UNIT 1. PART A THE KNOWN,THE UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWABLE 1. We are all taught what is known, but we rarely learn about what is not known, and we almost never learn about the unknowable. That bias can lead to misconceptions about the world around us. 2. The known is pressed on us from the first. In school we start each course at the beginning of a long book full of things that are known but that we do not yet know. We understand that beyond that book lies another book and that beyond that course lies another course.The frontier of knowledge, where it finally borders on the unknown, seems far away and irrelevant, separated from us by an apparently endless expanse of the known. We do not see that we may be proceeding down a narrow path of knowledge and that if we look slightly left or right we will be staring directly at the unknown. 3. Even when we are right on the edge of the unknown, we may not be aware of it. Those of us who learned the history of the Persian Wars in school did not know that the events so vividly described are all based on the writings of the one source who survived—Herodotus.If you want to know almost anything that happened in the Greece of that time and it was not recorded by Herodotus, it is unknown and in all probability can never be known. But we did not think of his accounts as fragments of knowledge on the edge of the unknown; it was just more stuff from the huge pile of facts we had to learn about the history of Greece. 4. Because of such lessons, we grow up thinking more is known than actually is. If we had a better description of the limits of present knowledge, that description could be a part of what we are taught. Such insight would give us a better perspective on what is known and what is currently unknown.
EXERCISE What are the misconceptions mentioned in part 1? What leads to these misconceptions? 2. The known is pressed on us from the first. In school we start each course at the beginning of a long book full of things that are known but that we do not yet know. We understand that beyond that book lies another book and that beyond that course lies another course. The frontier of knowledge, where it finally borders on the unknown, seems far away and irrelevant, separated from us by an apparently endless expanse of the known. We do not see that we may be proceeding down a narrow path of knowledge and that if we look slightly left or right we will be staring directly at the unknown. EXERCISE What are the misconceptions mentioned in part 1? a）. The frontier of knowledge, where it finally borders on the unknown, seems far away, and irrelevant to us. What leads to these misconceptions? a）. The known is pressed on us from the first. 3. Even when we are right on the edge of the unknown, we may not be aware of it. Those of us who learned the history of the Persian Wars in school did not know that the events so vividly described are all based on the writings of the one source who survived—Herodotus. If you want to know almost anything that happened in the Greece of that time and it was not recorded by Herodotus, it is unknown and in all probability can never be known. But we did not think of his accounts as fragments of knowledge on the edge of the unknown; it was just more stuff from the huge pile of facts we had to learn about the history of Greece. EXERCISE What are the misconceptions mentioned in part 1? b）. We didn’t think of Herodotus’ accounts as fragments of knowledge on the edge of the unknown. What leads to these misconceptions? b）. We had to learn the huge pile of facts about the history of Greece.
4. Because of such lessons, we grow up thinking more is known than actually is. If we had a better description of the limits of present knowledge, that description could be a part of what we are taught. Such insight would give us a better perspective on what is known and what is currently unknown. EXERCISE What are the misconceptions mentioned in part 1? c）. We grow up thinking more is known than actually is. What leads to these misconceptions? c）. We were not given a correct description of the limits of the present knowledge. 5. In time, many things now unknown will become known. We will learn more about what lies below the surface of the earth, and we may learn how neurons interact to let us perceive and think. The accumulating pile of data can be misleading, however. Beyond the currently unknown are the things that are inherently unknowable.
EXERCISE In paragraph 5, the author says “The accumulating pile of data can be misleading, however.” What does it imply? 5. In time, many things now unknown will become known. We will learn more about what lies below the surface of the earth, and we may learn how neurons interact to let us perceive and think. The accumulating pile of data can be misleading, however. Beyond the currently unknown are the things that are inherently unknowable. EXERCISE In paragraph 5, the author says “The accumulating pile of data can be misleading, however.” What does it imply? Though we have accumulated a lot of information and knowledge and will learn more about the unknown, there still exist things which are unknowable by their nature.
6. Few unknowables are consciously recognized as such. The outcome of a spinning roulette wheel and the local weather three months from now belong to that small class. Every day, however, we bump into phenomena that may well be unknowable but that we do not recognize as such. Some of these unknowables form the bases of respected professions.Brokers make a living anticipating the fluctuations of stock prices. Presidents run for office based on claims of what they will do for a vast and poorly understood economy composed of many unpredictably interacting sectors. We do not even know if we are dealing here with the partly known, the mainly unknown or the unknowable . EXERCISE In paragraph 6, what is the tone used by the author when he says “Some of these unknowables form the bases of respected professions.”? Why does he use such a tone?
6. Brokers make a living anticipating the fluctuations of stock prices. Presidents run for office based on claims of what they will do for a vast and poorly understood economy composed of many unpredictably interacting sectors. We do not even know if we are dealing here with the partly known, the mainly unknown or the unknowable . EXERCISE In paragraph 6, what is the tone used by the author when he says “Some of these unknowables form the bases of respected professions."? Why does he use such a tone? It’s a bit ironic, because brokers and presidents, the two types of people given as examples below, attempt to anticipate the unknowables. In paragraph 6, what does ‘here’ refer to in “… if we are dealing here with the partly known, …”? 6. Brokers make a living anticipating the fluctuations of stock prices. Presidents run for office based on claims of what they will do for a vast and poorly understood economy composed of many unpredictably interacting sectors. We do not even know if we are dealing here with the partly known, the mainly unknown or the unknowable . EXERCISE In paragraph 6, what does ‘here’ refer to in “… if we are dealing here with the partly known, …”? The fluctuations of stock prices and a vast and poorly understood economy.
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