很多雅思考生為了提高雅思閱讀分?jǐn)?shù)，做了很多題目，但成效不大，這時(shí)可以想想是不是備考書籍選擇不當(dāng)造成，建議考生們多多看劍橋雅思真題。上海新航道雅思小編第一時(shí)間給大家?guī)砹搜潘紕?Test2閱讀譯文Passage3-The Birth of Scientific English。希望可以幫助廣大雅思考生輕松備考雅思。

  雅思劍5Test2閱讀譯文Passage3-The Birth of Scientific English

  科技英語的誕生

  World science is dominated today by a small number of languages, including Japanese, German and French, but it is English which is probably the most popular global language of science. This is not just because of the importance of English-speaking countries such as the USA in scientific research; the scientists of many non-English-speaking countries find that they need to write their research papers in English to reach a wide international audience. Given the prominence of scientific English today, it may seem surprising that no one really knew how to write science in English before the 17th century. Before that, Latin was regarded as the lingua franca1 for European intellectuals.

  雖然當(dāng)今世界科學(xué)為包括日語，德語和法語在內(nèi)的少數(shù)幾門語言所統(tǒng)治，但是英語可能才是科學(xué)界最普及的世界語言。這不僅僅是由于美國(guó)這樣的英語國(guó)家在科學(xué)研究中所起的重要作用，而且還是因?yàn)樵S多非英語國(guó)家的科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)為了擁有廣大的國(guó)際讀者群，他們需要用英語寫研究論文。今天，科技英語的地位已經(jīng)顯得非常重要。因此，你可能很難想到在17世紀(jì)之前竟沒有人很淸楚在科學(xué)寫作中如何使用英語，(事實(shí)上)在17世紀(jì)之前，被人們視為歐洲知識(shí)分子通用語言的是拉丁文。

  The European Renaissance (c. 14th-16th century) is sometimes called the ‘revival of learning’, a time of renewed interest in the ‘lost knowledge’ of classical times. At the same time, however, scholars also began to test and extend this knowledge. The emergent nation states of Europe developed competitive interests in world exploration and the development of trade. Such expansion, which was to take the English language west to America and east to India, was supported by scientific developments such as the discovery of magnetism and hence the invention of the compass improvements in cartography and — perhaps the most important scientific revolution of them all — the new theories of astronomy and the movement of the Earth in relation to the planets and stars, developed by Copernicus (1473-1543).

  約在14到16世紀(jì)間出現(xiàn)的歐洲“文藝復(fù)興”有時(shí)被稱作是“知識(shí)復(fù)興”，在這一時(shí)期，人們對(duì)失落的古希臘羅馬時(shí)期的知識(shí)重新萌發(fā)了興趣。然而，與此同時(shí)，學(xué)者們也開始檢驗(yàn)和擴(kuò)展這種知識(shí)。歐洲新興國(guó)家競(jìng)相進(jìn)行世界探險(xiǎn)、發(fā)展貿(mào)易，這些活動(dòng)的增加，使英語向西傳到了美洲，向東傳到了印度。這些活動(dòng)獲得了科學(xué)進(jìn)步的支持，如磁場(chǎng)的發(fā)現(xiàn)以及由此而發(fā)明的指南針，地圖制作技術(shù)的改進(jìn)，和其中或許最為重要的科學(xué)變革——由哥白尼(1473-1543)創(chuàng)立起來的地球與其他行星和恒星相對(duì)運(yùn)動(dòng)的理論和天文學(xué)的新理論。

  England was one of the first countries where scientists adopted and publicised Copernican ideas with enthusiasm. Some of these scholars, including two with interests in language — John Wallis and John Wilkins — helped found the Royal Society in 1660 in order to promote empirical scientific research.

  英格蘭是率先有科學(xué)家熱情地接受并宣傳哥白尼的思想的國(guó)家之一。這些學(xué)者當(dāng)中，有兩位對(duì)語言感興趣，他們分別是John Wallis和John Wilkins。1660年，這兩位學(xué)者幫助組建了英國(guó)皇家學(xué)會(huì)，來推廣實(shí)證性的科學(xué)研究。

  Across Europe similar academies and societies arose, creating new national traditions of science. In the initial stages of the scientific revolution, most publications in the national languages were popular works, encyclopaedias, educational textbooks and translations. Original science was not done in English until the second half of the 17th century. For example, Newton published his mathematical treatise, known as the Principia, in Latin, but published his later work on the properties of light — Opticks — in English.

