第5章 敲石头的人 The Stone-Breakers · 第6讲S5
课程：《万物简史》慕课教程(WANWUJS001)主讲：余俊英副教授(数字人)词汇 48 条句型 1 条要点 0 条
二、核心词汇（48）
| 词条 | 释义 / 讲解 |
|---|
| appealing | adj. 有吸引力的，引起兴趣的。语境：The logic was appealing but...（这个逻辑听起来很有吸引力） |
| render | v. 使成为，致使。render...impracticable 使……不可行/无法实施。 |
| appreciable | adj. 可察觉的，显著的。appreciable amounts 大量可测量的。 |
| dissipation | n. 散逸，消散。rate of dissipation 散逸速度，此处指热量散发。 |
| presumably | adv. 据推测，大概。presumably very lightly...（估计一开始非常轻地触摸） |
| underestimate | v. 低估。wild underestimate 巨大的低估。 |
| radical | adj. 激进的，根本不同的。radical notion 激进的观点。 |
| assertion | n. 断言，声明。firm statement 坚定的陈述。 |
| arrestingly specific | 引人注目地具体。arresting指抓住注意力的，此处强调数据精确到百位数。 |
| flying in the face of | 公然违背，挑战。指达尔文的观点直接对抗当时公认的智慧。 |
| contentious | 有争议的。源自contest，指该观点引发巨大争论，导致达尔文后来将其从书中撤除。 |
| figure out | 想出，弄明白。指科学家无法找出一个方法证明地球足够古老。 |
| elevated to the peerage | 获封爵位。elevate在此指提升社会地位，peerage指贵族阶层。 |
| retroactively | 追溯既往地。指虽1892年才获爵位，但此前称呼均回溯使用Lord Kelvin。 |
| intellectual slouch | 智力上的懒散者/平庸之辈。slouch指无精打采的人，此处为Helmholtz自谦。 |
| lucidity and mobility | 清晰与活跃。lucidity指思维清晰，mobility指思维灵活多变，形容Kelvin智力超群。 |
| admitted | 被录取。语境：to be admitted means to be accepted as a student. |
| exceedingly tender age | 极其年幼。tender指娇嫩、年幼，形容10岁入学非常早。 |
| rowing | 赛艇。语境：won the university's top prizes for rowing and mathematics. |
| launch / found | 创办、发起。语境：launch a musical society，指建立音乐协会。 |
| fellow | 院士、研究员。语境：elected a fellow of Peterhouse，指当选为学院院士。 |
| dazzling originality | 惊人的独创性。dazzling指耀眼、令人震惊的。 |
| anonymous | 匿名的。语境：publish them anonymously，因怕上司难堪而匿名发表。 |
| professorship | 教授职位。语境：take up a professorship，担任教授职务。 |
| natural philosophy | 自然哲学。牛顿时代对自然科学的称呼，即现代物理学前身。 |
| wealthy | 富有的。语境：became very wealthy，因专利获得巨额财富。 |
| renown | 名声、声望。语境：gained renown，在科学界获得极高声誉。 |
| absolute temperature | 绝对温度。语境：scale of absolute temperature，即开尔文温标。 |
| boosting devices | 增压设备。语境：invented boosting devices，用于增强越洋电报信号。 |
| navigation | 航海、导航。语境：improvements to shipping and navigation。 |
| lead to | 导致、引起。语境：led directly to the invention of refrigeration。 |
| refrigeration | 冷藏技术。注意区分refrigerator（冰箱），此处指技术过程。 |
| bear one's name | 以某人的名字命名。语境：still bears his name，指开尔文温标。 |
| innumerable | 无数的、数不清的。语境：made innumerable improvements。 |
| electromagnetism | 电磁学。由electro（电）和magnetism（磁）组成。 |
| thermodynamics | 热力学。由thermo（热）和dynamics（动力学）组成。 |
| flaw | 缺陷、弱点。语境：had really only one flaw，指计算地球年龄的错误。 |
| career age | 职业生涯年龄？此处疑为transcription error，结合语境应为 'true age' 或 'geological age'，指地球的真实年龄。 |
| cautiously | adv. 谨慎地。语境：calculated cautiously，指凯尔文对计算结果持保留态度。 |
| allow that | phr. 承认/容许。语境：cautiously allowed that...，此处意为“谨慎地承认”。 |
| prudence | n. 谨慎。语境：with remarkable prudence，指其论证过程极具审慎性。 |
| acknowledge | v. 承认。语境：acknowledged that his calculations could be wrong，承认计算可能出错。 |
| storehouse | n. 仓库/宝库。语境：storehouse of creation，造物主的大仓库，指自然界未知的能源储备。 |
| forthright | adj. 直率的/果断的。语境：become more forthright，指凯尔文后期态度变得武断直接。 |
| estimate | n. 估算/估计。语境：revised his estimates downward，不断下调其估算数值。 |
| exhaust | v. 耗尽。语境：without exhausting its fuel，指太阳燃烧不耗尽燃料。 |
| inescapably | adv. 必然地/无法逃避地。语境：inescapably youthful，指结论是绝对逃不掉的必然结果。 |
| contradict | v. 反驳/矛盾。语境：fossil evidence contradict this，化石证据与他的理论相抵触。 |
三、句型与语法点（1）
| 要点 | 说明 |
|---|
| come near doing | 几乎做某事。语境：never came anywhere near getting it right，从未接近正确。 |
四、课堂讨论题
1. 老师，Edmund Halley 那个算地球年龄的方法逻辑听起来挺美的，但为什么最后说它 'impracticable' 呢？具体是卡在哪一步了？
2. Buffon 居然用手去摸烧热的球体来估算散热速度，这也太不科学了吧？这种方法得出的 75,000 到 168,000 年的结果，跟现在公认的年龄相比，偏差是不是太大了？
3. 达尔文在《物种起源》里算出英国南部那片林地形成花了 3 亿多年，这比之前大家认为的几千万年长了那么多，为什么他后来在第三版里又把这个数据给删掉了呢？
4. Buffon 因为提出了地球年龄很长的激进观点，差点被 'excommunication'（开除教籍），这跟 'communion'（圣餐）有啥关系？当时教会为啥这么紧张？
5. 既然达尔文需要地球足够古老来支持他的进化论，而凯尔文（Lord Kelvin）后来介入却让问题变得更糟，凯尔文到底是用什么方法把地球年龄算得越来越短，从而阻碍了科学进步的？
五、Discussion Questions (English)
1. Teacher, Edmund Halley's logic for calculating Earth's age sounded appealing, but why was it ultimately deemed 'impracticable'? What exactly went wrong?
2. Buffon actually used his hand to touch heated spheres to estimate heat loss? Isn't that unscientific? How does his result of 75,000 to 168,000 years compare to the current accepted age?
3. Darwin calculated that the geological processes forming that woodland in southern England took over 300 million years, which was much longer than the previously accepted tens of millions of years. Why did he later withdraw this figure in the third edition of his book?
