Geocentric Theory托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

Geocentric Theory托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

一、Geocentric Theory托福聽力原文：

NARRATOR:Listen to part of a lecture in a history of science class.

FEMALE PROFESSOR:Ok,we've been talking about how throughout history,it was often difficult for people to give up ideas which had long been taken for granted as scientific"truths,"even if those ideas were false.In astronomy,for example,the distinction between the solar system and the universe wasn't clear until modern times.

The ancient Greeks believed that what we call the solar system was in fact the entire universe...and that the universe was geocentric."Geocentric"means Earth centered,so the geocentric view holds that the Sun,the planets,and the stars all revolve around the Earth,which is stationary. Of course,we now know that the planets,including Earth,revolve around the Sun,and that the solar system is only a tiny part of the universe.

So,why did the ancient Greeks believe that the Earth was the center of the universe?Well,it made sense to them—observations of the sky made it appear as if the Sun,the Moon,and the stars all revolved around the Earth every day,while the Earth itself stayed in one place.

And this view was also supported by their philosophical and religious beliefs about the origin and structure of the universe.It was presented in the works of well-known Greek philosophers as early as the fourth century B.C.E.And the geocentric theory continued to prevail in Western thought for almost 2,000 years,until the seventeenth century.Now what's especially interesting is that when astronomical observations were made that seemed to be inconsistent with the geocentric view,the ancient Greeks did not really consider alternate theories.It was so intuitive,so sensible that the Earth was the center of the universe that astronomers found ways to explain those seemingly inconsistent phenomena within the geocentric view.

For example,Greek astronomers made excellent,very accurate observations of the movements of the planets.But the observations revealed a bit of a problem.The geocentric theory said that the planets would move around Earth in one direction.However,astronomers noticed that at times,several planets seemed to stop moving in one direction and start moving backward in their orbits around Earth.And they came up with the theory that these planets themselves moved in smaller circles,called epicycles,as they traveled around the Earth.

Here's a picture of what they imagined.You see how this epicycle theory could account for the seeming backward motion of a planet.Of course,today we know that this appearance of backward motion is caused by the fact that Earth as well as other planets all move in their own orbits around the Sun,and the relative movements of the planets with respect to each other can get quite complex.

However,there were a few astronomers in Greece and other places who didn't agree with the geocentric view,for example,a-a Greek astronomer who lived in the third century B.C.E..He proposed the theory that our planetary system might be heliocentric.His name was Aristarchus.

"Heliocentric"means Sun centered—that the Earth revolves around the Sun.Aristarchus recognized from his calculations that the Sun was much larger than the Earth and other planets.It was probably this discovery that led him to conclude that the universe is heliocentric.I mean,isn't it more sensible to think that a smaller heavenly body would orbit a larger one,rather than the opposite?

However,his proposition was rejected,largely based on other scientific beliefs held at the time—which all made sense in a way,even if they were incorrect.Let me mention two objections Greeks made to Aristarchus?theory.First,they believed that everything that moves creates its own wind,so to speak—everyone has this experience when you're running,right?So they thought that if the Earth itself was moving,there would have to be a constant wind blowing,sweeping them off their feet—and of course there wasn't.And second,the idea of an Earth that moved didn't fit in with the ancient Greeks?understanding of gravity.They thought that gravity was basically a natural tendency of all things to move towards the center of the universe—which was the Earth,or the center of the Earth.So that explained why apples and other falling objects were falling straight down.If the Sun was at the center of the universe,things would fall toward the Sun—and away from the Earth.Which of course they didn't.So these were some of the reasons they rejected the heliocentric theory.

二、Geocentric Theory托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：聽科學(xué)史課上的部分講座。

女教授：好吧，我們一直在談?wù)?，縱觀歷史，人們往往很難放棄長期以來被視為科學(xué)“真理”的想法，即使這些想法是錯(cuò)誤的。例如，在天文學(xué)中，直到現(xiàn)代，太陽系和宇宙之間的區(qū)別才明確。

古希臘人相信我們所說的太陽系實(shí)際上是整個(gè)宇宙。。。宇宙是地心的。“地心說”是指以地球?yàn)橹行?，因此地心說認(rèn)為太陽、行星和恒星都圍繞地球旋轉(zhuǎn)，而地球是靜止的&nbsp；當(dāng)然，我們現(xiàn)在知道，包括地球在內(nèi)的行星都圍繞太陽旋轉(zhuǎn)，而太陽系只是宇宙的一小部分。

那么，為什么古希臘人相信地球是宇宙的中心呢？對(duì)他們來說，這是有道理的，對(duì)天空的觀察使它看起來好像太陽、月亮和星星每天都圍繞著地球旋轉(zhuǎn)，而地球本身卻停留在一個(gè)地方。

這一觀點(diǎn)也得到了他們關(guān)于宇宙起源和結(jié)構(gòu)的哲學(xué)和宗教信仰的支持。早在公元前四世紀(jì)，它就出現(xiàn)在希臘著名哲學(xué)家的著作中，地心說在西方思想中持續(xù)盛行了近2000年，直到十七世紀(jì)?，F(xiàn)在特別有趣的是，當(dāng)天文觀測(cè)結(jié)果似乎與地心說不一致時(shí)，古希臘人并沒有真正考慮其他理論。地球是宇宙的中心，這是如此的直觀，如此的敏感，以至于天文學(xué)家找到了在地心說中解釋這些看似不一致的現(xiàn)象的方法。

