Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science,but their form and function,their dimensions and appearance,were determined by technologists,artisans,designers,inventors,and engineers — using nonscientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions;they are dealt with in the mind by a visual,nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology,it has been nonverbal thinking,by and large,that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details of our material surroundings. Pyramids,cathedrals,and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics,but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them.

　　The creative shaping process of a technologist''s mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For example,in designing a diesel engine,a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the combustion chamber？ Where should be valves be placed？ Should it have a long or short piston？ Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience,by physical requirements,by limitations of available space,and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions such as wall thickness and pin diameter,may depend on scientific calculations,but the nonscientific component of design remains primary.

　　Design courses,then,should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking,a central mechanism in engineering design,involves perceptions,the stock-in-trade of the artist,not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail hard thinking， nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering,the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engineering students,but rather students attending architectural schools.

　　If courses in design,which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem-solving,are not provided,we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example,early models of high-speed railroad cars loaded with sophisticated controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations;they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics.

　　1.In the text,the author is primarily concerned with

　　[A] identifying the kinds of thinking that are used by technologists.

　　[B] stressing the importance of nonverbal thinking in engineering design.

　　[C] proposing a new role for nonscientific thinking in the development of technology.

　　[D] contrasting the goals of engineers with those of technologists.

　　2.It can be inferred that the author thinks engineering curricula are

　　[A] strengthened when they include courses in design.

　　[B] weakened by the substitution of physical science courses for courses designed to develop mathematical skills.

　　[C] strong because nonverbal thinking is still emphasized by most of the courses.

　　[D] strong despite the errors that graduates of such curricula have made in the development of automatic control systems.

　　3.Which of the following statements best illustrates the main point of the first two paragraphs of the text？

　　[A] When a machine like a rotary engine malfunctions,it is the technologist who is best equipped to repair it.

　　[B] Each component of an automobile — for example,the engine or the fuel tank — has a shape that has been scientifically determined to be best suited to that component''s function.

　　[C] A telephone is a complex instrument designed by technologists using only nonverbal thought.

　　[D] The distinctive features of a suspension bridge reflect its designer''s conceptualization as well as the physical requirements of its site.

　　4.Which of the following statements would best serve as an introduction to the text？

　　[A] The assumption that the knowledge incorporated in technological developments must be derived from science ignores the many nonscientific decisions made by technologists.

　　[B] Analytical thought is no longer a vital component in the success of technological development.

　　[C] As knowledge of technology has increased,the tendency has been to lose sight of the important role played by scientific thought in making decisions about form,arrangement,and texture.

　　[D] A movement in engineering colleges toward a technician''s degree reflects a demand for graduates who have the nonverbal reasoning ability that was once common among engineers.

　　5.The author calls the predicament faced by the Historic American Engineering Record paradoxical (line 6,paragraph 3) most probably because

　　[A] the publication needed drawings that its own staff could not make.

　　[B] architectural schools offered but did not require engineering design courses for their students.

　　[C] college students were qualified to make the drawings while practicing engineers were not.

　　[D] engineering students were not trained to make the type of drawings needed to record the development of their own discipline.

　　[考點解析]

　　1.「答案」B

　　「考點解析」這是一道中心主旨題。本題的正確答案信息點在原文第一段的倒數(shù)第二句，該句強(qiáng)調(diào)“nonverbal thinking”的重要性。可見本題的正確選項應(yīng)該是B.考生在破解中心主旨題時一定要首先找出原文的中心主旨句。

　　2.「答案」A

　　「考點解析」這是一道反推題。根據(jù)題干中的“engineering curricula”可將本題的正確答案信息來源確定在原文的第三段第一句。該句中“should”一詞的理解十分重要。“should”是“應(yīng)該做”而實際上確“沒有做”。根據(jù)“should”一詞并且結(jié)合第三段第一句進(jìn)行反推即逆向思維，可得出本題的正確選項是A.考生在解題時應(yīng)該重視關(guān)鍵的語言信號詞，更要加強(qiáng)反推的能力。

　　3.「答案」D

　　「考點解析」本題是一道細(xì)節(jié)歸納推導(dǎo)題。其實只要考生抓住第一段中的中心主旨句（倒數(shù)第二句）和第二段中的中心主旨句（倒數(shù)第一句），就不難尋找出本題的正確答案D.要想知道某一段的主要含義就要首先找出該段的中心主旨句。另外考生在破解此類題型時還要善于根據(jù)中心主旨句進(jìn)行合理的邏輯推導(dǎo)。

