欧美人文风情第142篇:这个夏天比尔盖茨都在读的书

 Every summer, I try to do a little extra reading. 每个夏天，我都会试着多读一点书。

Here's a few books I read recently that you might enjoy: 这里是几本我最近读的、你也许会喜欢的书：

On Immunity¹ by Eula Biss. She explains the history of vaccination². Eula Biss 的《免疫力》。她解释了疫苗接种的历史。

Why children who don't get vaccinated³ can even affect those who are vaccinated? 为什么没有接种疫苗的孩子甚至能影响那些已经接种疫苗的孩子？

She's a very good writer. I wish I could write as nicely as she writes. 她是一位非常优秀的作家。我希望我的文笔能和她一样好。

Should We Eat Meat? by Vaclav Smil. Vaclav Smil 的《我们应该吃肉吗？》。

It's provocative⁴, the way he does the title as though he's passing the responsibility to the reader. 这本书极具争议性，他下标题的方式就好像他在向读者传递这样的责任。

Well, we know it's pretty hard for people to give up meat. 好吧，我们知道，对人类来说，要戒掉吃肉很难。

There are books that touch on this topic that don't have numbers in them, 有几本提到这个议题且没有数据在其中的书，

but, you know, this is Smil, you are gonna get the numbers. 但，你知道的，这是 Smil，你一定看得到数据。

You might even get a few sentences in between the numbers. 你甚至可能在数据之中看到一些解释。

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. Darrell Huff 的《别让统计数字骗了你》。

Being able to understand what you're looking at, and being willing to say, "Hey, where did that come from? Is that accurate?" 让你能够知道你在看什么，也会让你愿意去问：“嘿，那是从哪里来的？那精确吗？”

It's a quick read. It's got a lot of good examples in it. 它是本能很快读完的书。里头有很多好例子。

It's a trip to the past even though the basic points it makes are still valid⁵ today. 那是趟回到过去的旅行，但它举出的基本观点至今仍然有效。

What If? by Randall Munroe. It's a very clever way of getting you to think about very scientific things going on. Randall Munroe 的《如果这样，会怎样？》。这是让你去思考发生的科学事物的巧妙方法。

This idea of when you see a glass half empty, do you mean "empty," as in, "perfect vacuum?" 当你看到一个半空的杯子，你指的“空”是指“完全真空”吗？

And, you know, all of a sudden there was a glass sitting there,  然后，你知道，突然就有一个杯子放在那里，

where you put the water on the top and the vacuum on the bottom, or the vacuum on the top and the water on the bottom. 在那儿你将水放在上半部，底部是真空，或是上半部是真空，底部是水。

This is clever. Those are the kind of questions that somebody with a good mind who's trying to figure out if they really understand 这很巧妙。那些是某个有聪明脑袋、试着要探究他们是否真正了解的人会问的问题

—that's a kind of question you should ask yourself. －－那是你们应该问问自己的问题类型。

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. Allie Brosh 的《艾莉的夸张人生》。

She's pretty creative and humorous about making fun of herself and revealing her inner thoughts. 她对于自嘲和吐露内心想法是极有创意且幽默的。

There was one thing about the dog, where—this is one that I told Melinda to read 书里有件和狗有关的事情－－这是我叫 Melinda(比尔盖兹的妻子)读的一个地方

—where the dog's getting confused where they're moving, and so she's trying to simulate what the dog's thinking. －－狗狗对他们要搬去哪感到困惑，所以她试着要模拟狗在想什么。

And her dog—maybe it's true—it's one of the most inept⁶, impossible dogs to ever take care of. 而她的狗，也许她写得没错，是她照顾过最笨、也最难搞的狗。

And finally, The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins. 最后，Richard Dawkins 的《真实世界的神奇魔力》。

In science, we're all kids. 在科学世界里，我们都是小孩。

I mean, a good scientist is somebody who's redeveloped the chain of reasoning of why we know what we know from scratch many times, 我的意思是，一个好的科学家是那类人，他会反覆从头重建为何我们了解我们所知的事物背后的推论过程，

just to see where there's holes or alternate possibilities. 只为了找到漏洞或其他可能性的存在。

It can never hurt to reread these things and think through what you're learning. 重读这些书、思考你学了什么永远没有害处。

We can observe way more stuff than you'd imagine, and we've made more sense out of the stuff we can observe than you can imagine. 我们可以观察的事物比你想像的多更多，而我们也已经从所能观察的事物中寻出比你想像中还多的智慧。

So, quite a range there in terms of fun to learn, fun to know about. 所以，有满多读来有趣、也值得认识的书籍。

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. 我希望你们和我一样享受它们。

 

1 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

2 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

3 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

4 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

5 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

6 inept   

adj.不恰当的，荒谬的，拙劣的

参考例句：

• Whan an inept remark to make on such a formal occasion.在如此正式的场合，怎么说这样不恰当的话。
• He's quite inept at tennis.他打网球太笨。