Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance, were determined by technologists, artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers — using nonscientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in the mind by a visual, nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology, it has been nonverbal thinking, by and large, that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details of our material surroundings. Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them.

The creative shaping process of a technologist’s mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For example, in designing a diesel engine, a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the combustion chamber? Where should be valves be placed? Should it have a long or short piston? Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience, by physical requirements, by limitations of available space, and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions such as wall thickness and pin diameter, may depend on scientific calculations, but the nonscientific component of design remains primary.

Design courses, then, should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking, a central mechanism in engineering design, involves perceptions, the stock-in-trade of the artist, not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail “hard thinking,” nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering, the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engineering students, but rather students attending architectural schools.

If courses in design, which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem-solving, are not provided, we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example, early models of high-speed railroad cars loaded with sophisticated controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations; they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics.

1. In the text, the author is primarily concerned with

[A] identifying the kinds of thinking that are used by technologists.

[B] stressing the importance of nonverbal thinking in engineering design.

[C] proposing a new role for nonscientific thinking in the development of technology.

[D] contrasting the goals of engineers with those of technologists.

2. It can be inferred that the author thinks engineering curricula are

[A] strengthened when they include courses in design.

[B] weakened by the substitution of physical science courses for courses designed to develop mathematical skills.

[C] strong because nonverbal thinking is still emphasized by most of the courses.

[D] strong despite the errors that graduates of such curricula have made in the development of automatic control systems.

3. Which of the following statements best illustrates the main point of the first two paragraphs of the text?

[A] When a machine like a rotary engine malfunctions, it is the technologist who is best equipped to repair it.

[B] Each component of an automobile — for example, the engine or the fuel tank — has a shape that has been scientifically determined to be best suited to that component’s function.

[C] A telephone is a complex instrument designed by technologists using only nonverbal thought.

[D] The distinctive features of a suspension bridge reflect its designer’s conceptualization as well as the physical requirements of its site.

4. Which of the following statements would best serve as an introduction to the text?

[A] The assumption that the knowledge incorporated in technological developments must be derived from science ignores the many nonscientific decisions made by technologists.

[B] Analytical thought is no longer a vital component in the success of technological development.

[C] As knowledge of technology has increased, the tendency has been to lose sight of the important role played by scientific thought in making decisions about form, arrangement, and texture.

[D] A movement in engineering colleges toward a technician’s degree reflects a demand for graduates who have the nonverbal reasoning ability that was once common among engineers.

5. The author calls the predicament faced by the Historic American Engineering Record “paradoxical” (line 6, paragraph 3) most probably because

[A] the publication needed drawings that its own staff could not make.

[B] architectural schools offered but did not require engineering design courses for their students.

[C] college students were qualified to make the drawings while practicing engineers were not.

[D] engineering students were not trained to make the type of drawings needed to record the development of their own discipline.

　　[答案与考点解析]

1. 【答案】B

【考点解析】这是一道中心主旨题。本题的正确答案信息点在原文第一段的倒数第二句，该句强调“nonverbal thinking”的重要性。可见本题的正确选项应该是B。考生在破解中心主旨题时一定要首先找出原文的中心主旨句。

2. 【答案】A

【考点解析】这是一道反推题。根据题干中的“engineering curricula”可将本题的正确答案信息来源确定在原文的第三段第一句。该句中“should”一词的理解十分重要。“should”是“应该做”而实际上确“没有做”。根据“should”一词并且结合第三段第一句进行反推即逆向思维，可得出本题的正确选项是A。考生在解题时应该重视关键的语言信号词，更要加强反推的能力。

3. 【答案】D

【考点解析】本题是一道细节归纳推导题。其实只要考生抓住第一段中的中心主旨句(倒数第二句)和第二段中的中心主旨句(倒数第一句)，就不难寻找出本题的正确答案D。要想知道某一段的主要含义就要首先找出该段的中心主旨句。另外考生在破解此类题型时还要善于根据中心主旨句进行合理的逻辑推导。

4. 【答案】A

【考点解析】这是一道中心主旨题。如果考生抓住了全文的中心主旨句(第一段的倒数第二句)以及每段的中心主旨句(例如第二段的倒数第一句)，就不难寻找出本题的正确选项A，因为该选项所强调的内容与这些中心主旨句所表达的内容是相互一致的。考生在破解中心主旨题型时一定要具备寻找和理解中心主旨句的能力。

5. 【答案】D

【考点解析】本题是一道细节推导题。题干已经将本题的答案信息确定在第三段的尾句，该句强调的是“engineering students”在教育方面的缺陷，因此本题的正确选项应该是D。如果考生在理解此句时有困难，可借助于本段的主题句(第三段第一句)来破解本题。第三段第一句强调的是“engineering curricula”缺乏“design courses”。这句话同样是表明“engineering students”在教育方面的缺失。考生在破解此类题型时一定要善于总结和归纳原文的信息。

　　[参考译文]

许多日常使用的事物明显受到了科学的影响，但它们的形状和功能，它们的大小和外观，是由工艺人员、工匠、设计师、发明家和工程师运用非科学思维模式来设计的。工艺人员所考虑物体的很多性质和特点不能归结到毫不模糊的字面描述;在思维中，它们以一种视觉上的、非言语的方式被加以处理。在西方科技的发展过程中，大体上是由非言语思维刻画了我们物质环境的轮廓并充实了其中的细节。金字塔、大教堂、火箭之所以存在，不是因为几何学或热力学的原因，而是因为在它们的制造者的头脑中事先存在了这样一幅画面。

在几乎每一件现存的人造制品身上都能看出工艺人员思维创造性的制作过程。比如说，在柴油发动机的设计中，通过不断使用关于合适感和适当感的直观体会，一个工艺人员得以用他个人的非语言思维来影响到机器本身。燃烧室的形状应怎样?阀门应该放在哪里?它应该有个长的活塞还是应该有个短的?这样的问题有着由经验、物理需要、可用空间的局限以及并非微不足道的形状感等因素提供的一系列答案。某一些决定，比如壁厚和销钉直径，可能需要由科学的计算来定夺，但设计中的非科学成分仍然是主要的。

因此设计课程应该成为工程课程中的基本成份。非语言思维，这一工程设计的核心机制，包括了感受这一属于艺术家的而非科学家的惯用手段。因为人们认为感受的过程不需要“硬思维”，非语言思维被视为认知过程发展的一个原始阶段而且比语言和数学思维差。但令人感到自相矛盾的是，当《美国工程历史名录》的工作人员希望得到为其美国工程历史记录而绘制的机器图和等比例图时，唯一具有所需技能的大学生不是工程学大学生，而是就读于建筑学院的大学生。

如果不能开设设计课程(它能在一个高度分析性工程学课程体系中提供解决实际问题的背景知识)，我们就会在先进的工程系统中遇到愚蠢而同时会导致极大损失的错误。比如，装载了精密控制设备的早期高速铁路车辆模型不能在暴风雪中正常运行，原因是一个风扇将雪吸入到电子系统中。干扰着自动控制系统的荒唐的随机故障不是轻微的失常;它们是一种混乱的反映，人们认为这种混乱主要在设计数学方面的问题时就会产生。