书城工具书老外最想和你聊的101个英语话题——流行名人篇
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第22章 The Ideological Giants 思想巨人(2)

Daisy: Do you agree with Marx’s theory·

黛西:你赞同马克思的理论吗·

Mike: Partially, I think it is a very systematic theory。

麦克:一部分吧,我觉得他的理论很系统。

Daisy: But Marx’s theory is still very popular nowadays。

黛西:但马克思的理论现在仍然非常流行。

Mike: Really, why would people read it·

麦克:真的吗,人们读它做什么呢·

Daisy: As a classic I suppose。

黛西:作为一个经典吧。

Mike: Some of the theories are still useful。

麦克:里面的有些理论还是很有用。

Charles Robert Darwin

达尔文

About Darwin

关于达尔文

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist。 He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection。

He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species。 The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime。 However, it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution。 In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life。

Darwin’s early interest in nature led him to neglect his medical education at the University of Edinburgh; instead, he helped to investigate marine invertebrates。 Studies at the University of Cambridge encouraged his passion for natural science。 His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported Charles Lyell’s uniformitarian ideas, and publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author。

Puzzled by the geographical distribution of wildlife and fossils he collected on the voyage, Darwin investigated the transmutation of species and conceived his theory of natural selection in 1838。 Although he discussed his ideas with several naturalists, he needed time for extensive research and his geological work had priority。 He was writing up his theory in 1858 when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication of both of their theories。 Darwin’s work established evolutionary descent with modification as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature。 In 1871, he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, followed by The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals。 His research on plants was published in a series of books, and in his final book, he examined earthworms and their effect on soil。

In recognition of Darwin’s pre-eminence as a scientist, he was one of only five nineteenth-century non-royal personages from the United Kingdom to be honored by a state funeral, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to John Herschel and Isaac Newton。 Darwin has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history。

除了生物学外,达尔文的理论对人类学、心理学及哲学的发展都有不容忽视的影响。恩格斯将“进化论”列为19世纪自然科学的三大发现之一(其他两个是细胞学说,能量守恒和转化定律)。

1831年—1836年,他以博物学家的身份,参加了英国派遣的环球航行,做了五年的科学考察。在动植物和地质方面进行了大量的观察和采集,经过综合探讨,形成了生物进化的概念。1859年出版了震动当时学术界的《物种起源》。书中用大量资料证明了形形色色的生物都不是上帝创造的,而是在遗传、变异、生存斗争中和自然选择中,由简单到复杂,由低等到高等,不断发展变化的,提出了生物进化论学说,从而摧毁了各种唯心的神造论和物种不变论。他所提出的天择与性择,在目前的生命科学中是一致通用的理论。除了生物学之外,他的理论对人类学、心理学以及哲学来说也相当重要。

Key words & Sentences

关键词句全知道

Charles Darwin did not think of himself as a genius。

查尔斯·达尔文不认为自己是一个天才。

Darwin followed up with The Origin of Species in 1859。

达尔文继续编撰,于1859年出版《物种起源》。

Darwin was born the same day as Lincoln。

达尔文和林肯同一天生日。

Darwin’s ideas touch every corner of biology and medicine。

达尔文的观点遍布生物学和医学的每个角落。

Darwin read Malthus in 1838 and immediately realized how it applied to his own work。

达尔文在1838年读到马尔萨斯,马上就认识到它多么适用于自己的研究。

Darwin also believed babies are born able to recognize the facial expressions of others。

达尔文也相信婴儿一出生便能够辨识他人脸上的各种表情。

By then, most biologists had come to agree with Darwin that species shared a common ancestry。

到那时为止,大多数生物学家已经同意达尔文的观点,即物种共享一个共同祖先。

By the time Darwin was a student in Edinburgh and Cambridge, though, this was being questioned。

达尔文还就读爱丁堡和剑桥之时,上帝造人的观点就曾受到了质疑。

Darwin didn’t offer a concrete mechanism by which his proposed natural selection would take place, either。

达尔文对于自己提出的自然选择如何发生也没能提供某种具体机制。

We will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth。

我们将庆祝达尔文诞生200周年。

In it, Darwin outlined an idea that many still find shocking–that all life on Earth, including human life, evolved through natural selection。

达尔文在书中概述了一个仍然让许多人觉得震惊的观念——即地球上所有生命,包括人的生命,是通过自然选择进化的。

Darwin’s claim that species evolve was rapidly accepted by biologists, but his separate claim that natural selection drives most of the change was not。

达尔文对于物种演化的主张很快就为生物学家接受,但是他的另一个主张,也就是天择推动大部分的演化,则不然。

Darwin has been vilified to an extraordinary degree。

达尔文一直受到非常离奇的诽谤。

Charles Darwin, whose idea of the sacred also came from an English private school, witnessed religion at its most primordial when he went to Australia in 1836。

查尔斯·达尔文,他对于神性的概念同样来源于一个英国私立学校,当他在1836年去澳大利亚的时候,才目睹了宗教最原始的面貌。

Darwin’s ideas are questioned in his time。

达尔文的思想在他的时代受到了质疑。

Far from arriving at the idea of human evolution from his studies of natural history, Darwin took as one of his starting points the diversification of humanity into “races”。

达尔文最初的起点之一是人类为何会分化出不同“种族”,远非通过对自然历史的研究发现了人类进化理论。

Let’s Talk!

开始交流吧!

Mike: Do you believe in evolution·

麦克:你相信进化论吗·

Daisy: I don’t。 I’m a Christian。

黛西:我不相信,我是个基督徒。

Mike: So you think god created human beings。

麦克:所以你相信上帝创造了人类。

Daisy: It’s better to think that we are involved from monkeys。

黛西:总比相信我们是从猴子进化过来的好。

Mike: But many fossils have been discovered, which have proved the theory。

麦克:但是人们已经发现了很多化石,它们证明了这个理论。

Daisy: I’ve not seen them。

黛西:我没有见过。

Mike: Do you think Darwin make it up·

麦克:你认为是达尔文捏造的吗·

Daisy: I did not say so。 But his theory is based on a lot assumption。

黛西:我没有这么说。但是他的理论是基于很多假设建立的。

Mike: Have you read his work·

麦克:你读过他的作品吗·

Daisy: No, I haven’t。

黛西:我没有。

Mike: Then how do you know·

麦克:那你怎么知道·

Daisy: I heard of it from someone else。

黛西:我听别人说的。