万物简史 第604期:冰河时代(1)

Part VI The Road To Us

第六部 通向我们的路

Descended¹ from the apes! My dear, let us hope that it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known. —Remark attributed to the wife of the Bishop² of Worcester after Darwin's theory of evolution was Explained to her

我们是猿的后裔！天哪，真希望这不是真的。果真是这样的话。让我们祈祷不要让大家知道。——沃斯特主教的妻子对达尔文进化论的感言

27 Ice Time

第二十七章 冰河时代

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

我做了一个梦，实际上也不完全是一个梦。

The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars Did wander ... —Byron, "Darkness"

耀眼的太阳熄灭了，而星星仍在空中四处闲逛……——拜伦《黑暗》

In 1815 on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, a handsome and long-quiescent mountain named Tambora exploded spectacularly, killing³ a hundred thousand people with its blast and associated tsunamis⁴. It was the biggest volcanic⁵ explosion in ten thousand years—150 times the size of Mount St. Helens, equivalent to sixty thousand Hiroshima-sized atom bombs.

1815年，在印度尼西亚松巴哇岛，一座名为坦博拉的漂亮而又长期休眠的火山突然大规模喷发，喷涌而出的熔岩以及相伴而来的海啸夺走了10万人的生命。这是近1万年内最猛烈的一次火山喷发——其规模是1980年美国圣海伦斯火山喷发的150倍，其能量相当于6万颗广岛原子弹。

News didn't travel terribly fast in those days. In London, The Times ran a small story—actually a letter from a merchant—seven months after the event. But by this time Tambora's effects were already being felt. Thirty-six cubic miles of smoky ash, dust, and grit⁶ had diffused⁷ through the atmosphere, obscuring the Sun's rays and causing the Earth to cool. Sunsets were unusually but blearily colorful, an effect memorably⁸ captured by the artist J. M. W. Turner, who could not have been happier, but mostly the world existed under an oppressive, dusky pall⁹. It was this deathly dimness that inspired the Byron lines above.

那个年代消息传播的速度非常慢。在坦博拉火山喷发后7个月，伦敦《泰晤士报》才刊登了一篇简短报道——实际上是一封商人来信。而火山喷发所产生的影响，这时候人们早巳经感觉到了。240立方公里的烟尘遍布整个大气层，使阳光变得朦胧，地球的气温下降。日落时分，阳光出奇的暗淡，此情此景，被高兴透顶的英国画家J.M.W.特纳捕捉下来。可是在大多数时间里，人们只能生活在令人窒息的可怕的黑暗中。这种死一般的昏暗景象给了诗人拜伦灵感，于是他写下了本章开头所引的那几行诗。

1 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

2 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 tsunamis   

n.海啸( tsunami的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our oceans are alive with earthquakes, volcanoes, and more recently, tsunamis. 海中充满着地震、火山，包括最近发生的海啸。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年2月号
• Please tell me something more about tsunamis! 请您给我讲讲海啸吧！ 来自辞典例句

5 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

6 grit   

n.沙粒，决心，勇气；v.下定决心，咬紧牙关

参考例句：

• The soldiers showed that they had plenty of grit. 士兵们表现得很有勇气。
• I've got some grit in my shoe.我的鞋子里弄进了一些砂子。

7 diffused   

散布的，普及的，扩散的

参考例句：

• A drop of milk diffused in the water. 一滴牛奶在水中扩散开来。
• Gases and liquids diffused. 气体和液体慢慢混合了。

8 memorably   

难忘的

参考例句：

• The book includes some memorably seedy characters and scabrous description. 这本书包含了一些难忘下流的角色及有伤风化的描述。 来自互联网
• Horowitz could play Chopin memorably. 霍洛维茨可以把肖邦的作品演奏得出神入化。 来自互联网

9 pall   

v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕

参考例句：

• Already the allure of meals in restaurants had begun to pall.饭店里的饭菜已经不像以前那样诱人。
• I find his books begin to pall on me after a while.我发觉他的书读过一阵子就开始对我失去吸引力。