万物简史 第64期:事物的测定(12)

 Norwood's two daughters brought their father additional pain by making poor marriages. One of the husbands, possibly incited¹ by the vicar, continually laid small charges against Norwood in court, causing him much exasperation² and necessitating³ repeated trips across Bermuda to defend himself.

诺伍德的两个女儿的婚姻都不尽如人意，给她们的父亲带来了额外的痛苦。有个女婿可能受那位牧师的唆使，不断为了小事去法院控告诺伍德，惹得他非常气愤，还不得不经常去百慕大的那一头为自己辩护。

Finally in the 1650s witch trials came to Bermuda and Norwood spent his final years in severe unease that his papers on trigonometry, with their arcane⁴ symbols, would be taken as communications with the devil and that he would be treated to a dreadful execution. So little is known of Norwood that it may in fact be that he deserved his unhappy declining years. What is certainly true is that he got them.

最后，在17世纪50年代，百慕大开始流行审讯巫师，诺伍德提心吊胆地度过了最后的岁月，担心自己那些带有神秘符号的三角学论文会被看做在跟魔鬼交流，自己会被可怕地判处死刑。我们对诺伍德的情况知之甚少，反正他在不愉快环境中度过了晚年，实际上也许是活该。肯定没错的是，他的晚年确实是这样度过的。

Meanwhile, the momentum⁵ for determining the Earth's circumference⁶ passed to France. There, the astronomer⁷ Jean Picard devised an impressively complicated method of triangulation involving quadrants, pendulum⁸ clocks, zenith sectors⁹, and telescopes (for observing the motions of the moons of Jupiter).

与此同时，测定地球周长的势头已经到达法国。在那里，天文学家让?皮卡尔发明了一种极其复杂的三角测绘法，用上了扇形板、摆钟、天顶象限仪和天文望远镜（用来观察土星卫星的运动）。

After two years of trundling and triangulating his way across France, in 1669 he announced a more accurate measure of 110.46 kilometers for one degree of arc. This was a great source of pride for the French, but it was predicated on the assumption that the Earth was a perfect sphere—which Newton now said it was not.

他花了两年时间穿越法国，用三角测绘法进行测量；之后，他宣布了一个更加精确的测量结果：1度经线为110.46公里。法国人为此感到非常自豪，但这个结果是建立在地球是个圆球这个假设上的--而现在牛顿说地球不是这种形状的。

 

1 incited   

刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He incited people to rise up against the government. 他煽动人们起来反对政府。
• The captain's example incited the men to bravery. 船长的榜样激发了水手们的勇敢精神。

2 exasperation   

n.愤慨

参考例句：

• He snorted with exasperation.他愤怒地哼了一声。
• She rolled her eyes in sheer exasperation.她气急败坏地转动着眼珠。

3 necessitating   

使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Multiple network transmissions overlapping in the physical channel, resulting in garbled data and necessitating retransmission. 多个网络传输重迭发生在同一物理信道上，它导致数据被破坏，因而必须重传。
• The health status of 435 consecutive patients with sleep disturbances necessitating polysomnography was investigated. 435个患有睡眠紊乱的病人进行多导睡眠描记法对其健康状况进行调查。

4 arcane   

adj.神秘的，秘密的

参考例句：

• The technique at one time was arcane in the minds of most chemists.这种技术在大多数化学家心目中一度是神秘的。
• Until a few months ago few people outside the arcane world of contemporary music had heard of Gorecki.直至几个月前，在现代音乐神秘殿堂之外很少有人听说了戈莱斯基。

5 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

6 circumference   

n.圆周，周长，圆周线

参考例句：

• It's a mile round the circumference of the field.运动场周长一英里。
• The diameter and the circumference of a circle correlate.圆的直径与圆周有相互关系。

7 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

8 pendulum   

n.摆，钟摆

参考例句：

• The pendulum swung slowly to and fro.钟摆在慢慢地来回摆动。
• He accidentally found that the desk clock did not swing its pendulum.他无意中发现座钟不摇摆了。

9 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》