A．encourage scholars to concentrate on their own specia……
TEXT E
Scholar and students have
always been great travelers. The official case for "academic mobility, is now
often stated in impressive terms as a fundamental necessity for economic and
social progress in the world, and debated in corridors of Europe, but it is
certainly nothing new. Serious students were always ready to go aboard in search
of the most stimulating teachers and the most famous academies; in search of the
purest philosophy, the most effective medicine, the likeliest road to
gold.
Mobility of this kind meant also mobility of ideas, their
transference across frontier, their simultaneous impact upon many groups of
people. The point of learning is to share it, whether with a startling
discovery, or a new technique. It must also have been reassuring to know that
other people in other parts of the world were about to make the same discovery
or were thinking along the same lines, and that one was not quite alone,
confronted by inquisition, ridicule or neglect.
In the twentieth
century, and particularly in the last 20 years, the old footpaths of the
wandering scholars have become vast highways. The vehicle which has made this
possible has of course been the aeroplane, making contact between scholars even
in the most distant places immediately feasible, and providing for the very
rapid transmission of knowledge.
Apart from the vehicle itself,
it is fairly easy to identify the main factors which have brought about the
recent explosion in academic movement. Some of these are purely quantitative and
re quire no further mention; there are far more centres of learning, a far
greater number of scholars and students.
In addition one must
recognize the very considerable multiplication of disciplines, particularly in
the sciences, which by widening the total area of advanced study has produced an
enormous number of specialists whose particular interests are precisely defined.
These people would work in some isolation if they were not able to keep in touch
with similar isolated groups in other countries.
Frequently
these specialisations lie in areas where very rapid developments are taking
place, and also where the research needed for developments is extremely costly
and takes a long time. It is precisely in these areas that the advantages of
collaboration and sharing of expertise appear most evident. Associated with this
is the growth of specialist periodicals, which enable scholars to become aware
of what is happening in different centres of research and to meet each other in
conferences and symposia. Form these meetings come the personal relationships
which are at the bottom of almost all formalised schemes of cooperation, and
provide them with their most satisfactory stimulus.
But as the
specialisations have increased in number and narrowed in range, there has been
an opposite movement towards interdisciplinary studies. These owe much to the
belief that one cannot properly investigate the incredibly complex problems
thrown up by the modern world, and by recent advances in our knowledge along the
narrow front of a single discipline. This trend has led to a great deal of
academic contact between disciplines, and a far greater emphasis on the pooling
of specialist knowledge, reflected in the broad subjects chosen in many
international conferences.
In the writer’s opinion, interdisciplinary studies are important because they ______.
A．encourage scholars to concentrate on their own specialisations
B．allow scholars to change disciplines more easily
C．make scholars aware of problems outside their own field
D．allow overworked scholars to relax
