2018考研英语拓展阅读：数学可以烘焙？.docVIP

2018考研英语拓展阅读：数学可以烘焙？ 　　CHICAGO — We had just finished the mathematicianEugenia Cheng’s splendid demonstration ofnonassociativity where the order of operationscounts — as it does in, say, subtraction. 　　芝加哥——我们刚刚听完了数学家尤金妮娅·郑(EugeniaCheng)关于非结合律的精彩讲解：运算的顺序会影响运算结果，比如在减法中。 　　Now she wanted to forge ahead with the nextlesson, in knot theory. 　　现在，她想开始下一课：纽结理论(knot theory)。 　　I suggested we wait until later. “Why?” she asked. 　　我建议等一下。“为什么?”她问。 　　“Well, we shouldn’t eat two desserts before dinner, should we?” I said, and giggled nervously. 　　“这个，正餐之前总不能吃两道甜点吧，对不对?”我不安地笑道。 　　“Why not?” she replied, not giggling. She tightened her apron strings and walked over to herstove. 　　“为什么不能呢?”她没有笑，系紧腰上的围裙，走向烤炉。 　　Of course. What was I thinking? Hadn’t Dr. Cheng already made clear her conviction that inmathematics, rules are like eggs: meant to be broken, stirred, flipped over and taste-tested?And that day, we had broken a lot of eggs. 　　当然啦。我想什么呢?郑博士不是早就阐明了自己的理念吗——在数学中，规则就像鸡蛋一样，就是用来打破、搅拌、翻转和尝试的。那一天，我们已经打破了不少鸡蛋了。 　　“You’re absolutely right,” I said, rushing to her side for the grand unveiling of anothermathematically themed confection. 　　“你是对的，”我快速走到她身边，等待她郑重展示下一道数学主题的甜点。 　　Dr. Cheng pulled from the oven a perfectly baked specimen of what she calls Bach pie, namedfor the great composer beloved by mathematicians everywhere: an oblong rectangle ofcreamy dark chocolate studded with banana slices and topped by an Escher-like braid of fourglazed pastry plaits that followed divergent trajectories, never quite crisscrossing where youexpected them to. 　　郑博士从烤箱中拿出一份完美烘焙的样本，她称之为“巴赫派”(Bach pie)，以那位全世界数学家都深深喜爱的伟大作曲家命名。它是一块长方形的奶油黑巧克力蛋糕，点缀着香蕉切片，顶上是一个发辫一样的埃舍尔式图案：四股糖麻花呈放射状分布，在看似纵横相交的地方却并不相交。 　　The filling was a clever concatenation — “BAnana added to CHocolate gives you Bach,” Dr.Cheng said. The braiding illustrated the structure of a Bach prelude and the sorts ofpatterns that knot theorists study “to see how looped up the braids are,” Dr. Cheng said, “andwhether you can transform one braid into ano