万物简史 第79期:敲石头的人们(1)

 5 THE STONE-BREAKERS

5 敲石头的人们

At just the time that Henry Cavendish was completing his experiments in London, four hundred miles away in Edinburgh another kind of concluding moment was about to take place with the death of James Hutton. This was bad news for Hutton, of course, but good news for science as it cleared the way for a man named John Playfair to rewrite Hutton's work without fear of embarrassment¹.

正当亨利·卡文迪许在伦敦完成试验的时候，在650公里之外的爱丁堡，另一个重大时刻随着詹姆斯·赫顿的去世而即将到来。这对赫顿来说当然是坏消息，但对科学界来说却是个好消息，因为它为一个名叫约翰·普莱费尔的人无愧地改写赫顿的作品铺平了道路。

Hutton was by all accounts a man of the keenest insights and liveliest conversation, a delight in company, and without rival when it came to understanding the mysterious slow processes that shaped the Earth. Unfortunately, it was beyond him to set down his notions in a form that anyone could begin to understand. He was, as one biographer observed with an all but audible sigh, "almost entirely² innocent of rhetorical accomplishments³." Nearly every line he penned was an invitation to slumber⁴. Here he is in his 1795 masterwork, A Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations , discussing . . . something:

赫顿毫无疑问是个目光敏锐、非常健谈的人，一个愉快的伙伴。他在了解地球那神秘而又缓慢的形成过程方面是无与伦比的。不幸的是，他不会以人人都能基本理解的形式写下他的见解。有一位传记作家长叹一声，说，他"几乎完全不懂得怎么使用语言"。他差不多每次写一行字就要想睡觉。在他1795年的杰作《地球论以及证据与说明》中，他是这样讨论......某个问题的：

The world which we inhabit is composed of the materials, not of the earth which was the immediate⁵ predecessor⁶ of the present, but of the earth which, in ascending⁷ from the present, we consider as the third, and which had preceded the land that was above the surface of the sea, while our present land was yet beneath the water of the ocean.

我们居住的世界不是由组成当时地球的直接前身的物质所构成的，而是从当今往前追溯，由我们认为是第三代的地球的物质所构成的，那个地球出现在陆地露出海面之前，而我们现今的陆地当时还在海水底下。

 

1 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

2 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

3 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 slumber   

n.睡眠，沉睡状态

参考例句：

• All the people in the hotels were wrapped in deep slumber.住在各旅馆里的人都已进入梦乡。
• Don't wake him from his slumber because he needs the rest.不要把他从睡眠中唤醒，因为他需要休息。

5 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

6 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

7 ascending   

adj.上升的，向上的

参考例句：

• Now draw or trace ten dinosaurs in ascending order of size.现在按照体型由小到大的顺序画出或是临摹出10只恐龙。