英语听力：自然百科 平行宇宙(4)

String theory was so provocative¹ and downright weird² that it immediately began to sound like a perfect theory of everything.

超弦理论是如此具有煽动性并且又带着几分神秘感，所以这一理论马上给人的感觉就是完美的万物论。

"It is certainly did sweep us all by a storm. It's a beautiful, elegant and simple theory and a number of people said well if it's so elegant and simple why don't we try to use it as the basic unifying³ principle for nature."

“可以肯定的是,我们刚经历过一场暴风雨。这是一个美丽的，高雅的，简单的理论，而许多人表示如果真的那么优雅简单,为什么我们不尝试使用它作为基本统一的自然原则呢？”

But if String Theory was to become Einstein's missing theory of everything it would have to pass one test. It will have to explain a rather special event ,the birth of the universe. The origins of the universe had always been a special subject of the cosmologists who studied the big world of stars and galaxies⁴. They, too, felt they were on the verge⁵ of a great triumph-a complete understanding of how the world had begun. They had long known things had started with a giant explosion, the Big Bang but by now cosmologists had refined the idea. They had worked backwards⁶ in time from the present day, closer and closer to the instant of the Big Bang. Their work was incredibly precise.We have confidence in extrapolating back from the present to when the first stars and galaxies formed,when the universe was only a billion years old, or exstrapolating back farther to when the first atoms were formed, when the universe was a few hundred thousands years old, or when the first nuclear formed,and the Universe was only a few seconds old.Physics was now actually ready to talk about these bizarre sounding events in the universe, fractions of a second and even billionths and billionths and billionths of a second, ten thirds or minus thirty-five seconds after the instant of the big Bang, absolutely fantastic.

但是如果超弦理论真的是爱因斯坦的失踪万物论的继承者，那么它就得通过一个测试。它需要解释一个相当特别的活动,即宇宙的诞生。宇宙的起源,永远都是宇宙学家进行星球和星系研究的永恒主题。他们也觉得自己即将站在伟大成就的门槛，即对世界起源的全面认识。他们早就知道一切起源于一次巨大的爆炸——宇宙大爆炸,但宇宙学家现在却需要重新定义这个概念。他们在现今的时光内推回过去进行研究，而且也越来越接近大爆炸的瞬间。他们的工作是令人难以置信的精确。我们有信心推回到当第一批恒星和星系形成的时间,当宇宙只有十亿岁,或者回到更远的地方，当第一个原子形成之时,当宇宙只有几百或者几千岁,亦或是第一个核形成,那时的宇宙是只是几秒钟的年龄。物理学现在准备谈论这些宇宙中奇异的事件，大爆炸后几分之一秒，甚至数十亿数十亿之一秒，10秒或者小于35秒，简直太棒了。

If everything in the universe was to be explained then String Theory and the Big Bang would now seamlessly merge⁷ and they complement⁸ each other perfectly⁹.

如果宇宙万物都被解释然后弦论和大爆炸无缝融合，那么它们就能完美的相辅相成。

After all, one concerned the birth of the Universe and the other all the matter in it. It was surely a forge one conclusion. physics seemed to be on the edge of glory, but it all went terribly wrong, try as they might they just couldn't get the two ideas to merge and then, after 10 years of struggling, something even worse happened, that? two parallel theories now began to self-destruct. The first problem appeared with the big Bang. The cosmologists had assumed that ,as they work backwards in time they would eventually work their way back all the way to the beginning of the big Bang. There would be no awkward gaps, but after years of endless refinement¹⁰ ,there was one gap which refused to disappear, the most important one of all.

毕竟一个是关心宇宙的诞生而另一个则是解释万物。这是一个定论。物理似乎总是在荣耀的边缘，但一切都大错特错，也许他们不可能把这两个概念融合，然后经过十年的奋斗，一件更糟糕的事发生。两个理论开始自我毁灭。第一个问题出现在宇宙大爆炸。宇宙学家曾设想，因为他们推算时间后他们最终会找到宇宙大爆炸的时间。没有尴尬的空白，但经过多年的无尽的重新定义，有一段空白拒绝消失，而这或许就是那最重要的一环。

词语解释：

1. provocative a. 气人的，挑拨的 2. theory n. 理论

1 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

2 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

3 unifying   

使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• In addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. 此外，他们还有某种具有一种统一性质的宗教上的结合。
• There is a unifying theme, and that is the theme of information flow within biological systems. 我们可以用一个总的命题，把生物学系统内的信息流来作为这一研究主题。

4 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

5 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

6 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

7 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

8 complement   

n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足

参考例句：

• The two suggestions complement each other.这两条建议相互补充。
• They oppose each other also complement each other.它们相辅相成。

9 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

10 refinement   

n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼

参考例句：

• Sally is a woman of great refinement and beauty. 莎莉是个温文尔雅又很漂亮的女士。
• Good manners and correct speech are marks of refinement.彬彬有礼和谈吐得体是文雅的标志。