迈克尔逊和莫雷所做的--实际上是在无意之中所做的--破坏了长期以来人们对一种所谓光以太的东西的信念。以太是笛卡儿假设的，牛顿加以接受，之后差不多人人都对它怀有崇敬之情。多年来以太存在科学界一直争论不休~~~

❤《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，也不用写序号。答完一空换行继续下一空作答。文中需听写单词或词组用[-No-]表示，句子用[---No---]表示。请边听写边理解文意，根据下面的TIPS训练听写。这样可以提高听力准确度，并为训练听译打下基础哦~~~

TIPS听写训练点：单词拼写，时态，单复数，连读，长难句（请边听边用符号先记下内容，然后自己回头组织语句，最后校对，不要逐字逐句听写）



Hints:
Descartes
venerate
centrality
speculative


What Michelson and Morley did, without actually [-1-] to, was undermine [-2-] in something called the luminiferous ether, a stable, invisible, weightless, [-3-], and unfortunately [-4-] imaginary medium that was thought to permeate the universe. [---5---] It was especially needed in the 1800s because light and electromagnetism were now seen as waves, which is to say types of vibrations. Vibrations must occur in something; hence the need for, and lasting devotion to, an ether. As late as 1909, the great British physicist J. J. Thomson was insisting: “[---6---]”—this more than four years after it was pretty incontestably established that it didn't exist. [---7---]

intending a longstanding belief frictionless wholly Conceived by Descartes, embraced by Newton, and venerated by nearly everyone ever since, the ether held a position of absolute centrality in 19th century physics as a way of explaining how light traveled across the emptiness of space. The ether is not a fantastic creation of the speculative philosopher, it is as essential to us as the air we breathe People, in short, were really attached to the ether.
迈克尔逊和莫雷所做的--实际上是在无意之中所做的--破坏了长期以来人们对一种所谓光以太的东西的信念。那是一种稳定、看不见、没有重量、没有摩擦力、不幸又完全是想像出来的媒质。据认为，这种媒质充满宇宙。以太是笛卡儿假设的，牛顿加以接受，之后差不多人人都对它怀有崇敬之情，在19世纪物理学中占有绝对的中心地位，用来解释为什么光能够在空荡荡的太空里传播。它在19世纪初尤其必不可少，因为光和电磁在这时候被看成是波，也就是说某种振动。振动必须在什么东西里面才能发生，因此，就需要一种以太，并长期认为存在一种以太。直到1909年，伟大的英国物理学家J.J.汤姆森仍坚持说："以太不是哪位爱好思索的哲学家的凭空想像，它对我们来说就像我们呼吸的空气那样不可缺少。"--他说这番话4年多以后，就无可争议地确定以太并不存在。总而言之，人们确实离不开以太。