大学英语精读第5册课文全文翻译(5)

体的努力，洞察力，新发现和智慧。科学不是某 种新事物，它始于有文字记载的历史前，人类首 次发现其周围重复出现的事物之间的各种关系之 时。 通过对这些相互关系的仔细观察，他们开始 认识自然，又由于自然的可靠性，他们发现自己 可以预测未来从而能够对周围环境实施某种程度 上的控制。 在十六世纪，科学取得了最大的进步。那时 的人们已经开始就自然现象提出一些可以回答的 问题， 那时，人们已开始用对秩序的规律系统的 研究来代替迷信；那时，人们除了使用逻辑外， 还运用实验来验证各种观点。 过去人们曾试图用 魔术和超自然的力量来左右自然现象， 然而现在 他们用科学来作指导。但是，由于对科学方法与 思想强烈的反对，进步是缓慢的。 大约在 1510 年，哥白尼提出了太阳静止不

opposition to scientific methods and ideas. In about 1510 Copernicus suggested that the sun was stationary and that the earth revolved about the sun. He refuted the idea that the earth was the center of the universe. After years of hesitation, he published his findings but died before his book was circulated. His book was considered heretical and dangerous and was banned by the Church for 200 years. A century after Copernicus, the mathematician Bruno was burned at the stake -largely for supporting Copernicus, suggesting the sun to be a star, and suggesting that space was infinite. Galileo was imprisoned for popularizing the Copernican theory and for his other contributions to scientific thought.

Yet a couple of centuries later, Copernican advocates seemed harmless. This happens age after age. In the early 1800s geologists met with violent condemnation because they differed with the Genesis account of creation. Later in the same century, geology was safe, but theories of evolution were condemned and the teaching of them forbidden. This most likely continues. "At every crossway on the road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past." Every age has one or more groups of intellectual rebels who are persecuted, condemned, or suppressed at the time; but to a later age, they seem harmless and often essential to the elevation of human conditions. The enormous success of science has led to the general belief that scientists have developed and ate employing a "method" - a method that is extremely effective in gaining, organizing, and applying new knowledge. Galileo, famous scientist of the 1600s, is usually credited with being the "Father of the Scientific Method." His method is essentially as follows: 1. Recognize a problem. 2. Guess an answer. 3. Predict the consequences of the guess. 4. Perform experiments to test predictions. 5. Formulate the simplest theory organizes the three main ingredients: guess, prediction, experimental outcome. Although this cookbook method has a certain appeal, to has not been the key to most of the breakthroughs and discoveries in science. Trial and error, experimentation without guessing, accidental discovery, and other methods account for much of the progress in science. Rather than a particular method, the success of science has more to do with an attitude common to scientists. This attitude is essentially one of inquiry, experimentation, and

动，地球绕太阳旋转之观点。他驳斥了地球是宇 宙中心的观点。经过几年的犹豫，他发表了自己 研究成果，还没等到他的书广泛流传，哥白尼就 逝世了。他的书被认为是异端的、危险的，并被 教会禁锢了二百年。在哥白尼之后一个世纪，数 学家布鲁诺被烧死在火刑柱上—主要是因为支持 哥白尼，认为太阳是一棵恒星，并且还认为太空 是无限的。伽俐略因为普及哥白尼的理论以及他 对科学思想的其它贡献而被关进监狱。然而，几 个世纪以后，哥白尼的拥护者们似乎就没有危害 了。 这种事情一个时代接一个时代都会发生。在 十九世纪初，地质学家们遭到强烈遣责，因为他 们的观点与《创世纪》中所叙述的创世观点相左。 可就在同一世纪稍晚些时候，地质学就安全了， 但是有关进化的理论依然遭到谴责，并被禁止教 授。这种情况很可能继续下去，因为在通往未来 大道上的每一个十字路口，各种进步精神都会遭 到上千名受命维护过去的卫道士们的反对。每一 个时代都会有一批或更多的知识分子叛逆者都会 在那个

时候遭到迫害、谴责，甚至是镇压；但在 后来的岁月，他们似乎无害，并且在提高人类条 件上起着重要作用。科学的巨大成功引出一个普 遍的信念，即科学家们已经研制并且运用了一种 方法—一种在获得、组织和运用新的知识方面极 端有效的方法。伽俐略，十七世纪的著名科学家， 被认为是科学方法之父。 他的主要方法如下： 1、认明问题。 2、猜想答案。 3、预测猜想结果。 4、进行实验证明预测。 5、用公式表述形成这三大要素： 猜想、预测及实验结果的最简明的理论。尽 管这标准化的方法有一点的吸引力。但它并不是 大多数科学突破和发现的关键。反复试验、不作 猜测的实验，偶然的发现，还有其它的方法都是 许多科学进步的原因所在。科学的成功不在于采 用特殊的方法，它更取决于科学家们所共有的一 种态度。这种态度的实质就是探究、实验和尊重 事实。如果一位科学家认为某种观点是正确的， 可后来又发现相反的证据，他就会修改或放弃这

humility before the facts. If a scientist holds an idea to be true and finds any counterevidence whatever, the idea is either modified or abandoned. In the scientific spirit, the idea must be modified or abandoned in spite of the reputation of the person advocating it. As an example, the greatly respected Greek philosopher Aristotle said that falling bodies fall at a speed proportional to their weight. This false idea was held to be true for more than 2,000 years because of Aristotle's immense authority. In the scientific spirit, however, a single verifiable experiment to the contrary outweighs any authority, regardless of reputation or the number of followers and advocates. Scientists must accept facts even when they would like them to be different. They must strive to distinguish between what they see and what they wish to see -- for humanity's capacity for self-deception is vast. People have traditionally tended to adopt general rules, beliefs, creeds, theories, and ideas without thoroughly questioning their validity and to retain them long after they have been shown to be meaningless, false, or at least questionable. The most widespread assumptions are the least questioned. Most often, when a …… 此处隐藏：5479字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……