全新版大学英语综合教程第一册第二版课文a原文与译文

全新版大学英语综合教程第一册第二版课文a原文与译文内容摘要：

ample, there are fewer and fewer still around. “你要知道，”我对他说，“信里说我们这些人当中留下的不多了，说得一点不错。 比如说，每次我去参加老同学聚会，来的人总是越来越少。 ” 26 Time goes by, the driver said. “时间不饶人啊，”司机说。 27 Did you two work at the same place? I asked him. “你们俩以前在一起工作吗。 ”我问他。 6 28 No, but we hung out on the same corner when we were single. And then, when we were married, we used to go to each other39。 s house every now and then. But for the last 20 or 30 years it39。 s been mostly just Christmas cards. Of course there39。 d be always a note we39。 d each add to the cards ─ usually some news about our families, you know, what the kids were doing, who moved where, a new grandchild, things like that ─ but never a real letter or anything like that. “不，不过没成家时我俩总在一起闲荡。 后来，两人都成了家，就不时相互串门。 可最近这二三十年来，主要就是寄寄圣诞卡了。 当然，我俩都总在卡上写几句 —— 通常是关于各自家里的情况，不是吗，孩子们在干些什么，谁搬到哪儿，添了个小孙子，都是这类事 —— 可一直都没正儿八经地写过信什么的。 ” 29 This is a good part here, I said. Where it says Your friendship over the years has meant an awful lot to me, more than I can say because I39。 m not good at saying things like that.I found myself nodding in agreement. That must have made you feel good, didn39。 t it? “这一处写得好， ”我说，“这里写道：‘你多年的友谊对我非常重要，远比我能说出来的重要得多，因为我不擅长说这样的话。 ’”我颔首称是。 “这话准让你听着开心，是吧。 ” 30 The driver said something that I couldn39。 t understand because he seemed to be all choked up, so I continued: I know I39。 d like to receive a letter like that from my oldest friend. 司机说了句什么，可我没听明白，因为他似乎哽噎得厉害。 于是我接着说：“我也真想收到这样一封老朋友的来信。 ” 31 We were getting close to our destination so I skipped to the last paragraph. So I thought you39。 d like to know that I was thinking of you. And it was signed, Your Old Friend, Tom. 我们快到目的地了，于是我跳到最后一段。 “因此我想你一定想知道我惦记着你。 ”信末署名： “老朋友汤姆”。 32 I handed back the letter as we stopped at my hotel. Enjoyed talking with you,I said as I took my suitcase out of the cab. Tom? The letter was signed Tom? 我们在我的旅店前停下，我把信递了回去。 “很高兴能和你聊聊，”我将衣箱 从车上提下时说。 汤姆。 信的署名是汤姆。 33 I thought your friend39。 s name was Ed, I said. Why did he sign it Tom? “我记得你朋友叫埃德，”我说，“为什么他署名汤姆呢。 ” 34 The letter was not from Ed to me, he explained. I39。 m Tom. It39。 s a letter I wrote to him before I knew he39。 d died. So I never mailed it. “这封信不是汤姆写给我的，”他解释说，“我是汤姆。 这是我在得知他去世前写给他的信。 所以我一直没寄出。 ” 35 He looked sort of sorrowful, or as if he were trying to see something in the distance. I guess I should have written it sooner. 他神情有点悲伤，似乎想看清远处什么东西。 “我想我真该早些写这封 信。 ” 36 When I got to my hotel room I didn39。 t unpack right away. First I had to write a letter ─ and mail it. 我进了旅馆房间之后，没有马上打开箱包。 首先我得写封信 —— 而且要寄出去。 7 Professor Hawking thinks it important to keep everybody in touch with what science is about. In this article he explains why. 霍金教授认为使每个人都了解科学是干什么的非常重要。 在这篇文章中，他对其中的缘由作了解释。 Public Attitudes Toward Science Stephen Hawking 1 Whether we like it or not, the world we live in has changed a great deal in the last hundred years, and it is likely to change even more in the next hundred. Some people would like to stop these changes and go back to what they see as a purer and simpler age. But as history shows, the past was not that wonderful. It was not so bad for a privileged minority, though even they had to do without modern medicine, and childbirth was highly risky for women. But for the vast majority of the population, life was nasty, brutish, and short. 公众科学观 斯蒂芬霍金 无论我们是否愿意，我们生活的世界在过去一百年间已经变化了许多，而且在未来的一百年里可能变化更多。 有人想中止这种种变化，回到那个他们认为更纯洁更朴素的时代。 但正如历史所表明的，过去并非那么美妙。 过去对享有特权的少数人不算太糟，但即便他们也无从享受现代医疗，而生育对妇女来说风险极大。 对占人口大多数的民众而言，生活是艰难、残忍而又短暂的。 2 Anyway, even if one wanted to, one couldn39。 t put the clock back to an earlier age. Knowledge and techniques can39。 t just be fotten. Nor can one prevent further advances in the future. Even if all government money for research were cut off (and the present government is doing its best), the force of petition would still bring about advances in technology. Moreover, one cannot stop inquiring minds from thinking about basic science, whether or not they are paid for it. The only way to prevent further developments would be a global state that suppressed anything new, and human initiative and inventiveness are such that even this wouldn39。 t succeed. All it would do is slow down the rate of change. 不管怎样，即使有人想这么做，他也无法将时钟拨回到早先的时代。 知识与技术不可能说忘就忘了。 也没有人能阻止未来的进一步发展。 即使所有用于研究的政府资金都被取消 （现政府最擅此事），竞争的力量仍将继续带来技术的发展。 更何况，没有人能阻止探究求 索之士去思索基础科学，无论他们是否会为此得到酬劳。 惟一能阻止进一步发展的办法或许是一个压制任何新事物的全球政府，但人类的进取心与创造力如此旺盛，即便这个政府也不会成功。 它所能做到的只是延缓变化的速度。 3 If we accept that we cannot prevent science and technology from changing our world, we can at least try to ensure that the changes they make are in the right directions. In a democratic society, this means that the public needs to have a basic understanding of science, so that it can make informed decisions and not leave them in the hands of experts. At the moment, the public is in two minds about science. It has e to expect the steady increase in the standard of living that new developments in science and technology have brought to continue, but it also distrusts science because it doesn39。 t understand it. This distrust is evident in the cartoon figure of the mad scientist working in his laboratory to produce a Frankenstein. It is also an important element behind support for the Green parties. But the public also has a great interest in science, particularly astronomy, as is shown by the large audiences for television series such as The Sky at Night and for science fiction. 8 如果我们承认，我们无法阻止科学技术改变我们的世界，我们至少可以努力确保科技带来的变化方向正确。 在一个民主社会里，这意味着公众需要对科学有一个基本的了解，从而可以作出明达的决定，而不是把决定留给专家去作。 目前，公众对科学存有矛盾之心。 公众期望科技新发展带来的生活水准的稳定提高能继续，但又怀疑科学，因为他们不懂科学。 那个在实验室里设法制造弗兰肯斯泰因的疯狂的科学家的卡通人物清楚地体现了公众的这种怀疑。 这也是人们之所以支持各种绿色组织。