万物简史 第110期:势不两立的科学(11)
英语课
Aware that his finding would entirely 1 upend what was understood about the past, and urged by his friend the Reverend William Buckland—he of the gowns and experimental appetite—to proceed with caution, Mantell devoted 2 three painstaking 3 years to seeking evidence to support his conclusions. He sent the tooth to Cuvier in Paris for an opinion, but the great Frenchman dismissed it as being from a hippopotamus 4. (Cuvier later apologized handsomely for this uncharacteristic error.)
曼特尔意识到，自己的发现会彻底推翻人们对过去的认识。威廉·巴克兰——那位身穿长袍、爱好试验的学者--也劝他小心行事。因此，曼特尔花了3年时间，努力寻找支持自己的结论的证据。他把牙齿送交巴黎的居维叶，征求他的看法，但那位伟大的法国人轻描淡写地认为，那只不过是河马的牙齿。（居维叶姿态很高，后来为这个不常犯的错误道了歉。）
One day while doing research at the Hunterian Museum in London, Mantell fell into conversation with a fellow researcher who told him the tooth looked very like those of animals he had been studying, South American iguanas 5. A hasty comparison confirmed the resemblance. And so Mantell's creature became Iguanodon, after a basking 6 tropical lizard 7 to which it was not in any manner related.
有一天，曼特尔在伦敦的亨特博物馆作研究，跟一位同事攀谈起来。那位同事对他说，它看上去很像是他一直在研究的那种动物——南美鬣蜥的牙齿。他们马上进行了比较，确认了它们的相似之处。于是，曼特尔手里的动物以热带一种爱晒太阳的蜥蜴命名，被叫做禽龙。其实，二者之间没有任何关系。
ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地
- The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
- His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的
- He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
- We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的
- She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明，但肯下苦功夫。
- Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力，才取得今天的成绩。
n.河马
- The children enjoyed watching the hippopotamus wallowing in the mud.孩子们真喜观看河马在泥中打滚。
- A hippopotamus surfs the waves off the coast of Gabon.一头河马在加蓬的海岸附近冲浪。
v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的现在分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽
- We sat basking in the warm sunshine. 我们坐着享受温暖的阳光。
- A colony of seals lay basking in the sun. 一群海豹躺着晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
标签：
万物简史