1、Unit 3 WHY DO WE BELIEVE THAT THE EARTH IS ROUND?George OrwellCan you prove that the earth is round? Go ahead and try! Will you rely on your senses or will you have to draw on the opinions of experts? Somewhere or other I think it is in the preface to saint Joan Bernard Shaw remarks that we are more

2、 gullible and superstitious today than we were in the Middle Ages, and as an example of modern credulity he cites the widespread belief that the earth is round. The average man, says Shaw, can advance not a single reason for thinking that the earth is round. He merely swallows this theory because th

3、ere is something about it that appeals to the twentieth-century mentality. Now, Shaw is exaggerating, but there is something in what he says, and the question is worth following up, for the sake of the light it throws on modern knowledge. Just why do we believe that the earth is round? I am not spea

4、king of the few thousand astronomers, geographers and so forth who could give ocular proof, or have a theoretical knowledge of the proof, but of the ordinary newspaper-reading citizen, such as you or me. As for the Flat Earth theory, I believe I could refute it. If you stand by the seashore on a cle

5、ar day, you can see the masts and funnels of invisible ships passing along the horizon. This phenomenon can only be explained by assuming that the earth's surface is curved. But it does not follow that the earth is spherical. Imagine another theory called the Oval Earth theory, which claims that

6、 the earth is shaped like an egg. What can I say against it? Against the Oval Earth man, the first card I can play is the analogy of the sun and moon. The Oval Earth man promptly answers that I don't know, by my own observation, that those bodies are spherical. I only know that they are round, a

7、nd they may perfectly well be flat discs. I have no answer to that one. Besides, he goes on, what reason have I for thinking that the earth must be the same shape as the sun and moon? I can't answer that one either. My second card is the earth's shadow: When cast on the moon during eclipses,

8、 it appears to be the shadow of a round object. But how do I know, demands the Oval Earth man, that eclipses of the moon are caused by the shadow of the earth? The answer is that I don't know, but have taken this piece of information blindly from newspaper articles and science booklets. Defeated

9、 in the minor exchanges, I now play my queen of trumps: the opinion of the experts. The Astronomer Royal, who ought to know, tells me that the earth is round. The Oval Earth man covers the queen with his king. Have I tested the Astronomer Royal's statement, and would I even know a way of testing

10、 it? Here I bring out my ace. Yes, I do know one test. The astronomers can foretell eclipses, and this suggests that their opinions about the solar system are pretty sound. I am, to my delight, justified in accepting their say-so about the shape of the earth. If the Oval Earth man answers what I bel

11、ieve is true that the ancient Egyptians, who thought the sun goes round the earth, could also predict eclipses, then bang goes my ace. I have only one card left: navigation. People can sail ship round the world, and reach the places they aim at, by calculations which assume that the earth is spheric

12、al. I believe that finishes the Oval Earth man, though even then he may possibly have some kind of counter.It will be seen that my reasons for thinking that the earth is round are rather precarious ones. Yet this is an exceptionally elementary piece of information. On most other questions I should h

13、ave to fall back on the expert much earlier, and would be less able to test his pronouncements. And much the greater part of our knowledge is at this level. It does not rest on reasoning or on experiment, but on authority. And how can it be otherwise, when the range of knowledge is so vast that the

14、expert himself is an ignoramus as soon as he strays away from his own specialty? Most people, if asked to prove that the earth is round, would not even bother to produce the rather weak arguments I have outlined above. They would start off by saying that "everyone knows" the earth to be ro

15、und, and if pressed further, would become angry. In a way Shaw is right. This is a credulous age, and the burden of knowledge which we now have to carry is partly responsible. 我們?yōu)槭裁聪嘈诺厍蚴菆A的?你能證明地球是圓的嗎?來試試看吧！你將依靠你自己的智力還是不得不引用專家的觀點呢?記得在什么地方我想是在圣女貞德序言中肖伯納評論說，今天我們比在中世紀時更加輕信，更加迷信。而作為現(xiàn)代輕信的例證，他舉出地圓說這一廣為傳播的信

16、念。肖伯納說，普通人舉不出一條理由來說明為什么相信地球是圓的。他全盤接受這一理論，只是因為這一理論中有一種迎合20世紀心態(tài)的東西。當(dāng)然，肖伯納是夸大其詞了，但他說的也確實有些道理，這一問題值得進一步探討，因為它會幫助人們看清現(xiàn)代知識的真實情況。我們究竟為什么會相信地球是圓的呢?我說的不是數(shù)千位天文學(xué)家、地理學(xué)家之類的人，他們可以用觀察到的事實或用理論上的根據(jù)來證實這一點，我指的是如同你我之輩的報紙的普通讀者。至于“地平說”，我相信我能夠加以駁斥。如果你在天氣晴朗的日子站立海邊，你可以看到船桅和煙囪沿著地平線移動而不見船體本身。只有假設(shè)地球表面呈曲線狀，這一現(xiàn)象才能得到解釋。但不能由此推斷地球是

17、球形的。設(shè)想另一個稱做“地球卵形說”的理論吧，這一學(xué)說聲稱地球形如蛋狀。對此，我能說什么加以反駁呢?面對“地球卵形說”者，我能打的第一張牌是，可以根據(jù)太陽和月亮來類推。“地球卵形說”者立即回敬道，我無法根據(jù)自己的觀察得知那些天體是球形的。我只能得知他們是圓的，而它們完全可能呈扁平的圓盤狀。我對此無言以答。此外，他還會說，我憑什么理由認為地球一定與太陽和月亮的形狀相同?對此，我同樣無法解答。我的第二張牌是地球的影子: 月食期間，地球投在月亮上的影子看上去呈圓形物體狀。但“地球卵形說”者馬上要問，我怎么知道月食是由地球的影子造成的呢?回答是，我并不知道，我只是照搬報刊文章和科普小冊子上的說法而已。

18、小小交鋒受挫，于是我打出一張王牌“Q”: 專家的看法。英國格林威治皇家天文臺臺長總該是權(quán)威了，他告訴我說地球是圓的。“地球卵形說”者用他的“K”牌壓倒我的“Q”牌。天文臺臺長的話我檢驗過沒有?再說，我知道怎么個檢驗法嗎?這時候，我打出我的“愛司”。是的，我確實知道一個檢驗方法。天文學(xué)家能預(yù)報月食，這一點表明他們關(guān)于太陽系的看法是非常可信的。因此，令我高興的是，我接受他們關(guān)于地球形狀的論斷是有道理的。如果“地球卵形說”者反駁道我以為他反駁得有理認為太陽繞地球轉(zhuǎn)的古代埃及人也能預(yù)言月食，那我的“愛司”牌便立刻化為烏有。我只剩下一張牌: 航海。人們可以揚帆繞地球航行而到達他們的目的地，其航程的計算，就是以地球是球形的假定為依據(jù)的。我相信這一下可以徹底擊敗“地球卵形說”者了。不過即便如此，他還可能有某種回擊的辦法。由此可見，我認為地球是圓的，