万物简史 第644期:一个星球,一次实验(5)

Then in 1939, by happy coincidence two separate birding enthusiasts¹, in widely separated locations, came across lone² survivors³ just two days apart.

接着，1939年，有两个狂热的鸟类爱好者仅仅在相隔两天的时间里，

They both shot the birds, and that was the last that was ever seen of Bachman's warblers.

分别在两个相距很远的地点巧遇了几只幸存的虫森莺，他们不约而同地向这些鸟开了枪。

The impulse to exterminate⁴ was by no means exclusively American.

这种灭绝行为并不仅仅发生在美国。

In Australia, bounties⁵ were paid on the Tasmanian tiger (properly the thylacine), a doglike creature with distinctive⁶ "tiger" stripes across its back,

在澳大利亚，一直在悬赏捕杀塔斯马尼亚虎（确切的称谓是袋狼），一种长得像狗，背部有明显的老虎条纹的动物

until shortly before the last one died, forlorn and nameless, in a private Hobart zoo in 1936.

直到过不多久它们中的最后一只于1936年悄无声息地死在霍巴特的一家私家动物园。

Go to the Tasmanian Museum today and ask to see the last of this species

今天，如果你去塔斯马尼亚博物馆兼美术馆要求看一眼最后一只这种动物

the only large carnivorous marsupial⁷ to live into modern times—and all they can show you are photographs.

惟一生存到现代的大型肉食有袋动物——他们所能展示给你的仅仅是这种动，物的照片和一段61秒钟长的老电影。

The last surviving thylacine was thrown out with the weekly trash.

最后一只存活下来的袋狼死了以后已经随每周清理一次的垃圾扔掉了。

I mention all this to make the point that if you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos⁸,

我所以提这一切，为的是说明，如果你在打算委派哪种生物去照料我们这个寂寞宇宙中的生命，

to monitor where it is going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn't choose human beings for the job.

监测它们正在去往何方，记录它们去过何处，你不会选择人类来担当这一项工作。

But here's an extremely salient point: we have been chosen, by fate or Providence⁹ or whatever you wish to call it.

但是，无可改变的事实是：我们已经被选中了，不管是命中注定，还是天意眷顾，抑或你希望称做任何别的原因。

As far as we can tell, we are the best there is.

就我们所知，我们是最优秀的。

We may be all there is. It's an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe's supreme¹⁰ achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously¹¹.

我们也许是最有智慧的，我们也许是万物之灵长，同时也是万物最可怕之噩梦，想到这一点真令人沮丧。

Because we are so remarkably¹² careless about looking after things, both when alive and when not, we have no idea

我们对于自己的照料工作是如此的漫不经心，无论它们活着的时候还是死了以后，

really none at all—about how many things have died off permanently¹³, or may soon, or may never, and what role we have played in any part of the process.

究竟有多少种生物已经灭绝，或即将灭绝，或永远不会灭绝，在此过程中我们究竟扮演何种角色，我们都一无所知——真的是一无所知。

1 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册

2 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

3 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

4 exterminate   

v.扑灭，消灭，根绝

参考例句：

• Some people exterminate garden insects by spraying poison on the plants.有些人在植物上喷撒毒剂以杀死花园内的昆虫。
• Woodpeckers can exterminate insect pests hiding in trees.啄木鸟能消灭躲在树里的害虫。

5 bounties   

（由政府提供的）奖金( bounty的名词复数 )； 赏金； 慷慨； 大方

参考例句：

• They paid bounties for people to give up their weapons. 他们向放下武器的人发放赏金。
• This foundation provided bounties of more than 5 million last year. 去年该基金会赠款达五百万元以上。

6 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

7 marsupial   

adj.有袋的，袋状的

参考例句：

• Koala is an arboreal Australian marsupial.考拉是一种澳大利亚树栖有袋动物。
• The marsupial has been in decline for decades due to urban sprawl from car accidentsdog attacks.这种有袋动物其数量在过去几十年间逐渐减少,主要原因是城市的扩张、车祸和狗的袭击。

8 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

9 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

10 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

11 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

12 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

13 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。