美丽新世界Brave New World 第1章(8)

 　　He became rather technical; spoke¹ of the abnormal endocrine co-ordination which made men grow so slowly; postulated² a germinal mutation³ to account for it.

　　他相当专门化地谈起了使人生长迟缓的内分泌失调问题，并提出萌芽期突变作为解释。

　　Could the effects of this germinal mutation be undone⁴?

　　那么，这种突变的影响能不能消除？

　　Could the individual Epsilon embryo⁵ be made a revert⁶, by a suitable technique, to the normality of dogs and cows?

　　能不能采用一种适当的技术使个别的爱扑塞隆胚胎回归到狗和牛一样的常规去？

　　That was the problem. And it was all but solved.

　　问题就在这里，而这个问题已经差不多解决了。

　　Pilkington, at Mombasa, had produced individuals who were sexually mature at four and full-grown at six and a half.

　　蒙巴萨的琵金顿已经培育出四岁就性成熟，六岁半就充分成长的个体。

　　A scientific triumph. But socially useless.

　　那是科学的胜利，可在社会上却还没有用处。

　　Six-year-old men and women were too stupid to do even Epsilon work.

　　六岁的男人和女人太愚蠢，连爱扑塞隆的工作都干不了。

　　And the process was an all-or-nothing one; either you failed to modify at all, or else you modified the whole way.

　　而这却是个“一揽子”程序，要就是不变，要就是全变。

　　They were still trying to find the ideal compromise between adults of twenty and adults of six.

　　他们打算在二十岁的成人和六岁的成人之间寻求理想的折中，

　　So far without success. Mr. Foster sighed and shook his head.

　　到目前为止还没有取得成功。福斯特先生叹了口气，摇了摇头。

　　Their wanderings through the crimson⁷ twilight⁸ had brought them to the neighborhood of Metre 170 on Rack 9.

　　他们在猩红的光线里转悠着，来到了九号架的一百七十公尺附近。

　　From this point onwards Rack 9 was enclosed and the bottle performed the remainder of their journey in a kind of tunnel,interrupted here and there by openings two or three metres wide.

　　从这儿往下九号架就封闭了。瓶子在一个隧道样的东西里结束了行程。隧道里每隔一定距离就有一个口子，两三公尺宽。

　　"Heat conditioning," said Mr. Foster.

　　“是调节温度的。”福斯特先生说。

　　Hot tunnels alternated with cool tunnels. Coolness was wedded⁹ to discomfort¹⁰ in the form of hard X-rays.

　　热隧道与冷隧道交替出现。以强X射线的形式出现的冷冻跟不舒服结合在一起，

　　By the time they were decanted¹¹ the embryos¹² had a horror of cold.

　　胚胎换瓶时经历了可怕的冷冻。

　　They were predestined to emigrate to the tropics, to be miner and acetate silk spinners and steel workers.

　　这批胚胎是预定要移民到赤道地区去做矿工、人造丝缫丝工和钢铁工人的。

　　Later on their minds would be made to endorse¹³ the judgment¹⁴ of their bodies.

　　以后还要给他们的身体配合心灵判断力。

　　"We condition them to thrive on heat," concluded Mr.

　　“我们设置条件让他们能在炎热气候里兴旺成功，”福斯特先生下了结论，

　　Foster. "Our colleagues upstairs will teach them to love it."

　　“我们楼上的同事会培养他们喜爱炎热。”

　　"And that," put in the Director sententiously, "that is the secret of happiness and virtue–liking what you've got to do.

　　“而幸福与德行的诀窍，”主任像说格言一样道，“是爱好你非干不可的事。

　　All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny."

　　一切条件设置的目标都是：让人们喜欢他们无法逃避的社会命运。”

　　In a gap between two tunnels, a nurse was delicately probing with a long fine syringe into the gelatinous contents of a passing bottle.

　　在两条隧道交合点的一个空处，一个护士正用细长的针管小心探索着走过的瓶中的胶状物质。

　　The students and their guides stood watching her for a few moments in silence.

　　学生们和向导默默地看了一会儿。

　　"Well, Lenina," said Mr. Foster, when at last she withdrew the syringe and straightened herself up.

　　“列宁娜。”护土抽回针管，站直身子后，福斯特先生说。

　　The girl turned with a start. One could see that, for all the lupus and the purple eyes, she was uncommonly¹⁵ pretty.

　　那姑娘吃了一惊转过身来。人们可以看出，尽管光线令她红得像害了红斑狼疮，眼睛也通红，却美丽非凡。

　　"Henry!" Her smile flashed redly at him–a row of coral teeth.

