104. Artists' contribution or scientists' contribution,which is more valuable?

Art and science are essentially a strange coupling. Yet more often than not, they are considered as divergent rather than consistent with each other. The artistemploys image and metaphor; the scientist uses number and equation. By casual juxtaposition, these two fields seem to have little in common: there are few, if any, references to art in any standard textbook of science; art historians rarely interpret an artist's work in light of the conceptual framework of science. Despite what appear to be irreconcilable differences, however, they do have at least one thing in common—both of them have significant contribution to the society, but through probably distinctive way.

The development of science and technology has always accompanied the progress of the society. The invention of the steam engine brought a new era of thrift of world economy; the employment of electricity has multiplied the productivity and virtually reproduced limited resources on the Earth; the innovation of computer technologies has made the Earth a little village and connected distant countries as a single market. While sometimes the progress of science and technology, such as that of human cloning, cause troubles or originate dilemmas, it seems always undeniable that in a broad sense, the development of science has provided people a much higher standard of living than that of their counterparts in any phrase of the history.

Visualization and fascination have been the major power of any form of art. For example, any religion in this world cannot exist without music, which helps realize the faith of the church to an astonishing extent. Each and every revolution on this earth was accompanied by numerous corresponding art productions, because the artists sense the circumstances, and then reflect their sensations with sophisticated techniques in their production, which can be easily perceived by thepublic through powerful empathy. Nobody could evaluate art as correct or not standard, needless to say the public, they simply feel it is good or not, therefore art has always had magic influence on the public and society in general.

However, it's been said that there is no science without fancy and no art without facts. Science fictions have long been functioning as a major vehicle for the public dissemination of science; scientists share parallel view of space, time and light, etc. with artists. Not only are art and science interrelated with each other but they also contribute to each other in various way. Therefore, it is hard to compare the contributions of art and science, it is simply partial to say that either one contributes more to the society than another does.

译文

104. 艺术家与科学家，谁做的贡献大？

艺术与科学本质上是一种很奇怪的组合。然而，在更通常的情况下，它们被认为是互相排斥的，而不是相容的。艺术家一般使用形象和比喻，而科学家则使用数字和公式。简单地并列在一起，这两个领域似乎很少有共同点。在标准的科学类教科书中，很少会提及艺术；艺术史学家在分析艺术家的作品时，也几乎不会使用科学上的概念框架。尽管看起来有这些不可调节的差别，但它们至少有一个共同点——都对社会做出了重大的贡献，只是通过不同的方式而己。

科学技术的发展与社会进步总是息息相关。蒸气机的发明开创了世界经济节约成本的新时代；电的使用大幅度提高了生产力，事实上，还使地球上有限的资源得到再生；计算机技术的革新，使世界成为一个地球村，使遥远的国家连接起来形成全球市场。然而科学技术的进步也会带来麻烦或者引起灾难，比如克隆人技术。从广义上来讲，科学的发展使人类的生活水平达到前所未有的高度，这一点似乎是永远也不能否认的。

想象力和感染力支撑着所有艺术表现形式。比如说，世界上任何一种宗教的存在都离不开音乐，它有利于把人们对宗教的信仰表达到一种令人震撼的程度。每一次革命，都会产生大量相关的艺术作品，因为艺术家感觉到了社会环境的变化，并把这种感觉用高超的手法在作品中表达出来，公众很容易就心领神会。没有人能够用正确或者不规范来评价艺术，更不用说公众了，他们仅仅是感觉艺术作品好还是不好。所以艺术总是对公众和社会有着神奇的影响力。

Word List

• coupling ［ˈkʌpliŋ］ n. 联结，接合，耦合
• divergent［di ˈvə:dʒənt］adj.有分歧的；不同的
• consistent ［kənˈsistənt］adj.一致的；调和的；坚固的
• metaphor ［ˈmetəˌfɔ:］n. ［修辞］隐喻，暗喻，比喻说话
• equation ［iˈkweiʒən］ n.相等；平衡；综合体
• juxtaposition ［ˌdʒʌkstəpəˈziʃən］n. 毗邻，并置，并列
• have...in common 有…共同点
• historian ［hiˈstɔ:riən］ n. 历史学家，史家
• interpret ［inˈtə:prit］ v. 解释，说明；口译
• conceptual ［kənˈseptʃuəl］ adj. 概念上的
• framework［ ˈfreimˌwə:k］ n.构架，框架，结构
• irreconcilable［iˌrekənˈsailəbl］adj. 不协调的，矛盾的
• distinctive［diˈstiŋktiv］adj.与众不同的，有特色的
• steam ［sti:m］ n. 蒸汽，水汽
• thrift ［θrift］ n. 节俭，节约
• multiply ［ˈmʌltəˌplai］ v. 繁殖；乘；增加
• productivity［ˌprəudʌkˈtiviti］n.生产力；生产率
• reproduce ［ˌri:prəˈdu:s］n.繁殖，再生，复制
• innovation ［ˌinəˈveiʃən］ n. 改革，创新
• clone ［kləun］ n. & v. 无性繁殖，克隆
• undeniable ［ˌʌndiˈnaiəbl］ adj.不可否认的
• counterpart ［ˈkaunˌtəpa:t］ n. 副本；极相似的人或物
• corresponding［ˌkɔriˈspa:ndiŋ］adj.相应的；通讯的
• sensation［sen ˈseiʃən］n.感情；耸人听闻的
• empathy ［ˈempəθi］ n. 通感
• dissemination［di ˌseməˈneiʃən］n.分发，传播
• parallel［ˈpærəˌlel］ n. 平行线，平行面