专业学位硕士研究生英语教程14Word下载.docx

专业学位硕士研究生英语教程14Word下载.docx

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imaginationsaboutthesamequestions.Theexplorationwillneverstopitsstepsuntilourhumancangetthetruthoneday.

TextReading

Warm-up

..1）MatchthewordsinColumnAfortheproperdayinColumnB.

Aworld-knownChristianstory,Genesis,hasexplainedwhocreatedtheworldand

whyitshouldbe.Inthisfamousstory,Godspent7daysincreatingtheworld.Nowyour

taskistomatchtheproperdayforeachitem.

AB

A.beast,cattleandinsect1.thefirstday

B.fishesandbirds2.thesecondday

C.lightanddarkness3.thethirdday

D.grassandtree4.theforthday

E.dayandnight5.thefifthday

F.archandwater6.thesixthday

G.sunandmoon7.theseventhday

H.landandsea

I.human

J.starandseason

K.rest

II．Mythologyandscience

Mythologyandsciencecanneverbeisolatedfromeachother.Theyarecloselyrelatedtoeachother.Therearedifferentwaystoknowthenatureoftheworld.Nowpleasechoosethenamesherefromthetable.Somearescientistsandtheotheraremythologicalfigures.Pleaseputthenamesinthepropercircles.

Brahma

Newton

Einstein

Galileo

Poseidon

Halley

Ptolemy

Odin

Laplace

JesusChrist

CurieMarie

Ra

Kepler

Zeus

Hubble

Allah

Cupid

Sakyamuni

Copernicus

Gaia

MythologicalFiguresScientists

III.Discussions.

1.Therearehundredsofversionsabouthowtheworldcomesintobeing.Andcanyoutellone?

2.Einsteinoncehassaid,"

Imaginationismoreimportantthanknowledge.Forknowledgeislimitedtoallwenowknowandunderstand,whileimaginationembracestheentireworld,andallthereeverwillbetoknowandunderstand."

Howdoyouthinkaboutit?

3.Whatdoyourthinkabouttherelationshipbetweenreligionandscience?

4.Wehavealreadyenteredthethespaceera,andasyouknow,howfarcanwegointhisdomain?

Text

SpaceandTime⑴

StephenHawking⑵

[1]Wefindourselvesinabewildering（confusing）world.Wewanttomakesenseof（understand）whatweseearoundusandtoask:

Whatisthenature（thebasicqualitiesofathing）oftheuniverse?

Whatisourplaceinitandwherediditandwecomefrom?

Whyisitthewayitis?

⑶

[2]Totrytoanswerthesequestionsweadopt（use）some"

worldpicture."

Justasaninfinitetoweroftortoises⑷supportingtheflatearthissuchapicture,soisthetheoryofsuperstrings⑸.Botharetheoriesoftheuniverse,thoughthelatterismuchmoremathematicalandprecisethantheformer.Boththeorieslackobservational（noticeable）evidence:

noonehaseverseenagiant（huge）tortoisewiththeearthonitsback,butthen,noonehasseenasuperstringeither.However,thetortoisetheoryfailstobeagoodscientifictheorybecauseitpredictsthatpeopleshouldbeabletofalloff（falltotheground）theedgeoftheworld.Thishasnotbeenfoundtoagreewith（tobethesameassth）experience,unlessthatturnsouttobetheexplanationforthepeoplewhoaresupposedtohavedisappearedintheBermudaTriangle⑹!

[3]Theearliesttheoreticalattemptstodescribeandexplaintheuniverseinvolvedtheideathateventsandnaturalphenomenawerecontrolledbyspiritswithhumanemotionswhoactedinaveryhumanlikeandunpredictablemanner（way）.Thesespiritsinhabited（livedinaparticularplace）naturalobjects,likeriversandmountains,includingcelestial（heavenly）bodies,likethesunandmoon.Theyhadtobeplacated（tobemadesbfeellessangryaboutsth）andtheirfavor（seek->

）soughtinordertoensure（tomakesurethatsthhappensorisdefinite）thefertility（thestateofbeingfertile）ofthesoilandtherotationoftheseasons.Gradually,however,itmusthavebeennoticedthattherewerecertainregularities（patternsorrules）:

thesunalwaysroseintheeastandsetinthewest,whetherornotasacrifice（nanimal,etc.thatisofferedtogods）hadbeenmadetothesungod.Further,thesun,themoon,andtheplanetsfollowedprecisepathsacrosstheskythatcouldbepredictedinadvance（beforehand）withconsiderable（great）accuracy（correctness）.Thesunandthemoonmightstillbegods,buttheyweregodswhoobeyedstrictlaws,apparently（obviously）withoutanyexceptions,ifonediscounts（dismiss）storieslikethatofthesunstoppingfor（waitingfor）Joshua⑺.

