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Listen to part of a conversation between a student and the professor of the history of technology class.
听一段学生和科技历史课教授的对话。
Student: Would it be okay to focus on something related to agriculture?
可以专注于和农业有关的东西吗？
Professor: Sure, farming technology is fine, as long as it's pre-modern.
当然，农业科技是可以的，只要是现代以前的科技就行。
Professor: But this isn't a long paper, so you are gonna need to pick a specific area of pre-modern agriculture, like irrigation or food crops of ancient Greece.
但这不是一篇长论文，所以你要选定一个现代以前农业的特定领域，像是灌溉技术，或古希腊的粮食作物。
Student: I am actually interested in hydroponics.
事实上我对水培法很感兴趣。
Professor: Hydroponics. Growing plants in water instead of soil.
水培法，在水里种植，而不是在土里。
Student: Well, not in pure water, in water that has the proper mix of nutrients.
不是在纯水中，是在适当混合了营养素的水中。
Professor: OK. But is it a pre-modern technology?
好吧，但这是一项现代以前的科技吗？
Professor: 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.
我是指，水培法不是我的专长，但从我度过的研究来看，我们涉及的是19世纪，如果你真的延伸开来，也许到17世纪。
Student: Oh? But the Aztec civilization back in the thirteenth century in basically where Mexico city is today …
噢？但在13世纪，差不多是现在的墨西哥市所在地，阿芝克特文化……
Student: An article I read said the Aztecs were using hydroponics in something they called …
我读到过一篇文章，说阿芝克特人把水培法用在……
Student: I have got the word right here. Um. Chinampas.
我找到那个词了。奇昂帕。
Professor: Chinampas, the so-called floating gardens.
奇昂帕，所谓的漂浮花园。
Student: Exactly. So yeah, the chinampas, the article said very clearly these floating gardens are proof that the Aztec invented hydroponic farming.
正确。对，奇昂帕，文章说这些漂浮花园就是阿芝克特人发明水培法耕种的证据。
Professor: Well, chinampas are artificial islands built up in shallow lakes, islands made from packed earth and weeds and uh, material from the bottom of the lake.
奇昂帕是在浅湖中的人造岛，由包装好的泥土和芦苇组成，还有来自湖底的材料。
Professor: They may have appeared to be floating in the water, but in fact they reach all the way to the bottom of the lake.
这些小岛看起来是漂浮于水面的，但事实上它们都直通湖底。
