2023考研英語(yǔ)閱讀宇宙大爆炸
Big bang
宇宙大爆炸
Popular physics has enjoyed a new-found regard.Now comes a brave attempt to inject mathematicsinto an otherwise fashionable subject
科普物理再次得到新的關(guān)注。如今，學(xué)者大膽的嘗試將數(shù)學(xué)引入另外一個(gè)流行學(xué)科;
The Quantum Universe: Everything That CanHappen Does Happen. By Brian Cox and JeffForshaw.
量子宇宙：一切可能發(fā)生的的確發(fā)生。布萊恩考克斯和杰夫福肖著。
Previously the preserve of dusty, tweed-jacketed academics, physics has enjoyed asurprising popular renaissance over the past few years. In America Michio Kaku, a stringtheorist, has penned several successful books and wowed television and radio audiences withhis presentations on esoteric subjects such as the existence of wormholes and the possibilityof alien life. In Britain Brian Cox, a former pop star whose music helped propel Tony Blair topower, has become the front man for physics, which recently regained its status as apopular subject in British classrooms, an effect many attribute to Mr Cox s astonishingappeal.
從前的學(xué)者保持著蓬頭垢面、身著花呢夾克的形象。在過(guò)去幾年里，物理學(xué)迎來(lái)了驚人的全面復(fù)興。在美國(guó)，弦論學(xué)家米奇霍卡庫(kù)創(chuàng)作出數(shù)本反響不錯(cuò)的書(shū)。他對(duì)諸如蟲(chóng)洞及外星生命存在的可能性等小眾課題的介紹贏得了電視觀眾和電臺(tái)聽(tīng)眾的贊賞。在英國(guó)，其作品曾幫助托尼布萊爾登上大寶的前流行歌星布萊恩考克斯，現(xiàn)在成了物理學(xué)的領(lǐng)軍人物。近來(lái)物理學(xué)在英國(guó)學(xué)生中再次獲得了受歡迎的科目的地位。產(chǎn)生這樣的效果很大程度上歸功于考克斯先生驚人的感召力。
Mr Cox, a particle physicist, is well-known as the presenter of two BBC television series thathave attracted millions of viewers and as a bestsellingauthor and public speaker. His latest book, The Quantum Universe, which he co-wrote withJeff Forshaw of the University of Manchester, breaks the rules of popular science-writing thatwere established over two decades ago by Stephen Hawking, who launched the moderngenre with his famous book, A Brief History of Time.
粒子物理學(xué)家考克斯先生，因推薦了兩部吸引了數(shù)百萬(wàn)觀眾的BBC電視劇而知名。他同樣是暢銷(xiāo)書(shū)作者兼公開(kāi)演講家。他的新書(shū)《量子宇宙》，是由他和曼徹斯特大學(xué)的杰夫福索合著的。該書(shū)打破了20年前由史蒂芬霍金創(chuàng)立的科普寫(xiě)作規(guī)范。霍金以其著作《時(shí)間簡(jiǎn)史》開(kāi)創(chuàng)了這一現(xiàn)代寫(xiě)作流派。
Mr Hawking s literary success was ascribed to his eschewing equations. One of his editorswarned him that sales of the book would be halved by every equation he included; MrHawking inserted just one, E=mc2, and, even then, the volume acquired a sorry reputationfor being bought but not read. By contrast, Mr Cox, whose previous book with Mr Forshawinvestigated Why does E=mc2? , has bravely sloshed a generous slug ofmathematics throughout his texts.
