The Marriage of Science and Empire

词汇用语

The expedition left England in 1768, observed the Venus transit from Tahiti in 1769, reconnoitred several Pacific islands, visited Australia and New Zealand, and returned to England in 1771.

V-T/V-I Toreconnoitrean area means to obtain information about its geographical features or about the size and position of an army there. 侦察

例：He reconnoitred the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, travelling up the magnificent river as far as modern Montreal. 他侦察了圣劳伦斯海湾，沿着壮丽的河流向上前行直到现代的蒙特利尔。

例：I left a sergeant in command and rode forward to reconnoitre. 我留下一名警官主持局面，然后骑马出去侦察。

Was Cook’s ship a scientiɹc expedition protected by a military force or a military expedition with a few scientists tagging along?

PHRASAL VERB If someone goes somewhere and youtag along, you go with them, especially when they have not asked you to. (尤指未被邀请地) 跟随

例：I let him tag along because he had not been too well recently. 我让他跟着走，因为他最近一直感到不太舒服。

While he wouldtagalongto Tamerlan's boxing practices, the younger brother was into wrestling.

When Lou leads Bennie up a spiral staircase to his recording studio, Itagalong.

Now linebacker Will Herring willtagalongfor a duck hunting trip from time to time.

Not long before Cook’s expedition, the British Isles and western Europe in general were but

distant backwaters of the Mediterranean world.

N-COUT Abackwateris a place that is isolated. 荒僻处

例：...a quiet rural backwater.…一处宁静的乡下偏僻之地。

N-COUNT If you refer to a place or institution as abackwater, you think it is not developing properly because it is isolated from ideas and events in other places and institutions. 闭塞落后的地方[表不满]

例：The state's high schools remain an educational backwater where dropout rates are rising. 该州的高中仍旧是教育封闭落后之所，辍学率在上升。

例：This agency will be relegated to the backwaters of Washington. 这个机构将被移到华盛顿闭塞落后的地方。

Regrettably, the Aryans who invaded India and Persia intermarried with the local natives they found in these lands, losing their light complexions and blond hair, and with them their rationality and diligence.

V-RECIPWhen people from different social, racial, or religious groupsintermarry, they marry each other. You can also say that one groupintermarrieswithanother group. 通婚

例：They were allowed to intermarry. 他们被允许通婚。

例：Some of the traders settled and intermarried with local women. 一些贸易者定居下来并与当地妇女通婚。

Marine le Pen’s speechwriters would have been shown the door on the spot had they suggested that the leader of the Front National go on television to declare that, ‘We don’t want those inferior Semites to dilute our Aryan blood and spoil our Aryan civilisation.’ Instead, the French Front National, the Dutch Party for Freedom, the Alliance for the Future of Austria and their like tend to argue that Western culture, as it has evolved in Europe, is characterised by democratic values, tolerance and gender equality, whereas Muslim culture, which evolved in the Middle East, is characterised by hierarchical politics, fanaticism and misogyny. 逐客 ask to leave

例：Some companies show the employee the door the day she announces her resignation, Stamboulie says.

例：While Mr. Larsen has a great deal of credibility with journalists and has spent years on the ground, Mr. Armitage should listen politely to his pleas, then show him the door.

汉英积累

坏血病 scurvy

柑橘类水果 citrus fruits

风驰电掣 swift as the wind

内容

本章的内容最重要的部分基本上可以用倒数第二段概括：

Scientists have provided the imperial project with practical knowledge, ideological justification and technological gadgets. Without this contribution it is highly questionable whether Europeans could have conquered the world. The conquerors returned the favour by providing scientists with information and protection, supporting all kinds of strange and fascinating projects and spreading the scientiɹc way of thinking to the far corners of the earth. Without imperial support, it is doubtful whether modern science would have progressed very far. There are very few scientiɹc disciplines that did not begin their lives as servants to imperial growth and that do not owe a large proportion of their discoveries, collections, buildings and scholarships to the generous help of army officers, navy captains and imperial governors.

最后一段一如既往地承上启下：

This is obviously not the whole story. Science was supported by other institutions, not just by empires. And the European empires rose and flourished thanks also to factors other than science. Behind the meteoric rise of both science and empire lurks one particularly important force: capitalism. Were it not for businessmen seeking to make money, Columbus would not have reached America, James Cook would not have reached Australia, and Neil Armstrong would never have taken that small step on the surface of the moon.

常识

金星凌日（Venus Transit）

金星轨道在地球轨道内侧，某些特殊时刻，地球、金星、太阳会在一条直线上，这时从地球上可以看到金星就像一个小黑点一样在太阳表面缓慢移动，天文学称之为“金星凌日”。2012年6月6日上演的“金星凌日”是直到2117年以前所能看到的最后一次，凌日时间长达6小时，我国大部分地区处于最佳观测地区。

摘录

The global centre of power shifted to Europe only between 1750 and 1850, when Europeans humiliated the Asian powers in a series of wars and conquered large parts of Asia. By 1900 Europeans firmly controlled the worlds economy and most of its territory. In 1950 western Europe and the United States together accounted for more than half of global production, whereas Chinas portion had been reduced to 5 per cent. Under the European aegis a new global order and global culture emerged. Today all humans are, to a much greater extent than they usually want to admit, European in dress, thought and taste. They may be ɹercely anti-European in their rhetoric, but almost everyone on the planet views politics, medicine, war and economics through European eyes, and listens to music written in European modes with words in European languages. Even today’s burgeoning Chinese economy, which may soon regain its global primacy, is built on a European model of production and finance.