「新北師課文」高中英語選擇性必修四課文（Unit 12｜LESSON 1）

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高中英語

選擇性必修

第四冊 Unit 12

A

LESSON 1

課文再現

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Lesson 1 Scientific Breakthroughs

第一課 科學突破

If you had to choose the single most important discovery of the 20th century， you would have a real problem on your hands。 In just 100 years， the world has changed completely。 Amazing discoveries were made in medicine， communications and transport， not to mention our knowledge of the world and space。 Medical advances ranged from discovering the causes of diseases under microscopes to staging operations to replace diseased organs with donated ones。 Communications changed with the introduction of mobile phones， and the way we correspond went from writing letters to emailing and sending instant messages。 We started flying around the world， launching satellites into orbit and， at the same time， scientists figured out how to split the atom， previously thought to be the smallest particle of matter in the universe。

如果必須在20世紀重大發現中選出最重要的一項，這可不是件容易的事。在僅僅100年中，世界就完全變樣了。醫學、通訊和交通方面都有驚人的發現，更別提我們對世界和太空的認識了。醫學上的進步範圍很廣，從利用顯微鏡揭示病因，施行手術，到用捐贈的器官做器官移植。行動電話的使用給通訊業帶來了改變，通訊方式從寫信到發電子郵件和傳送即時資訊。我們開始坐飛機周遊世界，把人造衛星發射至軌道。同時，科學家們發現瞭如何分裂原子，在此之前，原子被認為是宇宙中最小的物質微粒。

Although it is impossible to choose the most important discovery， it is possible to single out a few pioneers of the 20th century。 Here are some of them。

儘管不太可能選出哪項發現是最重要的，但是挑選出20世紀的幾位先驅還是可能的。例如以下幾位。

One of the 20th century’s premier scientists was Albert Einstein。 In the summer of 1905， this outspoken young man was rocking his one-year-old baby when he was suddenly inspired。 Subsequently， “E=mc2” was born。 It showed how a small piece of mass could produce an unbelievable amount of energy。 Einstein then showed in his “theory of relativity” that not even time， mass or length are constant—they change according to our experience of them。

20 世紀最傑出的科學家，愛因斯坦是其一。1905年夏天，這個坦率的年輕人給他一歲的孩子晃動搖籃時，突然受到啟發。於是，“E=mc2”誕生了。它證明了一小塊物質可以產生巨大的能量。愛因斯坦隨後在他的“相對論”中指出，即使是時間、質量或長度也不是恆定不變的，它們根據我們對它們的感知而變化。

In 1929， another important finding was made by biologist Alexander Fleming。 Before he went on holiday， Fleming left a dish of bacteria in his laboratory。 When he came back， he noticed something strange。 He double-checked and saw a blue mould in the dish around which the bacteria had been destroyed。 This blue mould was in fact the natural form of penicillin， which Fleming perceived could be used to kill bacteria。 A few years later， penicillin was being mass-produced and helping to save the lives of millions。 Fleming remained humble about the amazing outcome of his discovery。 “Nature made penicillin，” he said， “I just found it。”

1929年，另一項重要的發現由生物學家亞歷山大·弗萊明發現了。在去度假之前，弗萊明在實驗室裡放了一個培養細菌的器皿。回來時，他注意到器皿裡有點兒奇怪。經過反覆檢查，他發現器皿裡有一種藍色的黴菌，而黴菌周圍的細菌已經被殺死了。這種藍色的黴菌實際上是自然狀態的青黴素，弗萊明認為它可以用來殺死細菌。數年後，青黴素開始大量生產，幫助挽救了數百萬人的生命。弗萊明對他這一驚人的發現態度謙虛，他說：“是大自然製造了青黴素，我只是發現了它。”

During World War Ⅱ， when Fleming’s discovery was first helping to cure people， the US Navy was looking for ways of improving the accuracy of their missiles。 The navy turned to Eckert， an engineer， and Mauchly， a physicist， to deal with the problem and produce a machine to do the

job in a joint effort。 Although they only finished after the war in 1946， it did not matter。 This huge machine was the world’s first computer， but it was nothing like our computers today。 It measured 100 feet long by over 10 feet high and weighed over 30，000 kilograms。 With 18，000 tubes， thousands of circuits and 6，000 switches， it used so much energy that when it was turned on， the lights in the local town went out！

第二次世界大戰期間，正當弗萊明的發現首次用來幫助治癒疾病時，美國海軍正在尋找提高導彈精度的方法。海軍求助於工程師埃克特和物理學家莫克利，兩人共同製造一臺機器來完成這項工作。儘管機器在1946年戰爭結束後才製造出來，但仍產生了巨大影響。這臺巨大的機器是世界上第一臺計算機，但是與今天的計算機完全不同。它長100英尺，高10英尺，重30000多公斤。它有18000個映象管，數千條電路和6000個開關，耗電量異常巨大，以致於當它啟動的時候，當地所有的燈都熄滅了！

With the development of computers， people expected to get more things done efficiently。 During the Cold War， a “huge network” of computers was proposed by two American scientists。 With computers talking to one another， it would enable government leaders to communicate with each other。 By the end of the 1960s， some mini-networks were established， but only a few computers could connect to them。 In 1990， Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web， which enabled computers all over the world to communicate with each other。 Nowadays， life without the Internet for most people is unimaginable。

隨著計算機的發展，人們期望能有效地完成更多的事情。冷戰期間，兩位美國科學家提出建立一個計算機的“龐大網路”。計算機能互換資訊，可使政府領導人相互溝通。到20 世紀60 年代末，一些小型網路已經建立起來，但只有少數計算機可以接入。1990 年，蒂姆·伯納·李發明了全球資訊網，使世界各地的計算機能夠相互通訊。如今，對大多數人來說，沒有網際網路的生活是難以想象的。

These pioneers of the 20th century were all dedicated to improving the quality of human life on Earth。 Human life on this planet has been transformed into a “global village”， with all the different countries linked in the chain of common interests。 There is no doubt about it。 Without the breakthroughs of these pioneers in science and technology， whether lucky or planned， the world as we know it today would be a completely different place。

這些20 世紀的先驅都致力於改善地球上人類的生活質量。不同國家因共同利益而連線起來，使得這個星球上人類的生活已經轉變為“地球村”。毫無疑問，如果沒有這些先驅取得的科技突破，無論這些突破是偶然發現的還是計劃之中的，我們今天所熟知的世界將是一個完全不同的地方。