国家地理:为了结束这场流行病 我们必须相信科学(13)

Much depends on what happens in the coming months.

未来几个月将发生什么会是极其关键的。

Imagine, for the sake of argument, that the epidemiological curves I've obsessed¹ over all year ultimately play out in our favor, and we can return to some semblance² of normal. Imagine that effective treatments are found that make COVID-19 short-term and curable for just about anyone. Imagine that a vaccine³ is developed soon and that a significant portion of the world population gets it. If all that happens, why wouldn't we emerge from this with a greater appreciation⁴ of the scientific enterprise in all its messy brilliance⁵?

纯粹想象一下，假设我已经关注了一整年的流行病曲线图最终呈现了对我们有利的结果，而我们回到类似之前的正常生活；假设有效的治疗方法出现了，能够缩短COVID-19的病程并几乎治愈任何人；假设疫苗很快就研发出来，全世界相当数量的人口都能注射。要是以上的假设都成真了，难道我们不该因此更懂得欣赏科学事业在混乱中所展现的卓越能力吗？

I try to hold on to that hope, despite the catcalls of politicians and "personal choice" zealots who second-guess everything the scientists do. I try to tell myself that sometimes our better angels prevail. And that there's an army's worth of better angels -- scientists, educators, doctors, nurses, public health advocates -- who, since that eerie⁶ image of the spiky⁷ coronavirus started haunting our collective dreams, have been working tirelessly toward a happy ending.

我努力怀抱这个希望，尽管政治人物与坚信“个人选择”的狂热分子总是高声批评科学家，质疑他们所做的一切。我试图告诉自己，有时善良的天使会获胜。而我们有一大群善良的天使--科学家、教育者、医生、护理师、公共卫生专家--自从新冠病毒那个多棘的恐怖形象开始成为我们的集体梦魇之后，这些人就一直努力不懈地工作，想要创造一个美好结局。

That's the ending I'm trying to believe in, where we emerge from this with a renewed appreciation of science as humanity's best chance of salvation⁸ from suffering and untimely death.

这是我想要相信的结局，我们从中再次懂得欣赏科学，视其为将人类从痛苦和早逝中拯救出来的最佳选择。

1 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

2 semblance   

n.外貌，外表

参考例句：

• Her semblance of anger frightened the children.她生气的样子使孩子们感到害怕。
• Those clouds have the semblance of a large head.那些云的形状像一个巨大的人头。

3 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

4 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

5 brilliance   

n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智

参考例句：

• I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。

6 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

7 spiky   

adj.长而尖的，大钉似的

参考例句：

• Your hairbrush is too spiky for me.你的发刷，我觉得太尖了。
• The spiky handwriting on the airmail envelope from London was obviously hers.发自伦敦的航空信封上的尖长字迹分明是她的。

8 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。