新概念英語第四冊
Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies
1 . Imagine the effect on a reasonably advanced technological society,那麼可以設想，這將對這個社會產生何等的影響。但科技相當發達的社會，
2 . I am sure that, without modern weapons,我斷定，如果沒有現代化的武器，
3 . just as all of you are.是當今世界上的凡人。
4 . But this phase of our development is now finished.但這個發展階段已經結束。
5 . Our environment is chiefly conditoned by the things we believe.我們的環境由我們信仰的東西所決定。
6 . not so much because of different people even,這倒不是因為人民不同，
7 . both on the west coasts of continents with similar climates,都在各自大陸的西海岸，
8 . The most important factor in our environment is the state of our own minds.我們環境中最重要的因素就是我們的思想狀況。
9 . This is the point I wish to emphasize.這就是我要強調的論點。
10 . It is well known that where the white man has invaded a primitive culture,眾所周知，凡是白人侵入原始文化的地方，
11 . Indeed, we lack practice and experience nowadays in dealing with primitive conditions.確實，我們今天缺乏對付原始環境的實踐和經驗。
12 . and then only if we are very original.就這也需要我們有獨創的思想。
13 . one that still does not possess the bomb, of making it aware of the possibility,對一個尚未擁有核彈、如果告訴它製造核彈的可能性，
14 . I would like to give you an example, but fortunately I cannot do so.我願為你舉個例子，但幸虧我舉不出。
15 . I would make a very poor show of disputing the ownership of a cave with a bear,要我和一隻熊去爭洞穴，我會出洋相的；
16 . I do not doubt that it would be possible to inject ideas into the modern world that would utterly destroy us.向現代世界灌輸一種思想以便摧毀我們人類是可能的事，對此我並不懷疑。
17 . Competition between ourselves, person against person, community against community,然而人類之間的競爭，人與人，團體與團體，
18 . I have often tried to conceive of what those pages might contain,我常常試圖想像這些紙上所寫的東西，
19 . Ideas are dangerous.思想是危險的。
20 . It is not a simple competition for a fixed amount of food determined by the physical environment,它已不是為了爭得物質環境所決定的有限食物而進行的簡單競爭了，
21 . But even the mosquito has been subdued by attention to drainage and by chemical sprays.然而即使蚊子，也由於我們注意清理污水和噴灑化學藥品而被制服了。
22 . or, to be more accurate, we can think only a very little way outside,我們只能稍微離開一點兒，
23 . still persists, however; and it is as fierce as it ever was.依然在進行著，而且和以前一樣激烈。
24 . Twenty or thirty pages of information handed to any of the major world powers around the year 1925 would have been sufficient to change the course of world history.如果把二三十頁的情報交給1952年前後的任何一個世界強國，就足以改變世界歷史的進程。
25 . Perhaps it will suffice to mention the nuclear bomb.也許提一下核彈就足以說明了。
26 . Indeed, the concept of free speech only exists in our modern society because when you are inside a community,的確，言論自由的概念只存在於我們現代社會中，因為當你生活在一個社團當中時，
27 . But the competition of man against man is not the simple process envisioned in biology.但是，人與人的競爭並不像生物學中想像的那樣是一個簡單過程。
28 . but of course I cannot do so because I am a prisoner of the present-day world,不過我是做不到的，因為我和你們大家一樣，
29 . of supplying sufficient details to enable the thing to be constructed.而且向它提供製造核彈的細節，
30 . because the environment that determines our evolution is no longer essentially physical.因為決定我們進化環境的主要方面已不再是物質。
31 . Morocco and California are bits of the Earth in very similar latitudes,摩洛哥和加利福尼亞是地球上緯度極其相似的兩個地方，
32 . you are conditioned by the conventions of the community to such a degree that it is very difficult to conceive of anything really destructive.社團的風俗習慣會嚴格地制約你，使你很難有破壞性的想法。
33 . Yet their present development is wholly different,但是，這兩個地方目前的發展程度完全不一樣。
34 . The last creature to compete with man was the mosquito.能與人競爭的生物最後只有蚊子了，
35 . and in this I do not think that I stand alone.我也相信，出洋相者並非我一人。
36 . but because of thedifferent thoughts that exist in the minds of their inhabitants.而是由於居民頭腦中的思想不同。
37 . We cannot think outside the particular patterns that our brains are conditioned to,我們不能脫離我們大腦所限定的模式去思考問題，
38 . The Holy Office knew this full well when it caused heretics to be burned in days gone by.宗教法庭對此是非常清楚的，因此從前它總是把異教徒燒死。
39 . that twenty or thirty pages of ideas and information would be capable of turning the present-day world upside down, or even destroying it.二三十頁材料中的思想和情報會使當今的世界天翻地覆，甚至毀滅這個世界。
40 . the most destructive effects have come not from physical weapons but from ideas.破壞作用最大的不是殺人的武器，而是思想。
41 . and probably with rather similar natural resources.氣候相似，自然資源也可能相似。
42 . In man's early days, competition with other creatures must have been critical.在人類早期，人類與其他生物的競爭一定是必不可少的。
43 . It is only someone looking on from outside that can inject the dangerous thoughts.只有外部的旁觀者才能灌輸危險的思想。
44 . It is a strange thought, but I believe a correct one,這是個離奇的想法，不過我認為這個想法是正確的。