I often think that we are like the carp swimming contentedly in that pond. We live out our lives in our own "pond," confident that our universe consists of only those things we can see or touch. Like the carp, our universe consists of only the familiar and the visible. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us.
我常想我們就像在池塘里心滿意足地游水的鯉魚。我們在自己的"池塘"里度過一生,確信我們的世界僅僅是由我們看得到或摸得著的那些東西組成的。與鯉魚一樣,我們認為我們的世界只有熟知的和看得見的東西。我們自我陶醉地拒不承認在我們近旁,就在我們抓不到摸不著的地方可能存在其它相似的世界或維。假若我們的科學家發明了像力這樣的概念,那只是因為他們不能想像我們周圍的空間充斥著看不見的振動。
A second incident from my childhood also made a deep, lasting impression on me. When I was 8years old, I heard a story that would stay with me for the rest of my life. I remember my schoolteachers telling the class about a great scientist who had just died. They talked about him with great reverence, calling him one of the greatest scientists in all history. They saidthat very few people could understand his ideas, but that his discoveries changed the entire world and everything around us. I didn't understand much of what they were trying to tell us, but what most intrigued me about this man was that he died before he could complete his greatest discovery. They said he spent years on this theory, but he died with his unfinished papers still sitting on his desk.
我兒時發生的第二件事也給我留下了深刻持久的印象。我八歲時聽到了一個終生難忘的故事。我記得老師們向班上的同學講了一位剛去世的偉大科學家的事。他們懷著極其崇敬的心情談論他,稱他為有史以來最偉大的科學家之一。他們說沒有多少人能理解他的思想,但是他的種種發現改變了整個世界和我們周圍的一切。對于他們試圖告訴我們的這番話,我有許多地方都不太懂,但此人最讓我感到好奇的是,他在完成他最重大的發現前去世了。他們說他花了多年時間研究這一理論,但未完成的論文還擱在書桌上他就去世了。
來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/daxue/201612/463312.shtml