课文内容

词汇：Science 科学

Sci-fi movies tend to capture children's imaginations and have long been part of students' excited chats in the schoolyard. But now a scientific journal has urged at least one sci-fi movie to be shown in class by science teachers.

科幻电影往往能激发孩子们的想象力，长期以来一直是学生们在校园里兴奋聊天的一部分。但现在，一份科学杂志敦促科学老师在课堂上至少放一部科幻电影。

Scientific papers published in the American Journal of Physics (AJP) and in Classical and Quantum Gravity have seen merit in the way the movie Interstellar portrays wormholes.

发表在《美国物理学杂志》(AJP)和《经典与量子引力》(Classical and Quantum Gravity)上的科学论文认为，电影《星际穿越》(Interstellar)描绘虫洞的方式有可取之处。

Dr David Jackson from AJP said publishing this paper "was a no-brainer". He added: "The physics has been very carefully reviewed by experts and found to be accurate. The publication will encourage physics teachers to show the film in their classes to get across ideas about general relativity".

AJP的大卫·杰克逊博士说，发表这篇论文是“不需要动脑筋的事”。他补充说:“专家们对物理学进行了非常仔细的审查，发现它是准确的。该出版物将鼓励物理教师在课堂上播放这部电影，以了解广义相对论的概念。”

In fact, one of the executive producers of Interstellar was Kip Thorne, a professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). For him, films such as Interstellar, Contact and 2001: A Space Odyssey can inspire young people.

事实上，《星际穿越》的执行制片人之一是基普·索恩，他是加州理工学院的理论物理学教授。对他来说，《星际穿越》、《接触》和《2001太空漫游》等电影可以激励年轻人。

Blockbusters are improving when it comes to portraying scientific theories. An initiative by the US National Academy of Sciences has been putting proper scientists in touch with movie people to achieve a better result - which is vital in the internet age. Interstellar's director Christopher Nolan says: "Consumers have a lot more immediate access to information. If you go and see a film about a particular subject, particularly a true life story, you can go home and look it up on Wikipedia and see if the basic things portrayed in the film are true or not. The same is true of science in the films".

大片在描绘科学理论方面正在进步。美国国家科学院发起了一项倡议，让真正的科学家与电影明星接触，以获得更好的结果——这在互联网时代至关重要。《星际穿越》的导演克里斯托弗·诺兰说:“消费者可以更直接地获取信息。如果你去看一部关于某个特定主题的电影，尤其是一个真实的生活故事，你可以回家去维基百科上查一下，看看电影中描绘的基本事情是真是假。电影中的科学也是如此。”

Professional scientists may no longer cringe in their seats when they watch sci-fi movies. Today, getting the science wrong is no longer an option.

专业科学家在看科幻电影时，可能再也不会在座位上畏缩了。今天，搞砸科学不再是一种选择。

词汇表

sci-fi 科幻
to capture (someone's) imagination 激发某人的想象力
a scientific paper 科学文献
physics 物理学
interstellar 星际的
a wormhole (space) 时空虫洞
a no-brainer 显而易见的事
accurate 准确的
general relativity 广义相对论
technology 技术
a blockbuster 畅销的书、电影或电视
a theory 一种理论
proper 专业的，科班出身的
the consumer 消费者
to cringe 感到难堪

测验与练习

1. 阅读课文并回答问题。

1. What aspect of physics did the movie Interstellar show accurately, according to scientists?

2. What else could students learn more easily with the help of movies, according to Dr Jackson?

3. How has the US National Academy of Sciences helped movie makers to get the science right?

4. Why might it not be a good idea to pretend the science in a movie is correct?

5. Which verb in the article means 'to represent something in a particular way'?

2. 请你在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。

1. It's warm and sunny. Going to the beach is _________.

a no-brainer      accurate      true      proper

2. My chemistry teacher said I'm good at mixing things in the school lab but I have to learn more about the _________ behind it.

general relativity      no-brainer      theory      subject

3. _________ are very demanding nowadays. If the quality is no good they go and shop elsewhere!

Executive producers      Teachers      Movie makers      Consumers

4. I love _________ movies! But nothing beats a low-budget romantic comedy when you want a quiet afternoon at home.

accurate      blockbuster      true life stories      wormhole

5. ET is a classic movie. It's _________ everybody's imagination.

arrested      trapped      took      captured

答案

1. 阅读课文并回答问题。

1. What aspect of physics did the movie Interstellar show accurately, according to scientists?
Wormholes.

2. What else could students learn more easily with the help of movies, according to Dr Jackson?
The theory of general relativity.

3. How has the US National Academy of Sciences helped movie makers to get the science right?
It puts movie-makers in contact with real scientists.

4. Why might it not be a good idea to pretend the science in a movie is correct?
Because consumers can find out how accurate the film is by checking online.

5. Which verb in the article means 'to represent something in a particular way'?
To portray.

 2. 请你在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。

1. It's warm and sunny. Going to the beach is a no-brainer.

2. My chemistry teacher said I'm good at mixing things in the school lab but I have to learn more about the theory behind it.

3. Consumers are very demanding nowadays. If the quality is no good they go and shop elsewhere!

4. I love blockbuster movies! But nothing beats a low-budget romantic comedy when you want a quiet afternoon at home.

5. ET is a classic movie. It's captured everybody's imagination.

文章来源BBC，侵权删，本文仅用于英语学习。