Through the Skylight “, is a metaphorical phrase that immediately stirs the imagination of readers. 5. A lot of scientific and technical terms are used in this piece, such as thermodynamics, genetics, genetic mutations, etc. Many sentences are complex and compound ones; some of them, though simple sentences, are complicated in structure, for example, “The skepticism of modern science “ from the soul. “ “It surrounds its citizens with “-“ and geodesic domes and lunar landers. “ All these are stylistic features.
