课文...who put his questions to nature instead of to the ancients, and who drew his conclusions fearlessly. ...
put 提出
draw one's conclusion ：作出...的结论
powerful influence of religion
接下来课文...He had been the first to turn a telescope to the sky, and he had seen there evidence enough to overthrow Aristotle and Ptolemy together. ...
there: in the sky
enough to ...后置定语
接下来课文...He was the man who climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa and dropped various weights from the top, who rolled balls down inclined planes, and then generalized the results of his many experiments into the famous law of free fall. ...
weights ：重物
generalize... into 把…总结成
law/theory
law: natural
theory: mental
law of nature ：自然法则
接下来课文...But a closer study of the evidence, supported by a deeper sense of the period, and particularly by a new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents in the scientific revolution, has profoundly modified this view of Galileo. ...
a closer study 更仔细地研究
support 修饰 study
sense: understanding
consciousness: understanding
profoundly: deeply
modified: changed
1. of the period
2 .new consciousness of the philosophical undercurrents
接下来课文...Today, although the old Galileo lives on in many popular writings, ...