VOA新闻杂志2022 达尔文笔记本在失窃20年后回归剑桥大学

The Cambridge University Library in Britain received a "gift" in early March.

剑桥大学图书馆在3月份收到了一份礼物。

Someone left a pink gift bag near the building with a note: "Happy Easter, X," it read. In this case, "X" was in place of a person's name.

有人在大楼附近留下了一个粉色礼品袋，上面写着：“复活节快乐，某某。”在这个案例中，X是代指某个人的名字。

Inside the bag was the gift: two small notebooks from the famous British naturalist¹ Charles Darwin. He is credited with the theory of evolution which says living things change over large periods of time.

袋子里的礼物是英国著名博物学家查尔斯·达尔文的两本小笔记本。他的进化论广受赞誉，该理论认为生物会在漫长时期内发生变化。

One of the notebooks has a famous drawing in it called the "Tree of Life." Darwin made the drawing in 1837.

其中一本笔记本上有一副被称为“生命之树”的著名图画。达尔文在1837年画下了这幅画。

The university talked about the incident on Tuesday.

剑桥大学周二谈到了这一事件。

Cambridge believes the notebooks were taken 20 years ago. They were first thought to be missing inside the building after they were taken to be photographed. But, after searching through 10 million books, maps and documents, the university reported the notebooks stolen to police in 2020.

剑桥大学认为这些笔记本是在20年前失窃的。最初人们以为这些笔记本是在被拿去拍照后弄丢在图书馆里。但是在搜素了1000万本书籍、地图和文件之后，该大学于2020年向警方报告了这些笔记本的失窃。

British investigators² notified police around the world, and a search began. The notebooks are valued at millions of dollars.

英国调查人员通知了世界各地的警察，并开始展开搜寻。这些笔记本价值数百万美元。

They were returned, however, in good condition.

然而它们完好无损地被还了回来。

Darwin's notebooks contained writings about his famous trip around the world on the ship H.M.S. Beagle. The research led to his book on evolution called On the Origin of Species.

达尔文的笔记本包含了关于他乘坐贝格尔号环游世界途中的作品。这些研究促成了他关于进化的《物种起源》一书。

Cambridge University Librarian Jessica Gardner said she was relieved to see the notebooks. But she said her true feelings are "profound and almost impossible to adequately express."

剑桥大学图书馆馆长杰西卡·加德纳表示，看到这些笔记本让她松了一口气。但是她说她的真实感受是“深刻的，几乎不可能充分表达出来。”

Gardner said the notebooks will go back into the Darwin Archive. The library is also home to the works by scientists Stephen Hawking³ and Isaac Newton.

加德纳表示，这些笔记本将会回到达尔文档案馆。该图书馆也是科学家斯蒂芬·霍金和艾萨克·牛顿的作品的家园。

The notebooks will be on display later this year in a Darwin show at the library.

这些笔记本将于今年晚些时候在图书馆的达尔文展览中展出。

Local police said they are continuing to look into who may have taken the notebooks and asked for help from anyone who has information about the case.

当地警察表示，他们将继续调查可能是谁拿走了这些笔记本，并向任何了解此案内情的人士寻求帮助。

1 naturalist   

n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)

参考例句：

• He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
• The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。

2 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 hawking   

利用鹰行猎

参考例句：

• He is hawking his goods everywhere. 他在到处兜售他的货物。
• We obtain the event horizon and the Hawking spectrumformula. 得到了黑洞的局部事件视界位置和Hawking温度以及Klein—Gordon粒子的Hawking辐射谱。