角度The Angular Degree

常用词汇

同义词与近义词

常用短语与固定搭配

• put forward：提出（观点、理论等）。原文用法："Several explanations have been put forward to account for the choice of this number."
• account for：解释，说明（原因）。原文用法："...to account for the choice of this number."
• lead to：导致，引起。原文用法："...this naturally led to the division of the circle into 360 equal parts."
• apply ... to ...：把……应用于……。原文用法："...the radius of a circle can be applied exactly six times to its circumference as a chord."
• result in：导致，结果是。原文用法："...resulting in the division of the entire circle into 360 equal parts."
• subdivide into：再细分为。原文用法："...the Babylonian mile had been subdivided into 30 equal parts."
• arrive at：得出（结论、数字等）。原文用法："We thus arrive at (12)(30) = 360 equal parts..."

常用句式

• It has been supposed that...：人们曾经假定……（表达已不被认可的旧观点）。原文例句："Thus it has been supposed that the early Babylonians reckoned a year as 360 days..."
• Since we now have evidence that..., ...：既然我们现在有证据表明……，那么……（证据驱动的论证句式）。原文例句："Today this explanation is discredited, since we now have evidence that the Babylonians very early knew that the year possesses more than 360 days."
• It was natural that...：……是自然的/合乎情理的（基于前文条件推断合理性）。原文例句："Then, having adopted sexagesimal division, it was natural to divide the central angles of these chords into 60 equal parts..."

长难句解析

"Later, sometime in the first millennium b.c., when Babylonian astronomy reached the stage in which systematic records of celestial phenomena were kept, the Babylonian time-mile was adopted for measuring spans of time."

• 主干：the Babylonian time-mile was adopted（巴比伦时间-里被采用）
• 修饰与从句：

- "Later, sometime in the first millennium b.c." —— 时间状语 - "when Babylonian astronomy reached the stage..." —— 非限制性定语从句，修饰整个时间背景 - "in which systematic records of celestial phenomena were kept" —— 定语从句，修饰 "the stage" - "for measuring spans of time" —— 目的状语，说明 adopt 的用途

• 逻辑关系：时间背景（when...）→ 条件成熟 → 结果（time-mile 被采用为时间度量单位）

"Since a complete day was found to be equal to 12 time-miles, and one complete day is equivalent to one revolution of the sky, a complete circuit was divided into 12 equal parts."

• 主干：a complete circuit was divided into 12 equal parts（一个完整的圆周被分为 12 等份）
• 修饰与从句：

- "Since a complete day was found to be equal to 12 time-miles," —— 原因状语从句 1 - "and one complete day is equivalent to one revolution of the sky," —— 并列的原因状语从句 2

• 逻辑关系：原因（Since A and B）→ 结论（因此 C），典型的因果论证结构。

语言使用特点

• 本文属于学术性说明文（academic expository prose），语气客观、审慎，频繁使用被动语态（"has been put forward", "was found to be", "had been subdivided"）来弱化施动者、突出事实本身。
• 使用形式主语 It 结构（"it has been supposed that", "it was natural to"）使句子平衡、正式。
• 逻辑衔接词丰富：Thus（承接推论）、Again（引入下一假说）、But（转折）、Since（原因）、Later（时间推进）。

迁移练习

1. 用 put forward 和 account for 各写一句话，解释一个你熟悉的数学概念（如"为什么 π ≈ 3.14159..."）。
2. 将以下中文翻译成英文，尽量使用本文出现的句式："有人曾认为地球是宇宙的中心，但后来的天文观测证据驳斥了这一观点。"
3. 根据 Neugebauer 的解释，补全以下推理链：1 天 = [ ? ] 时间-里 → 1 时间-里 = [ ? ] 等份 → 1 圆周 = [ ? ] 等份。