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科技英语翻译复习(课文)Unit 1Pure and Applied Science (1)As students of science (2)you are probably sometimes puzzled by the terms …pure‟ and …applied‟ science. Are these two totally different activities, having little or no interconnection, as is often implied? Let us begin by examining what is done by each.(3)Pure science is primarily concerned with the development of theories (or, as they are frequently called, models) establishing relationships between the phenomena of the universe.(4)When they are sufficiently validated, these theories (hypotheses, models) become the working laws or principles of science. In carrying out this work, the pure scientist usually disregards its application to practical affairs, confining his attention to explanations of how and why events occur. Hence, in physics, the equations describing the behavior of fundamental particles, or in biology, the establishment of the life cycle of a particular species of insect living in a Polar environment, (5)are said to be examples of pure science (basic research), having no apparent connection (for the moment) with technology, i.e. applied science.Applied science, on the other hand, is directly concerned with the application of the working laws of pure science to the practical affairs of life, and to increasing man‟s control over his environment, thus leading to the development of new techniques, processes and machines. (6)Such activities as investigating the strength and uses of materials, extending the findings of pure mathematics to improve the sampling procedures used in agriculture or the social sciences, and developing the potentialities of atomic energy, are all examples of the work of the applied scientist or technologist.It is evident that many branches of applied science are practical extensions of purely theoretical or experimental work. Thus the study of radioactivity began as a piece of pure research, but its results are now applied in a great number of different ways ---- in cancer treatment in medicine, the development of fertilizers in agriculture, the study of metal-fatigue in engineering, in methods of estimating the ages of objects in anthropology and geology, etc. Conversely, work in applied science and technology frequently acts as a direct stimulus to the development of pure science. Such an interaction occurs, for example, when the technologist, in applying a particular concept of pure science to a practical problem, reveals a gap or limitation in the theoretical model, thus pointing the way for further basic research. Often a further interaction occurs, since the pure scientist is unable to undertake this further research until another technologist provides him with more highly-developed instruments.It seems, then, (7)that these two branches of science are mutually dependent and interacting, and that the so-called division (8)between the pure scientist and the applied scientist is more apparent than real.理论科学与应用科学(Pure and Applied Science)理工科学生有时候也许会被“理论”科学与“应用”科学这两个名称弄得莫名其妙。

难道这两者真的像字面所表明的那样，有着截然不同的内容，也就是很少相关，甚至全不相干吗？让我们先来看一看两者各自的作用吧。

理论科学首先涉及到的是确立理论（或者人们常常称之为模型），把宇宙间的种种现象联系起来。

一旦有效，这些理论(假设、模型)便成为现行的科学定律或原理。

在从事这方面工作时，理论科学家通常并不顾及/考虑理论的实际应用问题，他只是力图去解释事情发生的方式和原因。

所以，物理学上描述基本粒子性质的方程式，或生物学上确定活在极地严寒环境里的某些特别昆虫的生命周期，都可以说是理论科学(基础研究)的实例。

在那种情况下，理论科学与技术，也就是理论科学与应用科学，毫无关系。

另一方面，应用科学却直接关联到把理论科学现行的定律应用于实际生活之中，以之增强人类对环境的控制能力，从而导致新技术的发展、新工艺的制定和新机器的研制。

诸如材料强度和应用的研究、理论数学上的发现推广应用到改善农业或社会科学的取样程序、原子能潜力的开发等等活动，全都是应用科学家，即技术人员从事这方面工作的例证。

显然，应用科学的许多分支实际上都是纯理论研究或实验研究的延续。

所以，放射性的研究，是作为一项纯理论研究来开始的，但其成果，今天却以种种不同的方式得到应用：医学上用于治疗癌症，农业上用于研制肥料，工程学上以之研究金属疲劳，人类学、地质学等等方面，则把它应用在估算研究对象的寿龄或年代的方法中。

