[ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）]

[ti:Knowledge and Progress]

[by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”]

[00:01.48]Lesson 22

[00:03.33]Knowledge and progress

[00:11.27]In what two areas have people made no 'progress' at all?

[00:17.72]Why does the idea of progress loom so large in the modern world?

[00:23.60]Surely because progress of a particular kind is actually taking place around us

[00:28.81]and is becoming more and more manifest.

[00:32.63]Although mankind has undergone no general improvement in intelligence or morality,

[00:38.47]it has made extraordinary progress in the accumulation of knowledge.

[00:43.75]Knowledge began to increase as soon as the thoughts of one individual

[00:48.13]could be communicated to another by means of speech.

[00:52.37]With the invention of writing, a great advance was made,

[00:56.23]for knowledge could then be not only communicated but also stored.

[01:02.16]Libraries made education possible, and education in its turn added to libraries:

[01:09.42]the growth of knowledge followed a kind of compound interest law,

[01:13.65]which was greatly enhanced by the invention of printing.

[01:18.19]All this was comparatively slow until, with the coming of science,

[01:22.79]the tempo was suddenly raised.

[01:26.01]Then knowledge began to be accumulated according to a systematic plan.

[01:31.82]The trickle became a stream: the stream has now become a torrent.