每日一练：职称英语考试理工类每日一练(2019/7/3)
【单选题】
Stars in their eyes
The Scientific American Book of the Cosmosedited by David Levy, Macmillan, ￡20, ISBN 0333782933
Previous generations of scientists would havekilled to know what we know. For the first time in history, we have a prettygood idea of the material content of the Universe, our position within it andhow the whole thing came into being.
In these times of exploding knowledge there isa definite need to take stock and assemble what we know in a palatable (受欢迎的) form. (46)
The essays in The Scientific American Book ofthe Cosmos have been selected by David Levy, co-discoverer of CometShoemaker-Levy 9, which in 1994 struck Jupiter with the violence of severalfull-scale nuclear wars. (47) This is certainly agreat collection of essays, but it is not, as the book promises, a seamless (完美的，无缝隙的) synthesis of our current knowledge.
Nobody can fault the range of articles Levy hasincluded. There are essays on the planets, moons and assorted debris (碎片) in the Solar System, and on our Galaxy, the Milky Way. (48)
The contributors, too, are stars in their ownfields. Not many books can boast chapters written by such giants as ErwinSchrodinger and Francis Crick. My personal favorites are a piercingly clearessay by Albert Einstein on general relativity and an article by Alan Guth andPaul Steinhardt on the inflationary (膨胀的) Universe.
So much for the book’scontent. But Levy has not succeeded in providing an accurate synthesis of ourcurrent knowledge of the cosmos, which the book jacket promises. Gatheringtogether previously published articles inevitably leaves subject gaps, missingexplanations and so on. (49) But there isn’t one. In fact, surprisingly for a book so densely packed withinformation, there is no index.
Collecting essays in this way is clearly a goodpublishing wheeze (巧妙的). But this approach shortchangesthe public, who would be better served by an account molded into a seamlesswhole. (50) However, for the next edition, please,please can we have an index?
A Tegmark fears he may hold the record for thelongest time taken to read one book.
B In a more positive vein, this is a wonderfulcollection of essays to dip in and out of if you already have a good overview (概述) of current cosmic understanding.
C Levy is an active astronomer and anaccomplished writer, so you’d expect him to provide abroad and accurate picture of our current understanding of the cosmos.
D Scientific American has attempted to cater tothis need by bringing together essays that have appeared in the magazine.
E To some extent, these could have been pluggedwith a glossary (词表) of terms.
F Also included are contributions on the worldof subatomic particles, the origin of life on Earth and the possibility of itsexistence elsewhere.
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