4. Buffon was threatened with 'excommunication' for proposing that Earth was old. What's the connection between 'excommunication' and 'communion'? Why was the Church so sensitive about this?
5. Since Darwin needed Earth to be old to support evolution, and Lord Kelvin's involvement made things worse, what method did Kelvin use that led to an increasingly shorter age for Earth, thereby hindering scientific progress?
六、听力 / 讲稿全文
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我们整个宇宙都在热烈的态度中,
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14 亿年前的传承已经开始了。
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每个人都同意地球是古老的。
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问题是,它是多么古老?
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在判定地球年龄的早期的尝试当中有一项比较好一点
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的比从圣经里边去寻找答案更靠谱一些的来自那个一
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项都比较可靠一项都比较靠谱的 Edmund Hawley 他在
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1715 年提出 If you divided the total amount of salt in
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the world of sea 如果你把地球上所有海洋里边包含的
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盐的总量除以 the amount added each year it means the
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amount of salt added each year 除以每年所增加的盐量
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You would get the number of years that the oceans had
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been in existence 这样你就可以算出来海洋存在的年
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龄
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Which will give you a rough idea of Earth's age 虽然这并
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不是相当于地球的年龄但是它可以给你一些 rough
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idea 给你一些大致的范围 The
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logic was appealing but unfortunately no one knew how
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much salt was in the sea or by how much it increased each
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yearwhich renders the experiment
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impracticableappealing means attractive 这个逻辑
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听起来是非常好非常有吸引力的 but unfortunately
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遗憾的是根本就没有人能够知道 how much salt was in
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the sea 也就是 nobody knew the total amount of salt in
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the world's sea 也
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没有人知道 By how much it increased each year 也没有人
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知道每年增加的量是多少就是 The amount added each
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year Which rendered the experiment impredicable
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Rendered means made Which made the experiment
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impossible to carry out 这使得这个实验根本就不可能
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实施不可能操作理论上很美好实际上是不可操作的
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The
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first attempt at measurement that could be called
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remotely scientific was made by the French man Georges
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Lou is Leclerc,Comme de Buff on,
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in the 1770s Remotely scientific 指的是稍微算得上一
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点科学但实际上离科学还是很遥远的
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史上第一次稍微能够算得上具有科学性的测量是由这
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个法国人做出的 It had long been known that the earth
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radiated appreciable amounts of heat That was
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apparent to anyone who went down a coal mine But there
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wasn't any way of estimating the rate of dissipation
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Radiate,do you still remember this word?
