萬(wàn)物簡(jiǎn)史:PART II CH 4事物的測(cè)定（18）
來(lái)源：滬江聽(tīng)寫酷
2011-09-14 07:00
梅森和狄克遜因?yàn)榘l(fā)現(xiàn)一條分界線而出名；正確測(cè)繪金星凌日?qǐng)D的人不是陣容強(qiáng)大的跨國(guó)科學(xué)家團(tuán)隊(duì)，而是無(wú)名船長(zhǎng)詹姆斯庫(kù)克（其實(shí)人家的名氣也不小啊）~~~
?《萬(wàn)物簡(jiǎn)史》推出部落節(jié)目版，戳這里訂閱:http://bulo.hujiang.com/menu/6004/
書本的朗讀語(yǔ)音很charming的磁性英音~~~大家可以好好學(xué)著模仿哦~~~！！
因?yàn)樵鵀槊绹?guó)人所寫,單詞采用美式拼法,不抄全文,然后聽(tīng)寫單詞或詞組(用[-No-]表示)以及句子(用[---No---]表示)。請(qǐng)邊聽(tīng)寫邊理解文意，根據(jù)上下文注意各句標(biāo)號(hào)，這樣有助于提高正確率。
Hints:
Mason
Dixon
Joseph Lalande
Soon afterward, Maskelyne returned to England where he became astronomer royal, and Mason and Dixon — now evidently more seasoned — [-1-] for four long and often perilous years surveying their way through 244 miles of dangerous American [-2-] to settle a boundary dispute between the estates of William Penn and Lord Baltimore and their respective colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland. [---3---] (Although the line was their principal task, they also contributed several astronomical surveys, including one of the century's most accurate measurements of a degree of [-4-] —an achievement that brought them far more [-5-]in England than the settling of a boundary dispute between spoiled aristocrats.)
Back in Europe, Maskelyne and his counterparts in Germany and France were forced to the conclusion that the transit measurements of 1761 were essentially a failure. One of the problems, [-6-] , was that there were too many observations, which when brought together often proved contradictory and impossible to resolve. The successful charting of a Venusian transit fell instead to a little-known Yorkshire-born sea captain named James Cook, who watched the 1769 transit from a sunny hilltop in Tahiti, and then went on to chart and claim Australia for the British crown. [---7---] (Two further transits in the 19th century allowed astronomers to put the figure at 149.59 million kilometers, where it has remained ever since. The precise distance, we now know, is 149.597870691 million kilometers.) [---8---]
?《萬(wàn)物簡(jiǎn)史》推出部落節(jié)目版，戳這里訂閱:http://bulo.hujiang.com/menu/6004/
書本的朗讀語(yǔ)音很charming的磁性英音~~~大家可以好好學(xué)著模仿哦~~~！！
因?yàn)樵鵀槊绹?guó)人所寫,單詞采用美式拼法,不抄全文,然后聽(tīng)寫單詞或詞組(用[-No-]表示)以及句子(用[---No---]表示)。請(qǐng)邊聽(tīng)寫邊理解文意，根據(jù)上下文注意各句標(biāo)號(hào)，這樣有助于提高正確率。
Hints:
Mason
Dixon
Joseph Lalande
Soon afterward, Maskelyne returned to England where he became astronomer royal, and Mason and Dixon — now evidently more seasoned — [-1-] for four long and often perilous years surveying their way through 244 miles of dangerous American [-2-] to settle a boundary dispute between the estates of William Penn and Lord Baltimore and their respective colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland. [---3---] (Although the line was their principal task, they also contributed several astronomical surveys, including one of the century's most accurate measurements of a degree of [-4-] —an achievement that brought them far more [-5-]in England than the settling of a boundary dispute between spoiled aristocrats.)
Back in Europe, Maskelyne and his counterparts in Germany and France were forced to the conclusion that the transit measurements of 1761 were essentially a failure. One of the problems, [-6-] , was that there were too many observations, which when brought together often proved contradictory and impossible to resolve. The successful charting of a Venusian transit fell instead to a little-known Yorkshire-born sea captain named James Cook, who watched the 1769 transit from a sunny hilltop in Tahiti, and then went on to chart and claim Australia for the British crown. [---7---] (Two further transits in the 19th century allowed astronomers to put the figure at 149.59 million kilometers, where it has remained ever since. The precise distance, we now know, is 149.597870691 million kilometers.) [---8---]
set off
wilderness
The result was the famous Mason and Dixon line, which later took on symbolic importance as the dividing line between the slave and free states.
meridian
acclaim
ironically
Upon his return there was now enough information for the French astronomer Joseph Lalande to calculate that the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun was a little over 150 million kilometers.
The Earth at last had a position in space.
此后不久，馬斯基林回到英國(guó)，成為皇家天文學(xué)家，而梅森和狄克遜--這時(shí)候顯然更加成熟--啟程前往美洲，度過(guò)漫長(zhǎng)而時(shí)常是險(xiǎn)象環(huán)生的4年。他們穿越393公里危險(xiǎn)的荒原，一路上搞測(cè)量工作，以解決威廉?佩恩和巴爾的摩勛爵兩人地產(chǎn)之間的以及他們各自殖民地--賓夕法尼亞和馬里蘭--之間的邊界糾紛。結(jié)果就是那條著名的梅森-狄克遜線。后來(lái)，這條線象征性地被看做是美國(guó)奴隸州和自由州之間的分界線。（這條線是他們的主要任務(wù)，但他們還進(jìn)行了幾次天文觀測(cè)。其中有一次，他們對(duì)1度經(jīng)線的長(zhǎng)度作了當(dāng)時(shí)那個(gè)世紀(jì)最精確的測(cè)量。由于這項(xiàng)成就，他們?cè)谟?guó)贏得了比解決兩位被寵壞了的貴族之間的邊界糾紛高得多的贊揚(yáng)。）
回到歐洲以后，馬斯基林與他的德國(guó)和法國(guó)同行不得不下結(jié)論，1761年的凌日觀測(cè)工作基本失敗。具有諷刺意味的是，問(wèn)題之一在于觀測(cè)的次數(shù)太多。把觀測(cè)結(jié)果放在一起，往往證明互相矛盾，無(wú)法統(tǒng)一。成功繪制金星凌日?qǐng)D的卻是一位不知名的約克郡出生的船長(zhǎng)，名叫詹姆斯?庫(kù)克。他在塔希提島一個(gè)陽(yáng)光普照的山頂上觀看了1769年的凌日現(xiàn)象，接著又繪制了澳大利亞的地圖，宣布它為英國(guó)皇家殖民地。他一回到國(guó)內(nèi)，就聽(tīng)說(shuō)法國(guó)天文學(xué)家約瑟夫?拉朗德已經(jīng)計(jì)算出，地球到太陽(yáng)的平均距離略略超過(guò)1.5億公里。（19世紀(jì)又發(fā)生兩次凌日現(xiàn)象，天文學(xué)由此得出的距離是1.4959億公里，這個(gè)數(shù)字一直保持到現(xiàn)在。我們現(xiàn)在知道，確切的距離應(yīng)該是1.495 978 706 91億公里。）地球在太空中終于有了個(gè)方位。
