2020考研双语阅读：牵动世界的“光纤之父”走了

　　坚持英语阅读是考研英语拿高分必须要做的一件事情。新东方在线考研网整理了一些与考研英语阅读同源文章，供同学们阅读，希望对大家有所帮助。

　　►Charles Kuen Kao， a Nobel laureate in physics whose research in the 1960s revolutionized the field of fiber optics and helped lay the technical groundwork for the information age， died on Sunday in Hong Kong. He was 84.

　　诺贝尔物理学奖得主高锟周日在香港去世，享年84岁。他在上世纪60年代的研究彻底改变了光纤领域，为信息时代奠定了技术基础。

　　His was confirmed by the Hong Kong-based Charles K. Kao Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease， which he and his wife， Gwen Kao， founded in 2010. The foundation declined to specify a cause but said that Dr. Kao learned he had the disease in 2002.

　　他和妻子黄美芸于2010年为阿兹海默症成立的高锟慈善基金证实了他的死讯。该基金会拒绝透露他去世的具体原因，但表示高博士于2002年得知自己患有这种疾病。

　　Working in Britain in the late 1960s， Dr. Kao and a colleague played a crucial role in discovering that the fiber optic cables in use at the time were limited by impurities in their glass. They also outlined the cables’ potential capacity for storing information — one that was far superior to that of copper wires or radio waves.

　　60年代末在英国工作期间，高锟和一位同事在发现当时使用的光缆受到玻璃质材中杂质的限制方面发挥了至关重要的作用。他们还概述了光缆存储信息的潜在能力——远远优于铜线或无线电波。

　　“The word ‘visionary’ is overused， but I think in the case of Charles Kao， it’s entirely appropriate because he really did see a world that was connected， by light， using the medium of optical fiber，” said John Dudley， a researcher in fiber optics based in France and a former president of the European Physical Society. “And I think society today owes him a great deal for that work.”

　　“‘远见卓识’这个词被过度使用，但我认为对于高锟，这个词完全合适，因为他确实看到了一个以光纤为媒介、通过光来连接的世界，”现居法国的光纤研究者、欧洲物理学会前主席约翰.达德利说。“我认为今天的社会拜他的工作所赐良多。”

　　In the early 1960s， light pulses carrying telephone and television signals could travel only about 20 meters， or about 65 feet， through glass fibers before nearly all the light dissipated. But by 1970， four years after Dr. Kao and the British engineer George Alfred Hockham published a landmark study on the subject， a group of researchers had produced an ultrapure optical fiber more than a half-mile long.

　　60年代初，移动电话和电视信号使用的光脉冲，通过玻璃纤维只能传播约20米，之后几乎所有光线就将耗尽。但到了1970年，在高锟和英国工程师乔治.阿尔弗雷德.霍克汉姆发表关于这一主题的里程碑研究四年后，一组研究人员生产出超过半英里长的超纯光纤。

　　Fiber optic cables， which look like fishing wire， later enabled the proliferation of broadband communications， biomedical informatics and countless other digital applications.

　　光缆看起来像是钓鱼线，后来正是它令宽带通信、生物医学信息学和无数其他数字应用技术得以普及。

　　When Dr. Kao shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009， the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences estimated that the optical cables in use worldwide， if unraveled， would equal a fiber more than 600 million miles long.

　　当高锟于2009年与他人一起获得诺贝尔物理学奖时，据瑞典皇家科学院估计，全球使用的光缆如果拆开，相当于一根超过6亿英里(约合9.7亿公里)长的光纤。

　　“It’s one of these things where， when you study technology， you start working on one thing， and the impact of it just fans out into all sorts of areas，” Dr. Dudley said by telephone.

　　“当你研究科技时，你开始研究的是一件事，然后它的影响会扩展到各种各样的领域，光缆研究就是这样的，”达德利在接受电话采访时说。

　　He added that it might have taken decades for Dr. Kao to receive the Nobel Prize because the importance of his work was not apparent to the general public until the 2000s.

　　他还说，高锟过了几十年的时间才获得诺贝尔奖，可能是因为直到本世纪初，公众才意识到其工作的重要性。

　　Carrie Lam， the chief executive of Hong Kong， a semiautonomous Chinese territory， said in a statement on Sunday that Dr. Kao’s work on fiber optics had made a “tremendous contribution to Hong Kong， the world and mankind.”

　　中国半自治领土香港的首席行政长官林郑月娥周日在一份声明中表示，高锟的光纤研究工作“为香港、世界和人类作出了巨大贡献”。

　　She added that he had also played a prominent role in shaping local higher education and scientific research.

　　她还说，他在塑造香港高等教育和科学研究方面也发挥了突出作用。

　　“An eminent figure， Professor Kao is the pride of Hong Kong people，” Ms. Lam said.

　　林郑月娥表示：“高锟教授出类拔萃，是香港人的骄傲。”

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