　　“亨利。”她向他闪来一个红色的微笑——一排珊瑚样的牙齿。

　　"Charming, charming," murmured the Director and, giving her two or three little pats, received in exchange a rather deferential¹⁶ smile for himself.

　　“迷人，迷人。”主任喃喃地说，轻轻地拍了她两三下，从她那儿得到一个毕恭毕敬的微笑。

　　"What are you giving them?" asked Mr. Foster, making his tone very professional.

　　“你在给他们加什么？”福斯特先生问道，有意让声音带公事公办的调子。

　　"Oh, the usual typhoid and sleeping sickness."

　　“啊，平常的伤寒和昏睡症疫苗。”

　　"Tropical workers start being inoculated¹⁷ at Metre 150," Mr. Foster explained to the students. "

　　“赤道工人到一百五十公尺处就注射预防疫苗。”福斯特先生对学生们说。

　　The embryos still have gills. We immunize the fish against the future man's diseases."

　　“这时胚胎还长着鳃。我们让‘鱼’免疫，以后就不会传染人类的疾病。”

　　Then, turning back to Lenina, "Ten to five on the roof this afternoon," he said, "as usual."

　　他转向列宁娜，“今天下午四点五十分在屋顶上，”他说，“照旧。”

　　"Charming," said the Dhector once more, and, with a final pat, moved away after the others.

　　“迷人。”主任又说了一句，又最后拍了她一下，跟别人一起走掉了。

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 postulated   

v.假定，假设( postulate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They postulated a 500-year lifespan for a plastic container. 他们假定塑料容器的寿命为500年。
• Freud postulated that we all have a death instinct as well as a life instinct. 弗洛伊德曾假定我们所有人都有生存本能和死亡本能。 来自辞典例句

3 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

4 undone   

a.未做完的，未完成的

参考例句：

• He left nothing undone that needed attention.所有需要注意的事他都注意到了。

5 embryo   

n.胚胎，萌芽的事物

参考例句：

• They are engaging in an embryo research.他们正在进行一项胚胎研究。
• The project was barely in embryo.该计划只是个雏形。

6 revert   

v.恢复，复归，回到

参考例句：

• Let us revert to the earlier part of the chapter.让我们回到本章的前面部分。
• Shall we revert to the matter we talked about yesterday?我们接着昨天谈过的问题谈，好吗？

7 crimson   

n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色

参考例句：

• She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
• Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。

8 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

9 wedded   

adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She's wedded to her job. 她专心致志于工作。
• I was invited over by the newly wedded couple for a meal. 我被那对新婚夫妇请去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

11 decanted   

v.将（酒等）自瓶中倒入另一容器( decant的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Afterwards the aqueous solution from above the nitroglycerine was decanted. 然后倒出硝化甘油之上的水溶液。 来自辞典例句
• The coated particles are centrifuged and the liquid decanted. 将包覆的颗粒进行离心，除去液体。 来自辞典例句

12 embryos   

n.晶胚；胚，胚胎( embryo的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Somatic cells of angiosperms enter a regenerative phase and behave like embryos. 被子植物体细胞进入一个生殖阶段，而且其行为象胚。 来自辞典例句
• Evolution can explain why human embryos look like gilled fishes. 进化论能够解释为什么人类的胚胎看起来象除去了内脏的鱼一样。 来自辞典例句

13 endorse   

vt.(支票、汇票等)背书，背署；批注；同意

参考例句：

• No one is foolish enough to endorse it.没有哪个人会傻得赞成它。
• I fully endorse your opinions on this subject.我完全拥护你对此课题的主张。

14 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

15 uncommonly   

adv. 稀罕(极，非常)

参考例句：

• an uncommonly gifted child 一个天赋异禀的儿童
• My little Mary was feeling uncommonly empty. 我肚子当时正饿得厉害。

16 deferential   

adj. 敬意的，恭敬的

参考例句：

• They like five-star hotels and deferential treatment.他们喜欢五星级的宾馆和毕恭毕敬的接待。
• I am deferential and respectful in the presence of artists.我一向恭敬、尊重艺术家。

17 inoculated   

v.给…做预防注射( inoculate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A pedigree pup should have been inoculated against serious diseases before it's sold. 纯种狗应该在出售前注射预防严重疾病的针。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Disease can be spread by dirty tools, insects, inoculated soil. 疾病也能由不干净的工具，昆虫，接种的土壤传播。 来自辞典例句