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Mr. Thompson now pulled the spade out of the ground, bringing a quantity of loose dirt from beneath the cube as he did so. John Thomas squatted to inspect the cube more narrowly. "Look, Father," he said. "The block isn't even touching the ground."
汤普森先生从地里拔出铁锹，拔的时候从立方体下带出了一些松土。约翰·托马斯蹲下去更仔细地查看这个立方体。“爸爸，你看，”他说。“金属块连地都没有碰着!”
"That," Mr.Thompson said, "is impossible." Nevertheless, he stooped to look, and after lookingreturned to his spade. He began to dig a hole around the cube, and before long he was able to take a spadeful from directly beneath it. The weight of the small cube had been astonishing enough, but what now occurred dumfounded them.
“那不可能，”汤普森先生说。然而，他还是弯下腰去看，看后再次操起铁锹。他开始在立方体周围挖坑，不一会儿，他就能直接从立方体正下面挖出整整一铲土。这个小立方体物件的重量本来就够惊人的了，但现在发生的事儿更让他们惊呆了。
When the supporting column of earth was removed, the cube, contrary to all the laws with which the Thompsons were familiar, remained suspended a good two inches in the air. As they stared at the perverse, shiny object, a few grains of dirt fell from its under surface, as thoughto demonstrate that for dirt, at least, the law of gravitational attraction still held firm.
当支撑立方体的泥土挖去后，立方体违反了汤普森一家所知道的一切规律，仍然悬在半空，离下面的土足有两英寸高。正当他们盯着这个反常的、闪亮的物体瞧个不停的当儿，有几粒碎土从它下面坠落，这像是证明，至少地球引力对泥土而言还在起作用。
"Perhaps the hole isn't deep enough to make it fall," Mrs.Thompson said, and her husband, anxious for an explanation, excavated another six inches of dirt from beneath the cube. Nothing happened.
“可能坑还不够深，这东西落不下去，”汤普森太太说。而她丈夫，急于搞个明白，又从立方体下面挖出了六英寸土。可情况照样没变。
