一点需要背诵的英文材料~~~找语感啊

01 The Language of MusicA painter hangs his or her finished pictures on a wall, and everyone can seeit. A composer writes a work, but no one can hear it until it is performed.Professional singers and players have great responsibilities, for thecomposer is utterly dependent on them. A student of music needs as long andas arduous a training to become a performer as a medical student needs tobecome a doctor. Most training is concerned with technique, for musicianshave to have the muscular proficiency of an athlete or a ballet dancer.Singers practice breathing every day, as their vocal chords would beinadequate without controlled muscular support. String players practicemoving the fingers of the left hand up and down, while drawing the bow toand fro with the right arm-two entirely different movements.Singers and instruments have to be able to get every note perfectly in tune.Pianists are spared this particular anxiety, for the notes are alreadythere, waiting for them, and it is the piano tuner’s responsibility to tunethe instrument for them. But they have their own difficulties; the hammersthat hit the string have to be coaxed not to sound like percussion, and eachoverlapping tone has to sound clear.This problem of getting clear texture is one that confronts studentconductors: they have to learn to know every note of the music and how itshould sound, and they have to aim at controlling these sounds withfanatical but selfless authority.Technique is of no use unless it is combined with musical knowledge andunderstanding. Great artists are those who are so thoroughly at home in thelanguage of music that they can enjoy performing works written in anycentury.

02 Schooling and EducationIt is commonly believed in United States that school is where people go toget an education. Nevertheless, it has been said that today childreninterrupt their education to go to school. The distinction between schoolingand education implied by this remark is important.Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling.Education knows no bounds. It can take place anywhere, whether in the showeror in the job, whether in a kitchen or on a tractor. It includes both theformal learning that takes place in schools and the whole universe ofinformal learning. The agents of education can range from a reveredgrandparent to the people debating politics on the radio, from a child to adistinguished scientist. Whereas schooling has a certain predictability,education quite often produces surprises. A chance conversation with astranger may lead a person to discover how little is known of otherreligions. People are engaged in education from infancy on. Education, then,is a very broad, inclusive term. It is a lifelong process, a process thatstarts long before the start of school, and one that should be an integralpart of one’s entire life.Schooling, on the other hand, is a specific, formalized process, whosegeneral pattern varies little from one setting to the next. Throughout acountry, children arrive at school at approximately the same time, takeassigned seats, are taught by an adult, use similar textbooks, do homework,take exams, and so on. The slices of reality that are to be learned, whetherthey are the alphabet or an understanding of the working of government, haveusually been limited by the boundaries of the subject being taught. Forexample, high school students know that there not likely to find out intheir classes the truth about political problems in their communities orwhat the newest filmmakers are experimenting with. There are definiteconditions surrounding the formalized process of schooling.

03 The Definition of “Price”Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means bywhich products and services that are in limited supply are rationed amongbuyers. The price system of the United States is a complex network composedof the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well asthose of a myriad of services, including labor, professional,transportation, and public-utility services. The interrelationships of allthese prices make up the “system” of prices. The price of any particularproduct or service is linked to a broad, complicated system of prices inwhich everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else.If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define“price”, many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by thebuyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words that price isthe money values of a product or service as agreed upon in a markettransaction. This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For acomplete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much morethan the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and theseller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with theamount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time andplace at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, theform of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to thetransaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, returnprivileges, and other factors. In other words, both buyer and seller shouldbe fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total “package” beingexchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluatea given price.

