万物简史 第269期:砰!(4)

 　　The story begins in the early 1950s when a bright young geologist¹ named Eugene Shoemaker paid a visit to Meteor Crater² in Arizona. 故事始于20世纪50年代之初。当时，有一位名叫尤金·苏梅克的年轻有为的地质学家对亚利桑那州的陨石坑作了一次考察。

　　Today Meteor Crater is the most famous impact site on Earth and a popular tourist attraction. 今天，陨石坑是地球上最著名的撞击现场，也是个很热门的旅游胜地。

　　In those days, however, it didn't receive many visitors and was still often referred to as Barringer Crater, 然而，在那个年代，那里没有多少游客，陨石坑仍然经常被称做巴林杰坑，

　　after a wealthy mining engineer named Daniel M. Barringer who had staked a claim on it in 1903. 以有钱的采矿工程师丹尼尔·M·巴林杰的名字命名。1903年，巴林杰出资买下了它的所有权。

　　Barringer believed that the crater had been formed by a ten-million-ton meteor, heavily freighted with iron and nickel, 他认为，大坑是由一块1000万吨重的陨石造成的，里面含有大量铁和镍。

　　and it was his confident expectation that he would make a fortune digging it out. 他信心十足地指望，他要把铁和镍掘出来，从而发一笔大财。

　　Unaware³ that the meteor and everything in it would have been vaporized on impact, 他不知道，在撞击的那一刻，陨石会连同里面所含的一切通通化成蒸气。

　　he wasted a fortune, and the next twenty-six years, cutting tunnels that yielded nothing. 在随后的26年里，他挖了许多坑道，结果一无所获，倒是浪费了一大笔钱。

　　By the standards of today, crater research in the early 1900s was a trifle unsophisticated, to say the least. 按照今天的标准，20世纪初对大坑的研究起码可以说是比较简单。

　　The leading early investigator⁴, G. K. Gilbert of Columbia University, modeled the effects of impacts by flinging marbles into pans of oatmeal. 最初的主要研究人员是哥伦比亚大学的G·K·吉尔伯特，他通过向几锅燕麦粥里投掷弹子的办法来模仿撞击的作用。

　　(For reasons I cannot supply, Gilbert conducted these experiments not in a laboratory at Columbia but in a hotel room.) （出于我也说不清的理由，这些实验不是在哥伦比亚大学的实验室里做的，而是在旅馆房间里做的。）

　　Somehow from this Gilbert concluded that the Moon's craters⁵ were indeed formed by impacts, 不知怎的，吉尔伯特从中得出结论，认为月球上的坑确实是由撞击形成的，

　　in itself quite a radical⁶ notion for the time—but that the Earth's were not. 这种说法本身在当时就有点激进，而地球上的坑不是。

　　Most scientists refused to go even that far. 大多数科学家连这一点都拒不赞同。

　　To them, the Moon's craters were evidence of ancient volcanoes and nothing more. 他们认为，月球上的坑表明了古代的火山活动，仅此而已。

1 geologist   

n.地质学家

参考例句：

• The geologist found many uncovered fossils in the valley.在那山谷里，地质学家发现了许多裸露的化石。
• He was a geologist,rated by his cronies as the best in the business.他是一位地质学家，被他的老朋友们看做是这门行当中最好的一位。

2 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

3 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

4 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

5 craters   

n.火山口( crater的名词复数 )；弹坑等

参考例句：

• Small meteorites have left impact craters all over the planet's surface. 这个行星的表面布满了小块陨石留下的撞击坑。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The battlefield was full of craters made by exploding shells. 战场上布满弹坑。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。