新概念英语第四册42-02

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, ...

old: late