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课程推荐：2015职称英语 锁定65分 冲击75分
2015年职称英语考试综合类阅读理解模拟题(3)
Finding Enlightenment in Scotland
In the 1740s,the famous French philosophy Voltaire said"We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization."That's not a bad advertisement for any country,especially when it comes to attracting people in search of a first class education.
Yet some people go even further than that.According to the American author Arthur Herman,the Scots invented the modem world itself.He argues that Scottish thinkers and intellectuals worked out many of the most important ideas on which modem life depends - everything from the scientific method to market economics.Their ideas did not just spread amongst intellectuals,but to those people in business,government and the sciences who actually shaped the Western world.
It all started during the period that historians call the Scottish Enlightenment,which is usually seen as taking place between the years 1740 and 1800,At this time,Scotland was home to a number of thinkers who made an important shift in the course of Western philosophy.Before that,philosophy was mainly concerned with religion.For the thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment,the proper study of humanity was mankind itself.
Their reasoning was practical.For the philosopher David Hume,humanity was the right subject for philosophy because we can examine human behavior and so find real evidence of how people think and feel.And from that we can make judgments about the societies we live in and make concrete suggestions about how they can be improved,for universal benefit.
Hume was not a scientist himself,but his enquiry into the nature of knowledge laid the foundations for the scientific method - the pursuit of truth through experiment.His friend and fellow resident of Edinburgh,Adam Smith,famously applied the study of mankind to the ways in which mankind does business.Trade,he argued,was a form of information.Money is the way in which people tell each other what they want,and how much people pay is the best way we have of knowing how much somebody wants something.In pursuing our own interests through trading in markets,we all come to benefit each other.
Smith's idea of"enlightened self-interest"has come to dominate modem views of economics.It also has wider applications.He was one of the first major philosophers to point out that nations can become rich,free and powerful more efficiently through peace,trade and invention than by means of war and plunder.
The original Scottish Enlightenment is thought to have ended with the lives of Smith,Hume anti the other thinkers who lived in Scotland at that time.But a wider Scottish Enlightenment can still be seen.It exists in the way that the ideas evolved at that time still underpin our theories.It also exists in Scotland itself in an educational tradition that combines academic excellence with practical orientation.
The Institute for System Level Integration (ISLI)is a good example.Founded in 1998 by a group of four Scottish universities,ISLI draws on the academic expertise of the university departments of computer science,electronic and electrical engineering and informatics.But though it works at the cutting edge1 of science,ISLI's ultimate aims are rooted in the needs of the real world2： to produce highly skilled design engineers and researchers to meet the needs of the rapidly changing global semiconductor industry.
Though only one amongst many educational institutions in Scotland,ISLI's existence shows that the principles of the Scottish Enlightenment still live on.It's a country that's still inventing,still modernizing,and still doing its best to spread enlightenment.
词汇：
enlightenment启蒙 plunder 掠夺
underpin 作为……的基础
semiconductor 半导体
注释：
1.fitting edge;(科技发展的)前沿
2.rodted in the needs of the real world 基于现实世界的需要
练习：
1.Scotland is thought to have made important contributions to the civilization of the Western world because of
A)the great thinkers who were born there
B)the methods introduced by its distinguished scholars
C)the first-class education it provides
D)the ideas proposed by some famous thinkers and intellectuals
2.Which of the following is the ultimate aim of Hume's huittamty-oriented studies?
A)To observe and investigate humaii behaviour.
B)To find ways to improve human society as a whole.：
C)To find out how people think aiid feel.
D)To judge the societies humans live iii.
3.Smith's idea of"enlightened self-interest"has great significance for
A)the pursuit of personal interest
B)the prosperity of all nations
C)the improvement of international trade
D)the study of economics only
4.Which of the following statements is true of the Scottish Enlightenment?
A)It ended with the death of such thinkers as Hume and Adam Smith.
B)It is embodied only in the way Scottish universities are run.
C)Its influence is found only in economics.
D)It is still alive in a broad sense.
5.The Institute for System Level Integration is used as an example to illustrate .
A)the practical orientation of Scottish higher edueation
B)the tradition of Scottish higher education
C)Smith's application of Hume's philosophical ideas to ecoiiomics
D)the high level of education Scottish universities have attiiiied
答案与题解：
1.D这道题的答案在第二段里可以找到。根据Arthur Herman，苏格兰的思想家和知识分子 提出了很多现代生活引以为据的思想，这些思想不仅对知识分子来说具有学术意义，而且还 流传到商业、政府和科学等领域。
2.B文章的第四段解释了 Hume的研究是如何以人为本的。人的行为、人的思维方式等都是 他所要研究的，但他研究的最终目的是这段的最后一句话，即make concrete suggestions/for universal benefit.
3.B答案见第六段。Smith的这个想法对现代经济学固然有重要意义，但如文中所说，It also has wider applications.即下文所说的世界各国可以通过和平、贸易和创造轰明而不是通过战 争和掠夺来变得富裕、自由、强大。
4.D 答案的依据在第七段：A wider Scottish Enlightenment can still be seen.
5.B文章的倒数第二段介绍了这个被用作例子的学校，这个例乎要说明什么可以看再前一 段。最后一句说：It also exists in Scotland itself in an educational tradition that combines academic excellence with practical orientation.
