Unit 5 Revealing nature

Understanding ideas  

Passage 1

A Journey of Discovery

发现之旅

1 The captain of the ship, the Beagle, wanted someone who would “profit by the opportunity of visiting distant countries yet little known”. The person who answered the call was not the captain’s first choice. It was a young man who had left medical school without completing his degree. What’s more, he had recently received a letter from his father predicting that he would be “a disgrace to yourself and all your family”. Despite all this, his adventures on this ship would lead to one of the most important scientific discoveries of all time.

贝格尔号的船长想要招募这样一名船员，这名船员将能“借此机会访问遥远而鲜为人知的国家并从中受益”。然而来应聘的人并不是船长心中的理想人选。这个年轻人从医学院肄业，并且在他刚收到父亲的来信，信中预言他将会成为“自己和全家人的耻辱”。尽管如此，他的这次乘船探险之旅将带来有史以来最重要的一项科学发现。

2 The young man in question, Charles Darwin, was a geologist and naturalist, fascinated by rocks, plants and animals. He left England on the ship, the Beagle, in 1831. The journey gave him the chance to study various living things in their natural environments. After Darwin had spent some time in South America, his room on the ship was crowded with samples of the plants and animals he had collected. As he studied these, he asked himself the question: how did different species come to exist?

我们提到的这个年轻人就是地质学家和博物学家查尔斯·达尔文，他对岩石和动植物有着浓厚的兴趣。1831年，他搭乘贝格尔号从英格兰启程。这次旅程给了他研究自然环境中各种生物的契机。在南美洲度过一段时间后，他的船舱里堆满了收集到的动植物样本。当他研究

这些样本时，他产生了疑问：这些不同的物种是如何产生的?

3 At that time, people believed that all species had appeared on Earth at the same time, and had not changed since. But Darwin began to think differently. He noticed that some species of animals were very similar to each other. Maybe animals evolved as they adapted to their changing environments? It was just an idea, but enough to inspire Darwin to look for more evidence.

当时，人们认为所有的物种都是同时出现在地球上的，并从此再无变化。但达尔文开始有了不同的想法。他注意到，有些不同物种的动物彼此间很相似。也许动物为了适应不断变化的环境会逐渐进化？虽然这只是一个设想，但足够激励达尔文去寻求更多证据。

4 When the Beagle reached the Galápagos Islands in 1835, Darwin saw a variety of new species, but it was the birds that interested him the most. Darwin noticed that there was a difference between the finches on each of the islands. It seemed their beaks had evolved according to what food was available on that particular island.

1835年，当贝格尔号抵达加拉帕戈斯群岛时，达尔文发现了各种各样的新物种，但最令他感兴趣的是鸟类。达尔文注意到，在群岛中的每一个小岛上，雀鸟之间有所不同。它们的喙似乎是根据所在岛屿上可觅得的食物进化而来的。

5 Darwin suspected that the finches had evolved from a common ancestor, which had arrived on the islands a long time before. Over time, it had slowly evolved into many new species. And that was the answer to how new species of plants and animals came to exist: they evolved from earlier ancestors.

达尔文猜想这些雀鸟是由共同的祖先进化而来的。很久以前，雀鸟的祖先来到这片群岛，随着时间的推移，慢慢进化成许多新的种类。于是，关于动植物的新种类是如何产生的这个问题就有了答案：它们是从早期的祖先进化而来的。

6 It was a completely new idea—a theory of evolution. Darwin explained this theory in his book, On the Origin of Species. It was not published until 1859 and immediately caused a storm. Many people refused to believe that living things, including humans, had evolved from lower forms of life. They were shocked. But Darwin’s scientific studies were so convincing that more and more people started to believe his theory.

这是一个全新的观点——进化论。达尔文在他的《物种起源》一书中解释了这一理论。这本书直到1859年才出版，出版后立即引起轰动。很多人拒绝相信包括人类在内的所有生命都是从更低级的生命形式进化而来的。他们对此感到震惊。然而达尔文的科学研究很有说服力，越来越多的人开始接受他的理论。

7 Today, On the Origin of Species is regarded as one of the most important works ever written. It has changed ideas about life on Earth forever. And it all began with the journey on the Beagle.

如今，《物种起源》被认为是迄今为止最重要的著作之一。它彻底地改变了人类对于地球上生命的认识。而这一切都开始于贝格尔号的探索之旅。