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Radiate,
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散发辐射出来 Appreciable means large enough to be
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noticed or to be measured
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科学界很早就知道地球会向外散发出一定的热量 That
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was apparent to anyone who went down a coal mine
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Apparent means obvious 对于曾经下过煤矿的人这个是
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很明显的他们都能够感觉到地底下散发出来的热量
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But there wasn't any way of estimating the rate of
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dissipation Dissipation 这里指的是热量的散发散逸
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的这个 rate 散逸的速度看一下更多的例句 Dissipate
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As he thought it over,
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his anger gradually dissipated 他想了想,
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怒气就渐渐消了 Little by little,
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the smoke was dissipated by the breeze 微风慢慢地把烟
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雾吹散了那
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大家都知道这个道理问题是根本就没有办法算出这个
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地热的散异率
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那这个布丰的实验呢是这样的他先把球体加热一直
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加热到白热的程度然后在 estimating the rate of heat
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loss by touching them 再用触摸的方式来估计热的散异
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率
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真是难以想象竟然是用手去摸的这种方式而不是用任
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何仪器去测量当时就只有这个条件 presumably very
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lightly at firstpresumably means I presume I guess
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very lightly at first 我估计一开始一定是非常轻的去
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触摸要不然一定手就烫得不行了 From
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this he guessed the Earth's age to be somewhere between
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75,
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000 and 168,
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000 years old 根据自己的这个实验他计算出地球的年
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龄大概就是 75,000 年到 168,
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000 年之间 This
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was of course a wild underestimate but a radical notion
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nonetheless And Buff on found himself threatened with
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excommunication for expressing it 这个在我们现在看
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来当然是大大的低估了地球的年龄 under estimate 过
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低的估计了 but the radical notion
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nonethelessradical means very different very new
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very different from what most people believe 但是在当
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时这是非常激进的想法了 and Buff on found himself
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threatenedwith excommunication for expressing it
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Buff on 就发现自己如果表达公开的表达这个想法的话
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他就有可能受到一个威胁 Threatened with
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excommunication 就是教会会把他开除出去他会被开
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除教籍这个 communication 大概大家或多或少都有点
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熟悉可能都了解的就是交流
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……（后略，完整文稿见视频页字幕）
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七、课堂练习（AI 生成）
1. 在学术写作中，若想表达“使某项计划不可行”，应使用以下哪个搭配？
A. render...impracticable
B. render...appreciable
C. render...contentious
D. render...anonymous
答案：A · 根据板书，render意为“使成为，致使”，render...impracticable固定搭配表示“使……不可行/无法实施”。
2. 课堂练习中，若要表达“某事几乎没做到位”，符合板书语法点的正确句型是？
A. come near to do
B. come near doing
C. come near done
D. come near does
答案：B · 板书明确指出come near doing为“几乎做某事”，后接动名词作宾语。
3. 达尔文的某个观点直接对抗当时公认的智慧，这种“公然违背、挑战”的语境应选用哪个短语？
A. flying in the face of
B. leading to
C. bear one's name
D. figure out
答案：A · 板书释义指出flying in the face of意为“公然违背，挑战”，符合题干语境。
4. 在描述科学发明带来的技术过程而非具体家电时，板书提示应使用哪个词汇？
A. refrigerator
B. refrigeration
C. navigation
D. thermodynamics
答案：B · 板书特别注明refrigeration指“冷藏技术”这一过程，需与指代冰箱的refrigerator区分。
5. 若需表达“估计一开始非常轻地触摸”中的推测语气，应选用板书中的哪个副词？
A. presumably
B. retroactively
C. anonymous
D. radical
答案：A · 板书指出presumably作副词意为“据推测，大概”，常用于句首或句中表达估计。