Text 4 Clouds are notoriously unruly.Mak

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问题 Text 4 Clouds are notoriously unruly.Make It Rain,Kristine Harper's detailed history of weather control in the United States,reminds us that clouds have been objects of desire and frustration for some time.Her story of the messy interface between science and govemment policy unfolds across the 20th century,but it reaches its emotional crest in the 1950s.Although she includes colorful details of cloud-seeding experiments,Harper's story is not so much about attempts to control the weather as it is about the political battles waged over the control of the atmosphere.But Harper's focus on govemment policy is what makes this study so worthwhile.Scientific facts,she demonstrates,were never central to weather control policies.When meteorologists were consulted,they usually replied that our basic physical understanding still fell far short of what was required to intervene in the weather in responsible or effective ways.More research,they argued,was needed before action could be taken.Officials in the Departments oflnterior and Defense looked elsewhere for scientific support.They found a few key figures willing to play the role of experts,including the mathematician and computer architect John von Neumann and Irving Langmuir,a Nobel laureate chemist employed by General Electric(GE).Langmuir,who used supercooled GE freezers to simulate clouds,assumed that what worked in the laboratory would work in the atmosphere itself.After inconclusive field experiments in New Mexico,he made plausible reports that just a few pounds of dry ice or silver iodide could generate precipitation over thousands of square mrles.The truth was more complex and the prospects for actual control much less favorable.It was sometimes possible to coax water out of clouds that already existed.It was not possible to generate water-and clouds-where none existed.Yet such details,and the physical facts behind them,did remarkably little damage to govemment plans for hamessing the awesome power of the atmosphere.Rather than revealing a history of what we might today call evidence-led policy,here is a rogue's gallery of policy~led evidence.Drawing on the work of Brian Balogh,Harper calls such programs the workings of a"proministrative state,"in which a governing body sells the people services that the people have not.in fact,demanded.After a series of relatively benign(and frequently unsuccessful)domestic projects during the 1950s,the United States started its weather control efforts on the world stage.Some interventions were peaccful,such as an attempt to mitigate drought in the Bihar region oflndia in 1967.Others were not.40.Which of the following can be the best title ofthe passage?A.Skepticism on Policy-Ied ScienceB.Frustration within Atmosphere ResearchC.The Link between Science and AdministrationD.Success in Weather Control

选项 A.Skepticism on Policy-Ied Science
B.Frustration within Atmosphere Research
C.The Link between Science and Administration
D.Success in Weather Control

答案 A

解析 主旨大意题。最佳标题应选择包含主题且能体现论点的题目。本文第一段和第二段讲述《人工降雨》这本书揭示了科学与政府政策之间复杂的相互影响。第三段讲一些大人物做的一些模棱两可的实验。第四段讲真正控制云的前景并不乐观。第五段讲这本书展现出“政策引导证据”的强盗逻辑。第六段讲美国开始在国际舞台上进行天气控制的尝试,结果并不乐观。综合以上分析,可以看出作者主要是以“人工降雨”为例讲政策干预对科学的影响,并表示对这一政策导向型科学的怀疑。故选A项。【干扰排除】B项误将论据当主题;C项为说明文式的标题,偏离主题;D项论点颠倒。故均排除。
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