很多小伙伴都想读英文原著学英语，可每次看两页就放弃。为了帮助大家从阅读中找到乐趣，晓梅老师就带大家一起读英文原著，看看有意思的故事，学学地道表达，分析长难句。先从A Short History of Nearly Everything《万物简史》开始。这本书从宇宙大爆炸开始讲现代科学史，穿插了很多科学家的生平故事，妙趣横生。本书作者Bill Bryson喜欢用口语化的语言叙述，因而里面的英语要比一般的原著通俗易懂。今天读第4章关于观察金星凌日的片段，有助于理解剑桥雅思9 Test 2 阅读第2篇文章。
观测金星凌日
Maskelyne and Mason had become friends eleven years earlier while engaged in a project to measure an astronomical event of great importance: the passage of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun.
马斯基林和梅森早在11年前一起参加一个项目的时候就成了朋友，这个项目是为了测量重要的天文事件：金星凌日。
The tireless Edmond Halley had suggested years before that if you measured one of these passages from selected points on the Earth, you could use the principles of triangulation to work out the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and thence to calibrate the distances to all the other bodies in the solar system.
孜孜不倦的爱德蒙·哈雷几年前就说过，要是从地球上选好的几个点测量某次金星凌日，就能使用三角测量原理算出地球到太阳的距离，从而确定地球到太阳系中其他所有天体的距离。
Unfortunately, transits of Venus, as they are known, are an irregular occurrence. They come in pairs eight years apart, but then are absent for a century or more, and there were none in Halley's lifetime.
不幸的是，金星凌日的出现并不规律。它会以8年为间隔出现两次，之后就要隔上一个世纪或者更长时间才出现。哈雷的一生中一次也没出现过。（注：2004年和2012年分别出现过两次。20世纪没出现过。）
But the idea simmered and when the next transit fell due in 1761, nearly two decades after Halley's death, the scientific world was ready - indeed more ready than it had been for an astronomical event before.
但是用金星凌日测量地球到太阳距离的想法生根发芽了。当下一次凌日在哈雷去世快20年后的1761年到来的时候，科学界做好了准备，准备得比以往任何一次天文事件都充分。
With the instinct for ordeal that characterized the age, scientists set off for more than a hundred locations around the globe - to Siberia, China, South Africa, Indonesia, and the woods of Wisconsin, among many others. France dispatched thirty-two observers, Britain eighteen more, and still others set out from Sweden, Russia, Italy, Germany, Ireland and elsewhere.
由于了解当时环境的严酷，科学家们去了世界上100多个地方，其中有西伯利亚、中国、南非、印度尼西亚和美国威斯康星州的树林。法国派出了32位观测员，英国18位，还有一些从瑞典、俄国、意大利、德国、爱尔兰和其他地方出发。
词汇和短语
1. engage in/on/upon，从事或者牵涉于某事中
The two parties engaged upon an escalating political struggle. 双方的政治斗争不断升级。
2. work out，制定出计划；计算出；理解
UN negotiators have worked out a set of compromise proposals. 联合国谈判代表已制定出一套折衷方案。
We'll have to work out how much food we'll need for the party. 我们得算出聚会需要多少食物。
The plot is very complicated - it'll take you a while to work it out. 情节很复杂，你得花点时间才能搞清楚。
3. solar system，太阳系。solar太阳的，lunar月亮的
solar calendar 阳历
lunar calendar 阴历
4. transits of Venus，金星凌日
5. set off，出发，引起某事发生，引发（警报）。放鞭炮放烟花的“放”可以用这个短语。
I'll set off early to avoid the traffic. 我要早点出发，避开交通堵塞。
News that the claims might be true set off widespread panic. 这些说法可能是真的的消息引起了广泛的恐慌。
Smoke from a cigarette will not normally set off a smoke alarm. 香烟的烟雾通常不会触发烟雾报警器。
长难句分析
The tireless Edmond Halley [主语] had suggested years before that [that引导的宾语从语] if [if引导的条件状语从句] you measured one of these passages from selected points on the Earth, you could use the principles of triangulation to work out the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and thence to calibrate the distances to all the other bodies in the solar system.
孜孜不倦的爱德蒙·哈雷几年前就说过，要是从地球上选好的几个点测量某次金星凌日，就能使用三角测量原理算出地球到太阳的距离，从而确定地球到太阳系中其他所有天体的距离。