考满分 toefl

1 .Listen to part of a conversation between a student and the professor of his history of technology class.

听一段学生与他技术历史课程教授的对话

1 .Would it be okay to focus on something related to agriculture?

关注一些与农业有关的事情可以吗？

1 .Sure, farming technology is fine, as long as it's pre-modern.

当然，农耕技术是可以的，只要说的是现代化之前的。

2 .But this isn't a long paper, so are you going to need to pick a specific area of pre-modern agriculture, like irrigation or food crops of ancient Greece.

但是这不是一篇长的论文，所以你需要选择一个现代化之前农业的特定领域。比如古希腊的灌溉或者农作物。

1 .I am actually interested in hydroponics.

实际上我对水培很感兴趣。

1 .Hydroponics.

水培。

1 .Growing plants in water instead of soil.

培植植物在水中而不是在土壤里。

1 .Well, not in pure water, in water that has the proper mix of nutrients.

不是在纯水中，水中有恰当的营养混合物。

1 .OK. But is it a pre-modern technology?

好的。但是它是现代化之前的技术吗？

2 .I mean, hydroponics isn't really my specialty but from the research I have read, we are talking the nineteenth century, maybe the seventeenth century if you really stretch it.

我的意思是水培不是我的专长，但是从我读过的研究中，我们在讨论的是十九世纪或者十七世纪的事，如果你确实向前延伸的话。

1 .Oh? But the Aztec civilization back in the thirteenth century in basically where Mexico city is today...

哦？但阿兹特克文明早在十三世纪基本在今天墨西哥城的位置……

2 .An article I read said the Aztecs were using hydroponics in something they called... I have got the word right here. Um. Chinampas.

.我读过一篇文章说阿兹特克人在一个东西中用水培，他们称之为……我有这个词。水中田洼。

1 .Chinampas, the so-called floating gardens.

水中田洼，即所谓的浮动花园。

1 .Exactly. So yeah the chinampas, the article said very clearly these floating gardens are proof that the Aztec invented hydroponic farming.

没错。所以，水中田洼，文章说的很清楚这些漂浮的花园都证明，阿兹特克人发明了水培培植。

1 .Well, chinampas are artificial islands built up in shallow lakes.

嗯，水中田洼都建在浅水湖泊中的人工岛。

2 .Islands made from packed earth and weeds and uh, material from the bottom of the lake.

人工岛有土和种子的打包和湖底的材料。

3 .They may have appeared to be floating in the water, but in fact they reach all the way to the bottom of the lake.

他们可能看起来像浮在水上，但是事实上他们达到了湖底

4 .So the primary growing medium, what the plants draw nutrients from, is actually soil, not water.

所以原始生长介质是土壤而不是水。植物从土壤中吸收营养。

1 .So the article was wrong about that?

所以文章是错了？

2 .Too bad, it seems like a great topic, but I guess...

太糟糕了，它似乎是一个很大的话题，但我猜...

1 .Wait a minute. Just because chinampas were not technically hydroponic doesn't mean this couldn't be an appropriate topic for your paper.

等一下。因为水中田洼技术上不是水培，并不意味着这对你的论文来说不是一个合适的话题。

2 .Chinampas were still a great pre-modern technological achievement.

水中田洼仍然是一个伟大的技术进步。

3 .I mean, they enabled the Aztecs to grow plenty of food in an area without much available farmland.

。我是说他们使阿兹特克人在一个没有多少可用耕地的区域种出足够的粮食。

1 .But I wondered why the author wrote that chinampas were hydroponic.

但是我想知道为什么作者把水中田洼写为水培？

1 .Well it's pretty common for writers to generalize, say use a term like hydroponics to describe other types of agriculture.

作家一概而论是很常见的，比如水培这个词来描述其他类型的农业

2 .Personally, I would never say hydroponic except for plants growing in liquid.

就我个人而言，我永远也不会用水培这个词除了植物生长在水中。

3 .The crops on chinampas definitely benefited from the water surrounding them. But... hydroponic...

水中田洼的植物一定受益于其周围的水。但是，水培……

1 .OK. So I will go with chinampas but leave out with the hydroponics part.

好的。所以我写水中田洼而不写水培。

1 .Actually, there's an important lesson here.

其实，这里有一个重要值得学习的。

2 .We should pay attention to what happened in history but also how historical events are presented.

我们应该重视历史上发生的事情但也应注意历史事件是热河呈现的。

3 .Why, for example, would writers use a word like hydroponics so casually?

比如：为什么作家如此随意的用水培这个词？

1 .I guess 'cause it's a popular topic people want to read about?

我猜是因为水培是一个人们都想读的热门话题？

1 .Or to help modern-day readers to understand something historical, maybe these writers think a familiar frame of reference is needed.

或者是帮助现代读者了解过去的事情，可能这些作家认为一个相似的参考框架必须的。

1 .Well that article was in a popular magazine, not a scholarly journal for historians.

那篇文章在一个通俗杂志上，不是历史学家的学术期刊。

1 .OK. But historians sometimes do the same thing.

好。但是历史学家有时也做同样的事情。

1 .So I guess then that all historians might not describe chinampas in quite the same way either.

所以我猜所有历史学家对水培的描述也是不同的。

1 .Good point. Why not look into that too?

说的好。为什么不也深入了解一下这个？

2 .And include it along with your description and analysis.

把它包括在你的描述和分析里。