时间：2020年08月05日
 
 
大约是去年的时候听到这首歌的，夜愿唱的的 The Greatest Show on Earth。我忘了是怎么知道这首歌的。
 
很有可能那段时间学习英语，在听英文歌，有一天就突然听到了。
 
初听这首歌，第一感觉是长，音乐可以写这么长，超出了我的想象。再就是其创作能力，磅礴的创造力，以地球的诞生，生命的进化，人类的诞生，文明的出现作为主题，强出天际。
 
这首歌的主创是乐队键盘手托马斯，被网友称为“骚托”。太强了，启发我说不定也可以学学键盘。你想，毕业以后，一直用键盘敲键盘，电子键盘也是键盘，我觉得会比很多弦乐器，管乐器会更好学。毕竟只是敲键盘，我这个在行，都敲了这么多年了。有空了，我会学一下这个乐器。
 
这首歌里的很多的单词我都专门去查过，LUCA，Lucy，Ionia。
 
其中 Greet the last light of the library 这句，说的是亚历山大图书馆被焚毁的故事，不知道是B站的弹幕，还是在哪看到的，说这是 Carl Sagen（卡尔·萨根）的纪录片中的一个片段。由此我知道了卡尔·萨根的存在。然后去看了他在80年代做的纪录片《卡尔·萨根的宇宙》，非常震撼，其对人类探索星空的梦想，以及对生命的热爱，深信无垠的宇宙中是有别的生命存在的，让我非常感动。
 
去年看的很多关于太空探索的纪录片，都发端于此，即卡尔·萨根的宇宙。
 
然后找来看了他的暗淡蓝点，是旅行者一号，在离开太阳系时，转身拍的一张照。在这张照片中，地球只是整个背景上的一颗像素，渺小脆弱。卡尔·萨根，有一段关于暗淡蓝点的话，见B站[1]。
 
 
此后，我去找来看了他写的剧本并拍出来的《超时空接触》，片中，有一名执意要找外星人的女科学家，有非常多卡尔·萨根的影子。
 
我从电影中抄了如下的句子：
 
场景一，她作为候选人，选拔进行星际穿越，她男朋友和她的对话。
 
– Look, Palmer, nobody’s saying this isn’t dangerous, all right?
 
译：看看，朝圣者，没人说这不危险，对吧？
 
– The rest of the candidates and myself, we fully understand the risks we’re taking.
 
译：其它的候选人和我自己，我们都明白我们将承担的风险。
 
– Why?
 
译：为什么？
 
– Because it’s a historic opportunity. The world needs…
 
译：因为这是一个历史性的机会。世界需要……
 
– No, you, Ellie. You. You personally. By doing this, you’re willing to give your life. You’re willing to die for it. Why?
 
译：不，是你，Ellie。你。只和你有关。为了做这件事，你愿意牺牲你的生命。你愿意为了它去死。为什么？
 
– From as long as I can remember, I’ve been searching for something, some reason why we’re here. What are we doing here? Who are we? If this is a chance to find out even just a little part of that answer. I don’t know, I think it’s worth a human life. Don’t you?
 
译：从我记事起，我一直都在找，找我们存在的意义。我们在这里做什么？我们是谁？如果有机会来找出即使是一丁点的答案。我不知道，我认为这值一个人的命。你不觉得吗？
 
– You’re an incredibly brave woman, Ellie.
 
译：你是一个异常勇敢的女子，Ellie。
 
– Or incredibly nuts.
 
译：或者说异常傻的大傻瓜。
 
场景二，在登船前，她接受美国政府质询
 
– If you should meet these Vegans and were permitted only one question to ask of them, what it would be?
 
译：如果你能见到这些素食者（外星人），并只被允许问他们一个问题，这个问题会是什么？
 
– Well, I suppose it would be: “How did you do it? How did you evolve? How did you survive this technological adolescence without destroying yourself” That more that any other question is one I personally would like to have answered.
 
译：好吧，我认为会是：“你们是怎么做到的？你们是怎么走过来的？你们如何在技术的青春期幸存下来，而没有毁灭自己？”这超过了任何别的问题，是我私人最想得到答案的问题。
 
译注：人类现在就活在这样的时代，就像两个顽童，手里都拿着一颗手榴弹，无法控制自己，很可能就拉响了炸弹。将一切都毁灭。
 
场景三，她回来后，一群小孩子问的问题
 
– Are there other people out there in the universe?
 
译：在宇宙中别的地方还有其它人吗？
 
– That’s a good question. What do you think, huh?
 
