Darwin’s Middle Road

1. Darwin’s Middle Road Stephen Jay Gould

2. Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) • an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the later years of his life, Gould also taught biology and evolution at New York University.

3. Charles Darwin (1809-1882) • an English naturalist and geologist,best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory.He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors,and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.

4. Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation(演变） of species.

5. Vocabulary on Introduction

6. Introduction • 那女孩被挑选为学校代表。 • The girl is singledout to represent the school. • 诚实是他最显著的特点. • Honesty is his most salient characteristic. • 他把车开得极快 • He drove exceedingly fast. • 奥巴马总统预计将在今天正式发布该提案. • President Obama is expected to formally unveil the proposal today.

7. 这实在是一个棘手的问题. • This is indeed ahardnut to crack. • 工业的发展同农业的发展密切相关. • Industrial progress should gohandinhand with the development of agriculture. • 该公司非凡的发展速度,使它名列前茅. • The phenomenal growth that has enabled the company to rank so highly.

8. Under a more careful investigation, it is very rare for a person to possess in a real sense the two qualities that lead to success. • Darwin is a living example to show how the breath of interest and the remarkable ability to make cross-disciplinary analogies can be combined.

9. Odyssey – The Great Ancient Greek Epic Poem

10. Brief introduction The Odysseymainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseusand his journey home after the fall of Troy. Connotation of the word odyssey: a long wandering and eventful journey

11. The rare beauty – Helen

12. Odysseus was a man with outstanding prowess and bravery. He had tricked the enemy into bringing a colossal wooden horse within the walls of Troy.

14. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithacaafter the ten-year Trojan War . Odysseus killed the suitors and reunited with his wife.

15. The Odyssey • The Odyssey which was probably composed near the end of the 8th century BC is regarded attributed to Homer. • Some scholars claim that Homer is a fictitious and constructed name.

16. The formative influence played by the Homeric epics in shaping Greek was widely recognized, and Homer was described as the teacher of Greece. • The poem lies at the beginning of the western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.

17. Why does the author allude to the Scylla-Charybdis legend right at the beginning of the essay? • By starting an essay with a Greek legend, the author both attracts the attention of the readers and vivifies the danger of the two extremes, hence emphasizing the importance of a “middle road”.

18. Vocabulary

19. Para.1-3 • 人们惋惜过去的好时光的流逝. • People lament the passing of the good old days. • 他的胳膊软绵绵地垂在身子两旁, 手张开着. • His arms dangled loosely at his sides, with the palms of his hands open. • 向大众隐瞒了骇人听闻的真相 • The hideous truth was hidden from the multitude. • 他们打开了保险箱,拿走了里面所有的钱. • They opened the safe and took all the money therein.

20. 工厂的烟囱冒出滚滚浓烟. • Plant chimneys belch out dense smoke. • 他通过艰辛的努力获得了奖牌. • He gained the medal through his painful travail. • 他的坚强决心使他赢得比赛. • His dogged determination helped him to win the race. • 我的生活哲理,就是近乎中庸之道. • My philosophy of life is to stick close to thegoldenmean.

21. 小说的主题是男人和女人之间永无休止的冲突。小说的主题是男人和女人之间永无休止的冲突。 • The novel's central theme is the perennial conflict between men and women. • 对无风险意识的人而言，股票市场充满了陷阱。 • The stock market is full of traps for the unwary. • 按顺序访问文件时, 无法更改其数据. • When sequentially accessing a file, you cannot change its data. • 目前束缚着我们,并不只是他的支配地位. • Not his ascendency alone, however , held me in thrall at present.

22. In order to avoid such dilemmas, we can either put emphasis on a stubbornly firm attitude just like the consistent and narrow-minded Christian Evangelists, or turn to a compromise between the extremes just like the middle road adopted by Aristotle.

23. The two extreme positions • Inductivism: a research approach using a body of evidence to arrive at general principles or rules. • Eurekaism: a theory of scientific creativity in favor of the role of inspirations, sudden and accidental.

24. Para.4 Inductivism----the architectural view • Analogy: facts are like the bricks in a building, constructed without blueprints.

25. Para.4 • 事故常起因于粗心. • Accidents often arisefrom carelessness. • 他骄傲自满, 不懂礼貌,愚昧荒唐. • He is conceited , ill-mannered, and fatuous. • 预言这次对话可能有什么结果为时尚早. • It is yet premature to predict the possible outcome of the dialogue. • 你那埋头苦干的精神令人尊敬. • Your quiet hard work commanded respect. • 政府把该岛说成是新的旅游胜地。 • The government touted the island as a new resort area. • 我们有确凿无疑的证据证明到底发生了什么。 • We have incontrovertible evidence of what took place.

26. Para.5 Eurekaism---subjective, intuitive • Limitation of inductivism----heartless, inhumane, dull, and mechanical • Emphasis on the essential subjectivity of creative thought

27. 生病是请假的一个正当的理由. • Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave. • We are happy to accept eccentricity and quirkiness because they reflect an important part of our national character. • 我有这么一种感觉,他并不真正想去. • I have a hunch that he didn't really want to go. • 错误往往是正确的先导, 骄傲是跌跤的前奏. • Error is often the precursor of what is correct, but conceit is the prelude to a fall. • 日落的美是难以形容的. • The beauty of a sunset is ineffable.

