随着信息社会的进展,作为一种世界性的语言,英语在国际化的科技、文化交流方面起着越来越大的作用。在科技教育领域加强英语学习,已经成为人们的普遍共识。但应当指出,如何有效地引导学生从大学英语学习顺利地过渡到科技文献的阅读,现在还存在着认识上的误区。有不少人认为有必要专门编写所谓的“科技英语”教材,以为“科技英语”非常特殊,与“普通英语”不一样,是一门专门的学科,——其实不然。实际上只有“用于科技方面的英语”,而没有与“普通英语”对立的“科技英语”;既没有特殊的英语规律,也没有可称为“科技语法”或“科技修辞学”之类东西。当然,各门学科都会有一些专门的用语,且同一个词汇在不同学科中可能有其特定的涵义和不同的侧**;另外,也有一些在当前科技文献中常见的惯用法和特殊涵义的缩略语甚至新词汇。
正是因为在有没有特殊的“科技英语”和采用何种方法构建“大学英语”和“文献阅读”之间的联系上的模糊观念,迄今我们看到的这方面的教材,大都从专业书刊中选用某些文章片段或章节作为课文,编成所谓的《生物英语》、《管理英语》之类教材。粗看起来这对学生的专业阅读似乎能够��到速成的效果,但如回头再认真地审视一下,不难发现

Text 1 Risks in Scientific Research
Text 2 Glassmaking in Bronze-Age Egypt
Text 3 Are Humans Still Evolving?
Text 4 Times of Our Lives
Text 5 The Right Time and Place for Making Flowers
Text 6 Suppressing Cancer:The Importance of Being Senescent
Text 7 Close to the Edge:Neutralizing the HIV一1 Envelope
Text 8 Researchers Tie Deadly SARS Virus to Bats
Text 9 The Hunt for a New Drug:Five Views from the Inside
Text 10 The Renaissance of Natural Products as Drug Candidates
Text 11 Making Fuels from Biomass
Text 12 The Man Who Dared to Think Small
Text 13 Plenty of Room.Indeed
Text 14 Small Things and Big Changes in the Developing World
Text 15 Ultrafine Particles
Text 16 Nanotubes for Electronics
Text 17 Spintronics
Text 18 In Praise of Hard Questions
(Cont.)
Question A WHAT IS THE UNIVERSE MADE OF?
Ouestion B WHAT IS THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS?
Question C TO WHAT EXTENT ARE GENETIC VARIATloN AND PERSONAL HEALTH LINKED?
Ouestion D WHAT CONTROLS ORGAN REGENERATION?
Question E WHAT GENETIC CHANGES MADE US UNIQUELY HUMAN?
Ouestion F HOW DID COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR EVOLVE?
Question G WHAT ARE THE LIMITS OF CONVENTIONAL COMPUTING?
Ouestion H Is AN EFFECTIVE HIV VACCINE FEASIBLE?
Ouestion I WHAT CAN REPLACE CHEAP OIL-AND WHEN?
Question J WILL MALTHUS CONTINUE TO BE WRONG?