译：这是个好问题。你觉得呢，哈？
 
– I don’t know.
 
译：我不知道。
 
– That’s a good answer.
 
译：这是个好回答。
 
– The most important thing is that you all keep searching for your own answers. I’ll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
 
译：最重要的事是，你们需要不断的寻找问题的答案。但是，我可以告诉你们一个关于宇宙的事实。宇宙非常非常大。它的大超过了此前任何人的想象。所以如果只有我们，那就太浪费空间了。
 
 
卡尔·萨根的视角，可以说形成了绝大多数看待星空的看法。
 
The Greates Show on Earth，有一本同书，中译本《地球上最伟大的表演》，是道金斯写的关于进化论的科普书，说来惭愧，买下，看了个前言，没看完。
 
这首歌给了我很多的启发，最近两天又在听，好听。
 
 
Notes：
 
[1] B站的视频[旅行者回望地球–暗淡蓝点【宇宙时空之旅】：https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV19x411y7c7?from=search&seid=2321756219559735487。

 
 
I was 17 when I chose my career. I was standing outside on a hot summer night in Florida and just a few miles from the ocean. I was waiting for a miracle to hppen. That summer, I was privileged to work as an intern at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and the miracle I was waiting for was the launch of the Columbia Space Shuttle carrying the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, a telescope that would allow scientists to peer into the edge of black holes. The entire sky filled with light. And it was as if it was daytime in the middle of the night. Soon, we would feel the rumble of the engines vibrating in our chests. And it wasn’t a miracle; it was the combined effort of a team of thousands of people who worked together to make was seemed impossible a reality. And I wanted to join that team.
 miracle n奇迹 rumble vt使隆隆响 vibrate v震动
 
 
 
 
So I decided to apply to a university where I could study aerospace engineering. And the following year, I started at MIT in my engineering training and joined a student project building space robots. And everything was going as I planed, expect I was confused about something important. Now, my confusion arose in my summer breaks. I traveled to a school in Kenya, and there I volunteered with girls ages five to 17, giving them lessons in English and math and science. And they taught me songs in Swahili. And mostly, I just spent time getting to know the girls, enjoying their presence. And I saw that these girls and the leaders in their community, they were overcoming important barriers to allow these girls to have the best prossible chances in life. And I wanted to join that team.
 breakes n休息时间 Kenya n肯尼亚 barriers 障碍
 
 
 
 
I wanted to be part of a team that would help break down barriers and improve the lives of girls around the world. But I was worried that studying aerospace engineering wasn’t the most useful, I was worried this team in Kenya couldn’t use the technology I was learning about space. But thankfully, I still learned that I was wrong. I came back and interned at NASA again, and this time, a mentor taught me that countries like Kenya had been using space technology for decades to improce the lives in their own countries. And then I knew that I could have a career in space and in development.
 
 
 
 
This idea is not new. In fact, in 1967, the nations of the world came together to write the Outer Space Treaty. This treaty made a bold statement, saying, “The exploration and use of outer space should be carried on for the benefit of all peoples, irrespective of their level of economic or scientific development.” We have not truly lived up to this idea, although people have worked for decades to make this a reality. Forces such as colonialism and racism and gender inequality have actually excluded many people from the benefits of space and caused us to believe that space is for the few or the rich or elite. But we cannot afford this attitude, because the world is engaged in a vital mission to improve life for everyone.
 Outer Space Treaty 外太空条款 irrespective 无关的 live up to 不辜负 colonialism 殖民主义 racism种族歧视
 
 
 
 
Our road map for this mission comes from the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. All the member states if the United Nations have agreed that these are priorities between now and 2030. These goals give us our key moments and opportunities of our times-- opportunities to end extreme proverty, to insure that everyone has access to food and clean water. We must pursue these goals as a global community. And technology from space supports sustainable development. In fact, there are six space services that can help us pursue the Sustainable Development Goals. Over the next few minutes, let’s explore these six services,and see examples of just a few of the goals they help support. You ready?OK.
 Sustainable 可持续发展的 insure vt确保
 
 
 
 
Communication satellites provide access to phone and internet service to almost any location on Earth. This is particularly important during times of disaster recovery. When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines, the local communication networks needed to be repaired, and teams brought in inflatable communication antennas that could link to satellites. This was useful during the time of repair and recovery.
 inflatable adj 膨胀的 可充气的 antennas天线
 
 
 
 
Positioning satellites tell us there we are by telling us where they are. Scientists can use this technology to track endangered wildlife. This turtle has been fitted with a system that allows it to receive location information from positioning satellites, and they send the location information to scientists via communication satellites. Scientists can use this knowledge to then make better policies and help determine how to keep these animals alive.
 
