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Once I imagined what would happen if I reached down and lifted one of the carp "scientists" out of the pond. Before I threw him back into the water, he might struggle furiously asI examined him. I wondered how this would appear to the rest of the carp. To them, it would be a truly unsettling event. They would first notice that one of their "scientists" haddisappeared from their universe. Simply vanished, without leaving a trace. Wherever they wouldlook, there would be no evidence of the missing carp in their universe. Then, seconds later,when I threw him back into the pond ,the "scientist" would abruptly reappear out of nowhere.To the other carp,it would appear that a miracle had happened.
有一次我設想，如果我把手伸進水去，從池塘里撈出一個鯉魚"科學家"來，那將會怎樣。在我把他扔回水里去之前，我細細觀察他時他也許會拼命掙扎。我不知道其他鯉魚會怎樣看待這事。他們會覺得這是一件真正令人不安的事件。他們先是察覺他們的一位"科學家"從他們的世界中消失了。就這么突然不見了，無影無蹤。不管他們往哪兒找，在他們的世界中都看不到失蹤鯉魚的蹤跡。然后，不過片刻功夫，我把他扔回了池塘，其時那位"科學家"不知從什么地方突然重又冒了出來。在其余那些鯉魚看來，這是發生了奇跡。
After collecting his wits, the "scientist" would tell a truly amazing story. "Without warning," he would say, "I was somehow lifted out of the universe (the pond) and hurled into a mysterious world, with blinding lights and strangely shaped objects that I had never seen before. The strangest of all was the creature who held me prisoner, who did not resemble a fish in the slightest. I was shocked to see that it had no fins whatsoever, but nevertheless could move without them. It struck me that the familiar laws of nature no longer appliedin this other world. Then, just as suddenly,I found myself thrown back into our universe."(This story, of course, of a journey beyond the universe would be so fantastic that most of the carp would dismiss it as utter nonsense.)
"科學家"鎮定下來后，會講一個真正令人驚異的故事。他說："在預先毫不知情的情況下，我就不知怎的被人從這個世界（池塘）提了起來，扔進了一個神秘世界，那里有令人眩目的燈火，有我過去從未見過的奇形怪狀的物件。最奇怪的是扣留我的那個怪物，一點也不像魚。見它身上壓根兒沒長鰭但卻能移動，我感到十分震驚。我突然想到，熟悉的自然法則在另一個世界里不再適用了。后來，也是那么突然，我被扔回了我們的世界。"（當然，這個關于去別的世界旅行的故事太荒誕，大多數鯉魚會把它當作無稽之談而不予理會。）