[4]Atfirst,theseregularitiesandlawswereobviousonlyinastronomy（thescientificstudyofthesun,moon,stars,planets,etc.）andafewothersituations.However,ascivilizationdeveloped,andparticularlyinthelast300years,moreandmoreregularitiesandlawswerediscovered.ThesuccessoftheselawsledLaplace（法国哲学家Pierre-SimonLaplace皮埃尔·

西蒙·

拉普拉斯）⑻atthebeginningofthenineteenthcenturytopostulate（tosuggestoracceptthatsthistruesothatitcanbeusedasthebasisforatheory,etc.）scientificdeterminism（thebeliefthatpeoplearenotfreetochoosewhattheyarelikeorhowtheybehave,becausethesethingsaredecidedbytheirsurroundingsandotherthingsoverwhichtheyhavenocontrol）;

thatis,hesuggestedthattherewouldbeasetoflawsthatwoulddeterminetheevolutionoftheuniverseprecisely,givenitsconfiguration（anarrangementofthepartsofsthoragroupofthings;

theformorshapethatthisarrangementproduces构造，配置）atonetime.

[5]Laplace'

sdeterminismwasincompleteintwoways.Itdidnotsayhowthelawsshouldbechosenanditdidnotspecify（tostatesth,especiallybygivinganexactmeasurement,time,exactinstructions,etc）theinitial（happeningatthebeginning;

first）configurationoftheuniverse.ThesewerelefttoGod.Godwouldchoosehowtheuniversebeganandwhatlawsitobeyed,buthewouldnotintervene（interrupt）intheuniverseonceithadstarted.Ineffect,Godwasconfinedto（limitedto）theareasthatnineteenth-centurysciencedidnotunderstand.

[6]Ineffect（Infact）,wehaveredefinedthetaskofsciencetobethediscoveryoflawsthatwillenableustopredicteventsuptothelimitssetbytheuncertaintyprinciples⑼.Thequestionremains,however:

howorwhywerethelawsandtheinitialstateoftheuniversechosen?

[7]Einsteinonceaskedthequestion:

"

HowmuchchoicedidGodhaveinconstructingtheuniverse?

Ifthenoboundaryproposaliscorrect,hehadnofreedomatalltochooseinitialconditions.Hewould,ofcourse,stillhavehadthefreedomtochoosethelawsthattheuniverseobeyed.This,however,maynotreallyhavebeenallthat（so）muchofachoice;

theremaywellbeonlyone,orasmallnumber,ofcompleteunified（统一的,）theories,suchastheheteroticstringtheory⑽,thatareself-consistentandallowtheexistenceofstructuresascomplicatedashumanbeingswhocaninvestigatethelawsoftheuniverseandaskaboutthenatureofGod.

[8]Uptonow（Sofar）,mostscientistshavebeentoooccupiedwith（busywith）thedevelopmentofnewtheoriesthatdescribewhattheuniverseistoaskthequestionwhy.⑾Ontheotherhand,thepeoplewhosebusinessitistoaskwhy,thephilosophers,havenotbeenabletokeepupwiththeadvance（progress,development）ofscientifictheories.Intheeighteenthcentury,philosophersconsideredthewholeofhumanknowledge,includingscience,tobetheirfieldanddiscussedquestionssuchas:

didtheuniversehaveabeginning?

However,inthenineteenthandtwentiethcenturies,sciencebecametootechnicalandmathematicalforthephilosophers,oranyoneelseexceptafewspecialists（experts）.Philosophersreduced（narrowed）thescopeoftheirinquiriessomuchthatWittgenstein⑿,themostfamousphilosopherofthiscentury,said,"

Thesole（only）remainingtaskforphilosophyistheanalysisoflanguage."

Whatacomedown（failure）fromthegreattraditionofphilosophyfromAristotle⒀toKant⒁!

[9]However,ifwedodiscoveracompletetheory,itshouldintime（finally）beunderstandable（comprehensive）inbroadprinciplebyeveryone,notjustafewscientists.Thenweshallall,philosophers,scientists,andjustordinarypeople,beabletotakepartinthediscussionofthequestionofwhyitisthatweandtheuniverseexist.Ifwefindtheanswertothat,itwouldbetheultimate（final）triumph（victory）ofhumanreason—forthenwewouldknowthemindofGod.

Notes

⑴ThistextcomesfromABriefHistoryofTime.Itattemptstoexplainarangeofsubjectsincosmology,includingtheBigBang,blackholes,lightconesandsuperstringtheory,tothenon-specialistreader.

⑵StephenHawking:

StephenWilliamHawking,（born8January1942）isaBritishtheoreticalphysicist.Heisknownforhiscontributionstothefieldsofcosmologyandquantumgravity,especiallyinthecontextofblackholes.

⑶Whyisitthewayitis:

itmeans"

Thereasonthattheuniverseislikethewaythatitis."

（为何它就应该是这个样子的?

）Herethefirst"

it"

isaformalsubject,andthesecond"

isusedtorefertotheword"

universe"

.

⑷aninfinitetoweroftortoises:

itisuniversallyacceptedintheearlytimethattheworldisreallyaflatplatesupportedonthebackofagianttortoise.

⑸superstringtheory:

超弦理论属于弦理论的一种，也指狭义的弦理论。

这里的“超”有超对称性的意思。

为了将玻色子（bosons）和费米子（fermions）统一，科学家预言了这种粒子，由于实验条件的限制，人们很难找到这种能够证明弦理论的粒子。

⑹theBermudaTriangle:

alsoknownastheDevil'

sTriangle,itisaregioninthewesternpartoftheNorthAtlanticOceaninwhichanumberofaircraftandsurfacevesselsareallegedt