 
 
 
Earth observation satellites. They tell us what’s going on in our environment. Right now, there are about 150 satellites operated by over 60 government agencies, and these are just those observing the Earth. And meanwhile, companies are adding to this list. Most of the governments provide the data from the satellites for free online. Some of these satellites provide images like this, that show what you would see from a camera. This is an image showing agricultural land in Kansas. However, the majority of the Earth observation satellites don’t take pictures at all. They take measurements. And they combine these measurements with complex computer models and make beautiful, global visualizations such as this one, showing the ocean currents and the temperature of the ocean, globally. Or we can look at the salt and smoke and dust in the atmosphere, or the rainfall and snowfall, globally, as well as the annual cycle of vegetation on land and in the ocean. Now, scientists can take this information about the rainfall and the vegetation and use it to understand what areas on Earth are in danger of a famine or a drought and provide that information to aid organizations so they can be prepared with food aid before the hunger becomes severe.
 famine n饥荒
 
 
 
 
In space, we have an orbiting laboratory on the International Space Station. The vehicle and everything inside are in a form of free fall around the Earth, and they don’t experience the effect of gravity. And because of this, we call it “microgravity.” When astronauts are in the microgravity environment, their bodies react as if they’re aging rapidly. Their bones and muscles weaken, and their cardiovascular system and their immune system change. As scientists study how to keep astronauts healthy in space, we can take the exercises and techniques we use for astronauts and transfer them to people on Earth to improve our health here.
 vehicle车辆 cardiovascular心血管
 
 
 
 
Often, as we develop technology for astronauts and exploration or for spacecraft, we can also transfer those inventions to improve life on Earth. Here’s one of my favoritess. It’s a water filtration system, and a key conponent of it is based on the technology to filter wastewater on the space station, It’s now being used around the world. Space is also an infinite source of inspiration, through education, through research and astronomy and that age-old experience of stargazing. Now, countries around the world are engaging in advancing their own development by increasing their local knowledge of engineering and science and space.
 infinite 无线的
 
 
 
 
Let’s meet some of the world’s newest satellite engineers. This is Elyka Abello, from Venezuela. Elyka is training as a satellite engineer as part of her national satellite program in Venezuela. She has designed a software tool that allows her team to better design the power systems for engineering.This is Adel Castillo-Duran, from the Philippines. Adel is both a meteorologist and a satellite engineer, and she uses data from satellites in her weather forecasting.And finally, meet Hala. Hala is from the Sudan, and as she was studying electrical engineering as an undergraduate in Khartoum, she and several students decided to build their own satellite. And later, Hala earned a scholarship to study satellite engineering at the graduate level.
 
 
 
 
These stories that I’ve shared with you all illustrate that space truly is useful for sustainable development for the benefit of all peoples. But we have more work to do, because there are still barriers that exclude people from space and limit the impact of this technology. For many people, Earth observation data is complex. And satellite communication services are too expensive. And microgravity research just appears to be inaccessible. This is what motivates my work as a professor at MIT’s Media Lab. I’ve recently founded a new research group called Space Enabled. We are working to tear down these barriers that limit the benefits of space. And we’ve also going to develop the future applicaions that will continue to contribute to sustainable development. We’ll keep on this work until we can truly say that space is for the benefit of all peoples, and we are all space enabled.
 inaccessible 难以达到的
 
 
 
 
引自TED英语演讲
 

《Here on Earth》作者Tim Flannery
 简介
 Beginning at the moment of creation with the Big Bang,Here on Earth explores the evolution of Earth from a galactic cloud of dust and gas to a planet with a metallic core and early signs of life within a billion years of being created.In a compelling narrative,FLannery describes the formation of the Earth’s crust and atmosphere,as well as the transformation of the planet’s oceans from toxic brews of metals (such as iron,copper,and lead) to life-sustaining bodies covering 70 percent of the planet’s surface.Life,Flannery shows,first appeared in these oceans in the form of microscopic plants and bacteria,and these metals served as catalysts for the earliest biological processes known to exist.From this starting point,Flannery tells the fascinating story of the evolution of our own species,exploring several early human speciesfrom the diminutive creatures(the famed hobbits) who lived in Africa around two million years ago to Homo erectusbefore turning his attention to Homo sapiens.Drawing on Charles Drawin’s and Alfred Russell Wallace’s theories of evolution and Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis,Here on Earth is a dazzling account of life on our planet.
 
