可供参考老题库183. As our knowledge of the world accumulates, we arrive at a higher stage of civilization although the world may appear more complex and more mysterious.
1. The world in the eyes of primitive tribes was much simpler and thus more "comprehensible" in a sense and certainly more backward.
2. If we compare the known part of the world to the space within a circle, the unknown part of the world around the circle grows as the circle of our knowledge expands.
3. There is no need to feel frustrated about the increasingly more complex and more mysterious world that we confront because our knowledge in total keeps growing and correspondingly we are becoming better equipped to cope with the problems that emerge.
观点:基本同意
①获得知识越来越多，科技不断的发展，在很多方面方便了人们，简化了事情。几个世纪以来，人们对于自然的认识越来越多，远古时代，人们不知道日食的真正原因，总是提出各种鬼神的解释，而人们现在已经了解到这是地球月亮太阳相对运动造成的。
②然而，另一方面对于自然界的每一个认识又会引发新的问题，让人们感觉好像问题没有变简单，而是越来越复杂。比如：上段所提出的，是由行星的运动产生的。于是科学家又在思考，是什么驱使行星的运动的，他们为什么会运动，由此引发了牛顿万有引力的产生，而牛顿万有引力的发现，又引发了开普勒三大定律的发现，由此看来，似乎科学并没有把人们带向简单，而是引入神秘。
③人类历史也证明了这一点，人类必将是越来越复杂，远古的时候，我们的祖先只知道捕鱼、耕种，过着简单的生活，而现在的我们面临众多的问题：宇宙起源、外星人、核问题等等。
结尾：人类是一种奇怪的生物，勇于探索的人类将会走向一个又一个科学的高峰，相信会揭开所有谜团。
可供参考老题库226"People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confront are more complex and challenging than the problems faced by their predecessors. This illusion is eventually dispelled with increased knowledge and experience."
人们总是错误地认为自己面临的问题要比前人来得更复杂和更具有挑战性。不断增加的知识和经验最终消除这种假象。
1. The speaker overlooks certain societal problems unique to today's world, which are complex and challenging in ways unlike any problems that earlier societies ever faced.
2. However, humans face certain universal and timeless problems, which are neither more nor less complex and challenging for any generation than for preceding ones.
观点：disagree，虽然许多问题比过去改善了，但更多的问题出现了且更为复杂；知识和经验帮助我们使其简单化
1．Admittedly，with the development in society and the advances in technology，many problem has been ameliorated today either in our daily life or in the society.
1.1 生存条件的改善（科技进步对人类的益处）
1.2 社会更文明，种族歧视racial discrimination、不同意识形态的冲突conflicts among ideologies、战争的减少
2．However，the author overlooks certain problems unique to today's world, which are more complex or challenging than in the past.
2.1 Advancing technology and increasing globalization creates problems in many fields such as politics, military, economics and environment, which are far more complex than in the past.
2.2 For example, growing scarcity of the world's natural resources自然资源严重匮乏, over population环境污染, over consumption of energy能源危机, nuclear weapons核武器问题, the greenhouse effect 温室效应and other environmental disasters.
3．知识和经验帮助我们解决这些问题
3.1 过去的经验和教训使我们不再重复过去的错误
3.2 科技知识进步帮助我们解决现有问题
Is any sense that the problems we face are more complex and challenging than those which our predecessors faced merely an illusion--one that can be dispelled by way of knowledge and experience? The speaker believes so, although I disagree. In my view, the speaker unfairly generalizes about the nature of contemporary problems, some of which have no analog from earlier times and which in some respects are more complex and challenging than any problems earlier societies ever confronted. Nevertheless, I agree that many of the other problems we humans face are by their nature enduring ones that have changed little in complexity and difficulty over the span of human history; and I agree that through experience and enlightened reflection on human history we grow to realize this fact.
I turn first to my chief point of contention with the statement. The speaker overlooks certain societal problems unique to today's world, which are complex and challenging in ways unlike any problems that earlier societies ever faced. Consider three examples. The first involves the growing scarcity of the world's natural resources. An ever-increasing human population, together with over-consumption on the part of developed nations and with global dependencies on finite natural resources, have created uniquely contemporary environmental problems that are global in impact and therefore pose political and economic challenges previously unrivaled in complexity.
