萬物簡史 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，把這本書抱回了家，晚飯之前就把書打開--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.

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

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

結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，這本書毫不激動人心。實際上，它不是包羅萬象的。

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

首先，它沒有回答插圖在正常人好奇的腦子里產(chǎn)生的任何問題：

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

我們行星的中央怎么會冒出來一個太陽，他們怎么知道它的溫度?

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，地球的某個部分是不是會塌進那個空間，在地面上留下一個大坑?

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

而你是怎么知道這個的?你是怎么測算出來的?

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

教科書的作者似乎有個普遍的陰謀，他們要極力確保他們寫的材料絕不過于接近稍有意思的東西，起碼總是遠遠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，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，我開始認為這不完全是個個人動機。

There seemed to be a mystifying universal conspiracy among textbook authors

但是，說來也怪，作者

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

對這些具體疑問只字不提--實際上對任何疑問都只字不提，

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

只是說些什么背斜呀，向斜呀，地軸偏差呀，等等。