考研英語美文賞讀（24）：牽動(dòng)世界的“光纖之父”走了

　　摘要：考研英語作為一門考研公共課，雖然大家都學(xué)了英語十幾年，卻仍經(jīng)常有總分過線掛在英語上的情況，因此英語復(fù)習(xí)不單單是單詞、做題。閱讀作為考研英語的大頭，僅僅做考研真題或許沒法滿足你的閱讀量，因此幫幫之后會(huì)不定時(shí)推出一篇英文美文，這些文章都與考研英語閱讀同源，多讀必有好處。

　　?Charles Kuen Kao， a Nobel laureate in physics whose research in the 1960s revolutionized the field of fiber optics and helped lay the technical groundwork for the information age， died on Sunday in Hong Kong. He was 84.

　　諾貝爾物理學(xué)獎(jiǎng)得主高錕周日在香港去世，享年84歲。他在上世紀(jì)60年代的研究徹底改變了光纖領(lǐng)域，為信息時(shí)代奠定了技術(shù)基礎(chǔ)。

　　His was confirmed by the Hong Kong-based Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease， which he and his wife， Gwen Kao， founded in 2010. The foundation declined to specify a cause but said that Dr. Kao learned he had the disease in 2002.

　　他和妻子黃美蕓于2010年為阿茲海默癥成立的高錕慈善基金證實(shí)了他的死訊。該基金會(huì)拒絕透露他去世的具體原因，但表示高博士于2002年得知自己患有這種疾病。

　　Working in Britain in the late 1960s， Dr. Kao and a colleague played a crucial role in discovering that the fiber optic cables in use at the time were limited by impurities in their glass. They also outlined the cables’ potential capacity for storing information — one that was far superior to that of copper wires or radio waves.

　　60年代末在英國工作期間，高錕和一位同事在發(fā)現(xiàn)當(dāng)時(shí)使用的光纜受到玻璃質(zhì)材中雜質(zhì)的限制方面發(fā)揮了至關(guān)重要的作用。他們還概述了光纜存儲(chǔ)信息的潛在能力——遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)優(yōu)于銅線或無線電波。

　　“The word ‘visionary’ is overused， but I think in the case of Charles Kao， it’s entirely appropriate because he really did see a world that was connected， by light， using the medium of optical fiber，” said John Dudley， a researcher in fiber optics based in France and a former president of the European Physical Society. “And I think society today owes him a great deal for that work.”

　　“‘遠(yuǎn)見卓識(shí)’這個(gè)詞被過度使用，但我認(rèn)為對(duì)于高錕，這個(gè)詞完全合適，因?yàn)樗_實(shí)看到了一個(gè)以光纖為媒介、通過光來連接的世界，”現(xiàn)居法國的光纖研究者、歐洲物理學(xué)會(huì)前主席約翰.達(dá)德利說。“我認(rèn)為今天的社會(huì)拜他的工作所賜良多。”

　　In the early 1960s， light pulses carrying telephone and television signals could travel only about 20 meters， or about 65 feet， through glass fibers before nearly all the light dissipated. But by 1970， four years after Dr. Kao and the British engineer George Alfred Hockham published a landmark study on the subject， a group of researchers had produced an ultrapure optical fiber more than a half-mile long.

　　60年代初，移動(dòng)電話和電視信號(hào)使用的光脈沖，通過玻璃纖維只能傳播約20米，之后幾乎所有光線就將耗盡。但到了1970年，在高錕和英國工程師喬治.阿爾弗雷德.霍克漢姆發(fā)表關(guān)于這一主題的里程碑研究四年后，一組研究人員生產(chǎn)出超過半英里長的超純光纖。

　　Fiber optic cables， which look like fishing wire， later enabled the proliferation of broadband communications， biomedical informatics and countless other digital applications.

　　光纜看起來像是釣魚線，后來正是它令寬帶通信、生物醫(yī)學(xué)信息學(xué)和無數(shù)其他數(shù)字應(yīng)用技術(shù)得以普及。

　　When Dr. Kao shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009， the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences estimated that the optical cables in use worldwide， if unraveled， would equal a fiber more than 600 million miles long.

　　當(dāng)高錕于2009年與他人一起獲得諾貝爾物理學(xué)獎(jiǎng)時(shí)，據(jù)瑞典皇家科學(xué)院估計(jì)，全球使用的光纜如果拆開，相當(dāng)于一根超過6億英里（約合9.7億公里）長的光纖。

　　“It’s one of these things where， when you study technology， you start working on one thing， and the impact of it just fans out into all sorts of areas，” Dr. Dudley said by telephone.

　　“當(dāng)你研究科技時(shí)，你開始研究的是一件事，然后它的影響會(huì)擴(kuò)展到各種各樣的領(lǐng)域，光纜研究就是這樣的，”達(dá)德利在接受電話采訪時(shí)說。

　　He added that it might have taken decades for Dr. Kao to receive the Nobel Prize because the importance of his work was not apparent to the general public until the 2000s.

　　他還說，高錕過了幾十年的時(shí)間才獲得諾貝爾獎(jiǎng)，可能是因?yàn)橹钡奖臼兰o(jì)初，公眾才意識(shí)到其工作的重要性。

　　Carrie Lam， the chief executive of Hong Kong， a semiautonomous Chinese territory， said in a statement on Sunday that Dr. Kao’s work on fiber optics had made a “tremendous contribution to Hong Kong， the world and mankind.”

　　中國半自治領(lǐng)土香港的首席行政長官林鄭月娥周日在一份聲明中表示，高錕的光纖研究工作“為香港、世界和人類作出了巨大貢獻(xiàn)”。

　　She added that he had also played a prominent role in shaping local higher education and scientific research.

　　她還說，他在塑造香港高等教育和科學(xué)研究方面也發(fā)揮了突出作用。

　　“An eminent figure， Professor Kao is the pride of Hong Kong people，” Ms. Lam said.

　　林鄭月娥表示：“高錕教授出類拔萃，是香港人的驕傲。”

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