翻译题
The thought experiment has a noble place in research, but some thoughts are deemed nobler than others. Darwin and Einstein could let their minds wander and imagine the consequences of certain actions or natural laws. 【F1】But scientists and historians who try to estimate what might have happened if, say, Darwin had drowned, are often accused of playing parlor games. Most of these counterfactual thought experiments tend to focus on changes to the lives of historical figures—what would have happened had Hitler never been born, for instance. Dismissed as silly and speculative, such exercises are considered of little academic value. 【F2】The course of history is surely dependent on the roles of influential individuals, which is why counterfactual tales of frustrated plots succeeding and dictators killed as infants seem so poorly anchored to reality. An individual really can steer events, so a world without that individual is unknowable. But what about the course of science, and the ideas that push it along? Is scientific and technical progress equally dependent on circumstance and personality? Or are discoveries inevitable, and independent of the people who happen to be around to make them? What if Darwin had toppled overboard before he joined the evolutionary dots? 【F3】That discussion seems useful, because it raises interesting questions about the state of knowledge, then and now, and how it is communicated and portrayed. 【F4】In his 2013 book—in which the young Charles is, indeed, lost in a storm—the historian Peter Bowler argued that the theory of evolution would have emerged just so, but with the pieces perhaps placed in a different order, and therefore less opposed to religious society. This week, another historian offers an alternative pathway for science: what if the ideas of Gregor Mendel on the inheritance of traits had been challenged more robustly and more successfully by a rival interpretation by the scientist W. F. R. Weldon? Gregory Radick argues that a twentieth-century genetics driven more by Weldon's emphasis on environmental context would have weakened the dominance of the current misleading impression that nature always outdoes nurture. A well-informed interest in alternative scientific pasts can help us to take the actual past more seriously as a source of present-day insight. It can also help us to stay self-critical as we make choices in the present. Science without consensus would be chaos. 【F5】But the price of consensus is eternal watchfulness of self-satisfaction, and a willingness to contemplate the road otherwise not travelled.
【答案解析】①本句是复合句。主句主干是scientists and historians are often accused of playing parlor games，谓语be accused of doing sth．是被动语态，即“被指控做某事”，这里是指科学家和历史学家被指责做猜谜游戏。②who引导的定语从句who try to estimate what…修饰主句主语scientists and historians，指“猜测……的科学家和历史学家”。③定语从句还包含一个宾语从句what might have happened，作estimate的宾语。指科学家和历史学家猜测的内容。④宾语从句包含if引导的条件状语从句，had drowned是对过去的虚拟假设，say是插入语，用于举例说明某种情况。
【答案解析】①本句是复合句。which引导的定语从句修饰的是前面的整个句子，解释说明假想历史局面扭转和独裁者夭折的不切实际性。定语从句包含一个why引导的表语从句，说明前面的主句内容是此表语从句所述内容的原因。②主句的主干是A is dependent on B，其中A是The course of history“历史进程”，B是the roles of influential individuals“重要人物所扮演的角色”，翻译起来即是“历史进程取决于重要人物”。③frustrated plots succeeding和dictators killed as infants都是counterfactual tales的两个例子，这两个词组都是“名词+分词短语”的形式。frustrated plots后是现在分词succeeding作后置定语，意为“成功扭转败局”；dictators后是过去分词killed as infants作后置定语，意为“襁褓期被扼杀的独裁者”。
【答案解析】①本句是复合句。主句是主系表结构，系动词seem表示推测；because引导的原因状语从句解释discussion有意义的原因。②原因状语从句采用了raise questions about sth.结构，意为“提出有关……的问题”。sth．由名词词组the state of knowledge和宾语从句how it is communicated and portrayed充当。③then and now是后置定语，修饰前面的knowledge，意为“过去和现在的知识”。
【答案解析】①本句是复合句。主句主干是the historian Peter Bowler argued that…。that引导宾语从句指出彼特-鲍勒的观点。②破折号中间的部分是插入语，解释2013年的这本书中出现的内容。③with the pieces perhaps placed in a different order是原因状语，介词with相当于because of，指出认为进化论与宗教社会的冲突不那么激烈的原因。placed in a different order是后置定语，修饰前面的pieces，即“放在不同位置上的各个分论”。④opposed to sth.意为“与……相对立”。
问答题20.【F5】
【正确答案】但形成一致的认可也要付出代价，即要时刻警醒自己不能自我满足，要主动选择还没有人走的路。
【答案解析】①本句主干是主系表结构的the price of consensus is…，指“形成一致的代价是……”。系动词后是两个并列的名词结构作表语。②表语1的eternal watchfulness后是介词结构of self-satisfaction作后置定语，直译为“自我满足的时刻警醒”。③表语2的willingness由其后的to contemplate the road…修饰，a willingness to…表示“……的意愿”。句末的otherwise not travelled是过去分词作road的后置定语，意为“还没有人走过的路”。