新概念第四冊課文精講 Lesson45:人和星系
課文45 人和星系
895. In man's early days. competition with other creatures must have been critical.
在人類早期，人類與其他生物的競爭一定是必不可少的。
896. But this phase of our development is now finished.
但這個發(fā)展階段已經(jīng)結(jié)束。
897. Indeed, we lack practice and experience nowadays in dealing with primitive conditions.
確實，我們今天缺乏對付原始環(huán)境的實踐和經(jīng)驗。
898. I am sure that, without modern weapons, I would make a very poor show of disputing the ownership of a cave with a bear,
我斷定，如果沒有現(xiàn)代化的武器，要我和一只熊去爭洞穴，我會出洋相的;
899. and in this I do not think that I stand alone.
我也相信，出洋相者并非我一人。
900. The last creature to compete with man was the mosquito.
能與競爭的生物最后只有蚊子，
901. But even the mosquito has been subdued by attention to drainage and by chemical sprays.
然而即使蚊子，也由于我們注意清理污水和噴灑化學(xué)藥品就被制服了。
902. Competition between our selves, person against person, community against community, still persists, however; and it is as fierce as it ever was.
然而人類之間的戰(zhàn)爭，人與人，團體與團體，依然在進行著，而且和以前一樣激烈。
903. But the competition of man against man is not the simple process envisioned in biology.
但是，人與人的競爭并不像生物生物學(xué)中想像的那樣是一個簡單過程。
904. It is not a simple competition for a fixed amount of food determined by the physical environment, because the environment that determines our evolution is no longer essentially physical.
它已不是為爭得物質(zhì)環(huán)境所決定的東西所決定。
905. Our environment is chiefly conditoned by the things we believe.
我們的環(huán)境主要是由我們所相信的東西所決定。
906. Morocco and California are bits of the Earth in very similar latitudes,
摩洛哥和加利福尼亞是地球上緯度極其相似的兩個地方，
907. both on the west coasts of continents with similar climates, and probably with rather similar natural resources.
都在各自大陸的西海岸，氣候相似，自然資源也可能相似。
908. Yet their present development is wholly different,
但是，這兩個地方目前的發(fā)展程度完全不一樣。
909. not so much because of different people wish to emphasize.
這倒不是因為人民不同，而是由于居民頭腦中的思想不同。
910. The most important factor in our environment is the state of our own minds.
這是我要強調(diào)的論點。我們環(huán)境中最重要的因素就是我們的思想狀況。
911. It is well known that where the white man has invaded a primitive culture, the most destructive effects have come not from physical weapons but from ideas.
眾所周知，凡是白人侵入原始文化的地方，破壞作用最大的不是殺人的武器，而是思想。
912. Ideas are dangerous.
思想是危險的。
913. The Holy Office knew this full well when it caused heretics to be burned in days gone by.
宗教法庭對此是非常清楚的，因此從前它總是把異教徒燒死。
914. Indeed, the concept of free speech only exists in our modern society
的確，言論自由的概念只存在于我們現(xiàn)代社會中，
915. because when you are inside a community, you are conditioned by the conventions of the community to such a degree that it is very difficult to conceive of anything really destructive.
因為當(dāng)你生活在一個社團中時，社團的風(fēng)俗習(xí)慣會嚴格地制約你，使你很難有破壞性的想法。
916. It is only someone looking on from outside that can inject the dangerous thoughts.
只有外部的旁觀者才能灌輸危險的思想。
917. I do not doubt that it would be possible to inject ideas into the modern world that would utterly destroy us.
向現(xiàn)代世界灌輸一種思想以便摧毀我們?nèi)祟愂强赡艿氖?，對此我并不懷疑?/p>
918. I would like to give you an example, but fortunately I cannot do so.
我愿為你舉個例子，但幸虧我舉不出。
919. Perhaps it will suffice to mention the unclear bomb.
也許提一下核彈就足以證明了。
920. Of making the effect on a reasonably advanced technological society, one that still does not possess the bomb,
對一個沿未擁有核彈、但科技相當(dāng)發(fā)達的社會，
921. of making it aware of the possibility, of supplying sufficient details to enable the thing to be constructed.
如果告訴它制造核彈的可能性，而且向它提供制造核彈的細節(jié)，那么可以設(shè)想，這將對這個社會產(chǎn)生何等的影響。
922. Twenty or thirty pages of information handed to any of the major world powers around the year 1925 would have been sufficient to change the course of world history.
如果把二三十頁的情報交給1952年前后的任何一個世界強國，就足以改變世界歷史的進程。二三十頁材料中的思想和情報會便當(dāng)今的世界翻天覆地，甚至毀滅這個世界。
923. It is a strange thought, but I believe a correct one, that twenty or thirty pages of ideas and information would be capable of turning the present-day world upside down, or even destroying it.
這是個離奇的想法。不過我認為這個想法是正確的。
924. I have often tried to conceive of what those pages might contain,
我常常試圖想像這些紙上所寫的東西，
925. but of course outside the particular patterns that our brains are conditioned to, or, to be more accurate,
不過我是做不到的，因為我和你們大家一樣，是當(dāng)今世界上的凡人。我閃不能脫離我們大腦所限定的模式去問題，
926. we can think only a very little way outside, and then only if we are very original.
我們只能稍微離開一點兒，就這也需要我們獨創(chuàng)的思想。
