---
url: https://gaojian.site/new-concept/book-4/32-galileo-reborn.md
description: 新概念英语第四册：Galileo Reborn。精读、词块回忆、双向译练、句法、逻辑与FSRS复习。
---

# 32 · 伽利略的复生

### 第1段

In his own lifetime Galileo was the centre of violent controversy; but the scientific dust has long since settled, and today we can see even his famous clash with the Inquisition in something like its proper perspective. But, in contrast, it is only in modern times that Galileo has become a problem child for historians of science.
The old view of Galileo was delightfully uncomplicated. He was, above all, a man who experimented: who despised the prejudices and book learning of the Aristotelians, who put his questions to nature instead of to the ancients, and who drew his conclusions fearlessly. He had been the first to turn a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy together. He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped various weights from the top, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous law of free fall.
But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period, and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo. Today, although the old Galileo lives on in many popular writings, among historians of science a new and more sophisticated picture has emerged. At the same time our sympathy for Galileo's opponents has grown somewhat. His telescopic observations are justly immortal; they aroused great interest at the time, they had important theoretical consequences, and they provided a striking demonstration of the potentialities hidden in instruments and apparatus. But can we blame those who looked and failed to see what Galileo saw, if we remember that to use a telescope at the limit of its powers calls for long experience and intimate familiarity with one's instrument? Was the philosopher who refused to look through Galileo's telescope more culpable than those who alleged that the spiral nebulae
observed with Lord Rosse's great telescope in the eighteen-forties were scratches left by the grinder? We can perhaps forgive those who said the moons of Jupiter were produced by Galileo's spyglass if we recall that in his day, as for centuries before, curved glass was the popular contrivance for producing not truth but illusion, untruth; and if a single curved glass would distort nature, how much more would a pair of them?

中文理解：伽利略在世时，是激烈争论的中心人物；但科学上的尘埃早已落定。今天，甚至对他与宗教裁判所那场著名冲突，我们也能比较恰当地看待。与此相反，偏偏到了近现代，伽利略却成了让科学史学家头疼的难题。
从前，人们眼中的伽利略形象简单明了，令人愉快。他首先是个做实验的人：蔑视亚里士多德学派的偏见和书本知识，向自然发问而不是向古人求教，并无所畏惧地得出结论。他第一个把望远镜转向天空，看到足以同时推翻亚里士多德与托勒密理论的证据。他登上比萨斜塔，把不同重量的物体从塔顶抛下；又让小球沿斜面滚落，最终把许多实验结果概括成著名的自由落体定律。
然而，对证据更细致的考察，加上对那个时代更深入的理解，尤其是对科学革命背后哲学思潮的新认识，已经深刻改变了这种看法。今天，旧形象的伽利略仍活跃在许多通俗作品中，但科学史学家已描绘出一个更复杂、更细腻的新形象。同时，我们对伽利略的反对者也多了几分理解。他用望远镜进行的观察，确实足以名垂千古：它们当时引起广泛兴趣，产生重要的理论影响，也有力展示了仪器设备所蕴藏的潜能。可是，要把望远镜的性能发挥到极限，既需要长期经验，也需要对仪器极其熟悉。想到这一点，我们还能责怪那些看了，却没看出伽利略所见之物的人吗？
十九世纪四十年代，有人把罗斯勋爵的大型望远镜中看到的螺旋星云，说成磨镜工留下的划痕。相比之下，那位拒绝透过伽利略的望远镜观察的哲学家，难道就更该受责备吗？如果想到，在伽利略的时代以及此前的几个世纪，曲面玻璃在人们心目中主要是制造幻象、而非揭示真相的器具，我们或许也能理解那些声称木星卫星只是望远镜造成的假象的人。既然一片曲面玻璃就会歪曲自然，两片叠起来，又会歪曲到什么程度呢？

