万物简史 第228期:把铅撵出去(17)

 　　So who is making it? We are—that is to say, many of our large corporations are still making it at their plants overseas. It will not be banned in Third World countries until 2010.

　　那么，是谁在生产含氯氟烃？是我们──那就是说，许多大公司仍在其海外的工厂里生产这种产品。第三世界国家要到2010年才加以禁止。

　　Clair Patterson died in 1995. He didn't win a Nobel Prize for his work. Geologists² never do. Nor, more puzzlingly, did he gain any fame or even much attention from half a century of consistent and increasingly selfless achievement. A good case could be made that he was the most influential³ geologist¹ of the twentieth century.

　　克莱尔·彼得森于1995年去世。他没有因为自己的成就而获得诺贝尔奖。地质学家向来没有这个资格。更令人不解的是，尽管他在半个世纪的时间里坚持不懈，大公无私，取得越来越大的成就，他也没有获得多少名气，甚至没有受到多大重视。我们有理由认为，他是20世纪最有影响的地质学家。

　　伟大的无私奉献者

　　Yet who has ever heard of Clair Patterson? Most geology textbooks don't mention him. Two recent popular books on the history of the dating of Earth actually manage to misspell his name. In early 2001, a reviewer of one of these books in the journal Nature made the additional, rather astounding⁴ error of thinking Patterson was a woman.

　　然而，谁听说过克莱尔·彼得森来着？大多数地质学教科书没有提到他的名字。最近出版的两本有关测定地球年龄的历史的畅销书，竟然还把他的名字拼错了。2001年初，有人在《自然》杂志里就其中的一本书写了一篇书评，结果又犯了一个错误，令人吃惊地认为彼得森是个女人。

　　At all events, thanks to the work of Clair Patterson by 1953 the Earth at last had an age everyone could agree on. The only problem now was it was older than the universe that contained it.

　　无论如何，多亏克莱尔·彼得森的工作，到1953年，地球终于有了个人人都能接受的年龄。现在惟一的问题是，它比它周围的世界还要古老。

1 geologist   

n.地质学家

参考例句：

• The geologist found many uncovered fossils in the valley.在那山谷里，地质学家发现了许多裸露的化石。
• He was a geologist,rated by his cronies as the best in the business.他是一位地质学家，被他的老朋友们看做是这门行当中最好的一位。

2 geologists   

地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Geologists uncovered the hidden riches. 地质学家发现了地下的宝藏。
• Geologists study the structure of the rocks. 地质学家研究岩石结构。

3 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

4 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》