英国新闻听力 月全食体现宇宙最美奇观

Good morning. I was up at 3am, not to write Thought for the Day, but in the hope of seeing a giant blood red moon - and judging by the photos coming into this programme I wasn't the only one. As we have heard, this is produced by a total lunar eclipse, with the Moon near to its minimum distance from the Earth and therefore appearing larger in the sky. The rusty¹ hue² is due to the light from the Sun having to pass through the Earth's atmosphere before it illuminates³ the lunar surface.

Now I don't share the views of a few extreme religious thinkers that this predicts the end of the world, rather I see it as a moment of beauty in the wonder of creation.

These moments of beauty can happen in different ways. This is the hundredth anniversary of a discovery made by Albert Einstein of which he wrote, 'For a few days I was beside myself with joyous⁴ excitement'. He was engaged in long and at times tortuous⁵ work, trying to understand gravity through the way that matter would distort the geometry of space and time. His joyous excitement came as he worked through the mathematics to solve a decades long puzzle - of the small advance of the perihelion of Mercury, that is, the closest point of the planet to the sun. Einstein found that his theory accounted exactly for this advance in very natural way without the need of other attempted special 'fixes'.

This added to the sense that the universe is intelligible⁶ and that intelligibility⁷ is characterised by simplicity⁸ and beauty in the equations of physics. Indeed the Russian physicist⁹ Lev Landau called this General Theory of Relativity the 'most beautiful of theories'.

For those who struggled with equations at school, physics is not an obvious place to experience beauty. In fact, for those of us who have worked in professional science, most of the time it is tedious and frustrating¹⁰ - it's about experiments that don't work, referees¹¹ of papers that can't see the brilliance¹² of your work, and research students who don't do what you tell them to do. But there are just occasional moments of joyous excitement when beauty breaks through.

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder¹³. As a Christian¹⁴ I see the simple, elegant and beautiful scientific laws as a reflection of the creativity of God, while others might find them at least as pointers to deeper questions about the universe. But I also find that making the effort to pause in life to appreciate beauty enhances my humanity - even if that means conquering the lure¹⁵ of the duvet at 3am to glimpse through the frustrating patchy North Eastern fog a most amazing sight.

早上好。我凌晨3点钟就起床了，不是为了写这篇文章，而是希望观赏血红色的圆月——从这个节目收到的照片来看，我并不是唯一的一个。就像我们之前听说的，这是由于月全食造成的，月亮到达距离地球最近的距离，因此在天空中看上去更大。锈色是因为来自太阳的光线必须通过地球大气层，然后才会照亮月球表面。

现在，我不想跟大家分享一些极端的宗教思想家预言世界末日的观点，我只是认为这是创造美丽的奇迹的时刻。

这些美丽的时刻可以以不同的方式发生。这是爱因斯坦一项发现100周年纪念日。他写道：“我独自一人狂喜着。”他一个人从事着长期曲折的工作，他试图通过物质可以扭曲空间和时间几何学的理论来理解重力。当他想出数学方法来解决数十年的谜团时陷入了狂喜——他计算出了水星近日点，该星球距离太阳最近的点。爱因斯坦发现他的理论刚好符合这种自然现象，而不需要进行任何刻意的修正。

这再次表明，宇宙是明白易懂的，这种明白易懂体现在物理学公式的简洁和美感。实际上，俄罗斯物理学家列夫·朗道称“广义相对论”是“最美丽的理论”。

对于那些苦苦挣扎在各种公式中的学生来说，物理学并不是体验美景的好地方。实际上，对于我们从事专业科学的人来说，大部分时间也是枯燥而沮丧的——总是不断失败的实验，不能看到你的才华的证明书，不能按照你说的来做的研究生。但是当出现突破的时候，也时有激动人心的时刻。

当然，旁观者清。作为基督徒，我把自然优雅美丽的科学规律视为上帝创造力的反映。而其他人则认为它们是指向关于宇宙更深刻的问题的线索。但是我还发现，在生活中暂停一下来欣赏美景可以增强人性——即使这意味着凌晨3点在朦胧中起床，望穿一望无际的迷雾来欣赏那一缕光芒。

1 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

2 hue   

n.色度；色调；样子

参考例句：

• The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
• The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。

3 illuminates   

v.使明亮( illuminate的第三人称单数 )；照亮；装饰；说明

参考例句：

• The light shines on from over there and illuminates the stage. 灯光从那边照进来，照亮了舞台。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sun illuminates the sky. 太阳照亮了天空。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 joyous   

adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的

参考例句：

• The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
• They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。

5 tortuous   

adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的

参考例句：

• We have travelled a tortuous road.我们走过了曲折的道路。
• They walked through the tortuous streets of the old city.他们步行穿过老城区中心弯弯曲曲的街道。

6 intelligible   

adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的

参考例句：

• This report would be intelligible only to an expert in computing.只有计算机运算专家才能看懂这份报告。
• His argument was barely intelligible.他的论点不易理解。

7 intelligibility   

n.可理解性，可理解的事物

参考例句：

• Further research on the effects of different characteristics on intelligibility is necessary. 不同的特征对字码可懂度的影响力的进一步研究是必要的。 来自互联网
• Demand concisely intelligibility, word number 30 or so thanks! 要求简洁明了，字数30左右谢谢啦！ 来自互联网

8 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

9 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

10 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 referees   

n.裁判员( referee的名词复数 )；证明人；公断人；（专业性强的文章的）审阅人

参考例句：

• The fiery player has had numerous run-ins with referees. 这位脾气暴躁的队员曾和裁判员发生过无数次争吵。
• If you want to appeal, the Court of Referees will decide. 如果你要上诉，可以由仲裁法庭去判决。 来自辞典例句

12 brilliance   

n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智

参考例句：

• I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。

13 beholder   

n.观看者，旁观者

参考例句：

• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 看起来觉得美就是美。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It has been said that art is a tryst, for in the joy of it maker and beholder meet. 有人说艺术是一种幽会，因为艺术家和欣赏者可在幽会的乐趣中相遇在一起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

15 lure   

n.吸引人的东西，诱惑物；vt.引诱，吸引

参考例句：

• Life in big cities is a lure for many country boys.大城市的生活吸引着许多乡下小伙子。
• He couldn't resist the lure of money.他不能抵制金钱的诱惑。