万物简史 第358期:孤独的行星(23)

 　　The Romans also flavored their wine with lead, which may be part of the reason they are not the force they used to be. 罗马人也用铅来给酒调味，这也许是他们不再像以往那样强大的部分原因。

　　As we have seen elsewhere, our own performance with lead 我们在别处已经提到，我们自己使用铅的情况

　　(not to mention mercury, cadmium, and all the other industrial pollutants¹ with which we routinely dose ourselves) （且不说汞、镉和其他的工业污染物，我们经常用这些玩意儿来毒害自己）

　　does not leave us a great deal of room for smirking². 也没多少值得得意的地方。

　　When elements don't occur naturally on Earth, we have evolved no tolerance³ for them, and so they tend to be extremely toxic⁴ to us, as with plutonium. 和其他的工业污染物，我们经常用这些玩意儿来毒害自己）也没多少值得得意的地方。

　　Our tolerance for plutonium is zero: there is no level at which it is not going to make you want to lie down. 我们对于钚的耐受性是零：任何一丁点儿都会要你的命。

　　I have brought you a long way to make a small point: 我对你讲了这么多，只是为了说明一个小问题：

　　a big part of the reason that Earth seems so miraculously⁵ accommodating is that we evolved to suit its conditions. 地球看上去似乎奇迹般地给人方便，其实很大程度上是因为我们已经渐渐适应了它的条件。

　　What we marvel⁶ at is not that it is suitable to life but that it is suitable to our life—and hardly surprising, really. 令人感到惊异的不是它适合于生命，而是适合于我们的生命——其实这是没有什么可奇怪的。

　　It may be that many of the things that make it so splendid to us—well-proportioned Sun, doting⁷ Moon, sociable⁸ carbon, 也许，我们之所以对它的许多情况——大小合适的太阳、温柔体贴的月球、爱好交际的碳、

　　more magma than you can shake a stick at, and all the rest—seem splendid simply because they are what we were born to count on. 足够多的岩浆等等——感到满意，仅仅是因为我们生来就依赖这些条件，所以才似乎感到满意。

　　No one can altogether say. 谁也不能完全说得清楚。

　　Other worlds may harbor beings thankful for their silvery lakes of mercury and drifting clouds of ammonia. 别的世界里的生物也许会感激一汪汪银白色的汞和一团团漂浮的氨。

　　They may be delighted that their planet doesn't shake them silly with its grinding plates or spew messy gobs of lava⁹ over the landscape, 他们也许会感到高兴，他们的行星没有因为板块移动而晃得他们晕头转向，没有喷出大量的岩浆覆盖大地，

　　but rather exists in a permanent nontectonic tranquility. 而是永远处于无板块构造的宁静状态。

1 pollutants   

污染物质（尤指工业废物）( pollutant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pollutants are constantly being released into the atmosphere. 污染物质正在不断地被排放到大气中去。
• The 1987 Amendments limit 301(g) discharges to a few well-studied nonconventional pollutants. 1987年的修正案把第301条（g）的普通排放限制施加在一些认真研究过的几种非常规污染物上。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

2 smirking   

v.傻笑( smirk的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Major Pendennis, fresh and smirking, came out of his bedroom to his sitting-room. 潘登尼斯少校神采奕奕，笑容可掬地从卧室来到起居室。 来自辞典例句
• The big doll, sitting in her new pram smirking, could hear it quite plainly. 大娃娃坐在崭新的童车里，满脸痴笑，能听得一清二楚。 来自辞典例句

3 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

4 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

5 miraculously   

ad.奇迹般地

参考例句：

• He had been miraculously saved from almost certain death. 他奇迹般地从死亡线上获救。
• A schoolboy miraculously survived a 25 000-volt electric shock. 一名男学生在遭受2.5 万伏的电击后奇迹般地活了下来。

6 marvel   

vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事

参考例句：

• The robot is a marvel of modern engineering.机器人是现代工程技术的奇迹。
• The operation was a marvel of medical skill.这次手术是医术上的一个奇迹。

7 doting   

adj.溺爱的，宠爱的

参考例句：

• His doting parents bought him his first racing bike at 13.宠爱他的父母在他13岁时就给他买了第一辆竞速自行车。
• The doting husband catered to his wife's every wish.这位宠爱妻子的丈夫总是高度满足太太的各项要求。

8 sociable   

adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的

参考例句：

• Roger is a very sociable person.罗杰是个非常好交际的人。
• Some children have more sociable personalities than others.有些孩子比其他孩子更善于交际。

9 lava   

n.熔岩，火山岩

参考例句：

• The lava flowed down the sides of the volcano.熔岩沿火山坡面涌流而下。
• His anger spilled out like lava.他的愤怒像火山爆发似的迸发出来。