Unit 4 文章翻译.docx

1、Unit 4 文章翻译Unit 4 Imagination and CreativityEinsteins achievement s were so astonishing that it is sometimes tempting to view him almost as a creature from another planet rather than as an ordinary human being. Yet in certain ways he can be seen as a child of his time.爱因斯坦的成就令人无比惊讶，以至有时人们几乎想把他看成是外星人

2、，而不是普通的地球上的人。然而，在某些方面他可被看成是他那个时代的产儿。Was Einstein a space Alien?爱因斯坦是外星人吗？Tony PhillipsAlbert Einstein was exhausted. For the third night in a row, his baby son Hans, crying, kept the household awake until dawn. When Albert finally dozed off it was time to get up and go to work. He couldnt skin a day

3、. He needed the job to support his young family.阿尔伯特爱因斯坦精疲力竭。他幼小的儿子汉斯连续三个晚上哭闹不停，弄得全家人直到天亮都没法入睡。阿尔伯特总算可以打个瞌睡时，已是他起床上班的时候了。他不能一天不上班，他需要这份工作来养活组建不久的家庭。Walking briskly to the Patent Office, where he was a “Technical Expert, Third Class,” Albert worried about his mother. She was getting older and frail,

4、and she didnt approve of his marriage to Mileva. Relations were strained. Albert glanced at a passing shop window. His hair was a mess; he had forgotten to comb it again.阿尔伯特是专利局三等技术专家。在快步去专利局上班的路上，他为母亲忧心忡忡。母亲年纪越来越大，身体虚弱。她不同意儿子与迈尔娃的婚事，婆媳关系紧张。阿尔伯特瞥了一下路过的商店橱窗，看见自己头发凌乱，他又忘了梳头了。Work. Family. Making ends

5、 meet. Albert felt all the pressure and responsibility of any young husband and father.工作、家庭、维持生计阿尔伯特感受到了一位年轻丈夫和年轻父亲所要承担的全部压力和责任。To relax, he revolutionized physics.他想放松一下，却使物理学发生了突破性进展。 In 1905, at the age of 26 and four years before he was able to get a job as a professor of physics, Einstein publ

6、ished five of the most important papers in the history of science-all written in this “spare time”. He proved that atoms and molecules existed. Before 1905, scientists werent sure about that. He argued that light came in little bits(later called “photons”) and thus laid the foundation for quantum me

7、chanics. He described his theory of special relativity: space and time were threads in a common fabric, he proposed, which could be bent, stretched and twisted. 1905年，在他被聘为物理学教授的前四年，26岁的爱因斯坦发表了科学史上最重要论文中的五篇这些论文都是他在“业余时间”完成的。他证明了原子和分子的存在。1905年之前，科学家们对此没有把握。爱因斯坦论证说光以微粒的形态出现（后来被称为“光子”），这为量子力学奠定了基础。他把狭义

8、相对论描写为：时空如同普通织物中的线，他提出，这些线可以弯曲，、拉长和交织在一起。Oh, and by the way, E=mc2.对了，顺便提一下，还有E=mc2。Before Einstein, the last scientist who had such a creative outburst was Sir Isaac Newton. It happened in 1666 when Newton secluded himself at his mothers farm to avoid an outbreak of plague at Cambridge. With nothin

9、g better to do, he developed his Theory of Universal Gravitation.在爱因斯坦之前，最近一位迸发出如此创造性思想的科学家当属艾萨克牛顿爵士。事情发生在1666年。为了躲避在剑桥爆发的瘟疫，牛顿去母亲的农场隐居。由于没有什么更好的事情可做，他便建立了万有引力理论。For centuries historians called 1666 Newtons “miracle year.” Now those words have a different meaning: Einstein and 1905. The United Natio

10、ns has declared 2005 “The World Year of Physics” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Einsteins “miracle year.” 几个世纪以来，历史学家们把1666年称为牛顿“奇迹年”。现在这些词语有了不同的含意：爱因斯坦和1905年。联合国宣布2005年为“世界物理学年”，以庆祝爱因斯坦“奇迹年”出现100周年。Modern pop culture paint Einstein as a bushy-haired superthinker. His ideas, were told, were i

11、mprobably far ahead of other scientists. He must have come from some other planet-maybe the same one Newton grew up on.现代流行文化把爱因斯坦描绘成一位长着蓬乱头发的超级思想家。据说他的思想不可思议的远远超过其他科学家。他一定是来自其他星球也许就是牛顿长大成人所居住的那个星球。“Einstein was no space alien ,” laughs Harvard University physicist and science historian Peter Galiso

