大学英语精读课文译3-10单元.docVIP

Unit Three 第三单元 Can you prove that the earth is round?你能证明地球是圆的吗？ Go ahead and try!继续去试一试！ Will you rely on your senses or will you have to draw on the opinions of experts? 你将依靠你的感觉还是不得不利用专家的观点？ WHY DO WE BELIEVE THAT THE EARTH IS ROUND? 我们为什么相信地球是圆的？ Somewhere or other-记得在什么地方 I think it is in the preface to Saint Joan-我想是在《圣女贞德》序言中—— Bernard Shaw remarks that we are more gullible and superstitious today than we were in the Middle Ages,肖伯纳评论说，今天我们比在中世纪时更加轻信，更加迷信。 and as an example of modern credulity he cites the widespread belief that the earth is round. 而作为现代轻信的例证，他举出地圆这一广为传播的信念。 The average man, says Shaw,肖伯纳说，普通人 can advance not a single reason for thinking that the earth is round.举不出一条理由来说明为什么相信地球是圆的。 He merely swallows this theory because there is something about it that appeals to the twentieth-century mentality.他全盘接受这一理论，只是因为这一理论有一种迎合20世纪心态的东西。 Now, Shaw is exaggerating, 当然，肖伯纳是夸大其词了， but there is something in what he says, 但他说的也确实有些道理， and the question is worth following up, 这一问题值得进一步探讨， for the sake of the light it throws on modern knowledge.因为它会帮助人们看清现代知识的真实情况。 Just why do we believe that the earth is round?我们究竟为什么会相信地球是圆的呢？ I am not speaking of the few thousand astronomers, 我说的不是指那些为数不多的几千位天文学家、 geographers and so forth who could give ocular proof,地球学家之类的人， or have a theoretical knowledge of the proof, 他们可能用观察到的事实或用理论上的根据来证实这一点， but of the ordinary newspaper-reading citizen,我的是报纸的普通读者， such as you or me.如同你我之辈。 As for the Flat Earth theory,至于“地平线”， I believe I could refute it.我相信我能够加以驳斥， If you stand by the seashore on a clear day,如果你在天气晴朗的日子站立海边， you can see the masts and funnels of invisible ships passing along the horizon. 你可以看到船桅和烟囱沿着地平线移动而不见船体本身。 This phenomenon can only be explained by assuming that the earths surface is curved. 只有假设地球表面呈曲线状，这一现象才能到解释。 But it does not follow that the earth is spherical. 便不能由此推断地球是球形的。 Imagine another theory called the Oval Earth theory, 设想另一个称做“地球卵形说”的理论吧， which claims that the earth is shaped like an egg. 这一学说声