Most people would agree that, although our age exceeds all previous ages in knowledge, there has been no corresponding increase in wisdom. But agreement ceases as soon as we attempt to define “wisdom” and consider means to promoting it.

There are several factors that contribute to wisdom. Of these I should put first a sense of proportion: the capacity to take account of all the important factors in a problem and to attach to each its due weight. This has become more difficult than it used to be owing to the extent and complexity of the special knowledge required of various kinds of technicians. Suppose, for example, that you are engaged in research in scientific medicine. The work is difficult and is likely to absorb the whole of your mind. You have no time to consider the effect which your discoveries or inventions may have outside the field of medicine. You succeed ( let us say ) as modern medicine has succeed, in lowering the infant death-rate, not only in Europe, but in Asia and Africa. This has the entirely unintended result of making the food supply inadequate and lowering the standard of life in the parts of the world that have the greatest populations. To take an even more dramatic example, which is in everybody’s mind at the present time, you study the makeup of the atom from a disinterested desire for knowledge, and by chance place in the hands of a powerful mad man the means of destroying the human race.

Therefore, with every increase of knowledge and skill, wisdom becomes more necessary, for every such increase arguments (增强)our capacity for realizing our purpose, and therefore arguments our capacity for evil, if our purpose are unwise.

1. Disagreement arises when people try to decide _______ .

   A. how much more wisdom we have now than before  

   B. what wisdom is and how to develop it

   C. if there is a great increase of wisdom in our age

   D. whether wisdom can be developed or not

2. According to the author, “wisdom” is the ability to ________.

   A. carefully consider the bad effect of any kind of research work

   B. give each important problem some careful consideration

   C. acquire a great deal of complex and special knowledge

   D. give suitable consideration to all the possible elements in a problem

3. Lowering the infant death-rate may ________ .

   A. prove to be helpful everywhere in the world

   B. give rise to an increase in population in Europe

   C. cause food shortage in Asia and Africa

   D. raise the living standard of the people in Africa

4. The author uses the examples in the passage to illustrate his point that _______ .

   A. it’s extremely difficult to consider all the important elements in a problem

   B. success in medical research has its negative effects

   C. scientists may unknowingly cause destruction to human race

   D. it’s unwise to be totally absorbed in research in scientific medicine

5. What is the main idea of the passage?

   A. It is unwise to place the results of scientific research in the hands of a powerful mad man.

   B. The more knowledge one has, the wiser one becomes

   C. Any increase of knowledge could lead to disastrous results without the guidance of wisdom

   D. Wisdom increases in proportion to one’s age

参考答案： B D C A C

大多数人都一致认为尽管我们这个时代在知识方面超过了以往的时代，但智慧却没有相应的增长。然而，当我们试图给智慧下定义并思考增长智慧的途径时，便没有了共识。
有几种因素有助于智慧的增长，其中我首先要提到的是一种权衡能力（比例感）：一种能考虑到问题中所有因素并给每个因素应有的重视的能力。要具备这样的能力比过去更难了，各类技术人员所需要的专业知识的广度和复杂度已经不同以往了。例如，你从事医学研究工作，该研究工作很难，很可能需要你全心投入。这样，你没有时间去考虑你的发现或发明会对医学领域之外带来什么影响。假如你正如现代医学一样，在欧美，在亚非都成功地降低了新生儿的死亡率。这却带来了一个始料不及的结果：在世界人口众多的地区食物供应不足，生活水准下降。再看一个更明显的例子，一个现在人人都能想到的例子：你研究原子的结构本是出于一种无私的探求知识的愿望，但是却无意中让有权势的人得到了毁灭人类的工具。
因此，随着知识和技能的增长，智慧变得更加必要。知识和技能的每一次进一步都会增强我们实现目标的能力，因而如果我们愚蠢鲁莽的话，随之提高的则会是我们作恶的能耐。