12、n. “He was a man of time .” All of his 1905 papers unraveled problems being worked on, with mixed success, by other scientists. “If Einstein hadnt been born, those paper would have been written in some form, eventually, by others,” Galison believes.“爱因斯坦绝不是外星人，”哈佛大学物理学家、科学史学家彼得加利森笑着说。“他是他那个时代的人。”他所有

13、发表于1905年的那些论文解决了当时其他科学家正多多少少在解决的问题。“如果没有爱因斯坦，其他科学家最终也会以某种形式撰写出这些论文的，”加利森相信。Whats remarkable about 1905 is that a single person authored all five papers, plus the original, irreverent way Einstein came to his conclusions.1905年不同寻常的是，爱因斯坦一人撰写了五篇论文，而且他得出结论的方法既富原创性又显得不合常规。For example: the photoelectric

14、effect. This was a puzzle in the early 1900s. When light hits a metal, like zinc, electrons fly off. This can happen only if light comes in little packets concentrated enough to knock an electron loose. A spread-out wave wouldnt do the photoelectric trick.例如：光电效应。这是二十世纪初期的一道难题。当光射到金属（如锌）上时，电子迅速飞离金属表

15、面。这种现象只有当光的粒子集聚的程度足以把电子击撞松动时才会发生。漫延波不会产生光电效应。The solution seems simple-light is particulate. Indeed, this is the solution Einstein proposed in 1905 and won the Nobel Prize for in 1921. Other physicists like Max Planck(working on a related problem: blackbody radiation), more senior and experienced th

16、an Einstein, were closing in on the answer, but Einstein got there first. Why?答案似乎很简单光是粒子。事实上，这就是爱因斯坦1905年提出的解答，并因此于1921年获得诺贝尔奖，其他物理学家们，如比爱因斯坦资历更深、经验更丰富的麦克斯普蓝克（从事研究相关的问题：黑体辐射），其研究正接近该问题的答案，但爱因斯坦捷足先登。为什么？Its a question of authority.这是对权威的看法问题。“In Einsteins day, if you tried to say thst light was made

17、 of particles, you found yourself disagreeing with physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Nobody wanted to do that,”says Galison. Maxwells equations were enormously successful, unifying the physics of electricity,magnetism and optics. Maxwell had proved beyond any doubt that light was a electromagnetic wave

18、. Maxwell was Authority Figure.“在爱因斯坦的时代，如果你试图说出光由粒子形成，你就会发现自己与物理学家詹姆斯克拉克马克斯韦尔持不同观点。没人想那么做，”加利森说道。马克斯韦尔的方程式把物理学中的电学、磁学和光学统一起来，获得巨大成功。马克斯维尔毫无疑问地证明了光是电磁波。他可是权威人物。Einstin didnt give a fig for authority. He didnt resist being told what to do, not so much, but he hated being told what was true. Even as a

19、 child he was constantly doubting and questioning. “Your mere presence here undermines the classs respect for me,”spat his 7th grade teacher, Dr.Joseph Degenhart.(Degenhart also predicted that Einstein “would never get anywhere in life.”)This character flaw was to be a key ingredient in Einsteins di

20、scoveries.爱因斯坦毫不在乎权威。他不太反对别人要求他做什么，但是他不喜欢别人告诉他什么是正确的。即使在小时候他也不停地质疑和问问题。“你呆在这损害了全班学生对我的尊敬，”他的七年级老师约瑟夫德根哈特博士愤怒地说。（德根哈特还预言爱因斯坦“永远不会有什么出息”。）这种个性缺陷成为日后爱因斯坦作出种种发现的因素。“In 1905,” notes Galison, “Einstein had just received his Ph.D. He wasnt beholden to a thesis advisor or any other authority figure. ” His m

21、ind was free to roam accrdingly.“1905年，”加利森着重指出，“爱因斯坦刚获得博士学位。他不感激论文导师或任何其他权威人士。”因此，他的思想自由漫游。 In retrospect, Maxwell was right. Light is a wave. But Einstein was right, too. Light is a particle. This bizarre duality baffles Physics 101 students today just as it baffled Einstein in 1905. How can light

22、 be both? Einstein had no idea.现在回顾起来，马克斯韦尔是对的，光是粒子。这种异乎寻常的二象性使今天选物理学101课程的同学们感到困惑，就像在1905年使爱因斯坦感到困惑一样。光怎么可能既是波又是粒子呢？爱因斯坦无法理解。That didnt slow him down. Disdaining caution, Einstein adopted the intuitive leap as a basic tool. “I believe in intuition and inspiration,”he wrote in 1931. “At times I feel

