評論
打印
1. "We've all gone a little crazy about the outer space business," says Vice Admiral C.B. Momsen. "The ocean is the place where we should be putting our efforts in order to provide for future generations.''
1、“我們都對那些外太空的事情有些狂熱，”海軍上將C.B.Momsen說，“為了供養子孫后代，海洋才是我們應該投入努力的地方。”
2. Seventy-one percent of the earth's surface is covered by water. An observer, looking at the earth from another planet, would be likely to call it Oceanus. If all the continents and mountains were bulldozed flat, the earth would be covered by water more than 12,000 feet deep.
2、地球表面的71%被水覆蓋。一個觀測者從另一個行星看地球將可能稱其為海洋之神(Oceanus)。如果所有的大陸和山脈被推平，那么地球表面將被一層超過12000英尺深的水所覆蓋。(虛擬語氣)
3. Sea and air are divided by a viscous curtain; beneath the curtain is an element weighing 800 times as much as air, utterly dark a few fathoms down, and with pressures that would pulp a man at 3,000 feet. Yet we know that many animals live in the deeps at pressures of 15,000 pounds per square inch.
3、海洋和空氣被一種粘性的（viscous）“簾布”分開，“簾布”之下是一種比空氣重800倍(weighting 800 times as much as air)的成分，向下幾英尋完全（utterly）黑暗，在3000英尺深處的壓力會把人壓成肉醬。然而(yet)，我們知道很多動物生活在每英寸15000磅壓力的深處。
4. As a life environment, the sea is a kind of land turned upside down. The sunlit pastures are at the top, where the water is saturated with tiny drifting vegetables, phytoplankton, and equally minute animals, zooplankton. The athletic animals come up to graze in this fertile prairie and become links in extensive food chains, formed roughly along the lines suggested by Shakespeare:
4、作為一個生命環境，海洋如同一塊倒轉過來的(turned upside down)陸地。陽光普照的牧場在上面，這里的海水中充滿著（be saturated with）微小的漂浮植物，也就是浮游植物(phytoplankton)，以及同樣微小的動物，即浮游動物(zooplankton)。運動的動物從下層海水中游上來(come up to)，到這塊肥沃的“牧場”(fertile prairie)上覓食(graze)，構成了廣闊的食物鏈中的環節。這些大致如同莎士比亞的劇本臺詞中所說：
5. "Master, I marvel how the fishes live in the sea."
5、“主人，我驚訝魚怎么在大海里生存。”
6. "Why, as we do a-land: the great ones eat up the little ones." 6、“為什么?如同(as)我們陸地上的所做：大的總是吃小的。”
7. The food chains extend to the abyss. The most amazing fact about this inverted life pyramid is that only 2% of the nutritive matter ends up in swimming fish. The rest falls to the invertebrates: pulsing jelly fish, darting shrimp, fixed colonies of coral polyps, and crawlers and diggers of the floor. There are about 30,000 known species of marine life, and marine biologists discover more than 100 new ones each year.
7、食物鏈(the food chains)一直延伸到(extend to)深淵(abyss)。最令人驚奇的事是這個反向倒轉的生命金字塔(this inverted life pyramid)里僅僅2％的營養物質(nutritive matter)在游動的魚嘴里終結(end up)。其余部分落入(fall to)無脊椎動物(invertebrate)嘴中：脈動式水母、刺蝦、珊瑚蟲群、海底的爬行動物(crawler)和潛在泥中的動物。現在已經知道的海洋生命(known species of marine life)大約有30000種，而且海洋生物學家們每年都會發現超過100種新的海洋物種(more than 100 new ones)。
8. One main branch of sea science, physical oceanography, holds enormous unanswered questions. The nature of the bottom, the circulation of the deep currents, and the chemistry of the water are poorly understood.
8、海洋科學的一個主要分枝，物理海洋學(physical oceanography)，有為數眾多的未解之題。(我們對)海底的自然生態、深海水流的循環，以及海水化學目前都知之甚少。
9. The Atlantic hydrographic chart is being revised continuously, and nuclear submarines are now charting the Arctic basin under the ice. Yet vast areas of the Pacific are unmapped and the Indian Ocean has hardly been touched. We know that several depressions in the floor are deeper than Mt. Everest is high, but we cannot be sure that we have found the deepest one.
