The image most people have of science and scientists comes from their own experience of school science, and from the mass media. Science teachers themselves see it as a problem that so many school pupils find school science an unsatisfying experience, though over the last few years more and more pupils, including girls, have opted for science subjects.

In spite of excellent documentaries, and some good popular science magazines, scientific stories in the media still usually alternate between miracle and scientific threat. The popular stereotype of science is like the magic of fairy tales: it has potential for enormous good or awful harm. Popular fiction is full of \"good\" scientists saving the world, and \"mad\" scientists trying to destroy it.

From all the many scientific stories which might be given media treatment, those which are chosen are usually those which can be framed in terms of the usual news angles: novelty, threat, conflict or the bizarre. The routine and often tedious work of the scientist slips from view, to be replaced with a picture of scientists forever offending public moral sensibilities (as in embryo research), threatening public health (as in weapons research), or fighting it out with each other (in giving evidence at public enquiries such as those held on the issues connected with nuclear power).

The mass media also tends to over-personalize scientific work, depicting it as the product of individual genius, while neglecting the social organization which makes scientific work possible. A further effect of this is that science comes to be seen as a thing in itself: a kind of unpredictable force; a tide of scientific progress.

It is no such thing, of course. Science is what scientists do; what they do is what a particular kind of society facilitates, and what is done with their work depends very much on who has the power to turn their discoveries into technology, and what their interests are.

52. According to the passage, ordinary people have a poor opinion of science and scientists partly because ______.

A) of the misleading of the media
B) opinion polls are unflattering
C) scientists are shown negatively in the media
D) science is considered to be dangerous

53. Fewer girls than boys study science because ______.

A) they think that science is too difficult
B) they are often unsuccessful in science at school
C) science is seen as a man\'s job
D) science is considered to be tedious

54. Media treatment of science tends to concentrate on _____.

A) the routine, everyday work of scientists
B) discoveries that the public will understand
C) the more sensational aspects of science
D) the satisfactions of scientific work

55. According to the author, over-personalization of scientific work will lead science

A) isolation from the rest of the world
B) improvements on school system
C) association with \"femaleness\"
D) trouble in recruiting young talent

56. According to the author, what a scientist does _______.

A) should be attributed to his individual genius