例如，希臘天文學(xué)家對(duì)行星的運(yùn)動(dòng)進(jìn)行了極好、非常精確的觀測(cè)。但觀察結(jié)果揭示了一個(gè)問題。地心理論認(rèn)為行星將沿一個(gè)方向繞地球運(yùn)行。然而，天文學(xué)家注意到，有時(shí)，一些行星似乎停止向一個(gè)方向移動(dòng)，并開始在圍繞地球的軌道上向后移動(dòng)。他們提出了這樣一個(gè)理論，即這些行星在繞地球運(yùn)行時(shí)，自身以較小的圓周運(yùn)動(dòng)，稱為本輪。

這是一張他們想象的照片。你可以看到這個(gè)本輪理論是如何解釋一個(gè)行星表面上的向后運(yùn)動(dòng)的。當(dāng)然，今天我們知道，這種反向運(yùn)動(dòng)的出現(xiàn)是由于地球和其他行星都在圍繞太陽的軌道上運(yùn)動(dòng)，行星之間的相對(duì)運(yùn)動(dòng)可能會(huì)變得非常復(fù)雜。

然而，在希臘和其他地方有一些天文學(xué)家不同意地心說，例如，一位生活在公元前三世紀(jì)的希臘天文學(xué)家。。他提出了我們的行星系統(tǒng)可能以日心為中心的理論。他的名字叫阿里斯塔丘斯。

“日心說”是指以太陽為中心，地球圍繞太陽旋轉(zhuǎn)。Aristarchus從他的計(jì)算中認(rèn)識(shí)到，太陽比地球和其他行星大得多。也許正是這一發(fā)現(xiàn)使他得出結(jié)論，宇宙是日心的。我的意思是，如果認(rèn)為一個(gè)較小的天體將圍繞一個(gè)較大的天體運(yùn)行，而不是相反，那不是更明智嗎？

然而，他的主張?jiān)獾搅司芙^，主要是基于當(dāng)時(shí)持有的其他科學(xué)信念，這些信念在某種程度上都是有道理的，即使它們是錯(cuò)誤的。讓我提一下希臘人對(duì)阿里斯塔古的兩個(gè)反對(duì)意見？學(xué)說首先，他們認(rèn)為一切運(yùn)動(dòng)都會(huì)產(chǎn)生自己的風(fēng)，可以說每個(gè)人在跑步時(shí)都有這種體驗(yàn)，對(duì)嗎？所以他們認(rèn)為，如果地球本身在運(yùn)動(dòng)，就必須有持續(xù)的風(fēng)吹拂著他們的腳，當(dāng)然沒有。第二，地球運(yùn)動(dòng)的想法不符合古希臘人？了解重力。他們認(rèn)為，重力基本上是所有事物向宇宙中心移動(dòng)的自然趨勢(shì)，宇宙中心就是地球，或者說是地球的中心。這就解釋了為什么蘋果和其他掉落的物體會(huì)直線下落。如果太陽位于宇宙的中心，物體就會(huì)朝著太陽落下，遠(yuǎn)離地球。當(dāng)然他們沒有。所以這些就是他們拒絕日心說的一些原因。

三、Geocentric Theory托福聽力問題：

Q1:1.What is the purpose of the lecture?

A.To explain how the heliocentric theory of the universe developed

B.To give an example of the persistence of traditional theories

C.To show that scientific knowledge is rarely influenced by philosophy

D.To compare methods in observational and theoretical astronomy

Q2:2.Why did the ancient Greeks hold geocentric view of the universe?(2 answers).

A.The sun appeared to them to revolve around Earth.

B.They had not developed methods of gathering accurate data on the movement of planets.

C.Their religious and philosophical beliefs supported this view.

D.Some of the planets in the solar system had not been discovered yet.

Q3:3.Why does the professor point out that Greek astronomers tried to explain new astronomical discoveries within the geocentric concept?

A.To explain why early astronomers found new discoveries exciting

B.To explain why some claims made by ancient Greek astronomers conflict with claims made by earlier astronomers

C.To illustrate that the geocentric concept was open to many interpretations

D.To illustrate that the geocentric concept itself was not considered questionable

Q4:4.Why does the professor discuss the epicycle theory?

A.To explain why early astronomers started measuring the velocity of the planets

B.To explain why the astronomer Aristarchus rejected the geocentric model

C.To show how early astronomers explained the apparent backward motion of some planets

D.To show that early astronomers believed that all planets moved in their own orbits around the sun

Q5:5.In the professor's view,what might have caused Aristarchus to propose the heliocentric theory?

A.The discovery that Earth was much smaller than the Sun

B.The lack of proof supporting the theory of epicycles

C.The influence of well-known philosophers

D.The apparent stability of Earth

Q6:6.What were two arguments ancient Greeks used to reject the heliocentric model?[Click on 2 answers.]

A.More stars would be visible in a heliocentric universe.

B.A moving Earth would create a strong wind.

C.Aristarchus's calculations were inaccurate.

D.Objects fall toward the center of the universe.

四、Geocentric Theory托福聽力答案：

A1:正確答案：B

A2:正確答案：AC

A3:正確答案：D

A4:正確答案：C

A5:正確答案：A

A6:正確答案：BD

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