万物简史 第336期:孤独的行星(1)

 　　Part V Life Itself 第五部 生命本身

　　The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, 我越是审视宇宙，越是研究其构造上的具体细节，

　　the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming. Freeman Dyson 就越是觉得在某种意义上宇宙肯定已经知道我们快要到来。——弗里曼·戴森

　　16 Lonely Planet 第十六章 孤独的行星

　　It isn't easy being an organism. 成为生物很不容易。

　　In the whole universe, as far as we yet know, 据我们所知，在整个宇宙里，

　　there is only one place, an inconspicuous outpost of the Milky¹ Way called Earth, that will sustain you, and even it can be pretty grudging². 只有银河系里一个名叫地球的、不大醒目的边远地方愿意收留你，而且连它也可能不大情愿。

　　From the bottom of the deepest ocean trench³ to the top of the highest mountain, 从最深的海底沟底部到最高的大山顶点，

　　the zone that covers nearly the whole of known life, is only something over a dozen miles, 已知生命的几乎全部生存范围只有28公里左右厚，

　　not much when set against the roominess of the cosmos⁴ at large. 与浩瀚的宇宙相比，那算不了什么。

　　For humans it is even worse  对于人类而说，那就更倒霉了。

　　because we happen to belong to the portion of living things that took the rash 我们恰好是属于那个部分的动物：

　　but venturesome decision 400 million years ago to crawl out of the seas and become land based and oxygen breathing. 4亿年以前，他们草率而又冒险地作出决定，从海底爬上来，成为以陆为家和呼吸氧气的动物。

　　In consequence, no less than 99.5 percent of the world's habitable space by volume, according to one estimate, 结果据有人估计，世界上有近99.5%的适居空间，

　　is fundamentally—in practical terms completely—off-limits to us. 基本上——实际上是完全——对我们关上了大门。

　　It isn't simply that we can't breathe in water, but that we couldn't bear the pressures. 我们在水里不仅不会呼吸，而且受不了那个压力。

　　Because water is about 1,300 times heavier than air, pressures rise swiftly as you descend⁵, 这是因为，水要比空气重1 300倍，你越是往深处，压力越是迅速增加，

　　by the equivalent of one atmosphere for every ten meters (thirty-three feet) of depth. 深度每增加10米，就相当于增加1个大气压。

1 milky   

adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的

参考例句：

• Alexander always has milky coffee at lunchtime.亚历山大总是在午餐时喝掺奶的咖啡。
• I like a hot milky drink at bedtime.我喜欢睡前喝杯热奶饮料。

2 grudging   

adj.勉强的，吝啬的

参考例句：

• He felt a grudging respect for her talents as an organizer.他勉强地对她的组织才能表示尊重。
• After a pause he added"sir."in a dilatory,grudging way.停了一会他才慢吞吞地、勉勉强强地加了一声“先生”。

3 trench   

n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕

参考例句：

• The soldiers recaptured their trench.兵士夺回了战壕。
• The troops received orders to trench the outpost.部队接到命令在前哨周围筑壕加强防卫。

4 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

5 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。