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大学英语精读(第三版) 第六册: Unit8B A Sense of the Future(2)

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This is the sense of the future I want to talk about, at first hand, as a scientist. I am distressed to see how many people today are afraid of the future and of science together. I believe that these fears are mistaken. They seem to me to spring from a misunderstanding of the methods of science and a gloom about what it has done. We sit under the shadow of the nine o'clock news, nursing our sense of doom. We think ourselves worse off than our forefathersa hundred and seventy years ago, who were at war with Napoleon for a generation. But a hundred and seventy years ago, the working week was eighty hours for children. Cholera was more common in England than flu. The country could barely support ten million people, and not a million of them could read. You know how all this has been changed,and don't let anyone tell youthat nothing has been gained but comfort. Think of the gain in life and health alone: a population which has topped fifty millions, the infant death rate cut by 80 or 90 percent, and the span of life enlarged by at least twenty-five years. The sewer and the fertilizer have done that, and the linotype and the X-ray tube. They have been real liberators. Every machine has been a liberator. They have freed us from drudgery and disease and ignorance and from the misery Hogarth painted that could forget itself only in the stupor of drink.

这就是我作为科学家想以直接体验谈论的未来意识。看到今天有那么多人害怕未来、害怕科学,我深感忧虑。我认为怀有这种恐惧是错误的。我觉得这种恐惧是由误解科学方法、悲观地看待科学成就造成的。我们由着九点钟新闻左右我们的思绪,老是想着难逃劫数。我们还以为今天的生活不如一百七十年前的祖先,尽管那时他们和拿破仑打着一场持续了一代人时间的战争。但是,一百七十年前,儿童一周的工作时间是八十个小时;在英国,霍乱比流感还常见;这个国家只能勉强养活一千万人,识字的不到一百万。你该知道这一切变化是如何发生的,不要听信人家说什么除了舒适我们一无所获。只要想想生命与健康方面的获益就足以说明问题了:英国人口现已超过五千万,婴儿死亡率降低了80%或90%,寿命至少延长了二十五年。这一切是下水道和化肥的功劳,是行型活字铸造机和X射线管的功劳,也是从统计学角度研究生物遗传问题的结果。这些是真正的解放者,每台机器都是解放者。它们使我们得以摆脱繁重的劳动、疾病和无知,得以摆脱贺加斯画笔下的只有在喝得烂醉时才会忘却的苦难。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
ignorance ['ignərəns]

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n. 无知

联想记忆
comfort ['kʌmfət]

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n. 舒适,安逸,安慰,慰藉
vt. 安慰,使

联想记忆
sewer ['səuə,'sjuə]

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n. 下水道,阴沟,裁缝师

联想记忆
misery ['mizəri]

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n. 痛苦,悲惨的境遇,苦难

 
span [spæn]

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n. 跨度,跨距,间距
vt. 横跨,贯穿,估

 
shadow ['ʃædəu]

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n. 阴影,影子,荫,阴暗,暗处
vt. 投阴

 
stupor ['stju:pə]

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n. 昏迷,麻木,不省人事

联想记忆
misunderstanding ['misʌndə'stændiŋ]

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n. 误会,误解
misunderstand的

 
population [.pɔpju'leiʃən]

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n. 人口 ,(全体)居民,人数

联想记忆
fertilizer ['fə:tilaizə]

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n. 肥料

 

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