国家地理:为了结束这场流行病 我们必须相信科学(12)

Gen C gets through the new pandemic with relatively¹ few deaths or economic disruptions because they learned some crucial lessons when they were children: that public health advice is based on the best available data, that such advice can change as new evidence accumulates, that science is an iterative process that cannot be fast-tracked.

C世代挺过这场新的大流行，死亡人数或经济动荡相对较少，因为他们在孩童时期学到了一些重要教训：公共卫生建议是根据当下能取得的最佳资料，这样的建议会随着新证据的累积而改变，科学是无法速成的反复渐进过程。

Maybe by then there also will be more workers in the professions that got us through the coronavirus catastrophe²: more doctors, nurses, paramedics; more specialists in infectious disease, epidemiology, virology, and microbiology, each of them having chosen a career that as kids they had watched in its finest hour. It has happened before. Some of the scientists now engaged in the struggle against the coronavirus, such as Gonsalves and Markel, ended up where they did after working to help untangle AIDS, an earlier viral mystery that killed us in ways never seen before.

或许到了那个时候，现在帮助我们度过冠状病毒浩劫的几种专业人士也会更多：更多的医生、护理师、医务辅助人员，以及更多的传染病学、流行病学、病毒学和微生物学专家，他们每个人选择那个职业，都是因为小时候见证了它最光荣的时刻。这种事不是第一次发生。现在忙于对抗新冠病毒的某些科学家，如贡萨尔维斯和马克尔，都是在昔日致力于解开以前所未见的方式夺走人命的艾滋病毒谜团后，成了该领域的佼佼者。

So the question is whether Gen C will respond with something other than "global amnesia³" when the next plague arrives, as it almost surely will. This is what I yearn⁴ for, not just for the sake of my own bruised⁵ confidence but also for the sake of my two beloved granddaughters, who would have to live the reality I'm most fretting⁶ about.

因此，问题是，下一场瘟疫到来时（几乎肯定会发生），C世代能否用不同于“全球失忆”的态度做出反应。我衷心渴望如此，不只为了我自己受挫的信心，也为了我两个心爱的孙女，她们不得不生活在我最担忧的现实中。

1 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

2 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

3 amnesia   

n.健忘症，健忘

参考例句：

• People suffering from amnesia don't forget their general knowledge of objects.患健忘症的人不会忘记关于物体的一些基本知识。
• Chinese medicine experts developed a way to treat amnesia using marine materials.中国医学专家研制出用海洋物质治疗遗忘症的方法。

4 yearn   

v.想念；怀念；渴望

参考例句：

• We yearn to surrender our entire being.我们渴望着放纵我们整个的生命。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

5 bruised   

[医]青肿的，瘀紫的

参考例句：

• his bruised and bloodied nose 他沾满血的青肿的鼻子
• She had slipped and badly bruised her face. 她滑了一跤，摔得鼻青脸肿。

6 fretting   

n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的

参考例句：

• Fretting about it won't help. 苦恼于事无补。
• The old lady is always fretting over something unimportant. 那位老妇人总是为一些小事焦虑不安。