万物简史 第456期:小生物的世界(27)

 Much about the 1918 flu is understood poorly or not at all. 对于1918年的那场流感，人们了解甚少，或者根本不了解。

One mystery is how it erupted suddenly, all over, in places separated by oceans, mountain ranges, and other earthly impediments. 在由海洋、山脉和其他天然屏障阻隔地许多地方，流感为什么突然到处爆发，这是一个谜。

A virus can survive for no more than a few hours outside a host body, so how could it appear in Madrid, Bombay, and Philadelphia all in the same week? 在寄主身体之外，病毒只能存活几个小时，它怎么会同一个星期在马德晨、孟买和费城同时出现？

The probable answer is that it was incubated and spread by people who had only slight symptoms or none at all. 答案很可能是，它是由人培养和传播的，他们只有轻微的症状或毫无症状。

Even in normal outbreaks, about 10 percent of people have the flu but are unaware¹ of it because they experience no ill effects. 即使在正常爆发的时刻，在任何特定的人口当中，有大约10%的人患有流感而又学习察觉，因为他们没有不舒服的感觉。

And because they remain in circulation they tend to be the great spreaders of the disease. 由于他们仍在不停流动，他们往往是那种疾病的最主要的传播者。

That would account for the 1918 outbreak's widespread distribution, 这可能说明了1918年爆发的广泛性，

but it still doesn't explain how it managed to lay low for several months before erupting so explosively at more or less the same time all over. 但这仍不能解释为什么流感能潜伏几个月，然后才差不多同时在世界各地猛烈爆发。

Even more mysterious is that it was primarily devastating² to people in the prime of life. 它对青壮年的伤害最大，这更是个谜。

Flu normally is hardest on infants and the elderly, but in the 1918 outbreak deaths were overwhelmingly among people in their twenties and thirties. 在通常情况下，孩子和老人是最容易感染流感，但在1918年的爆发中，死者绝大部分是20-40岁的人。

Older people may have benefited from resistance gained from an earlier exposure to the same strain, but why the very young were similarly spared is unknown. 老年人也许早先接触过那种疾病，因此受益于已经获得的抵抗力，但为什么少年儿童同样幸免于难，这是个未知数。

The greatest mystery of all is why the 1918 flu was so ferociously³ deadly when most flus are not. 最大的谜团是，为什么1918年的流感那样致命，而大多数流感却不是那样的。

We still have no idea. 我们仍然搞不明白。

1 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 ferociously   

野蛮地，残忍地

参考例句：

• The buck shook his antlers ferociously. 那雄鹿猛烈地摇动他的鹿角。
• At intervals, he gritted his teeth ferociously. 他不时狠狠的轧平。