1、.PAGE ：.；PAGE 62TextbookIntensive English Reading Compiled by z.w.z.for Candidates Applying for Doctors Degree in the Art Academy of China September 1, 2021ContentsUnit 1 Text 1 The Paradox of Knowledge Page 3Text 2 Tyranny of the Urgent Page 8Unit 2 Text 1 The Virtues of Ambition Page 16Text 2 Thre

2、e Days to See Page 21Unit 3 Text 1 The West Unique, Not Universal Text 2 What I Have Lived For Page 28Unit 4 Text 1 Philosophy and Art Page 30Text 2 ChopinThe Beautiful Soul of Music Page 39 Art Theory Translation Exercises Songs Page 48Unit 1 Text 1 The Paradox of Knowledge HYPERLINK findarticles/p

3、/articles/mi_m2843 Skeptical Inquirer, HYPERLINK findarticles/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n5_v19 Sept-Oct, 1995 by HYPERLINK findarticles/p/search?tb=art&qt=%22Lee+Loevinger%22 Lee LoevingerMain theme: As knowledge about nature expands, so does ignorance, and ignorance may increase more than its related

4、knowledge.1. The greatest achievement of humankind in its long evolution from ancient hominoid ancestors to its present status is the acquisition and accumulation of a vast body of knowledge about itself, the world, and the universe. The products of this knowledge are all those things that, in the a

5、ggregate, we call civilization, including language, science, literature, art, all the physical mechanisms, instruments, and structures we use, and the physical infrastructures on which society relies. Most of us assume that in modern society knowledge of all kinds is continually increasing and the a

6、ggregation of new information into the corpus of our social or collective knowledge is steadily reducing the area of ignorance about ourselves, the world, and the universe. But continuing reminders of the numerous areas of our present ignorance invite a critical analysis of this assumption.2. In the

7、 popular view, intellectual evolution is similar to, although much more rapid than, somatic evolution. Biological evolution is often described by the statement that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny-meaning that the individual embryo, in its development from a fertilized ovum into a human baby, passe

8、s through successive stages in which it resembles ancestral forms of the human species. The popular view is that humankind has progressed from a state of innocent ignorance, comparable to that of an infant, and gradually has acquired more and more knowledge, much as a child learns in passing through

9、 the several grades of the educational system. Implicit in this view is an assumption that phylogeny resembles ontogeny, so that there will ultimately be a stage in which the accumulation of knowledge is essentially complete, at least in specific fields, as if society had graduated with all the adva

10、nced degrees that signify mastery of important subjects.3. Such views have, in fact, been expressed by some eminent scientists. In 1894 the great American physicist Albert Michelson said in a talk at the University of Chicago: While it is never safe to affirm that the future of Physical Science has

11、no marvels in store even more astonishing than those of the past, it seems probable that most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established and that further advances are to be sought chiefly in the rigorous application of these principles to all the phenomena which come under our n

12、otice The future truths of Physical Science ate to be looked for in the sixth place of decimals.4. In the century since Michelsons talk, scientists have discovered much more than the refinement of measurements in the sixth decimal place, and none is willing to make a similar statement today. However

13、, many still cling to the notion that such a state of knowledge remains a possibility to be attained sooner or later. Stephen Hawking, the great English scientist, in his immensely popular book A Brief History of Time (1988), concludes with the speculation that we may discover a complete theory that

14、 would be the ultimate triumph of human reason-for then we would know the mind of God. Paul Davies, an Australian physicist, echoes that view by suggesting that the human mind may be able to grasp some of the secrets encompassed by the title of his book The Mind of God (1992). Other contemporary sci

15、entists write of theories of everything, meaning theories that explain all observable physical phenomena, and Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, one of the founders of the current standard model of physical theory, writes of his Dreams of a Final Theory (1992).5. Despite the eminence and obvious yearni

16、ng of these and many other contemporary scientists, there is nothing in the history of science to suggest that any addition of data or theories to the body of scientific knowledge will ever provide answers to all questions in any field. On the contrary, the history of science indicates that increasi

17、ng knowledge brings awareness of new areas of ignorance and of new questions to be answered.6. Astronomy is the most ancient of the sciences, and its development is a model of other fields of knowledge. People have been observing the stars and other celestial bodies since the dawn of recorded histor

18、y. As early as 3000 B.C. the Babylonians recognized a number of the constellations. 7. During the first five thousand years or more of observing the heavens, observation was confined to the narrow band of visible light. In the last half of this century astronomical observations have been made across

19、 the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays, and from satellites beyond the atmosphere. It is no exaggeration to say chat since the end of World War II more astronomical data have been gathered than during all of the thousands of y

20、ears of preceding human history. 8. However, despite all improvements in instrumentation, increasing sophistication of analysis and calculation augmented by the massive power of computers, and the huge aggregation of data, or knowledge, we still cannot predict future movements of planets and other e