霍金在文學(xué)上的成功歸因于他避開(kāi)了方程式。一位編輯曾警告他，每個(gè)寫(xiě)進(jìn)書(shū)中的方程式都會(huì)讓銷(xiāo)量減半?；艚鹁筒辶艘粋€(gè)：E=Mc2。即使那樣，讓人感到遺憾的是，該書(shū)是靠購(gòu)買(mǎi)量而非閱讀量贏得聲譽(yù)。相比之下，在上一本旨在探尋為什么是E=Mc2的書(shū)中，考克斯與福索就已經(jīng)大膽地通篇砍掉冗長(zhǎng)的數(shù)學(xué)公式。
The difficulties in explaining physics without using maths are longstanding. Einstein mused, The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility, and the fact that it iscomprehensible is a miracle. Yet the language in which the world is described is that ofmaths, a relatively sound grasp of which is needed to comprehend the difficulties thatphysicists are trying to resolve as well as the possible solutions. Mr Cox has secured a largefan base with his boyish good looks, his happy turns of phrase and his knack for presentingcomplex ideas using simple analogies. He also admirably shies away from dumbing down. The Quantum Universe is not a dry undergraduate text book, but nor is it a particularly easyread.
不用數(shù)學(xué)解釋物理知識(shí)所造成的困難由來(lái)已久。愛(ài)因斯坦語(yǔ)重心長(zhǎng)地說(shuō)過(guò)：世間永恒的神秘在于它的可了解性?？梢粤私膺@一事實(shí)本身就是一個(gè)奇跡。然而，用于描述世界的語(yǔ)言就是數(shù)學(xué)。在理解物理學(xué)家試圖解決的困難及可能的解決方案時(shí)，數(shù)學(xué)是一個(gè)相對(duì)合理的必要的抓手。憑借其大男孩般的優(yōu)質(zhì)外表、習(xí)語(yǔ)的運(yùn)用、簡(jiǎn)單類(lèi)比解釋復(fù)雜概念的竅門(mén)，考克斯擁有了一大幫粉絲。他同時(shí)成功避免過(guò)度簡(jiǎn)化?！读孔佑钪妗贩且槐靖砂桶偷拇髮W(xué)教材，但也不是特別容易讀懂。
The subject matter is hard. Quantum mechanics, which describes in subatomic detail ashadowy world in which cats can be simultaneously alive and dead, is notoriously difficultto grasp. Its experiments yield bizarre results that can be explained only by embracing themaths that describe them, and its theories make outrageous predictions that have nevertheless later been verified. Messrs Cox andForshaw say they have included the maths mainly because it allows us to really explain whythings are the way they are. Without it, we should have to resort to the physicist-gurumentality whereby we pluck profundities out of thin air, and neither author would becomfortable with guru status.
有關(guān)物質(zhì)的課題是艱澀的。眾所周知，用于詳細(xì)描述原子內(nèi)部這個(gè)貓亦生亦死的虛無(wú)世界的量子力學(xué)很難領(lǐng)會(huì)。要解釋實(shí)驗(yàn)產(chǎn)生的奇異結(jié)果，只能運(yùn)用描述這些結(jié)果的數(shù)學(xué)。雖然量子力學(xué)理論對(duì)諸如反物質(zhì)的存在所做出的預(yù)測(cè)是匪夷所思的，但這些預(yù)測(cè)后來(lái)得到了證實(shí)。考克斯和福索稱他們之所以在書(shū)中加入數(shù)學(xué)主要是因?yàn)閿?shù)學(xué)讓我們真正去解釋為什么事物是以這樣一種方式存在。沒(méi)了數(shù)學(xué)，我們不得不依靠物理大師般的心智，由是，我們憑空捏造出奧義，而任何一個(gè)作者都不會(huì)對(duì)這樣的大師頭銜心安理得。
That stance might comfort the authors, but to many readers they will nonetheless seemto pluck equations out of thin air. Yet their decision to include some of the hard stuff leavesopen the possibility that some readers might actually engage in the slog that leads to higherpleasures. For non-sloggers alternative routes are offered: Messrs Cox and Forshaw useclockfaces to illustrate how particles interact with one another, a drawing of how guitarstrings twang and a photograph of a vibrating drum. A diagram, rather than an equation,is used to explain one promising theory of how matter acquires mass, a question thatexperiments on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European particle-physics laboratorynear Geneva, will hopefully soon answer.
