经济学人273:六十年代的未来技术 远去的雷鸟号

 　　Science and technology

　　科学技术

　　The future technology of the past

　　六十年代的未来技术

　　Thunderbirds are gone

　　远去的雷鸟号

　　A British defence firm opens its archives to reveal flights of fancy that never flew

　　英国防务公司公开档案，从未实现的奇思妙想重见天日

　　READERS of a certain age may remember Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's sci-fi puppet shows—Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet¹—filmed, as the Andersons put it, in Supermarionation.

　　上了一定年纪的读者或许会记得盖瑞·安德森和西尔维娅·安德森的科幻木偶剧-《飞天神车》、《雷霆机五号》、《霹雳艇》、《雷鸟特攻队》以及《超空人》，剧集均由安德森夫妇所称的超级木偶出演。

　　Those who remember Captain Scarlet in particular may find one of the pictures here eerily² familiar.

　　特别是那些还记得《超空人》的读者会发现上面的照片里有一张似曾相识。

　　English Electric's Fighter Jet Take-Off Platform, a flying airfield³, is not quite the Cloudbase from which the immortal⁴ captain operated.

　　英国电气的空中机场-战斗机起飞平台与该剧中永远的队长操控的云霄基地不太像。

　　But it was intended, like its fictional⁵ counterpart, to launch and receive planes while itself airborne.

　　但就像云霄基地一样，其目的是要在空中发射和接收飞机。

　　It would have taken off and landed vertically⁶ in, say, a jungle clearing otherwise inaccessible⁷ to the aircraft piggybacking on it.

　　它要在一块从林里的空地上垂直起降，否则其所载的飞机无法起落。

　　English Electric was one of the firms merged⁸ into what eventually became BAE Systems, and BAE has recently been through its archives and publicised some of the projects dreamed up in the glory days of the 1960s, when designers' imaginations were allowed to run riot with little consideration of practicality or budget. MUSTARD, for example, was designed by the British Aircraft Corporation.

　　英国电气是最终被合并为英国航宇系统公司的众多公司中的一员，BAE最近完成了其档案整理工作，并公开了一些在上世纪六十年代的辉煌岁月中构想出来的项目，其时，设计人员的想象力可以天马行空，无需考虑可行性或者预算。例如，MUSTARD是由英国飞机公司（BAC）设计的。

　　It could pass for something out of Fireball XL5 or Supercar—though it also resembles Virgin⁹ Galactic's SpaceShipTwo which will, Virgin hopes, soon be taking paying passengers to the edge of space.

　　可以认为其构想来自于《雷霆机五号》或《飞天神车》----不过它也有点像维珍银河公司的太空船二号，维珍公司希望其很快便能载着付费乘客到达太空的边缘。

　　It would have been a three-stage space-plane, though only one stage would have made it into orbit.

　　太空船二号会是一艘三级航天飞船，尽管只需一级便能将其送入轨道。

　　The other two were reusable boosters.

　　其余的两级为可重复使用的助推器。

　　An Anderson version of the Jumping Jeep, also by BAC, might easily have emerged from the pod carried by Thunderbird Two on one of its missions for International Rescue.

　　在雷鸟二号执行国际援助组织的任务时，一辆安德森版的跳跃吉普-也出自BAC-从雷鸟二号携带的隔舱中脱离时或许比较简单。

　　Continuing the vertical-take-off theme, the Jeep would have had 12 fans whose downdraft would have helped it over obstacles such as ditches.

　　继续刚才垂直起飞的主题，这辆吉普有12个螺旋桨，其产生的向下气流能使吉普跨过壕沟等各种障碍。

　　And Hawker Siddeley's Intercity Vertical-Lift Aircraft, intended as a passenger plane that could land in urban airports not much bigger than pocket handkerchiefs, looks like the sort of thing that would have whisked Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, International Rescue's London agent, from her penthouse in Mayfair to New York for a day's shopping.

　　霍克·希德利公司的城际垂直起降飞机是想成为一架可以在胸袋手帕那么大的市内机场中着陆的客机，就像那种能让潘妮洛普·克雷顿华德夫人从自己位于梅菲尔的阁楼一路飞驰到纽约去购物一整天的飞机。

　　Sadly, none of these fantasies made it into metal.

　　可悲的是，这些奇思妙想中没有一个成为现实。

　　They remain as fictional as the Andersons' puppet shows.

　　它们就和安德森夫妇的木偶剧一样，只是停留在虚构层面。

　　Too expensive. Or too noisy.

　　要么费用太高，要么噪声太大，

　　Or simply too silly.

　　要么就只是想法太愚蠢。

　　But that is the strange thing about the future.

　　但这是关于未来的东西总是很怪。

　　Nothing ages faster than yesterday's dreams of tomorrow.

　　没有比昨天的明日梦更易老的东西了。

　　1.take off 脱掉；起飞

　　It also makes for a more comfortable take off.

　　这也让乘客在起飞时更感舒适。

　　Take off your coat and socks, which enables you dump redundant¹⁰ concerns.

　　脱掉外衣和鞋袜，就甩掉了多余的顾虑。

　　2.dream up 想起，想象出

　　I had to give my dream up.

　　我不得不放弃我的梦想。

　　I wonder what excuse they will dream up tomorrow.

　　我寻思他们明天会想出什么借口。

　　3.run riot 胡闹；肆无忌惮

　　They let their kids run riot.

　　他们听任自己的孩子撒野。

　　The virus can run riot through your body.

　　病毒会在你的体内蔓延滋生。

　　4.emerge from 露出； 浮现

　　They are a classic form of stimulus¹¹ that could help the economy emerge from the housing hangover.

　　这是一个刺激经济，帮助其从住房危机中复苏的经典方式。

　　The developed world is struggling to emerge from recession and high unemployment.

　　发达国家正极力想摆脱经济衰退和高失业率的困境。

1 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

2 eerily   

adv.引起神秘感或害怕地

参考例句：

• It was nearly mid-night and eerily dark all around her. 夜深了，到处是一片黑黝黝的怪影。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The vast volcanic slope was eerily reminiscent of a lunar landscape. 开阔的火山坡让人心生怪异地联想起月球的地貌。 来自辞典例句

3 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

4 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

5 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

6 vertically   

adv.垂直地

参考例句：

• Line the pages for the graph both horizontally and vertically.在这几页上同时画上横线和竖线，以便制作图表。
• The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres.人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。

7 inaccessible   

adj.达不到的，难接近的

参考例句：

• This novel seems to me among the most inaccessible.这本书对我来说是最难懂的小说之一。
• The top of Mount Everest is the most inaccessible place in the world.珠穆朗玛峰是世界上最难到达的地方。

8 merged   

（使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中

参考例句：

• Turf wars are inevitable when two departments are merged. 两个部门合并时总免不了争争权限。
• The small shops were merged into a large market. 那些小商店合并成为一个大商场。

9 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

10 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

11 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。