GMAT Reading Comprehension - Scientists have Long Claimed that, in Order to Flourish and Progress

Reading Passage Question:

Scientists have long claimed that, in order to flourish and progress, their discipline requires freedom from ideological and geographic boundaries, including the freedom to share new scientific knowledge with scientists throughout the world. In the twentieth century, however, increasingly close links between science and national life undermined these ideals. Although the connection facilitated large and expensive projects, such as the particle accelerator program, that would have been difficult to fund through private sources, it also channeled the direction of scientific research increasingly toward national security (military defense).

For example, scientists in the post-1917 Soviet Union found themselves in an ambiguous position. While the government encouraged and generally supported scientific research, it simultaneously imposed significant restrictions on science and scientists. A strong nationalistic emphasis on science led at times to the dismissal of all non-Russian scientific work as irrelevant to Soviet science. A 1973 article in Literatunaya Gazeta, a Soviet publication, insisted: “World science is based upon national schools, so the weakening of one or another national school inevitably leads to stagnation in the development of world science.” According to the Soviet regime, socialist science was to be consistent with, and in fact grow out of, the MarxistLeninist political ideology. Toward this end, some scientific theories or fields, such as relativity and genetics, were abolished. Where scientific work conflicted with political criteria, the work was often disrupted. During the Stalinist purges of the 1930s, many Soviet scientists simply disappeared. In the 1970s, Soviet scientists who were part of the refusenik movement lost their jobs and were barred from access to scientific resources. Nazi Germany during the 1930s and, more recently, Argentina imposed strikingly similar, though briefer, constraints on scientific research.

‘Scientists have long claimed that, in order to flourish and progress’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions.

The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Questions and Solutions

1. The author’s primary purpose in the passage is to:

(A) examine the events leading up to the suppression of the Soviet refusenik movement of the 1970s.
(B) define and dispel the notion of a national science as promulgated by the post-revolution Soviet regime.
(C) describe specific attempts by the modern Soviet regime to suppress scientific freedom.
(D) examine the major twentieth-century challenges to the normative assumption that science requires freedom and that it is inherently international.
(E) point out the similarities and distinctions between scientific freedom and scientific internationalism in the context of the Soviet Union.

2. Which of the following best characterizes the “ambiguous position” (Highlighted) in which Soviet scientists were placed during the decades that followed the Bolshevik Revolution?

(A) The Soviet government demanded that their research result in scientific progress, although funding was insufficient to accomplish this goal.
(B) They were exhorted to strive toward scientific advancements, while at the same time the freedoms necessary to make such advancements were restricted.
(C) While they were required to direct research entirely toward military defense, most advancements in this field were being made by non-Soviet scientists with whom the Soviet scientists were prohibited contact.
(D) They were encouraged to collaborate with Soviet colleagues but were prohibited from discussing with scientists from other countries.
(E) The Soviet government failed to identify those areas of research it deemed most worthwhile, but punished those scientists whose work it was not satisfied.

3. Which of the following is most reasonably inferable from the passage’s first paragraph?

(A) Expensive research projects such as the particle-accelerator program apply technology that can also be applied toward projects relating to national security.
(B) Scientific knowledge had become so closely linked with national security that it could no longer be communicated to scientific colleagues without restriction.
(C) Without free access to new scientific knowledge, scientists in different countries are less able to communicate with one another.
(D) Governments should de-emphasize scientific projects related to military defense and emphasize instead research that can be shared freely within the international scientific community.
(E) Government funding of scientific research undermines the ideal of scientific freedom to a greater extent than private funding.

4. The author quotes an article from Literatunaya Gazeta (Lines in Bold) most probably to

(A) illustrate the general sentiment among members of the international scientific community during the time period.
(B) support the point that the Soviet government sanctioned only those notions about science that conformed to the Marxist-Leninist ideal.
(C) show the disparity of views within the Soviet intellectual community regarding the proper role of science.
(D) underscore the Soviet emphasis on the notion of national science.
(E) support the author’s assertion that the Marxist-Leninist impact on Soviet scientific freedom continued through the decade of the 1970s.

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