People in the contracting phase would live their lives backward.
在收缩阶段人们会倒着活
They would die before they were born and get younger as the universe got small again.
他们会死在出生之前 当宇宙缩小 能再获青春
Eventually, they would return to the womb.He gave me my first problem to do.
最终回到子宫 头一次 他给我留了一个问题
He asked me to look at this mathematical problem.
他让我看看这个数学问题
Usually when he gives a problem, he has a good idea of what the answer should be.
通常当他给出一个问题 他的脑海里 会有答案的大概样子
I went to look at it, and it took me a few months to understand what it was about,
我看了一下 花了我几个月 来理解这是什么东西
and I came back and said, I get this answer.
然后回来说 我知道答案了
And he said to me, No, that is not what I expected.
他对我说 不 这不是我所期望的
I said, That's what I get.So I went to the blackboard, explained what it was.
我说 这就是我得到的 所以我走向黑板 解释它是什么
He said, Did you think about that particular case?I said, No, I didn't.
他说 考虑特殊情况了吗 我说 没考虑
So I went back and I calculated what he'd talked to me about.
所以我又回去了 然后计算他告诉我的东西
I came back a few weeks after, and I said,Stephen, I don't get this thing.
在我回去的一个星期后 我说 史蒂芬 我得不到这些东西
I still get the same answer I had originally.So he said to me, "No, no, no, no.
我仍然得出了一开始的答案 所以他对我说 不不不
This doesn't work. Did you think about that?I said, "Oh, no. I'd forgotten about that particular case.
这没用 你想过那些东西 我说 不 我忘了考虑特殊情况
So I went back to the drawing board and started calculating again and again I got the same answer.
所以我回去重新开始计算 再一次 我得到了相同的答案
So I went back to see Stephen, and this dragged on for two or three months.
所以我又回来见史蒂芬 这拖延了两三个月
Finally he said to me Maybe one of your approximations is not valid.
最后他对我说 可能你的某一个近似是无效的
So me and a colleague decided to do the thing with computers.
所以我和我的同事决定用计算机做这件事
This takes a lot of time to Write the programs and to be sure the program was correct.
这花了大把时间来写程序 还要确定程序是正确的
We get the answer, and it was still the way I'd said before
我们得到答案 仍然和我之前说的一样
and not the way Stephen said, so we went to see Stephen and said,You see? Again.
而不是史蒂芬说的那种 所以我们去见史蒂芬 说 看到了吗 还是这样