中石油2016通用英语选读课文45How to Become a Scientist怎样才能成为一名科学家

45 How to Become a Scientist怎样才能成为一名科学家1.Looking back at the time,nearly seventy years ago,when the love of science took hold of<吸引，控制住>me,I think of no big event but of many small things that influenced me.As a child I read books and learned lessons,but I did not have much curiosity<好奇>about the natural world<自然界>.This began to change when I looked at the stars.In Australia,where I grew up,the skies are often clear.I learned to recognize the stars and the constellations<n星座，星群，灿烂的一群>,and I chose a book about astronomy<n天文学> for a school prize<奖品>in 1931.The stars are there,you cannot change them,you can learn about them only by measuring<测量> their positions and analysing the light that comes from them.But they taught me a lesson in science when I learned about the solar system <太阳系>and was able on a clear night to picture<想象> myself as a mote<n尘埃，微粒> on a rotating<旋转> globe<地球>,carried along the earth’s orbit<轨道> and looking outward.1.回想过去，大约70年前，占据我身心的是对科学的热爱，我想不出有什么影响我的重大事件，而是想到了许多影响过我的小事。

当我作为一个孩子开始读书上学时，对自然界并没有多少好奇心。

后来我开始观察天上的星星，情况就发生了改变。

我是在澳大利亚长大的，那里的天空经常是晴朗的，我学会了辨认星星和星座。

1931年，我在学校获奖，在学校准备的各种奖品中我选择了一本关于天文学的书。

星星就挂在天上，你不能改变它们，但你能够通过测定它们的位置和分析它们射来的光，掌握有关它们的情况。

当我了解了太阳系，并在晴朗的夜空里把自己设想成旋转的地球上的一粒微尘，被地球带着沿着它的轨道观察天空时，这给我上了一堂科学课。

2.I began to be interested in chemistry soon after<不久>that.And at school my chemistry teacher was able to interest his class and he encouraged us to think and experiment.At that time one could buy small amounts of many common chemicals and I made a little laboratory at home,with improvised<v临时准备>equipment<简易的设备>,to study chemical reactions<化学反应>.I soon discovered that the organic<有机的> chemicals were the most interesting.With the help of a textbook on practical<实用的> organic chemistry I made many preparations<准备工作>,using cheap chemicals to prepare those that were too expensive for me to buy.This was more satisfying than astronomy,you can change things by your own effort<努力>.At that time I was rapidly losing<迅速的失去> my hearing,so I suppose that the work attracted me also for its impact on the other senses<感觉>:the beauties of crystals<晶体> and distilled liquids<蒸馏液>,the colours of dyes<n染料，染色vt/v染>,and smells both good and bad.As a carpenter<n木匠> or a carver<n雕刻师，雕工>learns to work with the grain<n谷物，谷类，古粒，细粒，颗粒，粮食> of wood or bone,I learned that each substance has its own nature and can be easy or difficult to handle<操纵，管理>according to<按照> the procedure<程序> chosen.I began to see experiments as I see them now,not only as procedures to answer questions or to make compounds<化合物>but as opportunities to observe what happens and to learn from mistakes.2.不久，我开始对化学感兴趣。

在学校里，化学老师的讲课非常有趣，并且鼓励我们思考和做实验。

那时，可以少量地买到多种普通化学试剂，我就在家里建了一个很小的实验室，用自制的简单仪器研究化学反应。

我很快就发现有机化合物是最有趣的。

在实用有机化学教科书的帮助下，我用廉价的化学原料配制出很多我买不起的制剂，这比天文学更加令人兴奋，因为你可以用自己的努力来改变事物。

那时，我的听力正在迅速衰退。

所以，我认为化学能吸引我的另一个原因是：它能刺激人的其他感觉功能，美丽的晶体和蒸馏液、色彩斑斓的染料，还有那种种好闻和难闻的气味。

就像一个木匠或雕刻匠学习用一小块木头或骨头干活那样，我通过实验了解到每一种物质都有自己的特性，而且可以加工处理，其难易程度视所选择的处理方法而定。

于是我认识到实验不仅是回答问题或合成化合物的一系列操作程序，而且是我们观察所发生的事情和从错误中学习的良好机会。

直到今天，我对实验的这种认识也没有改变。

3.When I went to Sydney University the most important event for me was access<进入，使用> to a library of the chemical literature<文献>.Because by this time I could not hear any lectures<讲课，演讲>,I learned from handbooks<手册> and journals<学术期刊>.Many of them were in German,which I did not know.So I found a German dictionary<字典> and looked up<查出> each new word until I understood them all. Reading the literature helped me to become a scientist because it showed me the evidence<证据> behind the things that we had to learn;and some of this evidence was incorrect<错误的>.I began to see science as a continuous process <连续的过程>of discovery and correction<改正>.3.进入悉尼大学后，对我来说最重大的事件莫过于有机会利用化学文献图书馆。

当时，我己经听不见讲课了，所以要从各种杂志和手册中去学习。

其中有不少书刊是用德文写的，我看不懂，就找了一本德文字典，逐个查找生字，直到完全弄懂为止。

阅读文献帮助我成为了一名科学家，因为这些文献向我揭示了我们必须学习的知识所依据的证据，而其中有些证据是不正确的，于是我开始把科学看成是不断发现和修正错误的连续过程。

4.At that time I used to walk with friends in the Australian bushland<n原始森林，未开垦森林地带>.One morning we were resting beside a river.I turned over<v翻身，打翻，营业额达到，周转，折腾，翻阅>so that my face was close to<接近于>thegrass,and I began to count all the different kinds of plant that I could see. There were more than twenty of them,all different,each of them beautiful in its own way.This was really the beginning of my curiosity<好奇> about living things.I brought back from these walks some fruits—wild grapes<野生的葡萄>,and some berries<浆果> with a bitter taste<苦味>—and took them into the laboratory and extracted<提取> pure compounds<纯化物> from them.This was not a very good way to study the chemistry of life,but I began to be interested in the life sciences and to read biological<生物学的>text-books.At that time they mostly described<描述>and classified<分类> things that nobody understood.But later,when I started to work with life scientists,I could understand their viewpoints<观点>and could use my chemistry to solve problems that interested all of us.4.那段时间，我常和朋友去澳大利亚原始森林地带散步。