05 The Beginning of DramaThere are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. Theon most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolvedfrom ritual. The argument for this view goes as follows. In the beginning,human beings viewed the natural forces of the world-even the seasonalchanges-as unpredictable, and they sought through various means to controlthese unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring thedesired results were then retained and repeated until they hardened intofixed rituals. Eventually stories arose which explained or veiled themysteries of the rites. As time passed some rituals were abandoned, but thestories, later called myths, persisted and provided material for art anddrama.Those who believe that drama evolved out of ritual also argue that thoserites contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, andcostumes were almost always used, furthermore, a suitable site had to beprovided for performances and when the entire community did not participate,a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the"auditorium." In addition, there were performers, and, since considerableimportance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the enactment of rites,religious leaders usually assumed that task. Wearing masks and costumes,they often impersonated other people, animals, or supernatural beings, andmimed the desired effect-success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, therevival of the Sun-as an actor might. Eventually such dramaticrepresentations were separated from religious activities.Another theory traces the theater’s origin from the human interest instorytelling. According to this vies tales (about the hunt, war, or otherfeats) are gradually elaborated, at first through the use of impersonation,action, and dialogue by a narrator and then through the assumption of eachof the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theaterto those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that areimitations of animal movements and sounds.

07 Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie, known as the King of Steel, built the steel industry in theUnited States, and, in the process, became one of the wealthiest men inAmerica. His success resulted in part from his ability to sell the productand in part from his policy of expanding during periods of economic decline,when most of his competitors were reducing their investments.Carnegie believed that individuals should progress through hard work, but healso felt strongly that the wealthy should use their fortunes for thebenefit of society. He opposed charity, preferring instead to provideeducational opportunities that would allow others to help themselves. "Hewho dies rich, dies disgraced," he often said.Among his more noteworthy contributions to society are those that bear hisname, including the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, which has a library, amuseum of fine arts, and a museum of national history. He also founded aschool of technology that is now part of Carnegie-Mellon University. Otherphilanthropic gifts are the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace topromote understanding between nations, theCarnegie Institute of Washington to fund scientific research, and CarnegieHall to provide a center for the arts.Few Americans have been left untouched by Andrew Carnegie’s generosity. Hiscontributions of more than five million dollars established 2,500 librariesin small communities throughout the country and formed the nucleus of thepublic library system that we all enjoy today.

08 American RevolutionThe American Revolution was not a sudden and violent overturning of thepolitical and social framework, such as later occurred in France and Russia,when both were already independent nations. Significant changes were usheredin, but they were not breathtaking. What happened was accelerated evolutionrather than outright revolution. During the conflict itself people went onworking and praying, marrying and playing. Most of them were not seriouslydisturbed by the actual fighting, and many of the more isolated communitiesscarcely knew that a war was on.America’s War of Independence heralded the birth of three modern nations.One was Canada, which received its first large influx of English-speakingpopulation from the thousands of loyalists who fled there from the UnitedStates. Another was Australia, which became a penal colony now that Americawas no longer available for prisoners and debtors. The third newcomer-theUnited States-based itself squarely on republican principles.Yet even the political overturn was not so revolutionary as one mightsuppose. In some states, notably Connecticut and Rhode Island, the warlargely ratified a colonial self-rule already existing. British officials,everywhere ousted, were replaced by a home-grown governing class, whichpromptly sought a local substitute for king and Parliament.

06 TelevisionsTelevision-----the most pervasive and persuasive of modern technologies,marked by rapid change and growth-is moving into a new era, an era ofextraordinary sophistication and versatility, which promises to reshape ourlives and our world. It is an electronic revolution of sorts, made possibleby the marriage of television and computer technologies.The word "television", derived from its Greek (tele: distant) and Latin(visio: sight) roots, can literally be interpreted as sight from a distance.Very simply put, it works in this way: through a sophisticated system ofelectronics, television provides the capability of converting an image(focused on a special photoconductive plate within a camera) into electronicimpulses, which can be sent through a wire or cable. These impulses, whenfed into a receiver (television set), can then be electronicallyreconstituted into that same image.Television is more than just an electronic system, however. It is a means ofexpression, as well as a vehicle for communication, and as such becomes apowerful tool for reaching other human beings.The field of television can be divided into two categories determined by itsmeans of transmission. First, there is broadcast television, which reachesthe masses through broad-based airwave transmission of television signals.Second, there is nonbroadcast television, which provides for the needs ofindividuals or specific interest groups through controlled transmissiontechniques.Traditionally, television has been a medium of the masses. We are mostfamiliar with broadcast television because it has been with us for aboutthirty-seven years in a form similar to what exists today. During thoseyears, it has been controlled, for the most part, by the broadcast networks,ABC, NBC, and CBS, who have been the major purveyors of news, information,and entertainment. These giants of broadcasting have actually shaped notonly television but our perception of it as well. We have come to look uponthe picture tube as a source of entertainment, placing our role in thisdynamic medium as the passive viewer.

