[活动] 【幸运2009】【读透英美报刊】【参与有奖】第四期

wuweihua

通知

QUOTE:

为增加大家参与交流讨论活动的积极性，经英语学习交流版版主研究决定，从本期开始加大对参与本活动的交流讨论活动的奖励力度，调整为提出问题奖励20－30分，解答问题奖励40-50分。欢迎大家认真阅读文章，参与交流讨论。在此向积极关注我们活动的朋友表示感谢！

活动目的

QUOTE:

通过读透英美报刊，扩充大家的词汇量，提高大家的阅读速度，了解英美文章的展开方式，并通过解题提高应试能力.

活动方式

QUOTE:

针对每篇文章，开展1-2期活动，活动内容包扩解题活动和交流讨论活动。

活动细则

QUOTE:

1.禁止灌水、重复回复、无意义回复以及反复注册帐号答题，否则将扣50分处理。
2.每期给出３-5道题，答题时注意标明题号。
3.凡参与活动奖励５-10分，另外解题每题满分５分，全对额外再奖励2０分，答题严禁抄袭他人解答，抄袭者一经确认将扣分处理。
4.参加交流讨论活动，视提出问题的讨论价值给予20-30分奖励，参加解答问题给予40-50奖励。
5.每期活动周期为７天，每周周日更新题目，超过答题期限的回复不予评分。
6.文章在１楼，问题及参考答案在２楼，参考答案在每期活动结束时会提供给大家核对，如有商榷可以去英语答疑室讨论，不要在本帖后跟帖讨论；讨论提问和回复索引在３楼。
7.对本活动的任何意见和建议请在建议帖提出来，不要在本帖讨论或另开新帖，谢谢。

What Killed Famed Cal Chemist

到底是什么造成了卡尔化学院著名化学家的猝死

Before you read                                                   

Preview:     诺贝尔奖，在世界上几乎是家喻户晓、老幼皆悉。有多少人一听到它就肃然起敬，又有多少人毕生为之奋斗!然而，大多数人所看到的只是它所带来的极大荣誉，很少有人真正了解在其耀眼的光环下，获奖者走过了怎样艰苦卓绝的道路?又有多少人殚精竭虑、终生奋斗，却仍然与这个伟大的奖项擦肩而过?诺贝尔奖背后的那些鲜为人知的故事会给我们什么样的启迪呢?二十世纪，美国一位化学领域的先锋科学家莱威斯，尚未获得诺贝尔化学奖，却突然死在他一直工作的实验室内。关于他的死亡有过各种猜测。阅读本文后，你认为文中的推测及论证可信吗?

Warm-up questions: 1. How much do you know about the Nobel Prize? 2. Which Nobel laureate impresses you most? 3. What can we leam from the Nobel Prize winner? 4. Do you think it is more important to cultivate Nobel minds?

