劍橋雅思8test1passage1閱讀原文翻譯

劍橋雅思8test1passage1該篇閱讀的主題為時間記錄的歷史。文章按照時間順序介紹，下面是具體每一段的翻譯，一起來看看吧。

劍橋雅思8test1passage1閱讀原文翻譯

A Chronicle of Timekeeping時間記錄的歷史

段落A

According to archaeological evidence,at least 5,000 years ago,and long before the advent of the Roman Empire,the Babylonians began to measure time,introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities,to plan the shipment of goods and,in particular,to regulate planting and harvesting.They based their calendars on three natural cycles:the solar day,marked by the successive periods of light and darkness as the earth rotates on its axis;the lunar month,following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth;and the solar year,defined by the changing seasons that accompany our planet’s revolution around the sun.

根據(jù)考古證據(jù)，至少在5000年前，距離羅馬帝國出現(xiàn)還有很久的時候，巴比倫人已經(jīng)開始計時，引入日歷以協(xié)調(diào)公共活動，安排貨物的運輸，管理播種和收獲。他們的日歷基于三個自然周期：太陽日，以地球自轉(zhuǎn)時連續(xù)產(chǎn)生的光明與黑暗為標(biāo)志;陰歷月，月球圍繞地球旋轉(zhuǎn)的階段;以及太陽年，由隨著地球圍繞太陽公轉(zhuǎn)而變化的季節(jié)定義。

段落B

Before the invention of artificial light,the moon had greater social impact.And,for those living near the equator in particular,its waxing and waning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons.Hence,the calendars that were developed at the lower latitudes were influenced more by the lunar cycle than by the solar year.In more northern climes,however,where seasonal agriculture was practised,the solar year became more crucial.As the Roman Empire expanded northward,it organised its activity chart for the most part around the solar year.

在人造光發(fā)明之前，月亮具有更大的社會影響。對于那些生活在赤道附近的人來說更是如此，它的陰晴圓缺比季節(jié)的流逝更加明顯。因此，在低緯度地區(qū)出現(xiàn)的日歷受月球周期的影響大于受太陽年的影響。然而，在更北部實行季節(jié)性農(nóng)業(yè)的氣候中，太陽年變得更加關(guān)鍵。隨著羅馬帝國的向北擴(kuò)張，它所組織的大多數(shù)活動都圍繞太陽年展開。

段落C

Centuries before the Roman Empire,the Egyptians had formulated a municipal calendar having 12 months of 30 days,with five days added to approximate the solar year.Each period of ten days was marked by the appearance of special groups of stars called decans.At the rise of the star Sirius just before sunrise,which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile,12 decans could be seen spanning the heavens.The cosmic significance the Egyptians placed in the 12 decans led them to develop a system in which each interval of darkness(and later,each interval of daylight)was divided into a dozen equal parts.These periods became known as temporal hours because their duration varied according to the changing length of days and nights with the passing of the seasons.Summer hours were long,winter ones short;only at the spring and autumn equinoxes were the hours of daylight and darkness equal.Temporal hours,which were first adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans,who disseminated them through Europe,remained in use for more than 2,500 years.

羅馬帝國出現(xiàn)前的幾個世紀(jì)，埃及人制定了一種市歷，共有12個月，每個月30天，最后加上五天以接近太陽年。每十天為一個周期，以被稱為decan的特殊恒星群的出現(xiàn)為標(biāo)志。天狼星剛好在日出前升起，這是12個decan橫跨天空。而這一現(xiàn)象在每年十分重要的尼羅河泛濫期間出現(xiàn)。埃及人賦予12 decan的重大意義使他們開發(fā)出一種將黑夜(隨后又將白天)12等分的體系。這些時段被稱為日光時，因為它們的持續(xù)時間會隨著季節(jié)的流逝和晝夜長短的變化而變化。夏天長，冬天短;只有在春分和秋分，白天和黑夜的時間才相等。日光時最初由希臘人采用，然后由羅馬人通過歐洲傳播，至今已使用了2500多年。

段落D

In order to track temporal hours during the day,inventors created sundials,which indicate time by the length or direction of the sun’s shadow.The sundial’s counterpart,the water clock,was designed to measure temporal hours at night.One of the first water clocks was a basin with a small hole near the bottom through which the water dripped out.The falling water level denoted the passing hour as it dipped below hour lines inscribed on the inner surface.Although these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean,they could not always be depended on in the cloudy and often freezing weather of northern Europe.

