Exercise 1

A. Physicist Richard Feynman returned over and over to an idea that drove his groundbreaking discoveries. His approach was documented by his Caltech colleague David Goodstein in the book Feynman’s Lost Lecture about physics classes Feynman taught in the 1960s:

Once, I said to him, “Dick, explain to me, so that I can understand it, why spin one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics.” Sizing up his audience perfectly, Feynman said, “I’ll prepare a freshman lecture on it.” But he came back a few days later to say, “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t reduce it to the freshman level. That means we don’t really understand it.”

B. Feynman didn’t mean all human knowledge must be distilled into an introductory college course. His point was that we need to build our grasp of science and technology from the ground up if we are to master it, not to mention reimagine how it works. Feynman was famous as a student for redoing many of physics’ early experiments himself to build a foundational understanding of the field. By mastering these first principles, Feynman often saw things that others did not in quantum mechanics, computing, and nuclear physics, earning him the Nobel Prize in 1965.

1. When asked to explain a difficult concept, physicist Richard Feynman

A immediately replied that he could not

B replied that he had already prepared a lecture on it

C said that he did not understand the concept either

D promised to give his answer in an introductory lesson

2. Feynman believed that

A scientists should master basic scientific principles first

B early physics experiments need to be redone

C most science students do not have a good foundation in physics

D his knowledge of first principles earned him a Nobel Prize

1.

2.

Exercise 2

There is one stubborn question for which archaeology has yet to provide any answers: how did the Lapita accomplish the ancient equivalent of a moon landing, many times over? No-one has found one of their canoes or any rigging, which could reveal how the canoes were sailed. Nor do the oral histories and traditions of later Polynesians offer any insights, for they turn into myths long before they reach as far back in time as the Lapita.

According to the writer, there are difficulties explaining how the Lapita* accomplished their journeys because

A) the canoes that have been discovered offer relatively few clues.

B) archaeologists have shown limited interest in this area of research.

C) little information relating to this period can be relied upon for accuracy.

D) technological advances have altered the way such achievements are viewed.

Answer: