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It's never too late to learn 活到老學到老

Brian May, left, hands in his doctoral thesis to Professor Paul Nandra, head of Astrophysics at Imperial College in central London, UK, Aug. 3, 2007. 梅在八月三日把遞交他的博士論文給倫敦帝國理工學院天體物理學研究所所長保羅•南德拉。 PHOTO: AP

Brian May, the guitarist from British rock group Queen, handed in his doctoral thesis on Aug. 3, more than 30 years after first starting the academic dissertation on a highly specialized area of astronomy.

May started the thesis at Imperial College, London, in 1974, but shelved it when his musical career with the band headed by legendary showman Freddie Mercury took off.

He finally returned to it last year, and completed the 48,000-word extended dissertation after dusting off the manuscript left for over three decades in the loft of his Surrey home.

On Friday he handed in the thesis, called "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud", to Imperial's head of astrophysics Professor Paul Nandra. Once assessors have read it he faces an oral exam on the work later this month.

"It's been the longest gap year ever," the 60-year-old musician said. "It was a tough decision back then to leave my studies for music."

"I will have two experts in the field who will now grill me and probably give me hell ... I've been used to getting my own way but with this I had to buckle down and be a student and do what I was told. I did a lot of scratching my head," he added.

May has not completely neglected astronomy during his musical career.He recently co-wrote a children's science book with British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore.

May is due to be quizzed by an academic panel on his PhD thesis on Aug. 23, and their decision is expected shortly afterwards.

The guitarist appeared quietly confident. "I have a philosophical view of things, a stoical view of life, that it will be what it will be. I've done the work and I'm proud of the work."

英國搖滾樂團皇后合唱團吉他手布萊恩．梅在八月三日遞交他的博士論文。這距離他一開始著手寫專攻天文學領域的論文，已有三十多年之久。

梅在一九七四年在倫敦帝國理工學院開始寫論文，可是當他與傳奇歌舞大王佛萊迪·摩克瑞領軍的樂團之音樂生涯起飛後，就束諸高閣了。

他終於在去年重拾論文寫作。他撢除三十年前封存於英國塞瑞家閣樓論文手稿上的灰塵後，他完成了四萬八千字的加長論文。

週五（八月三日），他將此標題為「黃道帶塵雲內的光線速度」的論文，遞交給帝國理工學院天體物理學研究所的所長保羅．南德拉。一但每位審閱官過目後，梅將會在這個月底參加論文口試。

這位六十歲的音樂家說：「這是我畢生最長的一段缺口。」他接著說：「當時，決定放下音樂而重拾論文寫作是很困難的決定。」

他補充說：「我將有兩位專家在旁鞭策我，甚或可能把我臭罵一頓 ... 我已經開始習慣用自己的方式，可是對於寫論文，我必須要很認真並且當個學生，做老師教我的事情。我因此感到很頭大。」

梅在音樂生涯中一直都沒有完全忽略天文學。他最近與一位英國天文學家派翠克．摩爾爵士一起寫了一本科學童書。梅將在八月二十三日接受學校口試委員的提問，預計口試結果將在短期內揭曉。

這位吉他手顯現出很有信心。他說：「我對事情有個哲學觀、對生命有個苦行觀，也就是說，凡事皆有定數。我已經完成我的工作，我引以為傲。」

（法新社／翻譯：林亞蒂）

TODAY'S WORDS 今日單字 1. doctoral thesis n.phr. 博士論文 (bo2 shi4 lun4 wen2) 例: Sam completed his doctoral thesis in quantum physics at the young age of 21. (山姆在二十一歲的年紀就完成了他的量子物理學博士論文。) 2. legendary adj. 傳奇的 (chuan2 qi2 de5) 例: This track was recorded by the legendary Frank Zappa. (這首曲子是由傳奇搖滾樂手法蘭克:查帕錄製的。) 3. manuscript n. 手稿 (shou2 gao3) 例: I sent the manuscript to be bound at the photcopy store. (我送出原稿到影印店裝訂。) 4. stoical adj. 堅忍的 (jian1 ren3 de5) 例: It is not that Candice is impervious to suffering, she is merely a stoical character. (坎蒂絲並非對於苦痛毫無所感，她只不過有個堅忍的性格。)

SAY WHAT? 說說看 grill (someone)　拷問（某人） If somebody grills (someone) it means that they question them at length in order to ascertain something. For example, if a parent suspected that their child was playing truant from school, they might grill him or her as to activities in school that day. Another similar expression is giving (someone) the third degree. This comes from the third level of membership in the Masons, entry into which requires close interrogation. 「grill」的意思是長時間訊問某人以追查某事。例如：如果父母懷疑小孩逃學:他們可能會逼問孩子今天在學校做了哪些活動。 而另一種類似的說法是 「giving (someone) the third degree」。起源是因為「共濟會」要授予某人第三級會員之前:都必須經過嚴格的審查。

OUT LOUD 對話練習 Shane: Oh no! Sally: What's up? Shane: I forgot to call my mom yesterday. It was her birthday! Sally: Well, why don't you give her a call now and apologize? Maybe send her some flowers, or plan an outing together? Shane: Good idea. I really should have remembered yesterday. Still, better late than never. 翔：喔，不好了！ 莎莉：怎麼啦？ 翔：我忘記打電話給我老媽，昨天是她的生日！ 莎莉：呃，你怎麼不現在打給她道歉呢？或許送她一些花，或計劃一起出遊。 翔：好主意，我昨天真該記起來的。不過呢…晚做總比不做好。 better late than never　遲總比沒有好 Better late than never means that it is better to do something after the time it should have been done than not do it at all. 「Better late than never 」表示錯過時間後再來補救:總比根本都不做來得好。

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