万物简史 第576期:生命的物质(2)

If you go back sixty-four generations, to the time of the Romans, the number of people on whose cooperative efforts your eventual¹ existence depends has risen to approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000, which is several thousand times the total number of people who have ever lived.

而在64代之前，也就是古罗马时期，决定你存在的祖先数将增到约10亿亿，这个数目是曾经在地球上生存过的人的总数的几千倍。

基因

Clearly something has gone wrong with our math here. The answer, it may interest you to learn, is that your line is not pure. You couldn't be here without a little incest — actually quite a lot of incest — albeit² at a genetically³ discreet⁴ remove. With so many millions of ancestors in your background, there will have been many occasions when a relative from your mother's side of the family procreated with some distant cousin from your father's side of the ledger⁵. In fact, if you are in a partnership⁶ now with someone from your own race and country, the chances are excellent that you are at some level related. Indeed, if you look around you on a bus or in a park or cafe or any crowded place, most of the people you see are very probably relatives. When someone boasts to you that he is descended⁷ from William the Conqueror⁸ or the Mayflower Pilgrims, you should answer at once: "Me, too!" In the most literal and fundamental sense we are all family.

很明显，我们的统计出了一些差错。对于这个问题，正确的解释是——你也许对此感兴趣，你的这一线并不那么纯粹。如果根本没有一定程度上的亲戚的联姻——这种情况实际上是大量存在的，尽管出于遗传的原因小心翼翼地隔一代，你就不会在这里。你这一条线上有几百万个祖先经常会出现这样的情况，你母亲这一边的一个远亲和你父亲这一边的一个远亲结为夫妻。实际上，如果你现在的伴侣是你同一民族、同一国家的人，你们很可能就有着某种血缘关系。如果你在公共汽车上、在公园里、在咖啡屋中，或者在任何一个拥挤的地方环视四周，你所看到的大多数人很可能是你的亲戚。如果有人自吹是莎士比亚或征服者威廉的后代，你可以马上回答他说：“我也是！”无论从字面意义还是从本质来讲，我们都是一家人。

We are also uncannily alike. Compare your genes⁹ with any other human being's and on average they will be about 99.9 percent the same. That is what makes us a species.

我们也令人惊讶地相似。把你的基因和别的任何一个人对比，它们平均有大约99.9%是相同的，就是它们使得我们都属人类。

1 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

2 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

3 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

4 discreet   

adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的

参考例句：

• He is very discreet in giving his opinions.发表意见他十分慎重。
• It wasn't discreet of you to ring me up at the office.你打电话到我办公室真是太鲁莽了。

5 ledger   

n.总帐，分类帐；帐簿

参考例句：

• The young man bowed his head and bent over his ledger again.那个年轻人点头应诺，然后又埋头写起分类帐。
• She is a real accountant who even keeps a detailed household ledger.她不愧是搞财务的，家庭分类账记得清楚详细。

6 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

7 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

8 conqueror   

n.征服者，胜利者

参考例句：

• We shall never yield to a conqueror.我们永远不会向征服者低头。
• They abandoned the city to the conqueror.他们把那个城市丢弃给征服者。

9 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