公众人物毕业演讲 第166期:比尔·奈马萨诸塞大学2014(13)

 　　The best scientific exploration sounded like a fairytale.

　　当时最好的科学理论就像是童话故事。

　　My second grade teacher Mrs. McGonigle read it to us.

　　我的二年级老师麦戈尼格尔女士告诉我们。

　　The dinosaurs² had small brains. They were stupid.

　　恐龙的脑非常小 它们很愚蠢。

　　So mice and bats beat up the dinosaur¹ and took their food.

　　老鼠和蝙蝠打败了恐龙 抢走了它们的食物。

　　Really.

　　真的。

　　But in my lifetime, everybody.

　　但在我一生的时间里。

　　We discovered the meteor impact crater³ near Chicxulub New Mexico.

　　我们在新墨西哥希克苏鲁伯发现了巨大的陨石坑。

　　The ejecta from that collision shot out over a diameter bigger than the earth itself.

　　碰撞产生的喷射物 直径要比地球本身还要大。

　　It went halfway⁴ to the moon.

　　达到了地月距离的一半。

　　It was like science fiction except that it was real.

　　听起来就像科幻小说 不过它是真实的。

　　And by the way

　　顺便说下。

　　As a result of that discovery in last year's airburst over Chelyabinsk, Russia.

　　去年俄罗斯车里雅宾斯克上空的空中爆炸。

　　And the very near miss of asteroid⁵ 2012 DA14.

　　以及小行星2012 DA14的擦肩而过。

　　People were at last appreciating the astonishing threat of an asteroid impact.

　　让人们开始意识到小行星撞击的可怕威胁。

　　You all are the first generation of.

　　你们将成为第一代。

　　Engineers, scientists, educators and foreign-policy wonks.

　　工程师 科学家 教育者 外交政策制定者。

　　Who can get humankind to do something about an incoming asteroid.

　　来让人类对可能的小行星撞击做点什么。

　　It is the only preventable natural disaster.

　　这是唯一可以避免的自然灾害。

　　What are you going to do? You're going to have a kinetic⁶ impactor.

　　怎么做呢 你可以发明一个动力撞击器。

　　Like solar sail spacecraft.

　　或是太阳帆太空船。

　　A swarm⁷ of rock vaporizing lasers in space.

　　可以发射让岩石蒸发的激光。

　　It's going to have to be something someday.

　　某天 总会有这类东西。

　　So we are counting on you.

　　我们需要指望你们。

　　I'm claiming that there will be similar world changing discoveries.

　　我敢肯定 在你们这一生中。

　　In the coming years in your life.

　　世界肯定会发生类似变革。

　　For example recently we've come to know that.

　　例如最近 我们开始知道。

　　The universe is bigger than anyone ever thought.

　　宇宙比以往任何人想象的都要大。

　　Not only that.

　　此外。

　　It's getting bigger faster, its expansion is accelerating.

　　它还在越来越快地变大 膨胀正在加速。

1 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

2 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

4 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

5 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

6 kinetic   

adj.运动的；动力学的

参考例句：

• There exist many sources of energy both potential and kinetic.存在着许多势能和动能的能源。
• The kinetic theory of gases is the best known example.气体动力学理论就是最有名的例子。

7 swarm   

n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入

参考例句：

• There is a swarm of bees in the tree.这树上有一窝蜜蜂。
• A swarm of ants are moving busily.一群蚂蚁正在忙碌地搬家。