  整個(gè)歐洲大陸上都陸續(xù)出現(xiàn)了類似的研究院和協(xié)會(huì)，從而創(chuàng)立起了新的民族科學(xué)傳統(tǒng)。在科學(xué)革命的初始階段，大多以本國(guó)語言出版的出版物都是大眾讀物、百科全書、教科書和譯著。直到17世紀(jì)下半葉，英語才成為原創(chuàng)科學(xué)所使用的語言。例如，牛頓發(fā)表自己的數(shù)學(xué)論文《自然哲學(xué)的數(shù)學(xué)原理》時(shí)用的是拉丁文，但后來發(fā)表他有關(guān)光的特性的論文《光學(xué)》時(shí)，用的卻是英文。

  There were several reasons why original science continued to be written in Latin. The first was simply a matter of audience. Latin was suitable for an international audience of scholars, whereas English reached a socially wider, but more local, audience. Hence, popular science was written in English.

  原創(chuàng)科學(xué)一直使用拉丁文寫作有多個(gè)原因。首先就是讀者的問題。拉丁文適合廣大國(guó)際學(xué)者閱讀，而英語雖然可以被社會(huì)上更多的人所理解，但這些讀者更多的是英國(guó)國(guó)內(nèi)的讀者。因此，大眾科學(xué)是用英語寫就的。

  A second reason for writing in Latin may, perversely, have been a concern for secrecy. Open publication had dangers in putting into the public domain preliminary ideas which had not yet been fully exploited by their ‘a(chǎn)uthor’. This growing concern about intellectual property rights was a feature of the period — it reflected both the humanist notion of the individual, rational scientist who invents and discovers through private intellectual labour, and the growing connection between original science and commercial exploitation. There was something of a social distinction between ‘scholars and gentlemen’ who understood Latin, and men of trade who lacked a classical education. And in the mid-17th century it was common practice for mathematicians to keep their discoveries and proofs secret, by writing them in cipher, in obscure languages, or in private messages deposited in a sealed box with the Royal Society. Some scientists might have felt more comfortable with Latin precisely because its audience, though international, was socially restricted. Doctors clung the most keenly to Latin as an ‘insider language’.

  第二個(gè)用拉丁文寫作的原因或許顯得荒謬，那就是想要保守秘密。公開出版著作可能會(huì)導(dǎo)致還未被原作者研究透徹的初步理念進(jìn)人公眾領(lǐng)域。對(duì)知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)的日益關(guān)注是那個(gè)時(shí)代的特征，這既反映出一種人文關(guān)懷，即對(duì)富于理性的科學(xué)家個(gè)人通過自己的腦力勞動(dòng)進(jìn)行發(fā)明和發(fā)現(xiàn)的關(guān)懷，又體現(xiàn)出原創(chuàng)科學(xué)與商業(yè)化利用間日益緊密的聯(lián)系。那些懂拉丁文的學(xué)者、紳士與沒有受過什么正規(guī)教育的商人是有社會(huì)差異的。17世紀(jì)中期的時(shí)候，數(shù)學(xué)家將自己的發(fā)現(xiàn)和例證用密碼、晦澀的語言來描述，或?qū)懗蓚€(gè)人的便條，封存在英國(guó)皇家學(xué)會(huì)的小盒子里，以保守秘密，這在當(dāng)時(shí)是司空見慣的事情。有些科學(xué)家更愿用拉丁文的原因可能就是因?yàn)楸M管拉丁文的讀者是世界性的，卻是非常有限的，社會(huì)上沒有多少人懂，醫(yī)生則對(duì)拉丁文萬分鐘愛，將其視為“內(nèi)部人的語言”。

  A third reason why the writing of original science in English was delayed may have been to do with the linguistic inadequacy of English in the early modern period. English was not well equipped to deal with scientific argument. First it lacked the necessary technical vocabulary. Second, it lacked the grammatical resources required to represent the world in an objective and impersonal way, and to discuss the relations, such as cause and effect, that might hold between complex and hypothetical entities.