* **violent controversy**：激烈争论；controversy可指争议状态或具体争论。

* **proper perspective**：从恰当角度看；undefined

* **in contrast**：相比之下；针对同一比较维度呈现差别，不是任意的转折装饰。

* **above all**：最重要的是；强调首要特点，不只是位置在上。

* **book learning**：书本知识；undefined

* **drew his conclusions**：得出结论；from交代依据，不等于随意表达个人看法。

* **law of free fall**：自由落体定律；undefined

* **a closer study**：更细致的考察；close是仔细，不一定说空间近。

* **a deeper sense**：更深入的理解；undefined

* **philosophical undercurrents**：背后的哲学思潮；undefined

* **modified this view**：改变了这一看法；modify是调整，不一定彻底推翻。

* **sophisticated picture**：更细腻复杂的形象；undefined

* **At the same time**：与此同时；可强调同时发生；议论中也可补另一面。

* **theoretical consequences**：理论上的影响；undefined

* **failed to**：未能做到；客观说未能做到，不一定意味着能力不足。

* **calls for**：需要；本课是需要某种条件，不是打电话。

* **intimate familiarity**：极其熟悉；with引出熟悉对象，intimate加强程度。

* **refused to look**：拒绝观察；undefined

* **more culpable than**：比……更该受责备；undefined

* **not truth but illusion**：并非真相而是幻象；undefined

#### In his own lifetime Galileo was the centre of violent controversy; but the scientific dust has long since settled, and today we can see even his famous clash with the Inquisition in something like its proper perspective.

分号后的 but 把生前争论与后来的回看作对照，and 再推进到今天怎样评价那场冲突。

we can see even his famous clash…的谓语仍是 can see，clash 是宾语；see 无论理解成“看见”还是“看待”，都不会因此变成系动词。in something like its proper perspective 说明看问题的角度。

这里重点是作者如何回顾历史评价。具体史实需另查资料，不把原稿引用提示当成已经验证的历史结论。

#### But, in contrast, it is only in modern times that Galileo has become a problem child for historians of science.

it is that 强调句，强调当代.

这里 in contrast 直接翻译“相比之下”让人摸不着头脑，根据上下文，应理解成相对于科学观点的纷争早已平息，对于伽利略的看法，似乎出现了一些新的角度，毕竟在17 世纪，大家对伽利略的看法还受到了科学发展的制约.

#### The old view of Galileo was delightfully uncomplicated.

简单句，主系表结构. 句中对于 delightfully 的理解，这里翻译成“好在”就很恰当.

#### He was, above all, a man who experimented: who despised the prejudices and book learning of the Aristotelians, who put his questions to nature instead of to the ancients, and who drew his conclusions fearlessly.

复合句，该段使用了大量定语从句，以排比的形式采用，在这里便连用四个关系代词 who 引导的定语从句来描述伽利略的所作所为.

四句中第一句是基础，做实验，后面的三句有一层递进关系.

#### He had been the first to turn a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy together.

并列句，and 连接的两个简单句，前句为主系表结构，后句为主谓宾结构，都有一个定语在后面做进一步修饰.

#### He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped various weights from the top, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous law of free fall.

复合句，同样是两个 who 引导的定语从句，第一个从句中，climbed 和 dropped 均是谓语，主句都是 who，而第二句中，rolled 和 generalized 也一样，做谓语，主语是第二个 who.

drop 的翻译要注意，不能用“抛掷”，只能用“轻放”、“放下”这类没有给重物增加外力的动词，否则违背了自由落体实验本身的要求.

from the top 后面可以理解成 from the top of the Leaning Tower.

我看到一篇论文以此段为例，讲英语段落通常以一个主题句开头，直截了当地点明段落的中心思想，反应了西方人理性的思维模式，但是把中西方笼统依据理性和感性来划分，这样的结论站不住脚.

#### But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period, and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo.

简单句，主谓宾结构. supported by a deeper sense, and by a new consciousness 整个作定语修饰 study，而非 evidence，这里第二个 by 也是跟前面 supported 一起的，由 and 所连接的同一个定语中的两个部分. 其中 of the philosophical undercurrents 是第二个 by 所带的定语中的定语，修饰 consciousness，所以在翻译时尤其要把握好.

#### Today, although the old Galileo lives on in many popular writings, among historians of science a new and more sophisticated picture has emerged.

复合句，主句为主谓结构，前半句是让步状语从句，也是主谓结构.