What Killed Famed Cal Chemist                                       
    Patrick Coffey is a businessman who as a sideline likes to play detective in the history of science and technology, a rich field to explore at the nearby UC Berkeley（1）campus.
    His specialty is that seemingly least sexy of the sciences: chemistry. But to Coffey, the pioneering chemists of the early 20th century were men of action. They were discoverers who went deep into the physical world and mapped it for others to follow.
    The focus of Coffey's current fascination is a character whose haunted eyes look out from a portrait taken shortly before he unexpectedly died under cloudy circumstances 60 years ago. He is Gilbert N. Lewis, who built UC Berkeley's College of Chemistry into a world-class institution and was one of the world's most creative and productive chemists in the decades before World War II.
  Lewis is famed for his artful, penetrating experiments and the world-changing results he achieved in five fields of physical chemistry. But to this widely known biography, Coffey is at work adding a new dimension: the inner G.N. Lewis.
    Under Coffey's lens, Lewis emerges as a man who gave his soul to his vocation and died, it might be said, of a broken heart.
   "I'm an old chemist, too, " said Coffey, a self-employed business consultant and visiting scholar at UC Berkeley's Office for the History of Science and Technology. "I've been interested in the history of chemistry for a long time. G.N. Lewis is a fascinating character himself. He really built a whole lot of chemistry. He's a very complex man--psychologically complex--and he was here in Berkeley. "
   Coffey says the Lewis story is rich enough to warrant a chapter in a book he's writing about the giants of physical chemistry from the beginning of the 20th century to when the atom changed everything after World War II.
  At the center of Coffey's investigation is the mystery surrounding Lewis' death.
Lewis, who built and ran Berkeley's chemistry program from 1912 to 1941, died suddenly in his lab in 1946 at age 70. He'd been working on an experiment with liquid hydrogen cyanide, and deadly fumes from a broken line were leaking into the room when a grad student found the professor's lifeless body under a workbench.
    The coroner said Lewis died of coronary artery disease, but to this day the story has never been that simple.
   "His colleagues all thought 'no'," Coffey said. "They knew he was depressed. So for years there'd been suspicion he'd killed himself and staged an accident. "
    UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly, who reported the various views on Lewis' death in his 1987 history of Cal's College of Chemistry "From Retorts to Lasers," stood one higher-up in the department, believed the suicide theory.
   "There wasn't any strong evidence for or against it," he said.
   Coffey's work has undermined the suicide theory, maybe for good, but at the same time has revealed intriguing details of Lewis' last day. Coffey believes Lewis died of natural causes hours after a stressful lunch date with one of his bitterest rivals, Irving Langmuir, a Nobel laureate and the chief chemist at General Electric.
   After 60 years, the Lewis story is still a draw in the chemistry world.(2) A talk Coffey gave on his findings packed the house at Cat's Chemistry College.
  "The audience was as large or larger as when we have Nobel Prize winners give seminars, " Professor Phil Geissler said. "When I was a grad student, I became aware of the mysterious circumstances of (Lewis') death. Patrick's story was surprising to many and was very well-received. "
   Coffey recounted the tale recently outside a Berkeley cafe as buses roared past beating promotional placards with the portraits of local Nobel laureates.
  Lewis, of all people, deserved that honor but sadly lost out--and not because his work wasn't good enough, Coffey said.
  "He was brilliant intellectually," Coffey said. "He could cut right through to the simplest solution to any problem. The downside of Lewis was he was very prickly and made a lot of enemies. (3)
  "He'd been home-schooled as a child. He never seemed comfortable outside his closed environment. He probably needed to get in more fights on the playground.
  "He built his own support system, " Coffey said, "but when he got out of that system, if anybody gave him any slight at all he'd hold a lifelong grudge. "
  Lewis' exacting nature sometimes got the best of him. (4)
  "By the time of his death, " Coffey said, "he'd completely estranged himself from at least four Nobel laureates, and one of them was Irving Langmuir. "
  One of Lewis' breakthroughs was his discovery in 1916 of the covalent bond, a concept destined to become a high school chemistry
  "Nobody paid much attention, " Coffey said. "Langmuir got excited about it, wrote Lewis a letter. Langmuir was a great speaker. The theory became known as the Lewis Langmuir theory, which really irritated Lewis. "
  "Langmuir was a generous guy, very fair, " Coffey said. "Lewis decided he was his enemy. "
  In 1942, Langmuir was invited to give a talk at Cal. Lewis showed up late and then introduced his rival with a memorable line.
  "Finally, " Coffey said, "Lewis strolls in with a cigar, walks over to the table and says, 'Today, our speaker is Irving Langmuir, about whom we have heard so much and from whom we have seen so little. '"
  Langmuir and Lewis met again four years later over lunch at Cal. Lewis, Coffey found through his research, came back from the meeting in a dark mood.
   He sat down for a morose game of bridge with some colleagues, and then went back to work in his lab. An hour later, he was dead.
   Coffey said he learned of the Lewis-Langmuir lunch from Michael Kasha, who was a graduate student in Lewis' lab at the time. Kasha is now a professor at Florida State University. (5)
  Coffey said he looked up Langmuir's papers at the Library of Congress and confirmed that Langmuir was on campus that day. He had come to Berkeley to receive an honorary degree.       "Something happened because (Lewis) went to the lunch cheery, and he came out of it not cheery, " he said, speculating that the Berkeley chemist was done in by the stress of meeting a rival who in some sense had outstripped him. 6
  "There's nothing criminal here, but it's interesting, "Coffey said," that probably the two greatest physical chemists of the 20th century had lunch together the day one of them died?"
  In an interview, Kasha said Lewis had been bubbling over with ideas for new projects on the morning of the day he died but returned from his appointment silent and unhappy. "I knew he didn't have a nice time, " be said.
  Kasba said not winning a Nobel Prize was a sore point in Lewis' life. He said Lewis' candidacies for the honor went nowhere due to rivalries having to do with his work in the field of thermodynamics.
  Kasha said the circumstances of Lewis' death never supported the suicide theory. He believes his died of a "heart attack conditioned by excitement. "
  Coffey, in an article he has written on the case, ponders:
  "The hydrogen cyanide might have been released after his death when the pressure built up in the flask and it dropped to the bench, as Kasha has suggested, or Lewis might have knocked the flask askew as he fell after his heart attack or stroke. Lewis was a 70-year-old man who did not watch his diet, refused to see doctors, had chainsmoked cigars for over 40 years, and took no exercise.
  "Why should not he have a heart attack or stroke, particularly after the stress of the meeting with Langmuir?"
  Jolly, the professor emeritus, said Coffey's argument against the suicide scenario "sounds good enough for me."
  Asked if there are any lessons to be drawn from the Lewis story, Kasha said:
  "We try to teach our students to be generous, to be honest, to give other people credit and don't expect any prizes--because you're not likely to get them. "
  Could there be another G. N. Lewis? Coffey thought about the question and answered no.
"Lewis, as much as anyone, worked out the theories that explained chemistry, " he said. "By the time of his death, chemical theory was firmly grounded in physics. The job of figuring the fundamental theory has already been done, so there's no opening for another Lewis. "
                        --By Rick DelVecehio, CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER, Sunday,
                                          August 13, 2006, San Francisco Chronicle