反过来说，应用科学和技术工作，又常常对理论科学的发展，起着直接的推动作用。

比方说，在把理论科学某一特定要领应用于某一实际问题时，技术人员揭示了该理论模型的缺陷或局限性，从而指出了进一步基础研究的方向，这时候，这种相互作用就显出来了。

因此，这种相互作用往往还不至于此，因为理论科学家还要依靠别的技术人员向他提供更先进的仪器，才能进行进一步的基础研究。

由此看来，科学上的这两大范畴，似乎是相互依存，彼此促进的，而理论科学家与应用科学家之间的所谓区分，在实质上并不那么泾渭分明。

Unit 2The Fantastic Spurt in Technology (1)To most people the term technology conjures up images of smoky steel mills or noisy machines. Perhaps the classic representation of technology is still the assembly line created by Henry Ford (2)half a century ago and made into a social symbol by Charlie Chaplin (3)in Modern Times. This symbol, however, has always been inadequate and misleading, for technology has always been more than factories and machines. The invention of the horse collar in the Middle Ages led to major changes in agricultural methods and was as much a technological advance as the invention of the Bessemer furnace (4) centuries later. Moreover, technology includes techniques, or ways to do things, as well as the machines that may or may not be necessary to apply them. It includes ways to make chemical reactions occur, ways to breed fish, plant forests, light theaters, count votes or teach history.The old symbols of technology are even more misleading today, when the most advanced technological processes are carried out far from assembly lines or blast furnaces. Indeed, in electronics, in space technology, in most of the new industries, quiet and clean surroundings are characteristic ---- even sometimes essential. And theassembly line ---- the organization of large numbers of men to carry out simple repetitive functions ---- is outdated. It is time for our symbols of technology to change---- to catch up with the quickening changes in technology itself.This acceleration is frequently dramatized by a brief account of the progress in transportation. It has been pointed out, for example, that in 6000 BC the fastest transportation available to man over long distances was the camel caravan, averaging eight miles per hour (mph). It was not until about 1600 BC when the chariot was invented that the maximum speed was raised to roughly twenty miles per hour.So impressive was this invention, so difficult was it to exceed this speed limit, that nearly 3,500 years later, when the first mail coach began operating in England in 1784, it averaged a mere ten mph. The first steam locomotive, introduced in 1825, could have a top speed of only thirteen mph and the great sailing ships of the time labored along at less than half that speed. It was probably not until the 1880‟s that man, with the help of a more advanced steam locomotive, managed to reach a speed of one hundred mph. It took the human race millions of years to attain that record.It took only fifty-eight years, however, to go four times that fast, so that by 1938 men in airplanes were traveling at better than 400 mph. It took a mere twenty-year flick of time to double the limit again. And by the 1960‟s rocket planes approached speeds of 4,000 mph, and men in space capsules were circling the earth at 18,000 mph.Whether we examine distances traveled, altitudes reached, or minerals mined, the same accelerative trend is obvious. The pattern, here and in a thousand other statistical series, is absolutely clear and unmistakable. Thousands of years go by, and then, in our own times, a sudden bursting of the limits, a fantastic spurt forward.The reason for this is that technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible, as we can see if we look for a moment at the process of innovation. Technological innovation consists of three stages, linked together into a self-reinforcing cycle. First, there is the creative, feasible idea. Second, its practical application. Third, its diffusion through society.The process is completed, the loop closed, when the diffusion of technology embodying the new idea, in turn, helps generate new creative ideas. Today there is evidence that the time between each of the steps in this cycle has been shortened. Thus it is not merely true, as frequently noted, that 90 percent of all the scientists who ever lived are now alive, and that new scientific discoveries are being made every day. These new ideas are put to work much more quickly than ever before. The time between the first and second stages of the cycle ---- between idea and application ---- has been radically reduced. This is a striking difference between ourselves and our ancestors. It is not that we are more eager or less lazy than our ancestors, but we have, with the passage of time, invented all sorts of social devices to hasten the process.But if it takes less time to bring a new idea to the marketplace, it also takes less time for it to sweep through the society. For example, the refrigerator was introduced in the United States before 1920, yet its peak production did not come until more than thirty years later. However, by 1950, ----in only a few years ---- television had grown from a laboratory novelty to the biggest part of show business. So the intervalbetween the second and third stages of the cycle ---- between application and diffusion ---- has likewise been cut, and the pace of diffusion is rising with astonishing speed.The stepped-up pace of invention, application and diffusion, in turn, accelerates the whole cycle still further. For new machines or techniques are not merely a product, but a source, of fresh creative ideas.工艺技术上不可思议的突飞猛进(The Fantastic Spurt in Technology)对大多数人来说，“技术”这个词往往使人联想到浓烟滚滚的钢铁厂或是轰隆作响的机器。