  原創(chuàng)科學(xué)遲遲未用英文書寫的第三個(gè)原因可能與近代早期英語語言還不發(fā)達(dá)有關(guān)。英語還不能很好的用于科學(xué)說理。首先，英語缺乏必要的技術(shù)詞匯;其次，英語沒有必要的語法，無法客觀公正地表現(xiàn)世界，也無法討論各種關(guān)系，如復(fù)雜而又是假設(shè)性的各實(shí)體間可能存在的因果關(guān)系。

  Fortunately, several members of the Royal Society possessed an interest in Language and became engaged in various linguistic projects. Although a proposal in 1664 to establish a committee for improving the English language came to little, the society’s members did a great deal to foster the publication of science in English and to encourage the development of a suitable writing style. Many members of the Royal Society also published monographs in English. One of the first was by Robert Hooke, the society’s first curator of experiments, who described his experiments with microscopes in Micrographia (1665). This work is largely narrative in style, based on a transcript of oral demonstrations and lectures.

  幸運(yùn)的是，有幾名英國(guó)皇家學(xué)會(huì)的成員對(duì)語言感興趣，并開始從事各種語言學(xué)方面的研究工作。盡管1664年關(guān)于建立改善英語委員會(huì)的提議沒有什么結(jié)果，但是英國(guó)皇家學(xué)會(huì)的成員卻做了大量的工作，促進(jìn)用英語出版科學(xué)著作，鼓勵(lì)恰當(dāng)寫作風(fēng)格的形成。許多英國(guó)皇家學(xué)會(huì)的成員也用英文發(fā)表了學(xué)術(shù)專著，首批成員包括學(xué)會(huì)首任實(shí)驗(yàn)管理員羅伯特·胡克，他1665年出版了《顯微圖集》，書中描述了他的顯微鏡實(shí)驗(yàn)。這本著作以口頭講解示范和講座的文字記錄稿為藍(lán)本，大體上是記敘文風(fēng)格。

  In 1665 a new scientific journal, Philosophical Transactions, was inaugurated. Perhaps the first international English-language scientific journal, it encouraged a new genre of scientific writing, that of short, focused accounts of particular experiments.

  1665年，一份新的科學(xué)雜志《哲學(xué)匯刊》創(chuàng)刊。這或許算得上是首份英文國(guó)際科學(xué)期刊。該期刊鼓勵(lì)新的科學(xué)寫作風(fēng)格：簡(jiǎn)潔、重點(diǎn)地描述某一特定實(shí)驗(yàn)。

  The 17th century was thus a formative period in the establishment of scientific English. In the following century much of this momentum was lost as German established itself as the leading European language of science. It is estimated that by the end of the 18th century 401 German scientific journals had been established as opposed to 96 in France and 50 in England. However, in the 19th century scientific English again enjoyed substantial lexical growth as the industrial revolution created the need for new technical vocabulary, and new, specialized, professional societies were instituted to promote and publish in the new disciplines.

  因此，17世紀(jì)算是科技英語形成的發(fā)展階段。在接下來的一個(gè)世紀(jì)中，科技英語的這種發(fā)展勢(shì)頭卻消失了，因?yàn)榈抡Z成為了歐洲科學(xué)領(lǐng)域的主導(dǎo)語言。據(jù)估計(jì)，到了18世紀(jì)末，德語科學(xué)雜志有401份，與之相對(duì)，法語科學(xué)雜志有96份，英語科學(xué)雜志有50份，盡管如此，到了19世紀(jì)，伴隨著工業(yè)革命對(duì)新技術(shù)詞匯的需要，科技英語在詞匯上重新有了大幅度的增長(zhǎng)。同時(shí)，新的專業(yè)學(xué)會(huì)也紛紛建立起來，促進(jìn)新學(xué)科的發(fā)展和著作的出版。

  以上就是小編為大家?guī)黻P(guān)于《劍橋雅思5真題》閱讀部分供大家閱讀參考，新航道雅思資料頻道將第一時(shí)間為考生發(fā)布最全、最新、最專業(yè)的雅思資訊及雅思考試資料及機(jī)經(jīng).