萬(wàn)物簡(jiǎn)史 第6期:引言(6)

"Excited, I took the book home that night andopened it before dinner,

那天晚上，我很興奮，把這本書(shū)抱回了家，晚飯之前就把書(shū)打開(kāi)--我想，

an action that I expect prompted my mother to feelmy forehead and ask if I was all right-and, startingwith the first page, I read.

正是由于這個(gè)舉動(dòng)，我的母親摸了摸我的額頭，看看我是不是病了--翻到第一頁(yè)，讀了起來(lái)。

And here's the thing. It wasn't exciting at all. It wasn't actually altogether comprehensible.

結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，這本書(shū)毫不激動(dòng)人心。實(shí)際上，它不是包羅萬(wàn)象的。

Above all, it didn't answer any of the questions that the illustration stirred up in a normalinquiring mind:

首先，它沒(méi)有回答插圖在正常人好奇的腦子里產(chǎn)生的任何問(wèn)題：

How did we end up with a Sun in the middle of our planet?

我們行星的中央怎么會(huì)冒出來(lái)一個(gè)太陽(yáng)，他們?cè)趺粗浪臏囟?

And if it is burning away down there, why isn't the ground under our feet hot to the touch?

要是它在下面熊熊燃燒，我們腳下的地面怎么摸上去不是燙的?

And why isn't the rest of the interior melting-or is it?

為什么內(nèi)部的其余部分不在熔化，或者正在熔化?

And when the core at last burns itself out, will some of the Earth slump into the void, leavinga giant sinkhole on the surface?

要是地心最終燒盡以后，地球的某個(gè)部分是不是會(huì)塌進(jìn)那個(gè)空間，在地面上留下一個(gè)大坑?

And how do you know this? How did you figure it out?

而你是怎么知道這個(gè)的?你是怎么測(cè)算出來(lái)的?

But the author was strangely silent on such details-indeed, silent on everything but anticlines,synclines, axial faults, and the like.

教科書(shū)的作者似乎有個(gè)普遍的陰謀，他們要極力確保他們寫(xiě)的材料絕不過(guò)于接近稍有意思的東西，起碼總是遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)回避明顯有意思的東西。

It was as if he wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable.

他似乎有意把一切都弄得深不可測(cè)，以便守住好東西的秘密。

As the years passed, I began to suspect that this was not altogether a private impulse.",

隨著歲月流逝，我開(kāi)始認(rèn)為這不完全是個(gè)個(gè)人動(dòng)機(jī)。

There seemed to be a mystifying universal conspiracy among textbook authors

但是，說(shuō)來(lái)也怪，作者

to make certain the material they dealt with never strayed too near the realm of the mildlyinteresting

對(duì)這些具體疑問(wèn)只字不提--實(shí)際上對(duì)任何疑問(wèn)都只字不提，

and was always at least a longdistance phone call from the frankly interesting."

只是說(shuō)些什么背斜呀，向斜呀，地軸偏差呀，等等。