When I started graduate school, I wanted to know how many hours a day I was expected to be in the lab. Not that I was planning to put in the least effort — instead, I was young and loved working, and I didn’t have much else to do anyway.

I don't remember who answered my question. But I do remember that they shrugged and said “It doesn't matter, as long as you get your work done.”

That seemed reasonable. After all, I knew from my previous research experience that sometimes I'd end up staying in the lab until midnight. I also knew that sometimes I wouldn’t get to the lab until noon because I was taking or teaching cases in the mornings. An “as long as you get your work done” policy seemed like a great way to say that graduate students are largely responsible workers who enjoy science.

I never stopped to think about the most important word in that phrase: “done”. As long as I get my work done? Super! But come to think of it. I've never met a scientist who has, even for a day, considered their work “done”. There are always more experiments to do, discoveries to make and questions to answer.

There are always interesting new problems to research into and scientific truths to elucidate. But if there’s no such thing as “done” in science, and you're supposed to work until you get your work done, your working hours are not certain.

Though it may seem like a wise opinion—responsibility in place of flexibility — the truth is that you can never really pull away from work. You can always do a little more, and a little more, but that extra effort doesn’t ease tomorrow’s workload.

【小题1】What can we know about the author from paragraph 1?

A．He could spend much time in the lab.	B．He had made plans for his other wok.
C．He wanted to reduce lab hours to the least.	D．He didn’t meet the teacher's requirements

【小题2】What did the author think of “as long as you get your work done” at first?

A．It was difficult to carry out	B．It was fit for graduate students.
C．It was a duty for graduate students.	D．It forced graduate students to work long hours.

【小题3】Which word best describes a scientist's work according to the author?

A．Boring.

B．Exciting.

C．Endless.

D．Difficult.

【小题4】What does the underlined word “elucidate” in paragraph 5 probably mean?

A．Explain.

B．Change.

C．Create.

D．Treasure.