[中石油职称英语课文讲稿1-60第01课49.docVIP

　　50. The Earths Learning Curve[n.曲线] . 人类的学习曲线、 　　1. Imagine a chart that begins when man first appeared on the planet and tracks[追踪] the economic growth of societies from then forward. It would be a long, flat line until the late 16th or early 17th century, when it would start trending upward. Before then the fruits of productive[adj.有创造性的] labor were limited to a few elites-princes, merchants and priests[(priest):n.教士,牧师]. For most of humankind life was as the English philosopher[n.哲学家] Thomas Hobbes famously described it in 1651-solitary[adj.孤单的], poor, nasty[adj.肮脏的], brutish[adj.粗野的], and short[adj.浅薄的]. But as Hobbes was writing those words, the world around him was changing. Put simply, human beings were getting smarter. 1、想象一下，如果从人类首次在地球上出现开始画一条曲线，追踪在此之后人类社会的经济发展轨迹，那么会发现16世纪晚期或17世纪初期之前，是一条长长的没有多少起伏的线条，之后这条线才开始上扬。在此之前，生产劳动的成果限制在少数上层人士-王子、商人和神职人员-手中。大多数人的生活就像英国哲学家托马斯·霍布斯1651年所作的著名描述那样：“孤独、贫穷、肮脏、粗野、浅薄。”但是就在霍布斯写下这些的时候，他周围的世界正在发生改变。简而言之，人类正变得越来越聪明。 单词：track＝追踪； productive生产性的 elite=精英philosopher=哲学家； nasty＝肮脏的；brutish＝粗野的； short＝浅薄的； 2. People have always sought[(seek):vt.探寻] knowledge, of course, but in Western Europe at that time, men like Galileo[n.伽利略], Newton[n.牛顿] and Descartes[n.笛卡儿] began to search systematically[adv.有系统地] for ways to understand and control their environment. The scientific revolution[n.革命], followed by the Enlightenment[n.启蒙运动], marked a fundamental[a.基本的,根本的] shift[改变]. Humans were no longer searching for ways simply to fit into a natural or divine[a.神的] order; they were seeking to change it. Once people found ways to harness[vt.控制] energy-using steam engines-they were able to build machines that harnessed far more power than any human or horse could ever do. And people could work without ever getting tired. The rise of these machines drove the Industrial Revolution, and created a whole new system of life. Today the search for knowledge continues to produce an ongoing[adj.持续不断的] revolution in the health and wealth of humankind. 2、当然