23.The hydrologic cycle，a major topic in this science，is thecomplete cycle of phenomena through which water passes，beginning asatmospheric water vapor，passing into liquid and solid form asprecipitation，thence along and into the ground surface，and finallyagain returning to the form of atmospheric water vapor by means ofevaporation and transpiration.
水文循环(hydrologiccycle)，作为该学科中的一个主要课题，指的是水所经过的诸现象的整个循环过程，开始时是作为大气中的水蒸气，转而作为雨、雪、露、雹一类的降水量经过液体和固体形态，由此而沿着地层表面分布或进入地层表面，最终通过蒸发和散发作用再度回复到大气水蒸气的形态。
24.The historian Frederick J. Turner wrote in the 1890’s that theagrarian discontent that had been developing steadily in the UnitedStates since about 1870 had been precipitated by the closing of theinternal frontier——that is，the depletion of available new land neededfor further expansion of the American farming system.
史学家弗雷德里克.杰.特纳(FrederickJ.Turner)于十九世纪九十年代著述道，美国约自18世纪70年代以来一直在持续不断发展的农民不满，由于国内边远地区(internalfrontier)的封闭而更趋加剧——亦即是说，美国农业系统进一步扩展所必需的可资利用的新土地几近耗竭。
25.In the early 1950’s，historians who studied preindustrial Europe(which we may define here as Europe in the period from roughly 1300 to1800) began， for the first time in large numbers，to investigate moreof the preindustrial European population than the 2 or 3 percent whocomprised the political and social elite：thekings，generals，judges，nobles，bishops，and local magnates who hadhitherto usually filled history books.
二十世纪五十年代早期，研究前工业化时代欧洲(此处我们可将其界定为约自1300年至1800年这一时期的欧洲)的史学家，首次以众多的人数，开始调查前工业化时代欧洲人口中的大多数，而非那些构成了政治与社会精英阶层的百分之二或三的人口，即国王、将军、法官、贵族、主教、以及地方上的达官显贵，而正是这部分人一直到那时为止普遍充斥于史学著作。
26.Historians such as Le Roy Ladurie have used the documents toextract case histories，which have illuminated the attitudes ofdifferent social groups (these attitudes include，but are not confinedto，attitudes toward crime and the law)and have revealed how theauthorities administered justice.
象勒罗伊。拉迪里(Le Roy Ladurie)一类的史学家利用这些文献史料从中挖掘出某些个案史(case history)来，阐明了不同社会群体的态度(这些态度包括，但并非局限于，对犯罪和法律的态度)，并揭示出当局是如何执行审判的。
