英樂博客
學習英語，欣賞音樂。
Lesson 32 Galileo reborn 伽利略的複生
First listen and then answer the following question.
聽錄音，然後回答以下問題。
What has modified out traditional view of Galileo in recent times?
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 ahs 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?
MICHAEL HOSKIN Galileo Reborn from The Listener
New words and expressions 生詞和短語
controversy
n. 爭議，爭論
dust
n. 糾紛，騷動
clash
n. 衝突
Inquisition
n. （羅馬天主教的）宗教法庭
perspective
n. 觀點，看法
despise
v. 蔑視
generalize
v. 歸納
undercurrent
n. 潛流
theoretical
adj. 理論上的
potentiality
n. 潛能
intimate
adj. 詳盡的
familiarity
n. 熟悉的
culpable
adj. 應受遣責的
Aristotelian
n. 亞裏士多德學派的人
Aristotle
n. 亞裏士多德（公元前384-322，古希臘哲學家）
Ptolemy
n. 托勒密（公元90-168，古希臘天文學家）
Leaning Tower of Pisa
比薩斜塔
spiral
adj. 螺旋狀的
nebula
n. 星雲
scratch
n. 擦痕
contrivance
n. 器械
distort
v. 歪曲
參考譯文
伽利略在世時是激烈論戰的中心。但是，自他逝世以來，那場科學上的紛爭早已平息了下來，甚至他和宗教法庭的著名衝突，我們今天也能正確如實地看待。但是相比之下，對於科學史家來說，伽利略隻是在現代才變成了一個新的難題。
令人高興的是，過去對伽利略的看法並不複雜。他首先是個實驗工作者，他蔑視亞裏士多德學派的偏見和空洞的書本知識。他向自然界而不是向古人提出問題，並大膽地得出結論。他是第一個把望遠鏡對準天空的人，觀察到的論據足以把亞裏士多德和托勒密一起推翻。他就是那個曾經爬上比薩斜塔，從塔頂向下拋擲積各種重物的人；他是那個使地球體沿斜麵向下滾動，然後將多次實驗結果概括成著名的自由落體定律的人。
但是，對那個時代的深化了解，尤其是以科學家革命中哲學潛流的新意識為依據，進一步仔細研究，就會極大地改變對伽利略的看法。今天，雖然已故的伽利略繼續活在許多通俗讀物中，但在科學史家中間，一個新的更加複雜的伽利略形象出現了。與此同時，我們對伽利略的反對派的同情也有所增加。伽利略用望遠鏡所作的觀察確實是不朽的，這些觀察當時引起人們極大的興趣，具有重要的理論意義，並充分顯示出了儀表和儀器的潛在力量。但是，如果我們想到，便用一架倍數有限的望遠鏡需要長期的經驗和對自己儀器的熟悉程度，那麽我們怎麽能去責備觀察了天空但沒有看到伽利略所看到的東西的那些人呢？某位哲學家曾拒絕使用伽利略的望遠鏡去觀察天空；到了19世紀40年代，有人硬把羅斯勳爵高倍望遠鏡觀測到的螺旋狀星雲說成是磨鏡工留下的磨痕。難道反對伽利略的哲學家比詆毀羅斯勳爵造謠者應受到更大的譴責嗎？如果我們回想一下伽利略之前幾個世紀期間，曲麵鏡一直是一種用於產生幻影而不是產生真象的把戲裝置，那麽我們就會原諒那些當時把伽利略觀察到的木星衛生說成是伽利略用他的小望遠鏡變出來的人們，何況一片曲麵鏡就可歪曲自然，那麽伽利略的兩片曲麵鏡對自然的歪曲又該多大呢？