這樣的立場(chǎng)也許會(huì)使作者感覺(jué)不錯(cuò)，但對(duì)很多讀者來(lái)說(shuō)，他們似乎還是想憑空弄出方程式。作者決定加入一些生澀的東西，這樣就給一些苦心鉆研并從中獲得更多快感的讀者留下了余地。他們還為一般讀者提供了另一條途徑：考克斯和福索以表盤(pán)為例說(shuō)明粒子是如何相互作用的，一副有關(guān)吉他琴弦如何發(fā)出聲音的，一張振動(dòng)的鼓的照片。他們用圖表，而非公式去解釋物質(zhì)是如何獲得質(zhì)量這一前沿理論。在鄰近日內(nèi)瓦的粒子物理實(shí)驗(yàn)室，即歐洲核子研究委員會(huì)的巨型強(qiáng)子對(duì)撞機(jī)上進(jìn)行的實(shí)驗(yàn)產(chǎn)生的這個(gè)問(wèn)題有望很快得出答案。
The authors have wisely chosen to leaven their tome with amusing tales of dysfunctionalcharacters among scholars who developed quantum mechanics in the 1920s and beyond, aswell as with accounts of the philosophical struggles with which they grappled and theoccasional earthy aside. Where the subject matter is a trifle dull, Messrs Cox and Forshawacknowledge it: of Heinrich Kayser, who a century ago completed a six-volume referencebook documenting the spectral lines generated by every known element, they observe, Hemust have been great fun at dinner parties. And they make some sweeping generalisationsabout their colleagues who pore over equations, Physicists are very lazy, and they would notgo to all this trouble unless it saved time in the long run.
為了加強(qiáng)這個(gè)大部頭的影響力，兩位作者明智地選擇了一些有趣的段子：在20世紀(jì)20年代以及更早時(shí)候發(fā)展量子力學(xué)的學(xué)者的怪癖;他們?cè)O(shè)法解決的哲學(xué)問(wèn)題;間或出現(xiàn)的通俗旁白。有關(guān)物質(zhì)的課題是枯燥的，考克斯和福索承認(rèn)：海因里希凱瑟在一個(gè)世紀(jì)前完成了6部用以證明光譜是由每個(gè)已知元素產(chǎn)生的參考著作，據(jù)他們觀察，他肯定在晚宴上很開(kāi)心。他們也對(duì)專注方程式的同事進(jìn)行了高度概括：物理學(xué)家非常懶惰，除非從長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)看這節(jié)約時(shí)間，他們不會(huì)招惹這些麻煩。
Whether or not readers of The Quantum Universe will follow all the maths, the authors lovefor their subject shines through the book. There is no better demonstration of the power ofthe scientific method than quantum theory, they write. That may be so, but physicists allover the world, Messrs Cox and Forshaw included, are longing for the next breakthroughthat will supersede the claim. Hopes are pinned on experiments currently under way atCERN that may force physicists to rethink their understanding of the universe, and inspireMessrs Cox and Forshaw to write their next bookequations and all.
不論《量子宇宙》的讀者是否會(huì)關(guān)注所有與之相關(guān)的數(shù)學(xué)知識(shí)，作者對(duì)專業(yè)的熱愛(ài)貫穿整部作品。他們寫(xiě)道：沒(méi)有比量子理論更能展現(xiàn)科學(xué)方法的力量。也許吧。但包括考克斯和福索在內(nèi)的所有物理學(xué)家都渴望有新的突破去取代這一論斷。大家寄希望于目前在歐洲核子研究委員會(huì)進(jìn)行的實(shí)驗(yàn)，該實(shí)驗(yàn)也許會(huì)迫使物理學(xué)家重新思考他們對(duì)宇宙的理解，并激勵(lì)考克斯和福索寫(xiě)下一本書(shū)方程式及所有其它的。
Big bang
宇宙大爆炸
Popular physics has enjoyed a new-found regard.Now comes a brave attempt to inject mathematicsinto an otherwise fashionable subject
科普物理再次得到新的關(guān)注。如今，學(xué)者大膽的嘗試將數(shù)學(xué)引入另外一個(gè)流行學(xué)科;
The Quantum Universe: Everything That CanHappen Does Happen. By Brian Cox and JeffForshaw.
