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万物简史 第88期:敲石头的人们(13)

时间：2016-04-12 00:56:06

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 Lyell's oversights1 were not inconsiderable. He failed to explain convincingly how mountain ranges were formed and overlooked glaciers2 as an agent of change. He refused to accept Louis Agassiz's idea of ice ages—"the refrigeration of the globe," as he dismissively termed it—and was confident that mammals "would be found in the oldest fossiliferous beds." He rejected the notion that animals and plants suffered sudden annihilations, and believed that all the principal animal groups—mammals, reptiles3, fish, and so on—had coexisted since the dawn of time. On all of these he would ultimately be proved wrong.

莱尔的失误并不算少。他没有令人信服地解释山脉是怎么形成的，没有看到冰河是个变化的动因。他不愿意接受阿加西斯关于冰期的观点--他轻描淡写地将其称之为"地球制冷"--坚信"在最古老的化石床里会发现"哺乳动物。他拒绝接受关于动物和植物突然死亡的看法，认为所有主要的动物群体--哺乳动物、爬行动物、鱼类等等--自古以来一直同时存在。在这些问题上，最后证明他是完全错误的。
Yet it would be nearly impossible to overstate Lyell's influence. The Principles of Geology went through twelve editions in Lyell's lifetime and contained notions that shaped geological thinking far into the twentieth century. Darwin took a first edition with him on the Beagle voyage and wrote afterward4 that "the great merit of the Principles was that it altered the whole tone of one's mind, and therefore that, when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially5 through his eyes." In short, he thought him nearly a god, as did many of his generation. It is a testament6 to the strength of Lyell's sway that in the 1980s when geologists7 had to abandon just a part of it to accommodate the impact theory of extinctions, it nearly killed them. But that is another chapter.
然而，莱尔的影响你几乎怎么说也不会过分。《地质学原理》在他生前出了12版；直到20世纪，书里包含的一些观点依然被地质学界奉为圭臬。达尔文乘"猎犬"号环球航行途中还随身带着一本《地质学原理》，而且是该书的第1版。他后来写道："《原理》的最大优点在于它改变了一个人的整个思想状态；因此，当见到一样莱尔从没有见到过的东西的时候，你在一定程度上是以他的眼光来看的。"总之，他差不多把莱尔看做是个神，就像他那一代人的许多人一样。20世纪80年代，当地质学家不得不摈弃他的一部分理论，以适应关于绝种的撞击理论的时候，他们简直痛苦得要命。这充分说明了莱尔的影响之大。不过，那是后话了。

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1 oversights e777d188f279df70d89b1c8eda132ea7     
n.疏忽( oversight的名词复数 )；忽略；失察；负责
参考例句：
  • He saw shocking oversights and inefficiencies that made the Separatist invasion possible. 他看出在首都遭到分裂势力入侵的背后是惊人的疏漏与低效。 来自互联网
  • Instead it means that the submitted code has no glaringly obvious oversights. 相反，它意味着所提交的代码没有突出的显而易见的疏忽或错漏。 来自互联网
2 glaciers e815ddf266946d55974cdc5579cbd89b     
冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
  • It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）
3 reptiles 45053265723f59bd84cf4af2b15def8e     
n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
4 afterward fK6y3     
adv.后来；以后
参考例句：
  • Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
  • Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。
5 partially yL7xm     
adv.部分地，从某些方面讲
参考例句：
  • The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
  • The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。
6 testament yyEzf     
n.遗嘱；证明
参考例句：
  • This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
  • It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。
7 geologists 1261592151f6aa40819f7687883760a2     
地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • Geologists uncovered the hidden riches. 地质学家发现了地下的宝藏。
  • Geologists study the structure of the rocks. 地质学家研究岩石结构。

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