(20)ness 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
(25)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
(30)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 prim-
(35)itive stage in the development of cognitive processes and
inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is para-
doxical that when the staff of the Historic American
Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of
machines and isometric views of industrial processes for
(40)its historical record of American engineering, the only
college students with the requisite abilities were not engi-
neering students, but rather students attending architec-
tural schools.
It courses in design, which in a strongly analytical
(45)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
(50)controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because
a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd ran-
dom 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.
21.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
22.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
23.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 mal-
functions, 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
shape 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.
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
(25)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
(30)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 prim-
(35)itive stage in the development of cognitive processes and
inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is para-
doxical that when the staff of the Historic American
Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of
machines and isometric views of industrial processes for
(40)its historical record of American engineering, the only
college students with the requisite abilities were not engi-
neering students, but rather students attending architec-
tural schools.
It courses in design, which in a strongly analytical
(45)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
(50)controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because
a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd ran-
dom 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.
21.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
22.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
23.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 mal-
functions, 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
shape 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.