21、lements of even the solar system with a high degree of certainty. Ivars Peterson, a highly trained science writer and an editor of Science News, writes in his book Newtons Clock (1993) that a surprisingly subtle chaos pervades the solar system. He states: In one way or another the problem of the sol

22、ar systems stability has fascinated and tormented asrtonomers and mathematicians for more than 200 years. Somewhat to the embarrassment of contemporary experts, it remains one of the most perplexing, unsolved issues in celestial mechanics. Each step toward resolving this and related questions has on

23、ly exposed additional uncertainties and even deeper mysteries. 9. Similar problems pervade astronomy. The two major theories of cosmology, general relativity and quantum mechanics, cannot be stated in the same mathematical language, and thus are inconsistent with one another, as the Ptolemaic and Co

24、pernican theories were in the sixteenth century, although both contemporary theories continue to be used, but for different calculations. Oxford mathematician Roger Penrose, in The Emperors New Mind (1989), contends that this inconsistency requires a change in quantum theory to provide a new theory

25、he calls correct quantum gravity.10. The progress of biological and life sciences has been similar to that of the physical sciences, except that it has occurred several centuries later. The theory of biological evolution first came to the attention of scientists with the publication of Darwins Origi

26、n of Species in 1859. But Darwin lacked any explanation of the causes of variation and inheritance of characteristics. These were provided by Gregor Mendel, who laid the mathematical foundation of genetics with the publication of papers in 1865 and 1866. 11. Medicine, according to Lewis Thomas, is t

27、he youngest science, having become truly scientific only in the 1930s. Recent and ongoing research has created uncertainty about even such basic concepts as when and how life begins and when death occurs, and we are spending billions in an attempt to learn how much it may be possible to know about h

28、uman genetics. Modern medicine has demonstrably improved both our life expectancies and our health, and further improvements continue to be made as research progresses. But new questions arise even more rapidly than our research resources grow, as the host of problems related to the Human Genome Pro

29、ject illustrates. 12. From even such an abbreviated and incomplete survey of science as this, it appears that increasing knowledge does not result in a commensurate decrease in ignorance, but, on the contrary, exposes new lacunae in our comprehension and confronts us with unforeseen questions disclo

30、sing areas of ignorance of which we were not previously aware. 13. Thus the concept of science as an expanding body of knowledge that will eventually encompass or dispel all significant areas of ignorance is an illusion. Scientists and philosophers are now observing that it is naive to regard scienc

31、e as a process that begins with observations that are organized into theories and are then subsequently tested by experiments. The late Karl Popper, a leading philosopher of science, wrote in The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1960) chat science starts from problems, not from observations, and chat

32、 every worthwhile new theory raises new problems. Thus there is no danger that science will come to an end because it has completed its task, clanks to the infinity of our ignorance. 14. At least since Thomas Kuhn published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), it has been generally recogn

33、ized that observations are the result of theories (called paradigms by Kuhn and other philosophers), for without theories of relevance and irrelevance there would be no basis for determining what observations to make. Since no one can know everything, to be fully informed on any subject (a claim som

34、etimes made by those in authority) is simply to reach a judgment that additional data are not important enough to be worth the trouble of securing or considering. 15. To carry the analysis another step, it must be recognized that theories are the result of questions and questions are the product of

35、perceived ignorance. Thus it is chat ignorance gives rise to inquiry chat produces knowledge, which, in turn, discloses new areas of ignorance. This is the paradox of knowledge: As knowledge increases so does ignorance, and ignorance may increase more than its related knowledge. 16. My own metaphor

36、to illustrate the relationship of knowledge and ignorance is based on a line from Matthew Arnold: For we are here as on a darkling plain The dark chat surrounds us, chat, indeed, envelops our world, is ignorance. Knowledge is the illumination shed by whatever candles (or more technologically advance

37、d light sources) we can provide. As we light more and more figurative candles, the area of illumination enlarges; but the area beyond illumination increases geometrically. We know chat there is much we dont know; but we cannot know how much there is chat we dont know. Thus knowledge is finite, but i

38、gnorance is infinite, and the finite cannot ever encompass the infinite. 17. This is a revised version of an article originally published in COSMOS 1994. Copyright 1995 by Lee Loevinger. Text 2 Tyranny of the UrgentCharles E. HummelHave you ever wished for a thirty-hour day? Surely this extra time w

39、ould relieve the tremendous pressure under which we live. Our lives leave a trail of unfinished tasks. Unanswered letters, unvisited friends, unwritten articles, and unread books haunt quiet moments when we stop to evaluate. We desperately need relief. But would a thirty-hour day really solve the pr

40、oblem? Wouldnt we soon be just as frustrated as we are now with our twenty-four allotment? A mothers work is never finished, and neither is that of any student, teacher, minister, or anyone else we know. Nor will the passage of time help us catch up. Children grow in number and age to require more o