“Here on Earth”探索了，从“大爆炸”的那一刻开始，地球从尘埃和气体到具有金属核心的行星以及十亿年之内的早期生命迹象。FLannery描述了地球地壳和大气层的形成，以及海洋从有毒的金属（如铁，铜和铅）如何转变为覆盖地球表面70％的维持生命的物体。FLannery指出，生命，首先以微观植物和细菌的形式出现在这些海洋中，这些金属是已知存在的最早的生物形成过程的催化剂。从这个起点，FLannery讲述了我们人类物种进化的迷人故事，从大约200万年前生活在非洲的小型生物（著名的霍比特人）中探索几种早期人种，然后转向智人（Homo sapiens）。从查尔斯·达尔文和阿尔弗雷德·拉塞尔·华莱士的进化理论到洛夫洛克的盖亚假说，“Here on Earth”是对我们星球上生命的一个令人眼花缭乱的描述。
 
第一章
 HERE ON EARTH
 Tim Flannery is a writer, a scientist and an explorer. He has published over a dozen books including the award-winning bestsellers The Future Eaters, The Eternal Frontier and The Weather Makers. The 2007 Australian of the Year, Tim is Panasonic Professor in Environmental Sustainability at Macquarie University, and is National Geographic’s representative in Australasia. He sits on the sustainability boards of Siemens and Tata Power and the board of WWF International, and from 2007 to 2010 he chaired the Copenhagen Climate Council. Tim lives on the Hawkesbury River in New South Wales.
 To VJF, OMS and MH
 
Tim Flannery是一位作家、科学家和探险家。 他出版了十多本书，包括屡获殊荣的畅销书The Future Eaters，The Eternal Frontier和The Weather Makers， 在二〇〇七年被授予澳大利亚年度人物的称号。蒂姆是麦考瑞大学环境可持续发展方面的Panasonic Professor，也是“国家地理”在澳大利亚的代表。 他是西门子和塔塔电力公司的可持续发展委员会和世界自然基金会国际组织的董事会成员，并于2007年至2010年担任哥本哈根气候委员会主席。 蒂姆住在新南威尔士州的霍克斯伯里河上一间环保屋里。
 
