英语翻译及上课感想.doc

Why Does Quark Matter Matter?The history of modern technological development can be viewed as a series of investigations, with ever increasing resolution, into the microscopic structure of matter. Since the days of the early Greek philosophers, science has been on a continual quest to find the smallest piece the most fundamental building block forming the substance of the universe. During that journey, many beautiful and exotic properties of the subatomic world have been discovered: particles with wave-like properties the ultimate position of which can never be known; “particles” of light that deliver a fixed amount of energy when they strike the atoms of a materials surface; particles in some types of electrical conductors that pair in a unique way because of intrinsic “spin” so that, below a certain temperature, all resistance goes to zero. Knowledge of these and many other properties discovered in the last century in the process of studying matter at ever smaller scales lets us use matter and energy in ways too fantastic to imagine just 50 years ago. Todays technology relies on a basic understanding of the structure and properties of matter. School children work on personal computers based upon state-of-the-art electronics. Diseases are imaged, diagnosed, and treated without surgery. And people can speak clearly to others around the world using a phone smaller than a human hand. RHIC is designed to extend this frontier, providing access to the most fundamental building blocks of nature known so far quarks and gluons. By colliding the nuclei of gold atoms together at nearly the speed of light, RHIC heats the matter in collision to more than a billion times the temperature of the sun. In so doing, scientists are able to study the fundamental properties of the basic building blocks of matter and learn how they behaved 15 to 20 billion years ago, when the universe was barely a split-second old. Scientists have a theory, called quantum-chromo dynamics, about what will be revealed at RHIC. However, without performing the experiment, who knows what the truth really is? Many of the greatest advances of the last century resulted from experiments that produced results completely different from what theory predicted. Those successful “failures” led to a new understanding of the microscopic structure of matter and to technologies essential to modern life. RHIC provides the first chance for a rigorous test of the most basic predictions of what is thought to be understood about the structure of matter at the smallest scale imagined. However, its impossible to predict what RHIC will provide in terms of technology for the future. Because RHIC is pushing further out on the high-temperature frontier than ever before, any new understanding about the structure of matter arising from RHIC may not immediately or ever lead to practical applications as did experiments in the last century. If history is any indicator, two things are clear: First, humankind can only profit by having a deeper, more profound understanding of the ultimate structure of the matter making up the universe. And second, every time that something fundamental has been learned about the matters structure at a deeper level that knowledge has resulted in a benefit to humankind.翻译：为什么夸克物质重要？随着不断出现的解决方案，现代科技发展的历史可以被看作是一系列的关于物质微观结构的调查。从早期的希腊哲学家时代，科学就不断地在寻找形成宇宙物质的最基本的结构单元，那些最小的片段。在这过程中，亚原子世界许多美妙的外在属性已经被发现：粒子的波状属性让它的最终位置永远不会被知道；当光的“粒子”碰撞某种物质表面的原子时，它们就会传递确定数值的能量；在某些类型的电导体里，粒子因为自旋将以独特的方式配对，以便在某一特定温度下，所有电阻变成零。在上个世纪，关于这些和许多其他属性的知识已经被发现；而仅在50年以前在研究更小尺寸物质的过程中，让我们去使用这些物质和能量是如此的离奇甚至难以想象。如今的技术依赖于对物质结构与性质的基本认识。在校学生使用的个人电脑是基于先进的电子产品。疾病在没有手术的情况下可以成像，诊断，以及治疗。人们可以使用比手还小的手机与全世界的其他人清楚的说话。RHIC计划扩展这个前沿问题，提供了获得目前所知道的最基本的结构单元夸克和胶子的途径。通过以接近光速的速度让金原子的原子核对撞，使得温度超过太阳温度的十亿倍，以此来加热物质。这样，科学家就能够研究物质基本结构单元的根本属性以及学习在150到200亿年前，当宇宙几乎瞬间老去，它们是怎样演化的。科学家们有一个理论叫做量子染色体动力学，是关于什么将出现在RHIC中。然而，没有进行这个实验，谁又知道真相是什么呢?上个世纪许多伟大的进步都是从实验中得来的，这些实验产生了与理论预言截然不同的结果。那些成功的“失败”导致对物质微观结构和现代生活必需的技术有了新的理解。对于如何理解人类能够想像的最小尺寸的物质结构，RHIC为最基本的预测提供了第一次严格测试的机会。然而，在未来的技术看来，要预测RHIC提供了什么是不可能的。因为相比以前，RHIC正在更进一步推进高温度前沿。任何由RHIC产生的关于物质结构的新的认识，不可能很快地或者总是能够实际运用，正如上个世纪的实验一样。如果历史是某种预示，两件事会很清楚。第一，人类只有对构成宇宙物质的最终结构有了更深入更透彻的理解才能获益；第二，每一次在更深层次里关于物质结构所学习到的基本知识对人类都是有益的。我的感想大二结束，六级通过之后就以为再也不用与英语打交道了，但在上学期选课时还是选择了专业英语这门课，一是为了学习一点专业术语，储备知识；二是因为老师人很好，我想所有人都会选择自己认为好的老师来上课吧。在课堂上老师把我们分成几组进行英语讲课，我们有幸成为第一组。当老师把一大篇英语文章给我们时，完全不知道从何下手，后来经过大家的讨论分工，最终完成了任务。在这过程中，我学习到好多单