10 Types of SpeechStandard usage includes those words and expressions understood, used, andaccepted by a majority of the speakers of a language in any situationregardless of the level of formality. As such, these words and expressionsare well defined and listed in standard dictionaries. Colloquialisms, on theother hand, are familiar words and idioms that are understood by almost al
lsp
eakers of a language and used in informal speech or writing, but notconsidered appropriate for more formal situations. Almost all idiomaticexpressions are colloquial language. Slang, however, refers to words andexpressions understood by a large number of speakers but not accepted asgood, formal usage by the majority. Colloquial expressions and even slangmay be found in standard dictionaries but will be so identified. Bothcolloquial usage and slang are more common in speech than in writing.Colloquial speech often passes into standard speech. Some slang also passesinto standard speech, but other slang expressions enjoy momentary popularityfollowed by obscurity. In some cases, the majority never accepts certainslang phrases but nevertheless retains them in their collective memories.Every generation seems to require its own set of words to describe familiarobjects and events. It has been pointed out by a number of linguists thatthree cultural conditions are necessary for the creation of a large body ofslang expressions. First, the introduction and acceptance of new objects andsituations in the society; second, a diverse population with a large numberof subgroups; third, association among the subgroups and the majoritypopulation.Finally, it is worth noting that the terms "standard" "colloquial" and"slang" exist only as abstract labels for scholars who study language. Onlya tiny number of the speakers of any language will be aware that they areusing colloquial or slang expressions. Most speakers of English will, duringappropriate situations, select and use all three types of expressions.

11 ArchaeologyArchaeology is a source of history, not just a bumble auxiliary discipline.Archaeological data are historical documents in their own right, not mereillustrations to written texts, Just as much as any other historian, anarchaeologist studies and tries to reconstitute the process that has createdthe human world in which we live - and us ourselves in so far as we are eachcreatures of our age and social environment. Archaeological data are allchanges in the material world resulting from human action or, moresuccinctly, the fossilized results of human behavior. The sum total of theseconstitutes what may be called the archaeological record. This recordexhibits certain peculiarities and deficiencies the consequences of whichproduce a rather superficial contrast between archaeological history and themore familiar kind based upon written records.Not all human behavior fossilizes. The words I utter and you hear asvibrations in the air are certainly human changes in the material world andmay be of great historical significance. Yet they leave no sort of trace inthe archaeological records unless they are captured by a Dictaphone orwritten down by a clerk. The movement of troops on the battlefield may"change the course of history," but this is equally ephemeral from thearchaeologist’s standpoint. What are perhaps worse, most organic materialsare perishable. Everything made of wood, hide, wool, linen, grass, hair, andsimilar materials will decay and vanish in dust in a few years or centuries,save under very exceptional conditions. In a relatively brief period thearchaeological record is reduce to mere scraps of stone, bone, glass, metal,and earthenware. Still modern archaeology, by applying appropriatetechniques and comparative methods, aided by a few lucky finds frompeat-bogs, deserts, and frozen soils, is able to fill up a good deal of thegap.

13 Skyscrapers and EnvironmentIn the late 1960’s, many people in North America turned their attention toenvironmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widelycriticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in acity often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. Inone recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper officespace in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity by 120,000 kilowatts-enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New York, for aday.Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (orgain)through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times thatthrough a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To lessen thestrain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of skyscrapershave begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective glassescoated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare as well as heatgain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the temperature of thesurrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city’s sanitation facilities, too. Iffully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City wouldalone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year-as much as acity the size of Stanford, Connecticut , which has a population of more than109, 000.