9、大西洋水文圖(the Atlantic hydrographic chart)在持續不斷地被修訂(revise)，核潛艇(unclear submarine)現在正在冰下進行北極海盆的測繪(chart)。然而，太平洋的大片海域還沒有海底地圖，印度洋(the Indian Ocean)甚至尚未被著手(測繪)。我們已經知道有幾個海床坑處的深度高于珠穆朗瑪峰的高度，但是我們不能確定我們已經找到了海底最深的地方。
10. Consider the abyssal valley called the Marianas Trench, lying west of Guam. In 1951, the British Challenger expedition sounded 33,640 feet at one place in the trench. In 1957 the Soviet ship Vitiaz sounded 300 feet deeper at another place nearby, and later the Russian vessel found a spot 225 feet deeper than that.
10、留心一下(consider)位于關島西面(lying west of Guam)的名叫馬利亞納海溝的深海谷地(the abyssal valley)。1951年，英國挑戰者探險隊測到(sound)海溝的一個地方有33640英尺深。1957年，蘇聯船Vitiaz號測到在附近的另一個地方比上處更深300英尺。其后(later)，俄國船發現另一個地點比剛才那個還深225英尺。
11. The French navy has built an abyssal bathyscaphe to take three men to the floor of the Marianas Trench. It seems certain that no human observers will ever get closer to the core of the earth than these men. The world's deepest land shaft accessible to men is the Champion Reef gold mine in India, which is only 9,811 feet deep.
11、法國海軍已經建造了一個深海潛水器，用來裝載三個人去到馬利亞納海溝的基底。看來很確定的是，不會再有任何其他觀測者能比這三個人更接近地球的核心。世界上最深的，人可以到達的陸基深井是在印度的Champion Reef金礦，其深度僅僅9811英尺。
12. The depth men will measure cosmic ray penetration of the sea, radioactivity, and the age of the water in the abyss. They may also make still and motion pictures of the trench, take water and sedimental temperatures, and perhaps sight no one knows what living creatures in that perpetual night. Serious scientists like Sir Alister Hardy of Oxford do not rule out the possibility that there are sea monsters to be discovered. A few years ago divers, working in a wreck under the Red Sea, several times sighted a wrasse 20 feet long. This is a common vegetarian species, never before found more than three feet long.
12、深入海底的人將在深海測量宇宙射線(cosmic ray)對海水的穿透力（penetration）、放射性活動(radioactivity)，以及海水的年齡。他們還要對海溝攝像攝影(make still and motion picture)，測量水和沉積物的溫度，也許還能觀測到(sight)那永恒黑夜下(in that perpetual night)不為人知的生物。像牛津大學的Alister Hardy先生一樣嚴謹的(serious)科學家們沒有排除在那里海洋怪物(sea monsters)被發現的可能性(do not rule out the possibility; rule out 宣布…不可能; 排除…的可能性)。幾年前，在紅海海底一只沉船里(in a wreck under the Red Sea)工作的潛水員(diver)幾次看到(sight)一條20英尺長的瀨魚。這是一種常見的草食的魚類，以前從來沒有發現過有超過3英尺長的(這種魚)。
13. The recent discovery of an eel larva many times the size of the common one may furnish a basis for stories of sea serpents. The mature eel has not been discovered, but it could possibly come in sea serpent dimensions.
13、最近“一條幼齡鰻魚(an eel larva)其尺寸是普通鰻魚(the common one)的很多倍”的發現，可能提供(furnish)了“深海大毒蛇”故事的依據(basis)。成熟的此類鰻魚還沒有被發現過，但是估計其尺寸很可能達到“深海大毒蛇”的水平(dimension)。
14. One aspect of oceanography that has fallen into neglect is that of identifying fish: taxonomy. It is considered dull work to catalogue fish. One of the great taxonomists is J.L.B. Smith of South Africa, the discoverer of the fabulous coelacanth. This brute was brought up by fishermen off East Africa and aroused the curiosity of the curator of a provincial museum, who sent a sketch of it to Smith. He instantly identified it as a coelacanth, a species believed extinct for 60 million years. Somewhere in his files, Smith recalled seeing the animal as an empty fossil split from a rock.