第二章
 Foreword前言
 This book is a twin biography of our species and our planet. At its heart lies an investigation of sustainability-not how we achieve it, but what it is. I have written it at a time when hope that humanity might act to save itself from a climatic catastrophe seems to be draining away. Yet I am not without hope, for I believe that as we come to know ourselves and our planet we will be moved to act. Indeed, provoking that action is the purpose of this book.
 这本书是“我们物种和地球”的双胞胎传记，其核心是对可持续性的调查 - 不是我们如何实现它，而是它本应该是什么。我曾经写过这个主题，希望人类可以采取行动以拯救自己免受气候灾难的影响（似乎没有引起人们的注意）。然而，我并非完全不报希望，因为我相信，当我们了解自己和我们的星球时，我们将会采取行动。的确，激发这一行动是本书的目的。
 What is the nature of Earth? Is it akin to a cell, an organism or an ecosystem? How much energy does it require to operate? What is that energy used for, and how is it deployed? How flexible are Earth’s systems? Can they withstand severe challenges, and can their resilience and productivity be enhanced?
 地球的本质是什么？它类似于细胞，生物体还是生态系统？使他运行起来需要多少能量？能源都用于做什么，以及是如何安排部署的？地球系统的灵活性如何？他们能否承受严峻的挑战，能否提高他们的适应力和生产力？
 And what of us? Are we constituted by natural selection to be so selfish and greedy that we’re doomed to catastrophe? Or are there reasons to believe that we can overcome the problems confronting us, allowing our civilisation to continue? What of civilisation itself? What, precisely, is it?
 而我们呢？我们的自私和贪婪是自然选择的结果吗，以至于我们注定要遭遇灾难？或者有理由相信我们能够克服我们面临的问题，让我们的文明继续下去吗？文明本身是什么？究竟，是什么呢？
 These are some of the questions I attempt to answer in this book. Guiding me are the two great strands of evolutionary theory-reductionist science as epitomised by Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins, and the great holistic analyses of the likes of Alfred Russel Wallace and James Lovelock. Each pursues a truth that at first seems to be in opposition to the other, but in the enormous complexity that is our living planet they operate as necessary and complementary opposites. When viewed together, these Darwinian and Wallacean world views, as I call them, provide a convincing explanation of life as a whole-and of what sustainability entails.
 这些是我试图在本书中回答的一些问题。引导我的是查尔斯·达尔文和理查德·道金斯所代表的两大理论——进化理论和还原论科学，以及阿尔弗雷德·拉塞尔·华莱士和詹姆斯·洛夫洛克等人的全面分析。每个人一开始追求的似乎都是与另一个人相对立的真理，但在我们生活的这个巨大复杂的星球中，他们作为必要和互补的对立面而共同存在。当回顾这些关于世界的理论时，正如我所说的那样，这些理论一起提供了对整个生活以及可持续性带给我们的东西的令人信服的解释。
 Fifty thousand years after our ancestors left Africa, our species is entering a new phase. We have formed a global civilisation of unprecedented might, a civilisation that is transforming our Earth. We have become masters of technology, spinning energy from matter at will and withal realising the dreams of the alchemists-transforming one element into another. We have trod the face of the Moon, touched the nethermost pit of the sea, and can link minds instantaneously across vast distances. But for all that, it’s not so much our technology, but what we believe, that will determine our fate.
 我们的祖先离开非洲五万年后，我们的物种正进入一个新的阶段。我们已经形成了一个前所未有的全球文明，一个正在改变我们地球的文明。我们已成为技术大师，随意玩转能源，实现炼金术士的梦想——将一个元素转化为另一个元素，我们踩着月亮的脸，触及了大海的最深处，可以瞬间将思维联系起来。但对于所有这些，并不仅仅是我们的技术，而是我们的一种信念，这种信念将决定我们的命运。
 Today, many think that our civilisation is doomed to collapse. As I will show, such fatalism is misplaced. It derives in large part from a misreading of Darwin, and a misunderstanding of our evolved selves. Either such ideas will survive, or we will.
 今天，有许多人认为我们的文明注定要崩塌。正如我将要表明的那样，这种宿命论是错误的。它在很大程度上源于对达尔文的误读，以及对我们自我进化的误解。要么这样的想法能够继续下去，否则，就是我们人类自己继续存在下去。
 There are others who believe that endless growth is possible. In their imaginations only the fittest survive, and human intelligence will triumph over all. This optimism also derives from a misreading of Darwin, but it owes much as well to ignorance of the fundamentally important insights of Wallace and Lovelock. Despite their patently flawed nature, such foolishly optimistic ideas have now reigned largely unchallenged in western society for 150 years and have already led us far down the road to a dismal fate. Unless corrected, they may become a fatal flaw indeed.
 还有其他人认为无限增长是可能的。在他们的想象中，只有最适者才能生存，而人类的智慧将战胜所有。这种乐观主义也源于对达尔文的误读，但它也不得不忽视华莱士和洛夫洛克的根本重要见解。尽管这些愚蠢乐观的思想具有明显的缺陷，但在西方社会基本上已流行了150年，并且已经引领我们走向了一条令人沮丧的命运之路。除非纠正这种错误的见解，否则它们确实可能成为一个致命的问题。
 Narrow horizons and short time frames are always misleading. That’s why it’s impossible to determine whether, even in the dramatic changes we see over a lifetime, we’re witnesses to a descent into chaos, or a profound revolution that will lead to a better future. A wider view, one that encompasses humanity over the millennia and the world over the aeons, is required if we are to discern the true path of our evolutionary trajectory. In writing this book I’ve taken that long view, and, despite the challenges we now face, I feel optimistic-for ourselves, our children and our planet.
 If we are to prosper, we must have hope, goodwill and understanding.
 狭窄的视野和短暂的时间总会带来误解， 尽管在我们一生中能看到各种戏剧性变革，我们也难以确定，这些变革是会使我们陷入混乱，还是会带来更美好的未来的深刻革命。 如果我们真正要辨别我们的进化轨迹，就必须有一个更宏观的角度，一个涵盖千年以来的人类和世界的永恒观点。 在撰写本书时，我采取了长远的观点，尽管我们现在面临挑战，但我对自己，我们的孩子和地球感到乐观。 如果我们要繁荣，我们必须心怀希望、善意和理解。
 
