世界小史 第5章:尾巴

And how do we know that? We sometimes find their bones, deep in the ground.

我們怎么知道的?我們有時在地下深處找到它們的骨骼。

When I was a schoolboy in Vienna I used to visit the Natural History Museum,

當(dāng)我在維也納上小學(xué)的時候，我經(jīng)常參觀自然歷史博物館，

where I loved to gaze at the great skeleton of a creature called a Diplodocus.

在那里我喜歡注視一種叫做恐龍的生物的骨骼。

An odd name, Diplodocus. But an even odder creature.

一個奇怪的名字，恐龍。但是這卻是一種更為奇怪的動物。

It wouldn't fit into a room at home or even two, for that matter.

它在一間房間里放不下，在兩間房間里也放不下。

It was as tall as a very tall tree, and its tail was half as long as a football pitch.

它像很高的大樹一樣高，有條半個足球場那樣長的尾巴。

What a tremendous noise it must have made, as it munched its way through the primeval forest!

它啃遍原始森林時，一定怪吵鬧的!

But we still haven't reached the beginning.

可是這也并不是起源。

It all goes back much further thousands of millions of years.

也還可以從那兒再向前追溯，追溯到數(shù)十億年以前。

That's easy enough to say, but stop and think for a moment.

這說起來容易，可是你想一想。

Do you know how long one second is?

你知道，1秒鐘有多長?

It's as long as counting: one, two, three. And how about 1,000 million seconds? That's 32 years!

跟你數(shù)1、2、3一樣長。10億秒鐘有多長?32年!