14 A Rare Fossil RecordThe preservation of embryos and juveniles is a rate occurrence in the fossilrecord. The tiny, delicate skeletons are usually scattered by scavengers ordestroyed by weathering before they can be fossilized. Ichthyosaurs had ahigher chance of being preserved than did terrestrial creatures because, asmarine animals, they tended to live in environments less subject to erosion.Still, their fossilization required a suite of factors: a slow rate of decayof soft tissues, little scavenging by other animals, a lack of swiftcurrents and waves to jumble and carry away small bones, and fairly rapidburial. Given these factors, some areas have become a treasury ofwell-preserved ichthyosaur fossils.The deposits at Ho
lz
maden, Germany, present an interesting case foranalysis. The ichthyosaur remains are found in black, bituminous marineshales deposited about 190 million years ago. Over the years, thousands ofspecimens of marine reptiles, fish and invertebrates have been recoveredfrom these rocks. The quality of preservation is outstanding, but what iseven more impressive is the number of ichthyosaur fossils containingpreserved embryos. Ichthyosaurs with embryos have been reported from 6different levels of the shale in a small area around Holzmaden, suggestingthat a specific site was used by large numbers of ichthyosaurs repeatedlyover time. The embryos are quite advanced in their physical development;their paddles, for example, are already well formed. One specimen is evenpreserved in the birth canal. In addition, the shale contains the remains ofmany newborns that are between 20 and 30 inches long.Why are there so many pregnant females and young at Holzmaden when they areso rare elsewhere? The quality of preservation is almost unmatched andquarry operations have been carried out carefully with an awareness of thevalue of the fossils. But these factors do not account for the interestingquestion of how there came to be such a concentration of pregnantichthyosaurs in a particular place very close to their time of giving birth.

15 The Nobel AcademyFor the last 82years, Sweden’s Nobel Academy has decided who will receivethe Nobel Prize in Literature, thereby determining who will be elevated fromthe great and the near great to the immortal. But today the Academy iscoming under heavy criticism both from the without and from within. Criticscontend that the selection of the winners often has less to do with truewriting ability than with the peculiar internal politics of the Academy andof Sweden itself. According to Ingmar Bjorksten, the cultural editor for oneof the country’s two major newspapers, the prize continues to represent"what people call a very Swedish exercise: reflecting Swedish tastes."The Academy has defended itself against such charges of provincialism in itsselection by asserting that its physical distance from the great literarycapitals of the world actually serves to protect the Academy from outsideinfluences. This may well be true, but critics respond that this verydistance may also be responsible for the Academy’s inability to perceiveaccurately authentic trends in the literary world.Regardless of concerns over the selection process, however, it seems thatthe prize will continue to survive both as an indicator of the literaturethat we most highly praise, and as an elusive goal that writers seek. If forno other reason, the prize will continue to be desirable for the financialrewards that accompany it; not only is the cash prize itself considerable,but it also dramatically increases sales of an author’s books.

17 Evolution of sleepSleep is very ancient. In the electroencephalographic sense we share it withall the primates and almost all the other mammals and birds: it may extendback as far as the reptiles.There is some evidence that the two types of sleep, dreaming and dreamless,depend on the life-style of the animal, and that predators are statisticallymuch more likely to dream than prey, which are in turn much more likely toexperience dreamless sleep. In dream sleep, the animal is powerfullyimmobilized and remarkably unresponsive to external stimuli. Dreamless sleepis much shallower, and we have all witnessed cats or dogs cocking their earsto a sound when apparently fast asleep. The fact that deep dream sleep israre among pray today seems clearly to be a product of natural selection,and it makes sense that today, when sleep is highly evolved, the stupidanimals are less frequently immobilized by deep sleep than the smart ones.But why should they sleep deeply at all? Why should a state of such deepimmobilization ever have evolved?Perhaps one useful hint about the original function of sleep is to be foundin the fact that dolphins and whales and aquatic mammals in genera seem tosleep very little. There is, by and large, no place to hide in the ocean.Could it be that, rather than increasing an animal’s vulnerability, theUniversity of Florida and Ray Middies of London University have suggestedthis to be the case. It is conceivable that animals who are too stupid to bequite on their own initiative are, during periods of high risk, immobilizedby the implacable arm of sleep. The point seems particularly clear for theyoung of predatory animals. This is an interesting notion and probably atleast partly true.