第三章MOTHER NATURE OR MONSTER EARTH自然母亲或怪物地球
 CHAPTER1
 Evolution’s Motive Force 进化的动力
 There is nothing conscious about life’s lethal activities.PETER WARD 2009
 Whatever each day held, Charles Darwin tried to set aside time for a stroll around a ‘sand walk’ near his home, Down House, in Kent. Tradition has it that the sand walk was his thinking space-the place where he sharpened his evolutionary theory, as well as the sentences that would so elegantly carry it into print. Consequently, the walk is regarded with reverence by many scientists, and when I made my first pilgrimage to Down House in October 2009 it was this place above all that I wished to see. After paying my respects to the great man’s office and drawing room, I followed the signs to the walk. It’s a little removed from the house and its enclosed gardens, and entering it one feels instantly transported from the ordered human world into the wider world of nature.
 生命的致命活动没有任何意识。 PETER WARD 2009
 （or对生命的致命活动没有任何察觉。）
 无论每一天发生什么，查尔斯·达尔文都试图留出时间在他位于肯特郡的家（Down House）附近的“散步沙滩”周围散步。 人们普遍认为，“散步沙滩”就像是他的思维空间——他在那里构造了他的进化理论，以及那些优雅地打印出来的句子。 因此，许多科学家都非常喜欢散步。“散步沙滩”是我一直想参观的地方，当我在2009年10月第一次到Down House朝圣时， 向伟人办公室和客厅致敬之后，我按照标志走了一圈。 “散步沙滩”离房子及封闭的花园有点远，进入它时，人们会立刻从有序的人类世界进入到更广阔的自然世界。
 The walk consists of an oval-shaped path around a forest of hazel, privet and dogwood planted by Darwin himself. I was surprised to discover that despite its name there is no sand on it, nor has there ever been. Instead, it is surfaced with flints, which Darwin’s son Francis remembered his father kicking from the path as a means of keeping count of the number of circuits he’d completed. The forest is now tall and venerable, and as I strolled I found myself pondering the thoughts that might possess a man as he walked repeatedly-almost compulsively-on a course as regular as a racetrack, through what must then have been saplings. While we can’t know what occupied Darwin on the sand walk, there are hints in notes left by his children. As they grew up they took to playing in the walk, and often distracted and delighted their father with their games. To a man immersed in complex reasoning, such disturbances would surely be resented, so perhaps complex theories or elegant sentences weren’t the things that occupied him after all.
 散步包括一个椭圆形的路径，围绕着由达尔文自己种植的榛树、女贞和山茱萸。我惊讶地发现，虽然它的名字是“散步沙滩”，但这里并没有沙子，曾经也没有，相反，它上面有燧石，达尔文的儿子弗朗西斯记得他的父亲从路径中踢出燧石作为一种记录自己走了多少圈的方法。森林现在高大而古老，当我漫步时，我发现自己正在思考着的也许是那个男人所拥有的的想法，当他反复的，几乎是强迫性地走在那些路线上并且通过那些树苗时。虽然我们无法知道在沙滩散步时达尔文都在想些什么，但他的孩子们留下了一些笔记。随着孩子们长大，他们开始在那里玩耍，并且经常用他们的游戏使他们的父亲分心，并以此为乐。对于一个沉浸在复杂推理中的人来说，肯定会憎恨这样的打扰，所以也许复杂的理论和那些优雅的句子并不是占据他脑海的所有的东西。
 It’s my guess that during this repetitious physical activity Darwin was mentally fingering his worry beads-and looming large among his concerns were the implications of the theory he is now famous for. Known today as evolution by natural selection, it explains how species, including our own, are created. Natural selection, Darwin understood from his studies, is an unspeakably cruel and amoral process. He came to realise that he must eventually tell the world that we are spawned not from godly love, but evolutionary barbarity. What would the social implications be? As his discovery became widely understood, would faith, hope and charity perish? Would England’s early industrial society, already barbaric enough, become a place where only the fittest survived, and where the survivors believed this was the natural order? Might his innocent-sounding theory turn people into cold-blooded survival machines?