為了在白天記錄日光時，發(fā)明者創(chuàng)造了日晷，通過太陽陰影的長度或方向指示時間。日晷的對應(yīng)物，水鐘，旨在測量晚上的時間。最早的水鐘之一是一個水池。水池的底部附近有一個小孔，水從該孔滴出來。水位下降到水池內(nèi)部表面所刻著的小時線以下，代表著時間的流逝。雖然這些設(shè)備在地中海地區(qū)的表現(xiàn)令人滿意，但在北歐多云和寒冷的天氣下卻不總是那么可靠。

段落E

The advent of the mechanical clock meant that although it could be adjusted to maintain temporal hours,it was naturally suited to keeping equal ones.With these,however,arose the question of when to begin counting,and so,in the early 14th century,a number of systems evolved.The schemes that divided the day into 24 equal parts varied according to the start of the count:Italian hours began at sunset,Babylonian hours at sunrise,astronomical hours at midday and‘great clock’hours,used for some large public clocks in Germany,at midnight.Eventually these were superseded by‘small clock’,or French hours,which split the day into two 12-hour periods commencing at midnight.

機(jī)械鐘的問世意味著盡管可以對其進(jìn)行調(diào)節(jié)以維持日光時，但它天然地適合記錄相等的時間。然而，有了這些，就出現(xiàn)了何時開始計時的問題，因此，14世紀(jì)初出現(xiàn)了許多系統(tǒng)。根據(jù)計時起點的不同，將一天分成24等份的方案也各不相同：意大利的時間從日落開始，巴比倫的時間從日出開始，天文學(xué)時間從中午開始，而德國一些用于大型公共場所的巨大時鐘則從午夜開始。最終，這些計時方式被“小時鐘”或法國時間所取代。它將一天分為兩個12小時的時間段，從午夜開始。

段落F

The earliest recorded weight-driven mechanical clock was built in 1283 in Bedfordshire in England.The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper was neither the descending weight that provided its motive force nor the gear wheels(which had been around for at least 1,300 years)that transferred the power;it was the part called the escapement.In the early 1400s came the invention of the coiled spring or fusee which maintained constant force to the gear wheels of the timekeeper despite the changing tension of its mainspring.By the 16th century,a pendulum clock had been devised,but the pendulum swung in a large arc and thus was not very efficient.

有記錄的最早的重量驅(qū)動機(jī)械鐘是于1283年在英格蘭貝德福德郡建造的。這款嶄新的計時器的革命性方面既不是由向下的重量進(jìn)行驅(qū)動，也不是傳遞動力的齒輪(齒輪已經(jīng)存在至少1300年了)，而是所謂的擒縱機(jī)構(gòu)。在15世紀(jì)初期，人們發(fā)明了一種螺旋彈簧，或者叫作均力圓錐輪，盡管其發(fā)條的張力發(fā)生變化，但它仍對計時裝置的齒輪保持恒定的力。到了16世紀(jì)，擺鐘被設(shè)計出來。但因為鐘擺擺動弧度很大，因此效率不高。

段落G

To address this,a variation on the original escapement was invented in 1670,in England.It was called the anchor escapement,which was a lever-based device shaped like a ship’s anchor.The motion of a pendulum rocks this device so that it catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel,in turn allowing it to turn a precise amount.Unlike the original form used in early pendulum clocks,the anchor escapement permitted the pendulum to travel in a very small arc.Moreover,this invention allowed the use of a long pendulum which could beat once a second and thus led to the development of a new floor-standing case design,which became known as the grandfather clock.

為了解決這個問題，1670年人們在英國發(fā)明了原始擒縱裝置的一種變型。這就是所謂的錨擒縱裝置，它是一種基于杠桿原理的裝置，形狀像船的錨。擺錘的運動使該裝置晃動，由此它抓住并隨后釋放擒縱輪的每個齒，從而使其精確的旋轉(zhuǎn)。與早期的擺鐘所使用的原始形式不同，錨式擒縱機(jī)構(gòu)使鐘擺能夠以很小的弧度行進(jìn)。而且，該發(fā)明使得使用較長的擺錘成為可能，它每秒跳動一次，從而推動新的落地柜式設(shè)計的發(fā)展。該設(shè)計被稱為祖父鐘(落地擺鐘)。

段落H

Today,highly accurate timekeeping instruments set the beat for most electronic devices.Nearly all computers contain a quartz-crystal clock to regulate their operation.Moreover,not only do time signals beamed down from Global Positioning System satellites calibrate the functions of precision navigation equipment,they do so as well for mobile phones,instant stock-trading systems and nationwide power-distribution grids.So integral have these time-based technologies become to day-to-day existence that our dependency on them is recognised only when they fail to work.

如今，高精度的計時儀器為大多數(shù)電子設(shè)備的設(shè)置時間。幾乎所有計算機(jī)都包含一個石英鐘來控制其運行。此外，全球定位系統(tǒng)衛(wèi)星發(fā)出的時間信號不僅可以校準(zhǔn)精密導(dǎo)航設(shè)備的功能，而且還可以用于移動電話，即時股票交易系統(tǒng)和全國性的配電網(wǎng)。這些基于時間的技術(shù)已變得不可或缺，以至于只有它們在無法工作時我們才能意識到自己對它們的依賴。

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