2010年公共英語(PETS)二級考試閱讀復習(二)

　　公共英語PETS二級閱讀復習(3)

　　In 1971, after Einstein's death, two scientists were able to carry out a crucial experiment. They used two atomic clocks, synchronized them, and placed one on a plane, while the other stayed in the same location on Earth. The plane then flew around the world for 80 hours. According to Einstein's theory, the clock on the plane would be expected to have lost time, due to being in motion over 80 hours compared to the clock on the ground. When they brought the clocks together and made a comparison, the clock on the plane was indeed a few nanoseconds slower than the other clock.

　　愛因斯坦去世后，1971年，兩名科學家完成了一項重要實驗。他們使用兩個原子鐘，將時間調成一致。其中一個被放在飛機上，而另一個則置于地球上的原來地方。隨后飛機環繞全球飛行了80個小時。按照愛因斯坦理論，相對于地面上的時鐘，飛機上的時鐘會因為80個小時的運動而減少時間。當他們將兩個時鐘拿到一起比較時，飛機上的時鐘確實較另一只慢了幾毫微秒。

　　公共英語PETS二級閱讀復習(4)

　　Time travel is clearly a trickier proposition than space travel, though. Put simply, Einstein's idea was that every object in the universe has it's own “time”, and these vary as objects move. The faster an object moves, the slower its time is, compared to the time of a slower moving object. The extreme situation would be if an object could move as fast as the speed of light, its time would be completely halted. But whatever an object--or person's--time is, it's only evident in contrast to other objects. In other words, it's all relatives.

　　與太空旅行相比，時間旅行很顯然是一個更為復雜的命題。簡而言之，愛因斯坦的觀點就是，宇宙中每一物體都有其自身的“時間”，并隨其運動的不同而不同。物體運動越快，其時間越慢(與運動較慢的物體相比而言)。最極端的假設是，如果一個物體運動達到光速，那么其時間就會完全停止。但無論一個物體或者一個人的時間為何，它只能參照其它物體才能得以體現。換句話說，萬物皆相對。