考研英语阅读（1）To paraphrase 18th-century statesman Edmund Burke, "all that is needed for the triumph of a misguided cause is that good people do nothing." One such cause now seeks to end biomedical research because of the theory that animals have rights ruling out their use in research. Scientists need to respond forcefully to animal rights advocates, whose arguments are confusing the public and thereby threatening advances in health knowledge and care. Leaders of the animal rights movement target biomedical research because it depends on public funding, and few people understand the process of health care research. Hearing allegations of cruelty to animals in research settings, many are perplexed that anyone would deliberately harm an animal.For example, a grandmotherly woman staffing an animal rights booth at a recent street fair was distributing a brochure that encouraged readers not to use anything that comes from or is tested in animals-no meat, no fur, no medicines. Asked if she opposed immunizations, she wanted to know if vaccines come from animal research. When assured that they do, she replied, "Then I would have to say yes." Asked what will happen when epidemics return, she said, "Don't worry, scientists will find some way of using computers." Such well-meaning people just don't understand.Scientists must communicate their message to the public in a compassionate, understandable way-in human terms, not in the language of molecular biology. We need to make clear the connection between animal research and a grandmother's hip replacement, a father's bypass operation a baby's vaccinations, and even a pet's shots. To those who are unaware that animal research was needed to produce these treatments, as well as new treatments and vaccines, animal research seems wasteful at best and cruel at worst.Much can be done. Scientists could "adopt" middle school classes and present their own research. They should be quick to respond to letters to the editor, lest animal rights misinformation go unchallenged and acquire a deceptive appearance of truth. Research institutions could be opened to tours, to show that laboratory animals receive humane care. Finally, because the ultimate stakeholders are patients, the health research community should actively recruit to its cause not only well-known personalities such as Stephen Cooper, who has made courageous statements about the value of animal research, but all who receive medical treatment. If good people do nothing there is a real possibility that an uninformed citizenry will extinguish the precious embers of medical progress.18世纪政治家埃德蒙·柏克曾说过类似这样的话，“被误导的运动要想成功，所需的只是好人不作为。

”现在，就有这样一个运动正在寻求终止生物医学的研究，因为有这样一种理论说，动物享有权利禁止它们被用于实验。

科学家应该对动物权利鼓吹者做出强有力的回应，因为他们的言论混淆了公众的视听，从而威胁到卫生知识和卫生服务的进步。

动物权利运动的领导者将矛头指向生物医学研究，原因在于它依赖公共资金的资助，并且很少有人懂得医学研究的过程。

当人们听到医学实验虐待动物的指控时，许多人都不明白为什么有人会故意伤害动物。

例如，在最近一次街头集市上，一位老奶奶站在动物权利宣传点前散发小册子，规劝人们不要使用动物制品和动物实验制品——肉类，毛皮，药物。

当被问到她是否反对免疫接种时，她问疫苗是否来自动物实验。

当被告知的确如此，她回答道，“那么我不得不说，是的，我反对接种”。

当被问到瘟疫爆发怎么办时，她说，“不用担心，科学家会找到一种方法，用计算机来解决问题”。

看，这样好心的人们就是不明白。

科学家必须把他们的意思传达给公众，并且要使用有同情心和通俗易懂的语言，一般人能够明白的语言，而不要使用分子生物学的语言。

我们需要说明动物实验与祖母的髋骨更换、父亲的心脏搭桥、婴儿的免疫接种、甚至宠物的注射针剂都密切相关。

许多人不明白获得这些新的治疗方法和疫苗都必须进行动物实验。

对于他们来说，动物实验说得好是浪费，说得不好是残忍。

有很多事情可以做。

科学家可以进入中学课堂，展示他们的实验结果。

他们应该对报刊的读者来信及时做出反应，以防止动物权利的误导言论在毫无质疑的情况下横行，从而获得一副真理的面容。

科研机构应该对外开放，让人参观，向人们展示实验室里的动物获得了人道的对待。

最后，因为最终决定因素是病人，医疗研究机构不仅应该积极争取斯蒂芬?库柏这样的名人的支持——他对动物实验的价值勇敢地进行了肯定——而且应该争取所有接受治疗的病人的支持。

如果好人无所作为，一群不明真相的公众真的有可能扑灭医学进步的宝贵火种。

（2）Science, in practice, depends far less on the experiments it prepares than on the preparedness of the minds of the men who watch the experiments. Sir Isaac Newton supposedly discovered gravity through the fall of an apple. Apples had been falling in many places for centuries and thousands of people had seen them fall. But Newton for years had been curious about the cause of the orbital motion of the moon and planets. What kept them in place? Why didn't they fall out of the sky? The fact that the apple fell down toward the earth and not up into the tree answered the question he had been asking himself about those larger fruits of the heavens, the moon and the planets.How many men would have considered the possibility of an apple falling up into the tree? Newton did because he was not trying to predict anything. He was just wondering. His mind was ready for the unpredictable. Unpredictability is part of the essential nature of research. If you don't have unpredictable things, you don't have research. Scientists tend to forget this when writing their cut and dried reports for the technical journals, but history is filled with examples of it. In talking to some scientists, particularly younger ones, you might gather theimpression that they find the "scientific method" a substitute for imaginative thought. I've attended research conferences where a scientist has been asked what he thinks about the advisability of continuing a certain experiment. The scientist has frowned, looked at the graphs, and said "the data are still inconclusive." "We know that," the men from the budget office have said, "but what do you think? Is it worthwhile going on? What do you think we might expect?" The scientist has been shocked at having even been asked to speculate.What this amounts to, of course, is that the scientist has become the victim of his own writings. He has put forward unquestioned claims so consistently that he not only believes them himself, but has convinced industrial and business management that they are true. If experiments are planned and carried out according to plan as faithfully as the reports in the science journals indicate, then it is perfectly logical for management to expect research to produce results measurable in dollars and cents. It is entirely reasonable for auditors to believe that scientists who know exactly where they are going and how they will get there should not be distracted by the necessity of keeping one eye on the cash register while the other eye is on the microscope. Nor, if regularity and conformity to a standard pattern are as desirable to the scientist as the writing of his papers would appear to reflect, is management to be blamed for discriminating against the "odd balls" among researchers in favor of more conventional tinkers who "work well with the team."在实践中，科学的进步依赖于做实验，但更依赖于实验的观察者（即做实验的人）的心理是否有足够的准备。