　　4.「答案」A

　　「考點解析」這是一道中心主旨題。如果考生抓住了全文的中心主旨句（第一段的倒數(shù)第二句）以及每段的中心主旨句（例如第二段的倒數(shù)第一句），就不難尋找出本題的正確選項A，因為該選項所強(qiáng)調(diào)的內(nèi)容與這些中心主旨句所表達(dá)的內(nèi)容是相互一致的。考生在破解中心主旨題型時一定要具備尋找和理解中心主旨句的能力。

　　5.「答案」D

　　「考點解析」本題是一道細(xì)節(jié)推導(dǎo)題。題干已經(jīng)將本題的答案信息確定在第三段的尾句，該句強(qiáng)調(diào)的是“engineering students”在教育方面的缺陷，因此本題的正確選項應(yīng)該是D.如果考生在理解此句時有困難，可借助于本段的主題句（第三段第一句）來破解本題。第三段第一句強(qiáng)調(diào)的是“engineering curricula”缺乏“design courses”。這句話同樣是表明“engineering students”在教育方面的缺失。考生在破解此類題型時一定要善于總結(jié)和歸納原文的信息。

　　[參考譯文]

　　許多日常使用的事物明顯受到了科學(xué)的影響，但它們的形狀和功能，它們的大小和外觀，是由工藝人員、工匠、設(shè)計師、發(fā)明家和工程師運用非科學(xué)思維模式來設(shè)計的。工藝人員所考慮物體的很多性質(zhì)和特點不能歸結(jié)到毫不模糊的字面描述；在思維中，它們以一種視覺上的、非言語的方式被加以處理。在西方科技的發(fā)展過程中，大體上是由非言語思維刻畫了我們物質(zhì)環(huán)境的輪廓并充實了其中的細(xì)節(jié)。金字塔、大教堂、火箭之所以存在，不是因為幾何學(xué)或熱力學(xué)的原因，而是因為在它們的制造者的頭腦中事先存在了這樣一幅畫面。

　　在幾乎每一件現(xiàn)存的人造制品身上都能看出工藝人員思維創(chuàng)造性的制作過程。比如說，在柴油發(fā)動機(jī)的設(shè)計中，通過不斷使用關(guān)于合適感和適當(dāng)感的直觀體會，一個工藝人員得以用他個人的非語言思維來影響到機(jī)器本身。燃燒室的形狀應(yīng)怎樣？閥門應(yīng)該放在哪里？它應(yīng)該有個長的活塞還是應(yīng)該有個短的？這樣的問題有著由經(jīng)驗、物理需要、可用空間的局限以及并非微不足道的形狀感等因素提供的一系列答案。某一些決定，比如壁厚和銷釘直徑，可能需要由科學(xué)的計算來定奪，但設(shè)計中的非科學(xué)成分仍然是主要的。

　　因此設(shè)計課程應(yīng)該成為工程課程中的基本成份。非語言思維，這一工程設(shè)計的核心機(jī)制，包括了感受這一屬于藝術(shù)家的而非科學(xué)家的慣用手段。因為人們認(rèn)為感受的過程不需要“硬思維”，非語言思維被視為認(rèn)知過程發(fā)展的一個原始階段而且比語言和數(shù)學(xué)思維差。但令人感到自相矛盾的是，當(dāng)《美國工程歷史名錄》的工作人員希望得到為其美國工程歷史記錄而繪制的機(jī)器圖和等比例圖時，唯一具有所需技能的大學(xué)生不是工程學(xué)大學(xué)生，而是就讀于建筑學(xué)院的大學(xué)生。

　　如果不能開設(shè)設(shè)計課程（它能在一個高度分析性工程學(xué)課程體系中提供解決實際問題的背景知識），我們就會在先進(jìn)的工程系統(tǒng)中遇到愚蠢而同時會導(dǎo)致極大損失的錯誤。比如，裝載了精密控制設(shè)備的早期高速鐵路車輛模型不能在暴風(fēng)雪中正常運行，原因是一個風(fēng)扇將雪吸入到電子系統(tǒng)中。干擾著自動控制系統(tǒng)的荒唐的隨機(jī)故障不是輕微的失常；它們是一種混亂的反映，人們認(rèn)為這種混亂主要在設(shè)計數(shù)學(xué)方面的問題時就會產(chǎn)生。