英語聽力文摘757 關于計數(shù)的知識

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2018年11月30日

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News That Counts

A new number was discovered by a team of German mathematicians in January of this year. The previously unknown integer lies in the relatively unexplored region between the numbers 88,000,002,999 and 88,000,003,000. This unexpected integer has been provisionally named “S,” for “Surprise,” until the mathematical community has determined its exact location and value.

The existence of undiscovered whole numbers in the space between known integers has long been recognized as a possibility, according to theoretical mathematician and team leader Angela Zifferling at the Institute for Polynomial Advance in Töttingen, Germany.

Crunching Numbers

It is largely because we are only used to counting up to a thousand or so in our everyday lives that we fail to notice the presence of so-called “inter-integral” numbers and other strange phenomena that lie in the incredibly distant regions of the number line.

As Zifferling explains: “It’s as if you only made observations from here to the moon, and concluded that there isn’t anything much in outer space. We really have no idea what may exist in the remoter regions of the number line, because the simple fact is that the area beyond around one hundred billion is still almost completely unexplored.”

If confirmed, the existence of number S would make calculations involving numbers in its region much more difficult, as it will probably be found to be exerting a kind of pressure on the whole numbers on either side of it in order to fit in. Mathematicians refer to this pressure as “integral crowding,” and say that it may increasingly be a problem as we move farther and farther from zero.

mathematician n. 數(shù)學家

integer n. [數(shù)] 整數(shù);整體;完整的事物

theoretical adj. 理論的;理論上的;假設的;推理的

【被動語態(tài)的處理】

科技用于中被動語態(tài)運用的極其廣泛，恰好與漢語中少用被動語態(tài)的慣用法相反。為了使?jié)h語譯文符合漢語的表達方式，根據(jù)譯文的上下文，一般采用三種譯法。 1) 譯作漢語主動語態(tài);

例如： It should be reflected in the early design phase giving an opportunity to predict new possibilities.

譯為：它應體現(xiàn)為在初期設計階段有預測新的可能性的機會。就避免了出現(xiàn)類似“它應被反映在”這種在漢語中別扭的說法。

1) 譯作漢語被動語態(tài);

這時，漢語譯文中運用“被”、“由”、“受”、“為”、“給”、“予以”、“是…的”等虛詞。

例如，The end-gas knock is determined mainly by the temperature of unburned mixture

譯為：終端氣體爆震主要是由未燃混合氣的溫度決定的。

比起“終端氣體爆震主要是被未燃混合氣的溫度所決定的。”更為精準，簡練，不易引起歧義。