量子宇宙：一切可能發(fā)生的的確發(fā)生。布萊恩考克斯和杰夫福肖著。
Previously the preserve of dusty, tweed-jacketed academics, physics has enjoyed asurprising popular renaissance over the past few years. In America Michio Kaku, a stringtheorist, has penned several successful books and wowed television and radio audiences withhis presentations on esoteric subjects such as the existence of wormholes and the possibilityof alien life. In Britain Brian Cox, a former pop star whose music helped propel Tony Blair topower, has become the front man for physics, which recently regained its status as apopular subject in British classrooms, an effect many attribute to Mr Cox s astonishingappeal.
從前的學(xué)者保持著蓬頭垢面、身著花呢夾克的形象。在過(guò)去幾年里，物理學(xué)迎來(lái)了驚人的全面復(fù)興。在美國(guó)，弦論學(xué)家米奇霍卡庫(kù)創(chuàng)作出數(shù)本反響不錯(cuò)的書(shū)。他對(duì)諸如蟲(chóng)洞及外星生命存在的可能性等小眾課題的介紹贏得了電視觀眾和電臺(tái)聽(tīng)眾的贊賞。在英國(guó)，其作品曾幫助托尼布萊爾登上大寶的前流行歌星布萊恩考克斯，現(xiàn)在成了物理學(xué)的領(lǐng)軍人物。近來(lái)物理學(xué)在英國(guó)學(xué)生中再次獲得了受歡迎的科目的地位。產(chǎn)生這樣的效果很大程度上歸功于考克斯先生驚人的感召力。
Mr Cox, a particle physicist, is well-known as the presenter of two BBC television series thathave attracted millions of viewers and as a bestsellingauthor and public speaker. His latest book, The Quantum Universe, which he co-wrote withJeff Forshaw of the University of Manchester, breaks the rules of popular science-writing thatwere established over two decades ago by Stephen Hawking, who launched the moderngenre with his famous book, A Brief History of Time.
粒子物理學(xué)家考克斯先生，因推薦了兩部吸引了數(shù)百萬(wàn)觀眾的BBC電視劇而知名。他同樣是暢銷(xiāo)書(shū)作者兼公開(kāi)演講家。他的新書(shū)《量子宇宙》，是由他和曼徹斯特大學(xué)的杰夫福索合著的。該書(shū)打破了20年前由史蒂芬霍金創(chuàng)立的科普寫(xiě)作規(guī)范?；艚鹨云渲鳌稌r(shí)間簡(jiǎn)史》開(kāi)創(chuàng)了這一現(xiàn)代寫(xiě)作流派。
Mr Hawking s literary success was ascribed to his eschewing equations. One of his editorswarned him that sales of the book would be halved by every equation he included; MrHawking inserted just one, E=mc2, and, even then, the volume acquired a sorry reputationfor being bought but not read. By contrast, Mr Cox, whose previous book with Mr Forshawinvestigated Why does E=mc2? , has bravely sloshed a generous slug ofmathematics throughout his texts.