28. Vocabulary (from para.6)

29. Para.6 • 我对目前的工作越来越不满意了. • I'm increasingly disenchanted with my current job. • 这所学校不鼓励死记硬背的学习方式. • Learning by rote is discouraged in this school. • 一元纸币的内在价值不过是一张纸而已. • The intrinsic value of a dollar bill is only that of a piece of paper. • 他的文风十分平庸，那本书乏味至极。 • His style is so pedestrian that the book becomes a real bore.

30. Para.7-8 • 本协议的有效期已过。 • The period of validity of the agreement has expired. • 这个国家目前正处于发展的中间阶段. • This country is now at an intermediate stage of development. • 大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行. • Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.

31. Darwin was believed to work on inductivism because he had spent five years sailing on the Beagle and according to the inductivist view, he was converted from a theological student to an adversary to theology because he applied his keen observation to the whole natural world.

32. Due to the facts collected on the criterion of absolute objectivity, he gradually began to realize the principle of evolution and that it worked by natural selection.

33. natural selection • The animals (or plants) best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on the characteristics which helped them survive to their offspring.

34. Para.9-10 • 野生动植物是生态系统的重要组成部分. • Wild fauna and flora are important integrants of ecosystem. • 你会染上坏习惯的. • Bad habits can creepup on you. • 把小麦的壳筛出来. • Sift out the wheat from the chaff. • 现在皇室的力量比以前弱多了. • The monarchy is much weaker now ascomparedto the past.

35. Para.11 • When he claimed later that he had only recorded facts with nothing in his mind, it told us little about his testing a number of theories and experiencing a number of failures. • The evidences from the notebook clearly refute the common belief that Darwin worked exclusively on inductivism, or mere collection of facts.

36. When it was assumed that the theory of natural selection was built on the facts accumulated during the days aboard the Beagle, it told us little about his extensive reading for inspirational ideas.

37. Para.12 • But if this complicated course adopted by Darwin has tempted us to believe wrongly in inductivism at work, which has the damaging power of Scylla, it has also led to the misbelief in eurekaism at work, which is as naïve as inductivism and had the destructive power of Charybdis.

38. Para.11-12 • 既然开始下雨了, 我去散步的念头只好作罢. • Now it's started raining ; somuchfor my idea of taking a walk. • 他们步行穿过老城区中心弯弯曲曲的街道. • They walked through the tortuous streets of the old city. • 她的活力与年轻的外表使人看不出她有65岁了。 • Her energy and youthful good looks belie her 65 years.

39. Para.13 • In this belying case, the notebooks have recorded no special happiness at all from Darwin’s understanding of Malthus’s theory when such happiness did take place.

40. Para.14 • The theory of natural selection resulted neither from Darwin’s hard inductive work of collecting facts, nor from his sudden and inexplicable eurekaist inspiration prompted by his reading of Malthus by chance. • He is neither talented for ordinary and unimaginative thinking nor talented for mysterious and ineffable creation.

41. Para.14 • 这个队技巧表现得十分熟练. • The team produced a very workmanlike performance. • 粉笔和乳酪是完全不同的东西. • Chalk and cheese are disparate substances.

42. Good features of each view---Darwin as an example Inductivism eurekaism Extensive reading for inspirational ideas As Darwin made notes when reading extensively, he made reflections on the related ideas on life, society and morals. • Keen powers of observation • Collect facts on a wholesale scale

43. Para.15-16 Darwinian Scholarship • Because of the publication of Darwin’s notebooks and scholars’ research on the important two-year period from the end of his journey on the Beagle to his enlightenment by Malthus’s theory, “the middle road” theory of Darwin has been firmly established. • Two works by Gruber and Schweber respectively

44. At the beginning, he imagined that new species occurred with a predetermined length of life. Then gradually though intermittently, he worked out an idea about extinction by competition.

45. Para.15-16 • 百年奥运盛典将在佐治亚州亚特兰大举行。 • The centennial Olympics will be in Atlanta, Georgia. • 为什麽市长要把这名官员降职? • Why did the mayor demote the official? • 你把那协议谈妥了,是怎么做到的? • How did you manage to clinch the deal? • 这两个版本间存在着微小的差别. • There were minute differences between the two versions.

46. Para.17-23 • The author’s view: Darwin pursued the scientific truth by making cross-disciplinary associations. • Biology, his own domain, did not play a leading role.

47. 意见很多, 我不知道有谁能找到共同点. • It's all mixed up, and I don't know that anyone can find a common denominator. • 我们对毒品泛滥不能听之任之. • We can't take a laissez - faire attitude to drug abuse. • 她从该课程中获益极大. • She obtained maximal benefit from the course. • 可以说英格兰的夏季是传统英国特点的缩影。 • The Summer Season could be said to epitomize all that is traditionally English about UK. • 这部大胆而具颠覆性的电影引起了评论界广泛的支持。 • This courageous and subversive movie has attracted widespread critical support.

48. 自满容易导致悲剧. • Complacency could easily resultin tragedy. • 幸福不是由实力或金钱决定的。 • Happiness does not residein strength or money. • 成功将取决于你的努力. • Success will restupon your efforts.

49. 他不希望任何人抄袭他的答案. • He didn't want anybody to crib the answers from him. • 只有灵魂力量是从内在发出的. • Soul Power is a power that can only emanatefrom within. • 在渴望和平这一点上,大多数人都是一致的. • Most people are in accordwith their desire for peace. • 他把他的低分数归因于嘈杂的学习环境. • He ascribes his low mark to the noisy study environment. • 他以十分风趣的话结束了演讲. • He ended his speech with a merry quip.

50. Vocabulary (from para.15)