19 children’s numerical skillsPeople appear to born to compute. The numerical skills of children developso early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock ofmathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walkand talk, they can set the table with impress accuracy---one knife, onespoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs.Soon they are capable of nothing that they have placed five knives, spoonsand forks on the table and, a bit later, that this amounts to fifteen piecesof silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction.It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on adesert island at birth and retrieved seven years later, he or she couldenter a second enter a second-grade mathematics class without any seriousproblems of intellectual adjustment.Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitivepsychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on whichintellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowlygrasped-----or, as the case might be, bumped into----- concepts that adultstake for quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short glass into a tallthin one. Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, askedto count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or redpencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies havesuggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and witheffort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstractnumbers------the idea of a oneness, a twoness, a threeness that applies toany class of objects and is a prerequisite for doing anything moremathematically demanding than setting a table-----is itself far from innate

21 The Origin of SportsWhen did sport begin? If sport is, in essence, play, the claim might be madethat sport is much older than humankind, for , as we all have observed, thebeasts play. Dogs and cats wrestle and play ball games. Fishes and birdsdance. The apes have simple, pleasurable games. Frolicking infants, schoolchildren playing tag, and adult arm wrestlers are demonstrating strong,transgenerational and transspecies bonds with the universe of animals -past, present, and future. Young animals, particularly, tumble, chase, runwrestle, mock, imitate, and laugh (or so it seems) to the point of delightedexhaustion. Their play, and ours, appears to serve no other purpose than togive pleasure to the players, and apparently, to remove us temporarily fromthe anguish of life in earnest.Some philosophers have claimed that our playfulness is the most noble partof our basic nature. In their generous conceptions, play harmlessly andexperimentally permits us to put our creative forces, fantasy, andimagination into action. Play is release from the tedious battles againstscarcity and decline which are the incessant, and inevitable, tragedies oflife. This is a grand conception that excites and provokes. The holders ofthis view claim that the origins of our highest accomplishments ----liturgy, literature, and law ---- can be traced to a play impulse which,paradoxically, we see most purely enjoyed by young beasts and children. Oursports, in this rather happy, nonfatalistic view of human nature, are moresplendid creations of the nondatable, transspecies play impulse.

22. CollectiblesCollectibles have been a part of almost every culture since ancient times.Whereas some objects have been collected for their usefulness, others havebeen selected for their aesthetic beauty alone. In the United States, thekinds of collectibles currently popular range from traditional objects suchas stamps, coins, rare books, and art to more recent items of interest likedolls, bottles, baseball cards, and comic books.Interest in collectibles has increased enormously during the past decade, inpart because some collectibles have demonstrated their value as investments.Especially during cycles of high inflation, investors try to purchasetangibles that will at least retain their current market values. In general,the most traditional collectibles will be sought because they have preservedtheir value over the years, there is an organized auction market for them,and they are most easily sold in the event that cash is needed. Someexamples of the most stable collectibles are old masters, Chinese ceramics,stamps, coins, rare books, antique jewelry, silver, porcelain, art bywell-known artists, autographs, and period furniture. Other items of morerecent interest include old photograph records, old magazines, post cards,baseball cards, art glass, dolls, classic cars, old bottles, and comicbooks. These relatively new kinds of collectibles may actually appreciatefaster as short-term investments, but may not hold their value as long-terminvestments. Once a collectible has had its initial play, it appreciates ata fairly steady rate, supported by an increasing number of enthusiasticcollectors competing for the limited supply of collectibles that becomeincreasingly more difficult to locate.

