载誉而归的梅森和狄克逊却关系破裂，两人随后的命运也没有很多资料记载，貌似都不太好（苍天啊，何必对科学家这么苛刻，石头我学工科的，难道也……TAT）~~~

❤《万物简史》推出部落节目版，戳这里订阅:http://bulo.hujiang.com/menu/6004/



书本的朗读语音很charming的磁性英音~~~大家可以好好学着模仿哦~~~！！
因为原著为美国人所写,单词采用美式拼法,不抄全文,然后听写单词或词组(用[-No-]表示)以及句子(用[---No---]表示)。请边听写边理解文意，根据上下文注意各句标号，这样有助于提高正确率。



Hint:
patron



As for Mason and Dixon, they returned to England as scientific heroes and, for reasons unknown, [-1-] their partnership. [---2---] No likenesses exist and few written references. Of Dixon the Dictionary of National Biography notes intriguingly that he was "[-3-]," but then leaves it to the reader's imagination to supply a [-4-] explanatory circumstance, and adds that he died at Durham in 1777. Apart from his name and long association with Mason, nothing more is known.

Mason is only slightly less shadowy. We know that in 1772, at Maskelyne's behest, he accepted the commission to find a suitable mountain for the gravitational [-5-] experiment, at length reporting back that the mountain they needed was in the central Scottish Highlands, just above Loch Tay, and was called Schiehallion. Nothing, however, would [-6-] him to spend a summer surveying it. He never returned to the field again. His next known movement was in 1786 when, [-7-] , he turned up in Philadelphia with his wife and eight children, apparently on the verge of destitution. [---8---] A few weeks later he was dead.



dissolved Considering the frequency with which they turn up at seminal events in 18th century science, remarkably little is known about either man. said to have been born in a coal mine plausible deflection induce abruptly and mysteriously He had not been back to America since completing his survey there 18 years earlier and had no known reason for being there, or any friends or patrons to greet him.
梅森和狄克逊回到英国，成了科学上的英雄；但是，不知什么原因，他们的伙伴关系却无可挽回地破裂了。考虑到他们经常出现在18世纪的重大科学活动中，对这两个人的情况知道得如此之少，这是很引人注目的。没有照片，极少文字资料。关于狄克逊，《英国人名词典》巧妙地提到，他"据说生在煤矿里"，然后让读者去发挥自己的想像力，提供合理的解释。《词典》接着说，他1777年死于达勒姆。除了他的名字和他与梅森的长期伙伴关系以外，别的一无所知。 　　关于梅森的情况，资料稍多一点。我们知道，1772年，他应马斯基林的请求，奉命寻找一座山，供测量引力偏差之用；最后，他发回报告，他们需要的山位于苏格兰高地中部，就在泰湖那里，名叫斯希哈林山。然而，他怎么也不肯花一个夏天来对它进行测量。他再也没有回到现场。人们知道，他的下一个活动是在1786年。他突然神秘地带着他的妻子和8个孩子出现在费城，显然穷困潦倒，令人惨不忍睹。他18年前完成测量工作以后没有回过美洲，这次回来没有明显的理由，也没有朋友或资助人迎接他。几个星期以后，他死了。