[2017年整理]text translation.doc

科技英语翻译复习(课文) Unit 1 Pure and Applied Science (1) As students of science (2) you are probably sometimes puzzled by the terms ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ science. Are these two totally different activities, having little or no interconnection, as is often implied? Let us begin by examining what is done by each. (3) Pure science is primarily concerned with the development of theories (or, as they are frequently called, models) establishing relationships between the phenomena of the universe. (4) When they are sufficiently validated, these theories (hypotheses, models) become the working laws or principles of science. In carrying out this work, the pure scientist usually disregards its application to practical affairs, confining his attention to explanations of how and why events occur. Hence, in physics, the equations describing the behavior of fundamental particles, or in biology, the establishment of the life cycle of a particular species of insect living in a Polar environment, (5) are said to be examples of pure science (basic research), having no apparent connection (for the moment) with technology, i.e. applied science. Applied science, on the other hand, is directly concerned with the application of the working laws of pure science to the practical affairs of life, and to increasing man’s control over his environment, thus leading to the development of new techniques, processes and machines. (6) Such activities as investigating the strength and uses of materials, extending the findings of pure mathematics to improve the sampling procedures used in agriculture or the social sciences, and developing the potentialities of atomic energy, are all examples of the work of the applied scientist or technologist. It is evident that many branches of applied science are practical extensions of purely theoretical or experimental work. Thus the study of radioactivity began as a piece of pure research, but its results are now applied in a great number of different ways in cancer