霍金在文學(xué)上的成功歸因于他避開(kāi)了方程式。一位編輯曾警告他，每個(gè)寫(xiě)進(jìn)書(shū)中的方程式都會(huì)讓銷(xiāo)量減半?；艚鹁筒辶艘粋€(gè)：E=Mc2。即使那樣，讓人感到遺憾的是，該書(shū)是靠購(gòu)買(mǎi)量而非閱讀量贏得聲譽(yù)。相比之下，在上一本旨在探尋為什么是E=Mc2的書(shū)中，考克斯與福索就已經(jīng)大膽地通篇砍掉冗長(zhǎng)的數(shù)學(xué)公式。
The difficulties in explaining physics without using maths are longstanding. Einstein mused, The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility, and the fact that it iscomprehensible is a miracle. Yet the language in which the world is described is that ofmaths, a relatively sound grasp of which is needed to comprehend the difficulties thatphysicists are trying to resolve as well as the possible solutions. Mr Cox has secured a largefan base with his boyish good looks, his happy turns of phrase and his knack for presentingcomplex ideas using simple analogies. He also admirably shies away from dumbing down. The Quantum Universe is not a dry undergraduate text book, but nor is it a particularly easyread.
不用數(shù)學(xué)解釋物理知識(shí)所造成的困難由來(lái)已久。愛(ài)因斯坦語(yǔ)重心長(zhǎng)地說(shuō)過(guò)：世間永恒的神秘在于它的可了解性?？梢粤私膺@一事實(shí)本身就是一個(gè)奇跡。然而，用于描述世界的語(yǔ)言就是數(shù)學(xué)。在理解物理學(xué)家試圖解決的困難及可能的解決方案時(shí)，數(shù)學(xué)是一個(gè)相對(duì)合理的必要的抓手。憑借其大男孩般的優(yōu)質(zhì)外表、習(xí)語(yǔ)的運(yùn)用、簡(jiǎn)單類(lèi)比解釋復(fù)雜概念的竅門(mén)，考克斯擁有了一大幫粉絲。他同時(shí)成功避免過(guò)度簡(jiǎn)化?！读孔佑钪妗贩且槐靖砂桶偷拇髮W(xué)教材，但也不是特別容易讀懂。
The subject matter is hard. Quantum mechanics, which describes in subatomic detail ashadowy world in which cats can be simultaneously alive and dead, is notoriously difficultto grasp. Its experiments yield bizarre results that can be explained only by embracing themaths that describe them, and its theories make outrageous predictions that have nevertheless later been verified. Messrs Cox andForshaw say they have included the maths mainly because it allows us to really explain whythings are the way they are. Without it, we should have to resort to the physicist-gurumentality whereby we pluck profundities out of thin air, and neither author would becomfortable with guru status.
有關(guān)物質(zhì)的課題是艱澀的。眾所周知，用于詳細(xì)描述原子內(nèi)部這個(gè)貓亦生亦死的虛無(wú)世界的量子力學(xué)很難領(lǐng)會(huì)。要解釋實(shí)驗(yàn)產(chǎn)生的奇異結(jié)果，只能運(yùn)用描述這些結(jié)果的數(shù)學(xué)。雖然量子力學(xué)理論對(duì)諸如反物質(zhì)的存在所做出的預(yù)測(cè)是匪夷所思的，但這些預(yù)測(cè)后來(lái)得到了證實(shí)?？伎怂购透Ｋ鞣Q他們之所以在書(shū)中加入數(shù)學(xué)主要是因?yàn)閿?shù)學(xué)讓我們真正去解釋為什么事物是以這樣一種方式存在。沒(méi)了數(shù)學(xué)，我們不得不依靠物理大師般的心智，由是，我們憑空捏造出奧義，而任何一個(gè)作者都不會(huì)對(duì)這樣的大師頭銜心安理得。
That stance might comfort the authors, but to many readers they will nonetheless seemto pluck equations out of thin air. Yet their decision to include some of the hard stuff leavesopen the possibility that some readers might actually engage in the slog that leads to higherpleasures. For non-sloggers alternative routes are offered: Messrs Cox and Forshaw useclockfaces to illustrate how particles interact with one another, a drawing of how guitarstrings twang and a photograph of a vibrating drum. A diagram, rather than an equation,is used to explain one promising theory of how matter acquires mass, a question thatexperiments on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European particle-physics laboratorynear Geneva, will hopefully soon answer.
