美丽新世界Brave New World 第2章(4)

 　　"Human beings used to be …" he hesitated; the blood rushed to his cheeks. "Well, they used to be viviparous."

　　“人类以前就是……”他犹豫了，血往面颊上涌，“胎生的。”

　　"Quite right." The Director nodded approvingly.

　　“很对。”主任赞许地点点头。

　　"And when the babies were decanted¹ …"

　　“那时在婴儿换瓶的时候……”

　　"'Born,'" came the correction.

　　“出生’的时候。”他受到纠正。

　　"Well, then they were the parents–I mean, not the babies, of course; the other ones."

　　“晤……他们是父母生出来的——我的意思是，不是现在的婴儿，当然，而是那时的。”

　　The poor boy was overwhelmed with confusion.

　　可怜的孩子语无伦次了。

　　"In brief," the Director summed up, "the parents were the father and the mother."

　　“简而言之，”主任总结道，“那时生孩子的就是爸爸和妈妈。”

　　The smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boys' eye-avoiding silence.

　　这话实际上是把真正科学的污物猛然向孩子们羞得不敢抬头的沉默砸过去。

　　"Mother," he repeated loudly rubbing in the science; and, leaning back in his chair, "These," he said gravely, "are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant."

　　“妈妈，”他往椅子后面一靠，大声重复着，把科学硬揉进他们的脑子，“这些都是不愉快的事实，我明白。不过大部分的历史事实都是不愉快的。”

　　He returned to Little Reuben–to Little Reuben, in whose room, one evening, by an oversight²,

　　主任回头又说起了小鲁本——小鲁本。有天晚上

　　his father and mother (crash, crash!) happened to leave the radio turned on.

　　小鲁本的爸爸（一砸！）和妈妈（二砸！）不小心忘了关掉小鲁本房里的收音机。

　　("For you must remember that in those days of gross viviparous reproduction, children were always brought up by their parents and not in State Conditioning Centres.")

　　（因为，你必须记住，在那野蛮的胎生繁殖时代，孩子们都是在爸爸（又砸！）和妈妈（再砸！）身边长大，而不是在国家的条件设置中心长大的。）

　　While the child was asleep, a broadcast programme from London suddenly started to come through;

　　在那孩子睡着的时候，伦敦的广播节目突然开始了。

　　and the next morning, to the astonishment³ of his crash and crash (the more daring of the boys ventured to grin at one another), Little Reuben woke up repeating word for word a long lecture by that curious old writer.

　　第二天早上令他的砸和砸（较为胆大的孩子竞偷偷彼此望着傻笑起来）大为吃惊的是，小鲁本醒过来时竟能一字不差地背诵一个奇怪的老作家的长篇说教。

　　("one of the very few whose works have been permitted to come down to us"), George Bernard Shaw,

　　那是少数几个被允许把作品留给我们的老作家之一，名叫乔治悄伯纳。

　　who was speaking, according to a well-authenticated tradition, about his own genius.

　　他正按照一种经过考证确实存在过的传统讲述着自己的天才。

　　To Little Reuben's wink⁴ and snigger, this lecture was, of course, perfectly⁵ incomprehensible and,

　　那些话当然是完全听不懂的，小鲁本背诵时者挤眉弄眼，格格地笑着。

　　imagining that their child had suddenly gone mad, they sent for a doctor.

　　他们以为孩子发了疯，急忙请来了医生。

　　He, fortunately, understood English, recognized the discourse⁶ as that which Shaw had broadcasted the previous evening,

　　幸好医生懂得英语，听出了那就是肖伯纳头天晚上广播的那段话。

　　realized the significance of what had happened, and sent a letter to the medical press about it.

　　医生明白此事的意义，便写信给医学刊物报告了。

　　"The principle of sleep-teaching, or hypnop.dia, had been discovered." The D.H.C. made an impressive pause.

　　“于是发现了睡眠教育法，或称‘眠教’的原则。”主任故意停顿了一下，引人注意。

　　The principle had been discovered; but many, many years were to elapse before that principle was usefully applied⁷.

　　原则倒是发现了，但把它运用于有利的实践却是许多许多年以后的事。

　　"The case of Little Reuben occurred only twenty-three years after Our Ford's first T-Model was put on the market." (Here the Director made a sign of the T on his stomach and all the students reverently⁸ followed suit.) "And yet …"

　　“小鲁本的病例早在我主福帝的T型车推上市场以后不过二十三年就发生了，”（说到这里主任在肚子上画了个T字。所有的学生也虔诚地照画。）可是……”

　　Furiously the students scribbled⁹. "Hypnop.dia, first used officially in A.F. 214. Why not before? Two reasons. (a) …"

　　学生们拼命地记着。“睡眠教育，福帝二一四年正式使用。为什么不在以前使用？理由有二。……”

　　"These early experimenters," the D.H.C. was saying, "were on the wrong track. They thought that hypnop.dia could be made an instrument of intellectual education …"

　　“这些早期的实验者，”主任说道，“走错了路，把睡眠教育当做了智力培养的手段……”

1 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

2 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

3 astonishment   

n.惊奇，惊异

参考例句：

• They heard him give a loud shout of astonishment.他们听见他惊奇地大叫一声。
• I was filled with astonishment at her strange action.我对她的奇怪举动不胜惊异。

4 wink   

n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁

参考例句：

• He tipped me the wink not to buy at that price.他眨眼暗示我按那个价格就不要买。
• The satellite disappeared in a wink.瞬息之间，那颗卫星就消失了。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

7 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

8 reverently   

adv.虔诚地

参考例句：

• He gazed reverently at the handiwork. 他满怀敬意地凝视着这件手工艺品。
• Pork gazed at it reverently and slowly delight spread over his face. 波克怀着愉快的心情看着这只表，脸上慢慢显出十分崇敬的神色。

9 scribbled   

v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• She scribbled his phone number on a scrap of paper. 她把他的电话号码匆匆写在一张小纸片上。
• He scribbled a note to his sister before leaving. 临行前，他给妹妹草草写了一封短信。