2009年2月28日雅思考试阅读 SECTION 2真题原题破解
历史出现3次：分别是 2009年2月28日；2008年6月21日； 2007年5月12日考题
此题还会在未来考试出现！！
Venus Transit
A. There is a common misconception that science, like most features of the modern world, started in the 19th century, with earlier time swallowed in the dusk of ignorance. But the onset of modern science occurred no later than the 17th century. It was then that major breakthroughs were made in understanding the workings of the universe through the work of Galileo, Kepler and especially of Newton, who, in 1687, determined that the planets moved because there was no force to stop them, and that they circled the Sun because of gravity, a universal force of attraction between all bodies.
B. In the 18th century science continued to flourish. There were discoveries about the nature of gas, about electricity and about chemical reactions. The Swedish scientist Carolus Linnaeus developed schemes for classifying plants and animals based on the concept of individual species in relational hierarchies. Within this growing framework of science, some of the first great questions were addressed. How large is the solar system? How distant is the Sun from the Earth?
C. Most of us probably heard the phrase "transit of Venus" or "transit of Mercury" during primary school, in connection with Captain Cook's observation of the transit of Mercury at Mercury Bay, on the Coromandel Peninsula. It is a phrase of some significance in the development of science. But what does it mean? When Venus or Mercury passes directly between Earth and the Sun, the planet can be seen (with the proper equipment) as a small black circle against the large brilliant orb of the Sun. Such events are known as transits. In 1663, James Gregory suggested that observation of a transit from widely spaced locations on Earth could yield an accurate estimate of the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
D. Jeremiah Horrocks, a young Englishman with a passion for astronomy, was the first person to accurately calculate the time of a transit and then observe it. From 3:15 P.M. on November 24, 1639, the 20-year-old watched a small black spot creep across the lower left side of the sun. A telescope in his darkened room projected the image onto a card. Using trigonometry and such other limited information as was available; he estimated the size of Venus and the solar distance. While his estimate (59 million miles) was only about half the actual distance of the Earth to the Sun, it was better by a factor of ten than anyone else's up to that time. Horrocks died at the age of 22, almost unknown, but his observations gradually seeped out into the astronomical community.
E. By the time of the long predicted transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769, an international collaboration of observers had been set up under the direction of the French astronomer Delisle-although hostilities between France and England did little to assist matters. The frigate on which Charles Mason and George Dixon had been dispatched to observe the transit from South Africa was attacked by the French while en route to the Cape. |