New Words and Expressions                                         

warrant v．保证，使有正当理由
stage v．上演，筹备，举行
cyanide n_[化]氰化物   
retort n．曲颈瓶，蒸器
grad n．毕业生，校友
higher-up n．上级，大人物，上司
coroner n．验尸官   
undermine  v．破坏
coronary  adj. 冠的，冠状的   
Intriguing adj. 引起好奇心的，令人很感兴趣的
artery n．动脉   
placard n．布告   
bubble v．起泡，幻想…的计划
prickly  adj．多刺的，敏感的，易怒的   
sore  adj．疼痛的，痛心的，剧烈的
grudge n．怀恨，不满   
candidacy n．候选人的地位，候选资格
estrange v．疏远
thermodynamics n. [物]热力学
covalent adj. [化]共有原子价的，共价的   
mentor n [希神]门特(良师益友)，贤明的顾问，导师，指导者
staple n．主要成分，来源
rival．竞争者，对手                     
ponder v.沉思，考虑
stroll v．闭逛，漫步   
flask n. 瓶，长颈瓶，细颈瓶，烧瓶
morose adj．郁闷的，乖僻的   
askew adv.歪斜地
cheery adj. 愉快的   
emeritus adj. 名誉退休的，退休的
outstrip v．超过   
scenario n. 某一特定情节

Notes                                                            

1 UC Berkeley：美国加利弗尼亚大学伯克利分校，美国著名大学，美国工科大学排名第三位，其土木与环境工程专业连续三年排名全美第一。
2 After 60 years．the Lewis story is still draw in the chemistry World：经过了60年，有关莱威斯的事情在化学界仍然受到关注。
3 The downside of Lewis was he was very prickly and made a 10t enemies促使莱威斯走下坡路的原因是他敏感易怒，树敌过多。
4 Lewis’ exacting nature sometimes got the best of him：莱威斯苛责的性格有时妨碍了他的发展。
5 Florida State University：(美国)佛罗里达州立大学
6  ..., speculating that the Berkeley chemist was done in by the stress Of meeting a rival who in some sense had outstripped him(他)猜测这位伯克利化学家在会见了一位从某种意义上  讲超过了自己的对手后受到巨大压力，精疲力尽了。

[ 本帖最后由 qi_ye60 于 2008-4-2 02:13 PM 编辑 ]

wuweihua

第四期题目：
请翻译下列句子
Patrick Coffey is a businessman who as a sideline likes to play detective in the history of science and technology, a rich field to explore at the nearby UC Berkeley campus.

He'd been working on an experiment with liquid hydrogen cyanide, and deadly fumes from a broken line were leaking into the room when a grad student found the professor's lifeless body under a workbench.

UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly, who reported the various views on Lewis' death in his 1987 history of Cal's College of Chemistry "From Retorts to Lasers," stood one higher-up in the department, believed the suicide theory.


[ 本帖最后由 wuweihua 于 2008-3-30 03:06 PM 编辑 ]

bulldog

咱是沙发吗？谢谢斑竹啦…

Patrick Coffey is a businessman who as a sideline likes to play detective in the history of science and technology, a rich field to explore at the nearby UC Berkeley campus.
解析：
句子主干：主语（P. Coffey） + 谓语动词（is）+ 补语（a businessman）
补语名词后，接限制性定语从句 …who as a sideline likes to ….and technology…UC Berkeley campus;
定语从句内部：…a rich field to explore at the nearby UC Berkeley campus 作为 a history of science and technology 的同位语结构。
译文：
派卡菲先生是做生意的，他喜欢扮侦探，调查科技史当业余消遣，这个领域在他居所附近加州大学柏克莱分校有很丰富的资源可供探索。

He'd been working on an experiment with liquid hydrogen cyanide, and deadly fumes from a broken line were leaking into the room when a grad student found the professor's lifeless body under a workbench.
解析：
由 and 连接两个对等子句，而第二个子句又带有 when 连接表示时间的壮语从句合成的复合句。
译文：
他一直在作与液态氢氰相关的实验，而在有位研究生发现教授在工作台下死亡之时，来自破裂管线致命的烟，正悄悄的渗进了实验室。

UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly, who reported the various views on Lewis' death in his 1987 history of Cal's College of Chemistry "From Retorts to Lasers," stood one higher-up in the department，believed the suicide theory.
解析：
句子主干：
主语（UC Berkeley Prof. E. William Jolly）+ 谓语动词（said …）；主语后有一非限制的定语从句(non-restrictive relative clause), 当主语名词的修饰语；...stood one higher-up in the department，believed...应是 ...said one higher-up in the department believed... (believed 之前没有逗号)之误,功能分析为谓语动词（said），之后接有一宾语从句(one higher-up in the department believed the suicide theory)。
译文：加州大学柏克莱分校终生誉教授魏久立, 他曾在87年加大化学学院史集刊“从曲颈蒸馏到激光”对莱威斯死因发表各种不同的看法,他说：系里有位高层相信自杀的说法。

QUOTE:

我的观点stood one higher-up in the department作插入语修饰UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　－－wuweihua

[ 本帖最后由 wuweihua 于 2008-4-6 02:49 PM 编辑 ]

bulldog

阅读中产生的若干问题，有 英雄美雌 愿意交流意见吗？

问题1：
  "Langmuir was a generous guy, very fair, " Coffey said. "Lewis decided he was his enemy. "
对于一个被描述为“generous/very fair” 的家伙，为何会把它当敌人看待呢？

问题2：
“Is there anything to be drawn from the Lewis story?”
“We try to teach our students to be generous, to be honest, to give other people credit and don't expect any prizes--because you're not likely to get them.” answered Kasha.

Kasha回答中的四样选项 for the students：
1.          to be generous
2.          to be honest
3.          to give other people credit
4.          not to expect any prizes
这里的 generous 和 honest 是啥意思？Lewis老师之死，为何让Kasha 体会到做人需慷慨/诚实?

问题3：
Lewis' candidacies for the honor went nowhere due to rivalries having to do with his work in the field of thermodynamics.
是说其它候选对手攻击他在热力学领域研究做得不好吗？或是其它意思？

问题4：
下句中的 not 摆放的位置：是否该放在 he 的后头? …why should he not have…?
（原文）"Why should not he have a heart attack or stroke, particularly after the stress of the meeting with Langmuir?"

问题5：
Lewis--Langmuir theory
理论是Lewis 发现的，很重要，都要写在高中的化学教科书上的东西；Langmuir 写信给 Lewis，到处讲演推广。之后，人们就把这个化学上的 同价理论 称之为：Lewis—Langmuir thory? 这么简单？美国的学术界这么单纯？不问前因后果的单纯？
[quote]问题提得很好，欢迎大家讨论。我再想想 /quote]

[ 本帖最后由 wuweihua 于 2008-3-30 09:43 PM 编辑 ]

