2015考研英语阅读宇宙大爆炸_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读宇宙大爆炸

　　The authors have wisely chosen to leaven their tome with amusing tales of dysfunctionalcharacters among scholars who developed quantum mechanics in the 1920s and beyond, aswell as with accounts of the philosophical struggles with which they grappled and theoccasional earthy aside. Where the subject matter is a trifle dull, Messrs Cox and Forshawacknowledge it: of Heinrich Kayser, who a century ago completed a six-volume referencebook documenting the spectral lines generated by every known element, they observe, Hemust have been great fun at dinner parties. And they make some sweeping generalisationsabout their colleagues who pore over equations, Physicists are very lazy, and they would notgo to all this trouble unless it saved time in the long run.

　　为了加强这个大部头的影响力，两位作者明智地选择了一些有趣的段子：在20世纪20年代以及更早时候发展量子力学的学者的怪癖;他们设法解决的哲学问题;间或出现的通俗旁白。有关物质的课题是枯燥的，考克斯和福索承认：海因里希凯瑟在一个世纪前完成了6部用以证明光谱是由每个已知元素产生的参考著作，据他们观察，他肯定在晚宴上很开心。他们也对专注方程式的同事进行了高度概括：物理学家非常懒惰，除非从长远看这节约时间，他们不会招惹这些麻烦。

　　Whether or not readers of The Quantum Universe will follow all the maths, the authors lovefor their subject shines through the book. There is no better demonstration of the power ofthe scientific method than quantum theory, they write. That may be so, but physicists allover the world, Messrs Cox and Forshaw included, are longing for the next breakthroughthat will supersede the claim. Hopes are pinned on experiments currently under way atCERN that may force physicists to rethink their understanding of the universe, and inspireMessrs Cox and Forshaw to write their next bookequations and all.