這樣的立場(chǎng)也許會(huì)使作者感覺(jué)不錯(cuò)，但對(duì)很多讀者來(lái)說(shuō)，他們似乎還是想憑空弄出方程式。作者決定加入一些生澀的東西，這樣就給一些苦心鉆研并從中獲得更多快感的讀者留下了余地。他們還為一般讀者提供了另一條途徑：考克斯和福索以表盤(pán)為例說(shuō)明粒子是如何相互作用的，一副有關(guān)吉他琴弦如何發(fā)出聲音的，一張振動(dòng)的鼓的照片。他們用圖表，而非公式去解釋物質(zhì)是如何獲得質(zhì)量這一前沿理論。在鄰近日內(nèi)瓦的粒子物理實(shí)驗(yàn)室，即歐洲核子研究委員會(huì)的巨型強(qiáng)子對(duì)撞機(jī)上進(jìn)行的實(shí)驗(yàn)產(chǎn)生的這個(gè)問(wèn)題有望很快得出答案。
The authors have wisely chosen to leaven their tome with amusing tales of dysfunctionalcharacters among scholars who developed quantum mechanics in the 1920s and beyond, aswell as with accounts of the philosophical struggles with which they grappled and theoccasional earthy aside. Where the subject matter is a trifle dull, Messrs Cox and Forshawacknowledge it: of Heinrich Kayser, who a century ago completed a six-volume referencebook documenting the spectral lines generated by every known element, they observe, Hemust have been great fun at dinner parties. And they make some sweeping generalisationsabout their colleagues who pore over equations, Physicists are very lazy, and they would notgo to all this trouble unless it saved time in the long run.
為了加強(qiáng)這個(gè)大部頭的影響力，兩位作者明智地選擇了一些有趣的段子：在20世紀(jì)20年代以及更早時(shí)候發(fā)展量子力學(xué)的學(xué)者的怪癖;他們?cè)O(shè)法解決的哲學(xué)問(wèn)題;間或出現(xiàn)的通俗旁白。有關(guān)物質(zhì)的課題是枯燥的，考克斯和福索承認(rèn)：海因里希凱瑟在一個(gè)世紀(jì)前完成了6部用以證明光譜是由每個(gè)已知元素產(chǎn)生的參考著作，據(jù)他們觀察，他肯定在晚宴上很開(kāi)心。他們也對(duì)專注方程式的同事進(jìn)行了高度概括：物理學(xué)家非常懶惰，除非從長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)看這節(jié)約時(shí)間，他們不會(huì)招惹這些麻煩。
Whether or not readers of The Quantum Universe will follow all the maths, the authors lovefor their subject shines through the book. There is no better demonstration of the power ofthe scientific method than quantum theory, they write. That may be so, but physicists allover the world, Messrs Cox and Forshaw included, are longing for the next breakthroughthat will supersede the claim. Hopes are pinned on experiments currently under way atCERN that may force physicists to rethink their understanding of the universe, and inspireMessrs Cox and Forshaw to write their next bookequations and all.
不論《量子宇宙》的讀者是否會(huì)關(guān)注所有與之相關(guān)的數(shù)學(xué)知識(shí)，作者對(duì)專業(yè)的熱愛(ài)貫穿整部作品。他們寫(xiě)道：沒(méi)有比量子理論更能展現(xiàn)科學(xué)方法的力量。也許吧。但包括考克斯和福索在內(nèi)的所有物理學(xué)家都渴望有新的突破去取代這一論斷。大家寄希望于目前在歐洲核子研究委員會(huì)進(jìn)行的實(shí)驗(yàn)，該實(shí)驗(yàn)也許會(huì)迫使物理學(xué)家重新思考他們對(duì)宇宙的理解，并激勵(lì)考克斯和福索寫(xiě)下一本書(shū)方程式及所有其它的。