朱丽娟720

Patrick Coffey is a businessman who as a sideline likes to play detective in the history of science and technology, a rich field to explore at the nearby UC Berkeley campus.
帕特里克.科菲是一个商人，作为一个业余爱好者他喜欢探究科学技术的历史，而这个领域在附近的美国加利弗尼亚大学伯克利分校里可以探索到丰富的资料。

He'd been working on an experiment with liquid hydrogen cyanide, and deadly fumes from a broken line were leaking into the room when a grad student found the professor's lifeless body under a workbench。
当一个毕业生在办公桌下发现这个教授的尸体时，有毒的浓烟正从一个破漏的管子里渗漏进屋子里，在这之前教授他一直在从事着一项液化氢的试验。
UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly, who reported the various views on Lewis' death in his 1987 history of Cal's College of Chemistry "From Retorts to Lasers," stood one higher-up in the department, believed the suicide theory.
曾在化学杂志上“从蒸馏器到激光”文章中报道过许多关于卡尔化学院1987年历史中的的莱威斯的死亡的看法见解的美国加利弗尼亚大学伯克利分校荣誉退休的教授威廉.乔利认为他是自杀的。

wuweihua

由bulldog发表，请大家参与讨论。

QUOTE:

心得：以下句子，阅读时，令人困惑：
"From Retorts to Lasers," stood one higher-up in the department, believed the suicide theory.
经过核对 SFC 原文，他门是这么写的：
"From Retorts to Lasers," said one higher-up in the department, believed the suicide theory.
咱认为，他们标点符号标得还不完整，正确的写法应该（应该有两对 quotation marks才完整）：
"From Retorts to Lasers," said one higher-up in the department, “believed the suicide theory.”

[ 本帖最后由 wuweihua 于 2008-3-31 11:22 AM 编辑 ]

wuweihua

我觉得标点没有问题，按照你认为的标点得到句子"From Retorts to Lasers believed the suicide theory.”这样就缺少了主语。
我觉得stood one higher-up in the department是定语，believed是谓语。

[ 本帖最后由 wuweihua 于 2008-4-1 10:34 AM 编辑 ]

bulldog

QUOTE:

原帖由 wuweihua 于 2008-3-31 11:21 AM 发表
由bulldog发表，请大家参与讨论。

谢谢斑竹。

咱最初的看法的确如此。

但三思之后，咱对此句的结构解释已有改变，详情请见三楼的回帖的结构说明和译文。

另外，就刚刚，咱又重新查了 SFC 原文，有一重大发现：believed 前面的 逗号 不见了; 这下，咱们可得回去三楼作修正去了...

句子原文照抄如下：
UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly, who reported the various views on Lewis' death in his 1987 history of Cal's College of Chemistry, "From Retorts to Lasers," said one higher-up in the department believed the suicide theory.

如果是如此，句子的结构就 更无争议，文章前后文的意思也因此得以连贯了。
（都是标点符号惹的祸啊.... ）

QUOTE:

如果原文真是这样也说的通
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　－－wuweihua

感谢您，让咱可以得到错误修正的机会！
(吼...，为了解决这问题，咱可是多餐茶饭不思，睡不安稳 呢...终于可安心的去...吃睡啦！)
（顺带广告一下：#4楼 尚有诸多问题，欢迎大家讨论哦...谢谢，谢谢...）




　

[ 本帖最后由 wuweihua 于 2008-4-6 02:53 PM 编辑 ]

nnedchg831227

1、帕特里克.科菲是一个商人、他喜欢业余研究科学技术的历史，附近的美国加州大学伯克利分校在这一领域有丰富的资料可供查找。
2、当一个毕业生在工作台发现教授的尸体时，致命的气体正从破裂的管线扩散到室内，这个教授之前一直从事有关氰化氢的试验。
3、曾在化学杂志上发表“从蒸发器到激光”的文章，提出各种各样历史上关于卡尔化学院1987年刘易斯的死亡的看法美国加利弗尼亚大学伯克利分校退休教授威廉.久利认为他是自杀的。

nnedchg831227

UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus William Jolly, who reported the various views on Lewis' death in his 1987 history of Cal's College of Chemistry "From Retorts to Lasers," stood one higher-up in the department，believed the suicide theory.


貌似 stood one higher-up in the department 做定语修饰chemistry "from Retorts to Lasers"时要加个介词By 吧，否则 stood 无法引导一个动词后置定语呀。这句子貌似有问题。