5、Whether the Government should increase the financing of pure science at the expense of technology or vice versa (反之）often depends on the issue of which is seen as the driving force.

【分析】

复合句。句子主语是以whether引导的主语从句，谓语为depends on，宾语是the issue。介词短语at the expense of technology 作状语，补充完整为 at the expense of decreasing the financing of technology，翻译时按照汉语表达习惯，把状语置于主语之后，谓语之前。of which is seen as the driving force 作 issue 的后置定语，which指代主语从句中提到的pure science和technology中的某一个，翻译时issue可以不译出，而把后面的被动语态转译为主动语态的无主句。

【点拨】

1、at the expense of“以…为代价”，此句中直接译为“以减少…来增加…”。2、vice versa“反之，正相反；反之亦然”。

【译文】

政府究竞是以减少对技术的经费投入来增加对纯科学的投资，还是把二者反过来，这往往取决于把哪一方看作是驱动的力量。