万物简史:PART II CH 4事物的测定（3）
来源：沪江听写酷
2011-08-29 07:00
哈雷彗星的发现源于一场三个科学家之间的打赌，究竟是怎么回事，今天我们开始介绍~~
❤《万物简史》推出部落节目版，戳这里订阅://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。
For all his achievements, however, Halley's greatest contribution to human knowledge may simply have been to take part in a modest scientific wager with two other worthies of his day: Robert Hooke, who is perhaps best remembered now as the first person to describe a cell, and the great and stately Sir Christopher Wren, who was [-1-]an astronomer first and architect second, [---2---]. In 1683, Halley, Hooke, and Wren were [-3-]in London when the conversation turned to the motions of celestial objects. It was known that planets [-4-] orbit in a particular kind of oval known as an ellipse—"a very specific and precise curve," to quote Richard Feynman—[---5---]. Wren generously offered a prize worth 40 shillings ([-6-] a couple of weeks' pay) to whichever of the men could provide a solution.
Hooke, who was well known for taking [-7-] for ideas that weren't necessarily his own, claimed that he had solved the problem already but declined now to share it on the interesting and [-8-] grounds that it would rob others of the satisfaction of discovering the answer for themselves. He would instead "conceal it for some time, that others might know how to value it." [---9---] Halley, however, became consumed with finding the answer, to the point that the following year he traveled to Cambridge and [-10-]called upon the university's Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Isaac Newton, in the hope that he could help.
❤《万物简史》推出部落节目版，戳这里订阅://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。
For all his achievements, however, Halley's greatest contribution to human knowledge may simply have been to take part in a modest scientific wager with two other worthies of his day: Robert Hooke, who is perhaps best remembered now as the first person to describe a cell, and the great and stately Sir Christopher Wren, who was [-1-]an astronomer first and architect second, [---2---]. In 1683, Halley, Hooke, and Wren were [-3-]in London when the conversation turned to the motions of celestial objects. It was known that planets [-4-] orbit in a particular kind of oval known as an ellipse—"a very specific and precise curve," to quote Richard Feynman—[---5---]. Wren generously offered a prize worth 40 shillings ([-6-] a couple of weeks' pay) to whichever of the men could provide a solution.
Hooke, who was well known for taking [-7-] for ideas that weren't necessarily his own, claimed that he had solved the problem already but declined now to share it on the interesting and [-8-] grounds that it would rob others of the satisfaction of discovering the answer for themselves. He would instead "conceal it for some time, that others might know how to value it." [---9---] Halley, however, became consumed with finding the answer, to the point that the following year he traveled to Cambridge and [-10-]called upon the university's Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, Isaac Newton, in the hope that he could help.
actually
though that is not often generally remembered now
dining
were inclined to
but it wasn't understood why
equivalent to
credit
inventive
If he thought any more on the matter, he left no evidence of it.
boldly
然而，尽管他取得了这么多的成就，但他对人类知识的最大贡献也许只在于他参加了一次科学上的打赌。赌注不大，对方是那个时代的另外两位杰出人物。一位是罗伯特•胡克，人们现在记得最清楚的兴许是他描述了细胞；另一位是伟大而又威严的克里斯托弗•雷恩爵士，他起先其实是一位天文学家，后来还当过建筑师，虽然这一点人们现在往往不大记得。1683年，哈雷、胡克和雷恩在伦敦吃饭，突然间谈话内容转向天体运动。据认为，行星往往倾向于以一种特殊的卵行线即以椭圆形在轨道上运行--用理查德•费曼的话来说，"一条特殊而精确的曲线"--但不知道什么原因。雷恩慷慨地提出，要是他们中间谁能找到个答案，他愿意发给他价值40先令（相当于两个星期的工资）的奖品。
胡克以好大喜功闻名，尽管有的见解不一定是他自己的。他声称他已经解决这个问题，但现在不愿意告诉大家，他的理由有趣而巧妙，说是这么做会使别人失去自己找出答案的机会。因此，他要"把答案保密一段时间，别人因此会知道怎么珍视它"。没有迹象表明，他后来有没有再想过这件事。可是，哈雷着了迷，一定要找到这个答案，还于次年前往剑桥大学，冒昧拜访该大学的数学教授艾萨克•牛顿，希望得到他的帮助。