A second uniquely contemporary problem has to do with the fact that the nations of the world are growing increasingly interdependent--politically, militarily, and economically. Interdependency makes for problems that are far more complex than analogous problems for individual nations during times when they were more insular, more self-sustaining, and more autonomous.
A third uniquely contemporary problem is an outgrowth of the inexorable advancement of scientific knowledge, and one that society voluntarily takes up as a challenge. Through scientific advancements we've already solved innumerable health problems, harnessed various forms of physical energy, and so forth. The problems left to address are the ones that are most complex and challenging--for example, slowing the aging process, replacing human limbs and organs, and colonizing other worlds in the event ours becomes inhabitable. In short, as we solve each successive scientific puzzle we move on to more challenging and complex ones.
I turn next to my points of agreement with the statement. Humans face certain universal and timeless problems, which are neither more nor less complex and challenging for any generation than for preceding ones. These sorts of problems are the ones that spring from the failings and foibles that are part-and-parcel of human nature. Our problems involving interpersonal relationships with people of the opposite sex stem from basic differences between the two sexes. The social problems of prejudice and discrimination know no chronological bounds because it is our nature to fear and mistrust people who are different from us. War and crime stem from the male aggressive instinct and innate desire for power. We've never been able to solve social problems such as homelessness and hunger because we are driven by self-interest.
I agree with the statement also in that certain kinds of intellectual struggles-- to deter mine the meaning of life, whether God exists, and so forth are timeless ones whose complexities and mystery know no chronological bounds whatsoever. The fact that we rely on ancient teachings to try to solve these problems underscores the fact that these problems have not grown any more complex over the course of human history. And, with respect to all the timeless problems mentioned above I agree that knowledge and experience hdp us to understand that these problems are not more complex today than before. In the final analysis, by studying history, human psychology, theology, and philosophy we come to realize that, aside from certain uniquely contemporary problems, we face the same fundamental problems as our predecessors because we face the same human condition as our predecessors whenever we look in the mirror.
Does knowledge render things more comprehensible, or more complex and mysterious? In my view the acquisition of knowledge brings about all three at the same time. This paradoxical result is aptly explained and illustrated by a number of advances in our scientific knowledge.
Consider, for example, the sonar system on which blind bats rely to navigate and especially to seek prey. Researchers have learned that this system is startlingly sophisticated. By emitting audible sounds, then processing the returning echoes, a bat can determine in a nanosecond not only how far away its moving prey is but also the prey's speed, direction, size and even specie! This knowledge acquired helps explain, of course, how bats navigate and survive. Yet at the same time this knowledge points out the incredible complexity of the auditory and brain functions of certain animals, even of mere humans, and creates a certain mystery and wonder about how such systems ever evolved organically.
Or consider our knowledge of the universe. Advances in telescope and space-exploration technology seem to corroborate the theory of a continually expanding universe that began at the very beginning of time with a "big bang." On one level this knowledge, assuming it qualifies as such, helps us comprehend our place in the universe and our ultimate destiny. Yet on the other hand it adds yet another chapter to the mystery about what existed before time and the universe.
Or consider the area of atomic physics. The naked human eye perceives very little, of course, of the complexity of matter. To our distant ancestors the physical world appeared simple--seemingly comprehensible by means of sight and touch. Then by way of scientific knowledge we learned that all matter is comprised of atoms, which are further comprised of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Then we discovered an even more basic unit of matter called the quark. And now a new so-called "string" theory posits the existence of an even more fundamental, and universal, unit of matter. On the one hand, these discoveries have rendered things more comprehensible, by explaining and reconciling empirical observations of how matter behaves. The string theory also reconciles the discrepancy between the quantum and wave theories of physics. On the other hand, each discovery has in turn revealed that matter is more complex than previously thought. In fact, the string theory, which is theoretically sound, calls for seven more dimensions---in addition to the three we already know about! I'm hard-pressed to imagine anything more complex or mysterious.
In sum, the statement overlooks a paradox about knowledge acquired, at least when it comes to understanding the physical world. When through knowledge a thing becomes more comprehensible and explainable we realize at the same time that it is more complex and mysterious than previously thought.
Orignal From: Some people believe that scientific discoveries have given us a much better understanding of the world around us. Others believe that science has revealed to us that the world is infinitely more complex than we ever realized
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