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旁白：听一段学生和他科技历史教授的对话。

Narrator: Listen to part of a conversation between a student and the professor of his history of technology class.

学生：我着重于和农业相关的内容可以吗？

Student: Would it be okay to focus on something related to agriculture?

教授：当然，农业科技是可以的，只要它是前现代。

Professor: Sure, farming technology is fine, as long as it's pre-modern.

但是，这并不是一个很长的论文，你是否打算在前现代农业中挑一个特定的领域，如古希腊的灌溉和食用作物。

But this isn't a long paper, so are you going to need to pick a specific area of pre-modern agriculture, like irrigation or food crops of ancient Greece.

学生：事实上，我对水培法很有兴趣。

Student: I am actually interested in hydroponics.

教授：水培法。不在土里，而在水里种植。

Professor: Hydroponics. Growing plants in water instead of soil.

学生：不是在纯水里，而是在有适当营养物比例的水里。

Student: Well, not in pure water, in water that has the proper mix of nutrients.

教授：好的。但是，这是一个前现代的科技吗？

Professor: OK. But is it a pre-modern technology?

我的意思是，水培法不是我的专长，但是从我读过的研究，我们说的是19世纪，如果你真的延伸它，也可能是17世纪。

I mean, hydroponics isn't really my specialty but from the research I have read, we are talking the nineteenth century, maybe the seventeenth century if you really stretch it.

学生：哦？但是在13世纪，阿芝特克人，主要在当今的墨西哥城……我读过的一篇文章说阿芝特克人在他们所谓的……我马上就想起这个单词了Chimampas，中使用水培法。

Student: Oh? But the Aztec civilization back in the thirteenth century in basically where Mexico city is today … An article I read said the Aztecs were using hydroponics in something they called … I have got the word right here, um, Chinampas.

教授：Chinampas，号称流动的花园。

Professor: Chinampas, the so-called floating gardens.

学生：正是，chinampas，文章说的很清楚移动花园是阿芝特克人发明水培耕作的证据。

Student: Exactly. So yeah the chinampas, the article said very clearly these floating gardens are proof that the Aztec invented hydroponic farming.

教授：chinampas是在潜水湖中建造的人工岛屿。

Professor: Well, chinampas are artificial islands built up in shallow lakes.

岛屿是用炕土、野草以及湖底的一些物质建成的。

Islands made from packed earth and weeds and uh, material from the bottom of the lake.

他们可能看上去像飘在水里，但是，事实上他们一路到达湖底。

They may have appeared to be floating in the water, but in fact they reach all the way to the bottom of the lake.

所以，这些植物营养元素的来源，它们主要的生长媒介，通常是土，而不是水。

So the primary growing medium, what the plants draw nutrients from, is actually soil, not water.

学生：所以，那篇文章说的不对？

Student: So the article was wrong about that?

太糟了，这个话题看上去很棒，但是我想……

Too bad, it seems like a great topic, but I guess…

从技术上来说，Chinapas不是水培的并不意味这它不可以作为你论文的一个合适的话题。

Just because chinampas were not technically hydroponic doesn't mean this couldn't be an appropriate topic for your paper.

Chinampas仍旧是一个很棒的科技成就。

Chinampas were still a great pre-modern technological achievement.

我的意思是，他们使得阿芝特克人在乜有很多农田的情况下，在那个地方种植了很多植物。

I mean, they enabled the Aztecs to grow plenty of food in an area without much available farmland.

学生：但是我很困惑，为啥作者会写chinampas是水培的。

Student: But I wondered why the author wrote that chinampas were hydroponic.

教授：对于作者们来说，用水培法之类的术语去描述其他类型的农业是很普遍的。

Professor: Well it's pretty common for writers to generalize, say use a term like hydroponics to describe other types of agriculture.

从我个人来说，除了种植在液体的植物，我都不会称之为水培。

Personally, I would never say hydroponic except for plants growing in liquid.

在chinampas上的农作物的确从它们周围的水当中获益。

The crops on chinampas definitely benefited from the water surrounding them.

学生：好的。我会用chinampas作为话题，但是会去除水培的部分。

Student: OK. So I will go with chinampas but leave out with the hydroponics part.

教授：事实上，这里给你上了重要的一课。

Professor: Actually, there's an important lesson here.

我们应该注意在历史上发生的事情，但是同样也要关注历史事件呈现是如何呈现的。

We should pay attention to what happened in history but also how historical events are presented.

比如，为什么作者会很随意地使用水培这样的词？

Why, for example, would writers use a word like hydroponics so casually?

学生：我猜因为这是人们想要读到的热门话题。

Student: I guess 'cause it's a popular topic people want to read about?

教授：或者帮助现在的读者们去理解一些历史上的东西，也学这些作者们认为需要一个常见的参考框架。

Professor: Or to help modern-day readers to understand something historical, maybe these writers think a familiar frame of reference is needed.

学生：好吧，那篇文章是在一本大众杂志上刊登的，并不是针对历史学家们的学术杂志。

Student: Well that article was in a popular magazine, not a scholarly journal for historians.

教授：好的。但是历史学家们有时候也做同样的事情。

Professor: OK. But historians sometimes do the same thing.

学生：那么，我猜所有的历史学家们可能也不会用同一种方式来描述chinampas。

Student: So I guess then that all historians might not describe chinampas in quite the same way either.

教授：好观点。为什么不调查一下那个呢？

Professor: Good point. Why not look into that too?

并且把这个连同你的描述和分析一起加进去。

And include it along with your description and analysis.

Why has the student come to see the professor?

What does the professor imply about hydroponics?

Why does the professor describe how chinampas were made?

What does the professor think about the article the student mentions?

What additional information does the professor suggest that the student include in his paper?