23、 certain I am right while not knowing the reason.”困惑并没有使爱因斯坦放慢探究的脚步。爱因斯坦不屑谨小慎微，它采用直觉跳跃思维作为基本工具。“我相信直觉和灵感，”他在1931年写到。“有时尽管不知道原因，但是我肯定我是对的。”Although Einsteins five papers were published in a single year, he had been thinking about physics, deeply,since childhood. “Science was dinner-table conversation

24、 in the Einstein household,”explains Galison. Alberts father Hermann and uncle Jakob ran a German company making such things as dynamos, are lamp, light bulbs and telephones. This was high-tech at the turn of the century, “like a Silicon Valley company would be today,”notes Galison. “Alberts interes

25、t in science and technology came naturally.”虽然爱因斯坦在短短一年内发表了五篇论文，其实他自童年时代起就一直深入的思考物理的问题。“科学是爱因斯坦家餐桌上聊天的话题。”加利森解释道。爱因斯坦的父亲赫尔曼和叔叔雅各布经营一家德国公司，制造发电机、弧光灯、电灯泡、电话等诸如此类的产品。这在（20）世纪初属于高科技。“就像今天的硅谷公司，”加利森着重提到。“爱因斯坦对科学技术与生俱来怀有兴趣。”Einsteins parents sometimes took Albert to parties. No babysitter was required: Al

26、bert sat on the couch, totally absorded, quietly doing math problems while others danced around him. Pencil and paper were Alberts GameBoy!爱因斯坦的父母有时带儿子去参加聚会。他们不需请人看孩子：阿尔伯特坐在沙发上，全神贯注，静静地做着数学题目，此时别人正在他周围跳舞。笔和纸是阿尔伯特的玩伴！He had impressive powers of concentration. Einsteins sister, Maja, recalled “even wh

27、en there was a lot of noise, he could lie down on the sofa, pick up a pen and paper, precariously balance an inkwell on the backrest and engross himself in a problem so much that the background noise stimulated rather than disturbed him.”他有极强的集中思想的能力。爱因斯坦的妹妹玛雅回忆说，“即使周围非常吵闹，他也能躺在沙发上，拿起笔和纸，抖抖忽忽地把墨水池放在

28、靠背上，专心致志地解题，背景声音不但没有打扰他，反而激励他。”Einstein was clearly intelligent, but not outlandishly more so than his peers. “I have no special talents,”he claimed, “I am only passionately curious.”And again:”The contrast between the popular assessment of my powersand the reality is simply grotesque.”Einstein cred

29、ited his discoveries to imagination and endless questioning more so than orthodox intelligence.爱因斯坦显然很聪明，但并不比他的同龄人超出多少。“我没有特别的才能，”他声称，“只是我的好奇心非常强烈。”还有：“大众对我能力的评估和现实之间的差异简直是大得荒唐。”爱因斯坦把他的发现更多的归功于想象力和不断地提出问题，而不是通常所谓的智慧。Later in life, it should be remembered, he struggled mightily to produce a unified f

30、ield theory, combining gravity with other forces of nature. He failed. Einsteins brainpower was not limitless.应该记住的是，爱因斯坦在晚年竭尽全力想提出统一场论，把万有引力和自然界中的其他力结合起来。但他失败了。爱因斯坦的智力不是无限的。Neither was Einsteins brain. It was removed without permission by Dr.Thomas Harvey in 1955 when Einstein died. He probably exp

31、ected to find something extraordinary. But Einsteins brain looked much like any other, gray, crinkly, and, if anything, a trifle smaller than average.爱因斯坦的大脑也是如此。他在1955年去世时，托马斯哈维医生在未经许可的情况下解剖了他的大脑。也许他期盼发现一些惊人的东西。但是爱因斯坦的大脑看起来和其他人的大脑很相似，灰色的，波状的。如果有什么不同之处的话，那就是他的大脑比常人的稍微小一点。Einstein is remembered not j

32、ust as a scientific genius, but also from tales of his warm personality, simple tastes and somewhat eccentric habits. Here we recall some of these as we continue with our look at the life and character of the great scientist.人们不仅记住爱因斯坦是科学天才，而且还通过关于他的热情的个性，纯朴的情趣和有点古怪的习惯等故事记住他。在此，我们回忆其中的几个故事，继续关注这位伟大科学家的生活和性格。Anecdotes about Einstein爱因斯坦轶事Walter Isaacson沃尔特艾萨克森A Wastebasket for His Mistakes丢掉错误的废纸篓When Albert Einstein arrived in America at age 54, pulling into New York Habor on the ocean liner W