41、f our time. Greater experience in profession and church brings more exacting assignments. So we find ourselves working more and enjoying it less.JUMBLED PRIORITIES When we stop to evaluate, we realize that our dilemma goes deeper than a shortage of time; it is basically the problem of priorities. Ha

42、rd work does not hurt us. We all know what it is to go full speed for long hours, totally involved in an important task. The resulting weariness is matched by a sense of achievement and joy. Not hard work, but doubt and misgiving, produce anxiety as we review a month or year and become oppressed by

43、the pile of unfinished tasks. We sense uneasily that we may have failed to do the important. The winds of peoples demands have driven us onto a reef of frustration. We confess, quite apart from our sins, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things whi

44、ch we ought not to have done. Several years ago an experienced cotton mill manager said to me, “Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important. He didnt realize how hard his maxim hit. It often returns to haunt and rebuke me by raising the critical problem of priorities. W

45、e live in constant tension between the urgent and the important. The problem is that the important task rarely must be done today or even this week. Extra hours of prayer and Bible study, a visit with the non-Christian friend, careful study of an important book: these projects can wait. But the urge

46、nt tasks call for instant actionendless demands pressure every hour and day. A mans home is no longer his castle; it is no longer a place from urgent tasks because the telephone breaches the walls with imperious demands. The momentary appeal of these tasks seems irresistible and important, and they

47、devour our energy. But in the light of times perspective their deceptive prominence fades; with a sense of loss we recall the important task pushed aside. We realize weve become slaves to the tyranny of the urgent.CAN YOU ESCAPE.? Is there any escape from this pattern of living? The answer lies in t

48、he life of our Lord. On the night before He died, Jesus made an astonishing claim. In the great prayer of John 17 He said, “ I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do (verse 4). How could Jesus use the word “finished? His three-year ministry seemed all too short. A prostitute at Simons ban

49、quet had found forgiveness and a new life, but many others still walked the street without forgiveness and a new life. For every ten withered muscles that had flexed into health, a hundred remained impotent. Yet on that last night, with many useful tasks undone and urgent human needs unmet, the Lord

50、 had peace; He knew He had finished Gods work. The Gospel records show that Jesus worked hard. After describing a busy day Mark writes, “That evening at sundown, they brought to Him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered about the door. And He healed many who wer

51、e sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons (1:32-34). On another occasion the demand of the ill and maimed caused Him to miss supper and to work so late that His family thought He was beside Himself (Mark 3:21). One day after a strenuous teaching session, Jesus and His disciples went out

52、 in a boat. Even a storm didnt awaken Him (Mark 4:37-38). What a picture of exhaustion. Yet His life was never feverish; He had time for people. He could spend hours talking to one person, such as the Samaritan women at the well. His life showed a wonderful balance, a sense of timing. When His broth

53、ers wanted Him to go to Judea, He replied, “My time has not yet come (John 7:6). Jesus did not ruin His gifts by haste. In The Discipline and Culture of the Spiritual Life, A.E. Whiteham observes; “Here in this Man is adequate purposeinward rest, that gives an air of leisure to His crowded life: abo

54、ve all there is in this Man a secret and a power of dealing with the waste-products of life, the waste of pain, disappointment, enmity, deathturning to divine uses the abuses of man, transforming arid places of pain to fruitfulness, triumphing at last in death and making a short life of thirty years

55、 or so, abruptly cut off, to be a finished life. We cannot admire the poise and beauty of this human life, and then ignore the things that made it. WAIT FOR INSTRUCTIONS What was the secret of Jesus work? We find a clue following Marks account of Jesus busy day. Mark observes that “.in the morning,

56、a great while before day, He rose and went out to a lonely place, and there He prayed (Mark 1:35). Here is the secret of Jesus life and work for God: He prayerfully waited for His Fathers instructions and for the strength to follow them. Jesus had no divinely-drawn blueprint; He discerned the Father

57、s will day by day in a life of prayer. By this means He warded off the urgent and accomplished the important. Lazaruss death illustrates this principle. What could have been more important than the urgent message from Mary and Martha, “Lord, he whom you love is ill (John 11:3)? John records the Lord

58、s response in these paradoxical words: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was (verses 5-6). What was the urgent need? Obviously it was to prevent the death of this beloved brother. But the important th

59、ing from Gods point of view was to raise Lazarus from the dead. So Lazarus was allowed to die. Later Jesus revived him as a sign of His magnificent claim, “I am the resurrection and the life: he who believes in Me though he die, yet shall he live (verse 25). We may wonder why our Lords ministry was

60、so short, why it could not have lasted another five or ten years, why so many wretched sufferers were left in their misery. Scripture gives not answer to these questions, and we leave them in the mystery of Gods purposes. But we do know that Jesus prayerful waiting for Gods instructions freed Him fr