万物简史 第588期:生命的物质(14)

If Franklin was not warmly forthcoming with her findings, she cannot be altogether blamed. Female academics at King's in the 1950s were treated with a formalized disdain¹ that dazzles modern sensibilities (actually any sensibilities). However senior or accomplished², they were not allowed into the college's senior common room but instead had to take their meals in a more utilitarian³ chamber⁴ that even Watson conceded was "dingily⁵ pokey." On top of this she was being constantly pressed — at times actively⁶ harassed⁷ — to share her results with a trio of men whose desperation to get a peek⁸ at them was seldom matched by more engaging qualities, like respect. "I'm afraid we always used to adopt — let's say a patronizing attitude toward her," Crick later recalled. Two of these men were from a competing institution and the third was more or less openly siding with them. It should hardly come as a surprise that she kept her results locked away.

富兰克林没有热心地和别人一起分享她的成果，这也不能完全怪她。在20世纪50年代的国王学院，女性研究人员被一种先人为主的偏见压得抬不起头来。那种偏见令现代有感情的人（实际上是任何有感情的人）受不了。不管她们的职位多高，成果多显著，她们都不会被允许进入学院的高级休息室，她们甚至不得不在一个简陋的房间里就餐，连沃森也承认，那是个“既昏暗又狭窄”的地方。尤其是，她经常承受着巨大的压力——有时还不断受到骚扰，逼她将自己的研究成果与3个男人分享。那3个男人急于知道她的成果，但很少表现出相应的可爱品质，比如尊重——连克里克事后也承认：“我想我们老是对她——怎么说呢？傲慢无礼。”他们中有两人来自国王学院互为竞争对手的研究所，而另一个也在某种程度上公开站在他们一边。因此，富兰克林将她的成果锁在抽屉里，也就不足为怪了。

That Wilkins and Franklin did not get along was a fact that Watson and Crick seem to have exploited to their benefit. Although Crick and Watson were trespassing⁹ rather unashamedly on Wilkins's territory, it was with them that he increasingly sided — not altogether surprisingly since Franklin herself was beginning to act in a decidedly queer way. Although her results showed that DNA¹⁰ definitely was helical in shape, she insisted to all that it was not.

威尔金斯和富兰克林彼此合不来，沃森和克里克似乎利用这一点来为自己的利益服务。虽然克里克和沃森不要脸地侵犯威尔金斯的领域，威尔金斯却越来越站到了他们一边——这一点也不完全奇怪，因为富兰克林自己的行为变得很古怪。尽管富兰克林的研究表明，DNA结构毫无疑问是螺旋型的，可是她坚持对大家说不是这样。

1 disdain   

n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑

参考例句：

• Some people disdain labour.有些人轻视劳动。
• A great man should disdain flatterers.伟大的人物应鄙视献媚者。

2 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

3 utilitarian   

adj.实用的，功利的

参考例句：

• On the utilitarian side American education has outstridden the rest of the world.在实用方面美国教育已超越世界各国。
• A good cloth coat is more utilitarian than a fur one.一件优质的布外衣要比一件毛皮外衣更有用。

4 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

5 dingily   

adv.暗黑地，邋遢地

参考例句：

6 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

7 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

8 peek   

vi.偷看，窥视；n.偷偷的一看，一瞥

参考例句：

• Larry takes a peek out of the window.赖瑞往窗外偷看了一下。
• Cover your eyes and don't peek.捂上眼睛，别偷看。

9 trespassing   

[法]非法入侵

参考例句：

• He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
• Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。

10 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。