Questions 47-50. Listen to the beginning of a lecture given by a history professor.
Good morning, class. Before we begin today, I would like to address an issue that one of you reminded me of after the last lecture. As you may recall, last time I mentioned that Robert E. Pierre was the first person to reach the North Pole. What I neglected to mention was the controversy around Pierres pioneering accomplishment. In 1910, a committee of the national geographical society examined Comeydore Pierres claim to have reached the North Pole on April 6th 1909 and found no reason to doubt him. This judgment was actually confirmed by a committee of the US congress in 1911. Nevertheless, Pierres claim was surrounded by controversy. This was largely due to the competing claim of Doctor Frederic Cook who told the world he had reached the Pole a four-year earlier. Over the decades Pierre was given the benefit of the doubt, but critics persisted in raising questions about his navigation and the distances he claimed to have covered. So the Navigation Foundation spent an additional 12 months of exhaustive examination of documents relating to Pierres polar expedition. The documents supported Pierres claims about the distances he covered. After also conducting an extensive computer analysis of photos taken by Pierre at the pole, they concluded that Pierre and his companions did in fact reach the near vicinity of the North Pole on April 6th, 1909. OK, today were going to talk about exploration of the opposite end of the world. I assume you all read chapter 3 in our text and are now familiar with the names: Emerson and Scott.
中文参考译文:
早上好。在我们开始之前,我想提一下上节课后一位同学给我提出的一个问题。你们可能还记得,上节课我说过Robert E. Pierre是第一个到达北极的人。而我没提到过对Pierre这次历险成就的争论。1910年,一个国家地理学会小组考察了公布Comeydore Pierre在1909年4月6日登上北极点的报告,发现没有理由怀疑他的成功。这个决定被美国国会在1911年就核实了。然而,Pierre的成就却被疑问包围着。这是因为Frederic Cook医生公布他比Pierre早4年到达北极点。在以后的年代里Pierre赚了怀疑的便宜,但是批评家坚持对他所走方向和所走距离提出疑问。所以,领航基金会又用了12个月的难熬时间来考察Pierre的历险。文件支持了Pierre对路程的主张。在用了大量电脑分析Pierre在北极点拍的照片以后,他们作出结论:Pierre和他的伙伴们实际上的确在1909年4月6日到达了北极点。好,今天我们将要讨论对地球另一个极点的探索。我猜你们在读过书中的第三章以后,一定对Emerson和Scott这两个名字不生疏了吧?
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