 ** 我猜想，在这些重复的步伐中，达尔文在精神上忧心忡忡，但隐约可见的是他那些著名的理论，也就是今天被称为自然选择的进化论，它解释了物种，包括我们自己，是如何被创造出来的。达尔文从他的研究中了解到的这是一种无法形容的残忍和不道德的过程。他开始意识到他必须告诉全世界，我们的出生不是来自上帝的爱，而是来自野蛮的进化。这一发现的社会影响是什么呢？随着他的发现被广泛了解，信仰、希望和慈善会消亡吗？已经足够野蛮的英格兰早期的工业社会，会成为一个所谓的只有最适合的人才能生存的地方吗？并且那些幸存者会认为这就是自然的秩序吗？他“无辜的理论”会把人类变成冷血的机器吗？**
 Charles Robert Darwin was born in 1809 in Shropshire, the son of a wealthy society doctor. Baptised into the Anglican Church, he was expected to follow his father into medicine. But the cruelty of surgery in the pre-anaesthetic era horrified him, so he quit his studies in favour of training as an Anglican parson, and in 1828 he enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree at Cambridge. This was the necessary prerequisite for a specialised course in divinity, and in his finals he excelled in theology, while barely scraping through in mathematics, physics and the classics. Darwin’s plans for a life of bucolic vicardom, however, were deferred when, in August 1831, he heard that a naturalist was needed for a two-year voyage to Tierra del Fuego and the East Indies aboard the survey ship Beagle.
 **查尔斯·罗伯特·达尔文于1809年出生于什罗普郡，是一位富有的医生的儿子。 他受洗进入英国国教教堂，并被期望继承父亲的医业。 但是在麻醉前的时代，手术的残忍使他感到不适，所以他放弃了医学，转而接受了英国圣公会牧师的培训，并于1828年在剑桥大学攻读文学学士学位， 这是神学专业课程的必要条件，在学期末，他在神学方面的表现非常出色，而在数学，物理和古典艺术方面却没有造诣。 他本打算过着田园诗般的生活，然而，在1831年8月，当他听说考察船Beagle需要一名博物学者进行为期两年的航行（到达火地岛和东印度群岛）时，他推迟了他的的田园生活想法。 **
 Although his father initially opposed the venture, Charles won him over and was accepted as a self-funded gentleman naturalist on the voyage. His most important duty, from the navy’s perspective, was to provide Captain Robert Fitzroy-a man of rather melancholy temperament-with companionship. The voyage would stretch to five years, taking Darwin round the globe and exposing him to the extraordinary biodiversity and geology of South America, Australia and many islands. It was in the Galápagos archipelago that Darwin collected what would become vital evidence for his theory-species of birds and reptiles that had evolved on, and were unique to, specific islands. For any young man such a voyage would be formative, but for Darwin it was world-changing. He later said that ‘the voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career’.
 虽然他的父亲最初反对这次冒险，但查尔斯赢得了他，并且在航行中作为自费的博物学家。从海军的角度来看，他最重要的职责是为船长罗伯特·菲茨罗伊（忧郁的气质）提供一种陪伴。这次航行将持续五年，将达尔文带到全球各地，使他了解南美洲、澳大利亚和许多岛屿的非凡生物和地质。正是在加拉帕戈斯群岛，达尔文收集了支撑他理论的重要证据，即一些物种的鸟类和爬行动物是在特定岛屿上进化而来的。对于其他年轻人来说，这样的航行都是现成的，但对于达尔文而言，这是一个正在改变着的世界。他后来说，“这次航行是迄今为止我生命中最重要的事件，并决定了我的整个职业生涯”。
 The experience led Darwin to reject religion. He later described how he had struggled to hold onto his faith, even as exposure to other cultures and the wider world made it less and less plausible:
 I was very unwilling to give up my belief; I feel sure of this, for I can well remember often and often inventing day-dreams of old letters between distinguished Romans, and manuscripts being discovered at Pompeii or elsewhere, which confirmed in the most striking manner all that was written in the Gospels. But I found it more and more difficult, with free scope given to my imagination, to invent evidence which would suffice to convince me. Thus disbelief crept over me at very slow rate, but was at last complete.
 这种经历使达尔文拒绝宗教。他后来描述了他如何努力坚持自己的信仰，即使接触其他文化和更广泛的世界使其变得越来越难：我非常不愿意放弃自己的信仰，因为我常常记起并发现杰出的罗马人之间的旧信，和在庞贝或其他地方发现的手稿，这些手稿以最引人注目的方式证实了福音书中所写的一切。但是我发现越来越困难，发现足以说服我的证据越来越困难，虽然偶尔会怀疑，但最终我还是努力说服了自己。