25. Movie MusicAccustomed though we are to speaking of the films made before 1927 as“silent”, the film has never been, in the full sense of the word, silent.From the very beginning, music was regarded as an indispensableaccompaniment; when the Lumiere films were shown at the first public filmexhibition in the United States in February 1896, they were accompanied bypiano improvisations on popular tunes. At first, the music played bore nospecial relationship to the films; an accompaniment of any kind wassufficient. Within a very short time, however, the incongruity of playinglively music to a solemn film became apparent, and film pianists began totake some care in matching their pieces to the mood of the film.As movie theaters grew in number and importance, a violinist, and perhaps acellist, would be added to the pianist in certain cases, and in the largermovie theaters small orchestras were formed. For a number of years theselection of music for each film program rested entirely in the hands of theconductor or leader of the orchestra, and very often the principalqualification for holding such a position was not skill or taste so much asthe ownership of a large personal library of musical pieces. Since theconductor seldom saw the films until the night before they were to be shown(if indeed, the conductor was lucky enough to see them then), the musicalarrangement was normally improvised in the greatest hurry.To help meet this difficulty, film distributing companies started thepractice of publishing suggestions for musical accompaniments. In 1909, forexample, the Edison Company began issuing with their films such indicationsof mood as “pleasant”, “sad”, “lively”. The suggestions became moreexplicit, and so emerged the musical cue sheet containing indications ofmood, the titles of suitable pieces of music, and precise directions to showwhere one piece led into the next.Certain films had music especially composed for them. The most famous ofthese early special scores was that composed and arranged for D.W Griffith’s film Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915.

26. International Business and Cross-cultural CommunicationThe increase in international business and in foreign investment has createda need for executives with knowledge of foreign languages and skills incross-cultural communication. Americans, however, have not been well trainedin either area and, consequently, have not enjoyed the same level of successin negotiation in an international arena as have their foreign counterparts.Negotiating is the process of communicating back and forth for the purposeof reaching an agreement. It involves persuasion and compromise, but inorder to participate in either one, the negotiators must understand the waysin which people are persuaded and how compromise is reached within theculture of the negotiation.In many international business negotiations abroad, Americans are perceivedas wealthy and impersonal. It often appears to the foreign negotiator thatthe American represents a large multi-million-dollar corporation that canafford to pay the price without bargaining further. The American negotiator’s role becomes that of an impersonal purveyor of information and cash.In studies of American negotiators abroad, several traits have beenidentified that may serve to confirm this stereotypical perception, whileundermining the negotiator’s position. Two traits in particular that causecross-cultural misunderstanding are directness and impatience on the part ofthe American negotiator. Furthermore, American negotiators often insist onrealizing short-term goals. Foreign negotiators, on the other hand, mayvalue the relationship established between negotiators and may be willing toinvest time in it for long- term benefits. In order to solidify therelationship, they may opt for indirect interactions without regard for thetime involved in getting to know the other negotiator.

27. Scientific TheoriesIn science, a theory is a reasonable explanation of observed events that arerelated. A theory often involves an imaginary model that helps scientistspicture the way an observed event could be produced. A good example of thisis found in the kinetic molecular theory, in which gases are pictured asbeing made up of many small particles that are in constant motion.A useful theory, in addition to explaining past observations, helps topredict events that have not as yet been observed. After a theory has beenpublicized, scientists design experiments to test the theory. Ifobservations confirm the scientist’s predictions, the theory is supported.If observations do not confirm the predictions, the scientists must searchfurther. There may be a fault in the experiment, or the theory may have tobe revised or rejected.Science involves imagination and creative thinking as well as collectinginformation and performing experiments. Facts by themselves are not science.As the mathematician Jules Henri Poincare said, “Science is built withfacts just as a house is built with bricks, but a collection of facts cannotbe called science any more than a pile of bricks can be called a house.”Most scientists start an investigation by finding out what other scientistshave learned about a particular problem. After known facts have beengathered, the scientist comes to the part of the investigation that requiresconsiderable imagination. Possible solutions to the problem are formulated.These possible solutions are called hypotheses.In a way, any hypothesis is a leap into the unknown. It extends thescientist’s thinking beyond the known facts. The scientist plansexperiments, performs calculations, and makes observations to testhypotheses. Without hypothesis, further investigation lacks purpose anddirection. When hypotheses are confirmed, they are incorporated intotheories.