¡¡DAY68

¡¡¡¡Reading comprehension

¡¡¡¡Direction: In this part, there are four passages followed by questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the on
e that you think is the correct answer.

¡¡¡¡Passage 1¡°Finagle¡± is not a word that most people associate with science. One reason why science is so respected these days is that the image of the scientist is of one who dispassionately collects data in an impartial search for truth. In any debateª²over intelligence, schooling, bias, energyª²the phrase ¡°science says¡± usually squashes the opposition.

¡¡¡¡But scientists have long acknowledged the existence of a ¡°finagle factor¡±ª²a tendency by many scientists to give a helpful nudge to the data to produce desired results. The latest example of the finagle factor in action comes from Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard biologist, who has examined the important 19th century work of Dr. Samuel George Morton.

¡¡¡¡Morton was famous in his time not only for amassing a huge collection of skulls but also for analyzing the cranial capacity, or brain size, of the skulls as a measure of intelligence. He concluded that whites had the largest brains, that the brains of Indians and blacks were smaller, and therefore, that whites constitute a superior race.

¡¡¡¡Gould went back to Morton¬ðs original data and concluded that the results were an example of the finagle at work. ¡°I have reanalyzed Morton¬ðs data,¡± Gould wrote last week in the journal science, ¡°and I find that they are a patchwork of assumption and finagling, controlled, probably unconsciously, by his conventional a priori ranking (his folks on top, slaves on the bottom).¡±

¡¡¡¡Morton reached his conclusions, Gould found, by leaving out embarrassing data, using incorrect procedures, making simple arithmetical mistakes (always in his favor) and changing his criteria ¡ª again, always in favor of his argument.

¡¡¡¡Left alone, that finding would not be particularly disturbing. Morton has been thoroughly discredited by now. Scientists do not believe that brain size reflects intelligence, and Morton¬ðs brand of raw racism is out of style.

¡¡¡¡But Gould goes on to say that Morton¬ðs story is only ¡°admittedly egregious example of a common problem in scientific work¡±. Some of the leading figures in science are believed to have used the finagle factor.

¡¡¡¡One of them is Gregor Mendel, the Bohemian monk whose work is the foundation of modern genetics. The success of Mendel¬ðs work was based on finding a threeª²toª²one ratio in the dominant and recessive characteristics of hybrid plants he was breeding. He found that ratio. But scientists recently have gone back to his data and have found that the results are literally too good to be true. Like Morton£¬Mendel gave him the benefit of the doubt.

¡¡¡¡No one suggested that the scientists were dishonest; it was just that they quite naturally had a strong tendency to find data that

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