 Upon returning to England in 1836, Darwin was accepted immediately into the bosom of the Victorian scientific establishment, and he commenced working up his Beagle discoveries. In 1842, aged thirty-two, he purchased Down House and there embarked upon a long career as an independent, and independently wealthy, scientist. The property provided for all Darwin’s needs, serving as both a laboratory and a family home. Relatively modest in size, Down House must have been alive with the sounds of Charles and Emma Darwin’s seven surviving children, and at times it must have seemed crowded. There is nonetheless an orderliness to the house and grounds that marks them as laboratories, in which Darwin pursued every conceivable ramification of the theory of evolution by natural selection, from the pollination of orchids to the origins of facial expressions.
 1836年回到英格兰后，达尔文立即进入了维多利亚时代科学机构，并开始研究他在Beagle船上的发现。 1842年，在他32岁时，他购买了Down House，并开始了一个独立的、自费的（independently wealthy并不知道什么意思）科学家的长期职业生涯。 Down House满足达尔文的所有需求，既可作为实验室，也可作为家庭住宅。 它大小适中，富有生机，达尔文和妻子孩子生活在一起，尽管有时看起来拥挤， 但作为实验室，房屋和地面仍然是有序的。在这里，达尔文研究了从兰花的授粉到面部表情的起源，追求每一种可以想象的自然选择的进化论（可能意思不太对）。
 Such a life is for the scientist a kind of Nirvana, but Darwin’s lot was not entirely a happy one. Soon after returning from the Beagle voyage he fell ill, and for the rest of his life was plagued with symptoms, including heart palpitations, muscle spasms and nausea, that increased as he anticipated social occasions. Down House became his refuge, its solitude sustaining him through years of relentless work, illness and psychological stress until his death in 1882. I have little doubt that his illness was partly psychological, and exacerbated by what he believed to be the moral implications of his theory-a theory he largely kept to himself for twenty years. Darwin had realised that new species arose by natural selection as early as 1838, but he didn’t publish until 1858. ‘It is like confessing a murder,’ he confided to a fellow scientist when explaining his evolutionary ideas in a letter.
 这样的生活对于科学家来说是一种天堂，但达尔文的生活并不完全是幸福的。从Beagle航行回来后不久，他病倒了，他的余生一直受到病痛的困扰，包括心悸，肌肉痉挛和恶心，并且随着预期的社交场合的增加而情况加剧。 Down House成了他的避难所，它的孤独使他经历了多年休止的工作、疾病和心理压力，直到1882年去世。我毫不怀疑他的病情部分是心理上的，并且是由于他坚持了二十年的理论在道德上是有深意的，因此他的病情更加恶化。早在1838年，达尔文就已经意识到新物种是通过自然选择产生的，但他直到1858年才出版。他在一封信中解释他的进化理论时向一位科学家吐露说，这就像“承认谋杀”一样。
 Down House is central to Darwin and the development of his theory, and to understand that extraordinary place one can do no better than to read Darwin’s study of earthworms.[2] We might have earthworms in our gardens and compost bins, but few of us take the time to investigate them. For Darwin, however, they held a lifelong fascination. In many ways his worm monograph, which was his last book, is his most remarkable, documenting as it does experiments that ran continuously for almost three decades. Some of the worms lived in flowerpots, which were often kept inside Down House, and they seem to have become family pets. Certainly their individual personalities were appreciated, Darwin noting that some were timid and others brave, some neat and tidy while others were slovenly.
 Down House是一个不平凡的地方，是达尔文的生活和他理论发展的中心，想要认识Down House，那就要读一读达尔文在这里对蚯蚓的研究。 我们的花园里可能也会有蚯蚓和堆肥箱，但我们很少有人花时间去研究它们。 然而，对于达尔文来说，他对它们终生着迷。他的最后一本书《蚯蚓》，是他最引人注目的书籍，记录了一个连续进行了三十年的实验， 一些蚯蚓生活在花盆里，这些花盆经常被放在唐楼内，它们似乎已成为家庭宠物。 当然，它们的个性受到关注，达尔文注意到有些蚯蚓胆怯，有些勇敢，有些整洁，而有些则邋遢。
 21页未完待续

Wh- on earth…? 究竟……
 
用法透视
 
特殊疑问句中加上”on earth”可以加强语气，表示强调，有很强的感情色彩，意思是“究竟……；到底……”。另外，也可以用”the hell; in the world”。
 
支持范例
 
Why on earth do you tell a lie? 
 你究竟为什么要撒谎？
Who on the earth do you think you are anyway? 
 你究竟认为你是什么人？
Where in the world did you find the lost watch? 
 你到底在哪儿找到那块丢失的手表的？
 
会话记忆
 
A: I’ve been standing here since half past seven. Where on earth have you been? 
 我从七点半就一直站在这儿等你。你到底上哪儿去了？
 
B: I’m terribly sorry I’m late. I just couldn’t help it. 
 真太对不起，我迟到了。不过我实在没办法。
 
A: It’s really very easy saying you’re sorry. 
 说对不起当然很容易。
 
B: Look, just give me a chance. I can explain it. 
 你别急，给我个机会，我可以解释！
 
What are u doing on earth.
 
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