大学英语四级阅读部分重视对文章信息的提取和剖析。通过训练理解文章主旨和细节，并提升语法理解，可以有效提升答卷得分。以下是“2025年12月大学英语四级阅读理解练习：科学探索的办法”，期望能对大伙的英语水平提高有所帮助!
2025年12月大学英语四级阅读理解练习：科学探索的办法
Method of Scientific Inquiry
Why the inductive and mathematical sciences, after their first rapid development at theculmination of Greek civilization, advanced so slowly for two thousand years—and why in thefollowing two hundred years a knowledge of natural and mathematical science hasaccumulated, which so vastly exceeds all that was previously known that these sciences maybe justly regarded as the products of our own times—are questions which have interested themodern philosopher not less than the objects with which these sciences are more immediatelyconversant. Was it the employment of a new method of research, or in the exercise of greatervirtue in the use of the old methods, that this singular modern phenomenon had its origin? Was the long period one of arrested development, and is the modern era one of normal growth? Or should we ascribe the characteristics of both periods to so-called historical accidents—tothe influence of conjunctions in circumstances of which no explanation is possible, save in theomnipotence and wisdom of a guiding Providence?
The explanation which has become commonplace, that the ancients employed deductionchiefly in their scientific inquiries, while the moderns employ induction, proves to be toonarrow, and fails upon close examination to point with sufficient distinctness the contrastthat is evident between ancient and modern scientific doctrines and inquiries. For all knowledgeis founded on observation, and proceeds from this by analysis, by synthesis and analysis, by induction and deduction, and if possible by verification, or by new appeals toobservation under the guidance of deduction—by steps which are indeed correlative parts ofone method; and the ancient sciences afford examples of every one of these methods, or partsof one method, which have been generalized from the examples of science.
A failure to employ or to employ adequately any one of these partial methods, animperfection in the arts and resources of observation and experiment, carelessness inobservation, neglect of relevant facts, by appeal to experiment and observation—theseare the faults which cause all failures to ascertain truth, whether among the ancients or themoderns; but this statement does not explain why the modern is possessed of a greatervirtue, and by what means he attained his superiority. Much less does it explain the suddengrowth of science in recent times.
The attempt to discover the explanation of this phenomenon in the antithesis of “facts” and“theories” or “facts” and “ideas”—in the neglect among the ancients of the former, and theirtoo exclusive attention to the latter—proves also to be too narrow, as well as open to thecharge of vagueness. For in the first place, the antithesis is not complete. Facts and theoriesare not coordinate species. Theories, if true, are facts—a particular class of facts indeed, generally complex, and if a logical connection subsists between their constituents, have allthe positive attributes of theories.
Nevertheless, this distinction, however inadequate it may be to explain the source of truemethod in science, is well founded, and connotes an important character in true method. A factis a proposition of simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true has all the characteristics of afact, except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means. Toconvert theories into facts is to add simple verification, and the theory thus acquires the fullcharacteristics of a fact.
1. The title that best expresses the ideas of thispassage is
[A]. Philosophy of mathematics. [B]. The RecentGrowth in Science.
[C]. The Verification of Facts. [C]. Methods of Scientific Inquiry.
2. According to the author, one possible reason for the growth of science during thedays of the ancient Greeks and in modern times is
[A]. the similarity between the two periods.
[B]. that it was an act of God.
[C]. that both tried to develop the inductive method.
[D]. due to the decline of the deductive method.
3. The difference between “fact” and “theory”
[A]. is that the latter needs /confirm/iation.
[B]. rests on the simplicity of the former.
[C]. is the difference between the modern scientists and the ancient Greeks.
[D]. helps us to understand the deductive method.
4. According to the author, mathematics is
[A]. an inductive science. [B]. in need of simple verification.
[C]. a deductive science. [D]. based on fact and theory.
5. The statement “Theories are facts” may be called.
[A]. a metaphor. [B]. a paradox.
[C]. an appraisal of the inductive and deductive methods.
[D]. a pun.
1. D. 科学研究/探索的办法。文章刚开始就提出问题，为何从希腊文化顶峰时期后两千年来总结法和数学科学进步这样缓慢，而后的两百年又超越了前人，是应用新，旧办法关系还是其它。第二段讲埃及古时候在科学探索中运用了演绎推理法，而目前应用了总结法。这种讲解太狭隘，经仔细审核，很难非常明确地址明古时候和现代科学教义和探究上明显的差别。由于所有常识都基于察看，通过剖析，综合，或综合剖析，总结演绎推理，大概的话，经过校正或经由演绎指导下再察看而向前推进。第三段进一步说明不需要这类办法察看，实验;忽视有关事实，推理不慎;不可以答出理论的结论，再用实验或察看来检验等或用得不全，不论在古时候还是现代都会失败。但这不可以说明为何现代科学具备较高的效果，通过什么方法办法，超越了前人，更不需要说说明近期科学突飞猛进是什么原因。第四，五段涉及事实和理论的关系。
A. 数学的哲学，文内没提。 B. 近来科学的进步。 C. 事实的验证，只不过最后两段提及验证办法之用途。
2. B. 是上天的安排，这是作家在用办法论等失败后得出的结论。见难句译注4，第一段最后一句话。
A. 两个阶段的相似性。 . 两者都试图应用总结法。 D. 因为演绎法的衰落。
3. A. 后者需要证实。答案在第四，五段，死段试图在事实的对立面和理论，或事实和思想中发现上述现象的讲解看着有饿太狭隘，也会因模糊不清遭批评。由于，对立面不全方位，事实和理论不是相同种类的事物。理论，若是真的的理论，就是事实——一种特殊类别的事实，一般复杂，但仍是事实。而事实，从词的狭义来讲，假如非常复杂，假如各成分中存在着逻辑的联系，就具备理论的所有主要特点。第五段第二句，事实是一个建议，通过运用常识的源泉和经验而证实的建议直接而又简单。而理论，如果是真理论，就有事实的所有特质，把理论转成事实需要用简单的核实，理论因此具备事实的所有特质。
B. 前者简单。 C. 是现代科学家和古希腊的差异。 D. 帮助大家知道演绎法，三项都不对。
4. C. 是推理演绎科学，这个问题知识就能回答。
A. 总结法科学。 B. 需要简单证实。 D. 基于事实和理论。
5. B. 是一个悖论，见第四，五段注解。
A. 比喻。 C. 对总结法和演绎法的赞扬。 D. 双关语。
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