14、海洋學的一個已經被忽視(fall into neglect 漸被忽視[忽略])的領域（aspect）是“對魚進行分類鑒別”(that of identifying fish)：分類學(taxonomy)。它被認為是(it is considered)一種將魚進行分門別類(catalogue fish)的乏味的工作(dull work)。南非的J.L.B. Smith是世界上最好的分類學家(taxonomist)之一，他是令人難以置信的(fabulous)腔棘魚的發現者。這種魚(this brute)被漁民在東部非洲捕上來(bring up)，隨即引起(arouse)省立博物館館長的好奇心(the curiosity)，他寄給了Smith先生一份腔棘魚的素描圖(a sketch of it)。Smith先生立刻(instantly)鑒別出它是腔棘魚，一種被認為6000萬年前已滅絕的物種。在他的文檔某處，Smith先生回憶道“這個動物看上去像一個從巖石上剝離下來的化石”(as an empty fossil split from a rock)。
15. Almost everything we know or think we know-about the sea is open at both ends. The questions themselves may be wrong, and many of the answers are under challenge. Take the theory of photosynthesis, which holds that the growth of all vegetation, and consequently of animals, depends on the action of the sun on carbon dioxide and water.
15、關于海洋，幾乎我們知道的一切，或者我們認為已經知道的一切問題，其實在兩個方面都尚需考慮(open adj.懸而未決的,尚未決定的)。這些問題本身可能就是錯誤的，同時，很多問題的答案在面對置疑。拿“光合作用”理論來說(take)，這個理論認為所有植物成長，進而乃至動物，都依賴于（depend on）太陽對二氧化碳(carbon dioxide)和水的作用。(一氧化碳 carbon monoxide)
16. A French zoologist, Professor Brouardel, has preliminary evidence that some marine animals of the abyss thrive in the blackness without any discernible action of photosynthesis. It will take him years of the most painstaking instrument building, campaigns at sea, and every conceivable cross-check to establish the doubt. Only if these negative results are valid will he be able to formulate the question: how do they live, if not by photosynthesis? Then the study can begin.
16、一個法國動物學家(zoologist)Brouardel教授，獲得了初步的證據(preliminary evidence)，證明某些深海海洋動物在漆黑的、沒有任何可辨識的(without any discernible)“光合作用”行為(的環境)下茁壯成長(thrive)。他將要花費多年時間，從事最艱苦的(painstaking)設備制造(instrument building)、海中活動(campaigns at sea)、反復核對(cross-check)的工作，以確立這個(對光合作用理論的)“置疑”（the doubt）。只有當這些否定的結論被確認時他才能開始闡述這個問題：(only在句子開頭，主句部分倒裝，will 提到主語he之前。)如果不是依賴“光合作用”，深海海洋動物怎樣生存?(how do they live, if not by photosynthesis)之后，研究就會開始。
17. Unable to see the underwater world until recently, oceanographers have relied on blind groping into the depths. They lowered nets, dredges, bathythermographs, still cameras, water bottles, coring pipes, and current meters. Today continuous recording instruments from a ship underway are able to bring up data from a long strip of the sea.
17、直到今天(until recently)仍然不能看見(unable to see)這個水下世界，海洋學家(oceanographer)必須依賴盲目地暗中摸索(blind groping)進入深海。他們沉降(low)下去網、挖掘機(dredges)、深海溫度測量器、靜態照相機、水瓶、以及取心鉆管(coring pipes)和測流計。今天，在長途海上航行中(a long strip of the sea)，船載連續記錄設備能夠獲取數據(are able to bring up data)。
18. Water itself is vital to the future of the race. Not too far in the future, science will crack the water atom for nuclear energy, and, before then, power will be coming from harnessing tides and thermal exchanges under water.
18、水本身就是人類(the race)未來的至關重要的（vital）因素。在不太遠的將來(not too far in the future)，科學將為了核能源而裂變(crack)水中的原子，在那之前(before then)，電力將來自(come from)水下潮汐繩索(harnessing tides)和水下熱交換技術(thermal exchanges)。
19. The sea is the realm of inner space. It is our last frontier.
19、海洋是(我們的)內部空間領域。它是我們最后的待開發疆域
