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Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance, were determined by technologists artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers---using non-scientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in the mind by a visual, nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology, it has been non- verbal thinking, by and large, that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details of our material surroundings. Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them. The creative shaping process of a technologist's mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For exam- ple, in designing a diesel engine, a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the com- bustion chamber? Where should the valves be placed? Should it have a long or short piston? Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience, by physical requirements, by limitations of available space, and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions, such as wall thickness and pin diameter, may depend on scientific calculations, but the nonscientific component of design remains primary.
Design courses, then, should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking, a central mechanism in engineering design, involves perceptions, the stock-in-trade of the artist, not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail "hard thinking," nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering, the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engi- neering students, but rather students attending architectural schools.
It courses in design, which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem- solving, are not provided, we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example, early models of high-speed railroad cars loaded with sophisticated controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations; they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics.
In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with
A.identifying the kinds of thinking that are used by technologists
B.stressing the importance of nonverbal thinking in engineering design
C.proposing a new role for nonscientific thinking in the development of technology
D.contrasting the goals of engineers with those of technologists
E.criticizing engineering schools for emphasizing science in engineering curricula
It can be inferred that the author thinks engineering curricula are
A.strengthened when they include courses in design
B.weakened by the substitution of physical science courses for courses designed to develop mathematical skills
C.strong because nonverbal thinking is still emphasized by most of the courses
D.strong despite the errors that graduates of such curricula have made in the development of automatic control systems
E.strong despite the absence of nonscientific modes of thinking
Which of the following statements best illustrates the main point of lines 1-28 of the passage?
A.When a machine like a rotary engine malfunctions, it is the technologist who is best equipped to repair it.
B.Each component of an automobile—for example, the engine or the fuel tank—has a ahape that has been scientifically determined to be best suited to that component's function
C.A telephone is a complex instrument designed by technologists using only nonverbal thought
D.The designer of a new refrigerator should consider the designs of other refrigerators before deciding on its final form.
E.The distinctive features of a suspension bridge reflect its designer's conceptualization as well as the physical requirements of its site.
Which of the following statements would best serve as an introduction to the passage?
A.The assumption that the knowledge incorporated in technological developments must be derived from science ignores the many non-scientific decisions made by technologists.
B.Analytical thought is no longer a vital component in the success of technological development.
C.As knowledge of technology has increased, the tendency has been to lose sight of the important role played by scientific thought in making decisions about form, arrangement, and texture.
D.A movement in engineering colleges toward a technician's degree reflects a demand for graduates who have the nonverbal reasoning ability that was once common among engineers.
E.A technologist thinking about a machine, reasoning through the successive steps in a dynamic process, can actually turn the machine over mentally.
The author calls the predicament faced by the Historic American Engineering Record "para-doxical" (lines 36-37) most probably because
A.he publication needed drawings that its own staff could not make
B.architectural schools offered but did not require engineering design courses for their students
C.college students were qualified to make the drawings while practicing engineers were not
D.the drawings needed were so complicated that even students in architectural schools had difficulty making them.
E.engineering students were not trained to make the type of drawings needed to record the development of their own discipline
According to the passage, random failures in automatic control systems are "not merely trivial aberrations" (lines53) because
A.automatic control systems are designed by engineers who have little practical experience in the field
B.the failures are characteristic of systems designed by engineers relying too heavily on concepts in mathematics
C.the failures occur too often to be taken lightly
D.designers of automatic control systems have too little training in the analysis of mechanical difficulties
E.designers of automatic control systems need more help from scientists who have a better understanding of the analytical problems to be solved before such systems can work efficiently
The author uses the example of the early models of high-speed railroad cars primarily to
A.weaken the argument that modern engineering systems have major defects because of an absence of design courses in engineering curricula
B.support the thesis that the number of errors in modern engineering systems is likely to increase
C.illustrate the idea that courses in design are the most effective means for reducing the cost of designing engineering systems
D.support the contention that a lack of attention to the nonscientific aspects of design results in poor conceptualization by engineers
E.weaken the proposition that mathematics is a necessary part of the study of design