从句中 old 可不是“已故的”，这里分明就是和后文 new 相对的呀，后面的形象是新的，前面的自然是旧形象，原翻译似未读懂课文.

主句 among…science 为地点状语，表在科学史学家的群体中，地点状语不是一定要表示具体的地点，不过在这里只需了解这里是状语即可.

#### At the same time our sympathy for Galileo's opponents has grown somewhat.

简单句，主谓结构，for Galileo's opponents 作定语，修饰 sympathy.

#### His telescopic observations are justly immortal; they aroused great interest at the time, they had important theoretical consequences, and they provided a striking demonstration of the potentialities hidden in instruments and apparatus.

并列句，分号之前是简单的主系表结构，分号之后，连续三个 they 为主语的主谓宾句子.

they 指的是 observations.

#### But can we blame those who looked and failed to see what Galileo saw, if we remember that to use a telescope at the limit of its powers calls for long experience and intimate familiarity with one's instrument?

复合句，主句为主谓宾结构，Can we 疑问句作主句，主句中，who 引导了定语从句修饰 those，而该从句中，含有一个 what 引导的宾语从句，该宾语从句中，主语是 Galileo，谓语动词是 saw.

后面有 if 引导的条件状语从句，该句比较复杂. 主语是 we，谓语动词是 remember，跟了一个 that 引导的宾语从句，为主谓宾结构，该宾语从句是动词不定式 to use…powers 作主语，calls for 作谓语.

#### Was the philosopher who refused to look through Galileo's telescope more culpable than those who alleged that the spiral nebulae

observed with Lord Rosse's great telescope in the eighteen-forties were scratches left by the grinder?

复合句，主句为主系表结构，整个句子有倒装，将 was 提前了，上面的句子结构我还原了.

主句中包含了一个 who 引导的定语从句，后面是 than 引导的比较状语从句，该从句中亦含一个 who 引导的定语从句.

从句中的定语从句，即第二个 who 引导的定语从句，里面包含了一个 that 引导的宾语从句，the spiral nebulae were scratches.

great telescope 不能翻译成高倍望远镜，高倍的表达是 high power，只不过勋爵所发明的36 英寸的大型望远镜是当时最为先进的，也是通过这个望远镜，观察到了星云，而当时的天文学界对星云一无所知. \[For many years], Lord Rosse studied the night sky \[using his 36-inch telescope] \[at Birr Castle in Ireland]. The objects (which interested him \[most]) were called “nebulae,” {a term that once referred to any fuzzy object in the sky}. 这句作者很明显是用一个1840 年时期（19 世纪）的例子来对比1610 年而起的伽利略事件（17 世纪），那么或许我们对17 世纪那些相信地心说的“愚昧的”人们有了些许理解和同情，便不会再那么一边倒地表达愤怒了.

#### We can perhaps forgive those who said the moons of Jupiter were produced by Galileo's spyglass if we recall that in his day, as for centuries before, curved glass was the popular contrivance for producing not truth but illusion, untruth; and if a single curved glass would distort nature, how much more would a pair of them?

复合句，分号分割了两句，或者说是 and 连接了两个句子，分号前面是主句和条件状语从句，分号后面是另一个条件状语从句和其主句.

分号前的主句为主谓宾结构，其中有一个 who 引导的定语从句，为主谓+宾语从句结构，含有一个省略了 that 的宾语从句，said (that) the moons…spyglass. 该宾语从句为主系表结构. 而第一个 if 所引导的条件状语从句为主谓+宾语从句结构，包含了一个 that 引导的宾语从句，recall that …untruth. 该宾语从句中是一个主系表结构，curved glass was the contrivance.

分号和 and 后面的 if 引导了一个条件状语从句，后面的主句采用了倒装结构，谓语也有所省略，正常语序可以还原成 A pair of them would (distort nature) how much more?

所以把 how much more 理解成程度状语是较为合适的.

#### 原稿资料出处

\[1] 俞珏.2005.思维模式对汉语和英语的影响.安徽农业大学学报（社会科学版）.第14 卷第4 期:131-134.

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