大学英语精读_双语6 (10)

Unit Ten
第十课
Do animals think?
动物会思考吗？
How could the earth show so many signs of design and purpose and yet be random?
为什么地球能展示出这么多设计的和有意图的信息，而且是随机的？
Our best scientists are heatedly debating both sides of these and other scientific questions.
我们最好的科学家正争论着这两种事实，和其它科学家的问题。
In the following essay, the author takes a look at science eduation and argues that as well as telling students the facts and theories that have already been proved and accepted,
下面的文章中，作者对科学教育进行了概括和辨论，以及告诉学生已经证明和接受的理论和事实。
science teachers should spend more time introducing their stdents to the many mysteries that remain unsolved and the arguments taking place between scientists.
科学课的老师们应该花更多的时间向他们的学生介绍一些神秘的，仍然没有被解决的，和发生在科学家之间的一些争论。
What better way, he argues, to stimulate their interest in things scientific?
他争论说，有什么更好的方法能激励他们在科学上的兴趣呢？
DEBATING THE UNKNOWABLE
探究未知领域
Lewis Thomas
刘易斯·托马斯
The greatest of all the accomplishments of twentieth-century science has been the discovery of human ignorance.
发现了人类自身的无知，这是二十世纪取得的最伟大的成就。
We live, as never before, in puzzlement about nature,
我们生活在困惑中，对自然界以前从未象现在这样困惑过，
the universe, and ourselves most of all.
对宇宙，以及对我们人类自己，
It is a new experience for the species.
对我们人类来说，这是一种新的感受。
A century ago, after the turbulence caused by Darwin and Wallace had subsided and the central idea of natural selection had been grasped and accepted,
一百年前，我们在达尔文和华莱尔引起的轰动平息后，就以为自己对进化论的本质内容全部了如指掌了，
we thought we knew everything essential about evolution.
仅仅只因为我们已领悟和接受了自然选择的观点。
In the eighteenth century there were no huge puzzles;
在十八世纪时，没有巨大的难解之迷。
human reason was all you needed in order to figure out the universe.
人们完全凭自己的理性去了解宇宙。
And for most of the earlier centuries,
在此以前的几个世纪里，
the Church provided both the questions and the answers, neatly packaged.
教会大多数时间几乎囊括了一切：既提问题又给答案。
Now, for the first time in human history,
现在，我们在人类历史上首次，
we are catching glimpses of our incomprehension.
看见了自己理解力的缺乏。
We can still make up stories to explain the world,
我们象往常那样为解释世界而编出的说法，
as we always have, but now the stories ha

ve to be confirmed and reconfirmed by experiment.
如今一定得通过实验去证实了再证实，
This is the scientific method,
这就是科学的方法。
and once started on this line we cannot turn back.
只要我们采用了这种科学方法去开始做某事后，我们无法再往回走了。
We are obliged to grow up in skepticism,
我们不得不在怀疑一切的环境中成长，
requiring proofs for every assertion about nature,
我们需要证据来证明每个有关自然界的断言
and there is no way out except to move ahead and plug away,
我们除了马上行动，努力探索，除此之外，别无他法。
hoping for comprehension in the future but living in a condition of intellectual instability for the long time.
我们希望将来能理解未知的一切，但是我们在这以前很长一段时间内只能处于理解不完善的阶段。
It is the admission of ignorance that leads to progress,
承认自己是无知的，这会导致进步。
not so much because the solving of a particular puzzle leads directly to a new piece of understanding but because the puzzle
不是完全因为这个特别迷的解答直接地增加了一点理解，而是因为这些迷，
--- if it interests enough scientists --- leads to work.
如果能引起科学家的足够兴趣的话，是它们引导了这个工作。
There is a similar phenomenon in entomology known as stigmergy,
昆虫学中存在一种类似的现象，这种现象被格兰塞称之为“siigmergy”，
a term invented by Grasse, which means "to incite to work".
其含义为“推动去努力。”
When three or four termites are collected together in a chamber they wander about aimlessly,
放在房间内的三四只白蚁会四处毫无目的地乱爬，
but when more termites are added, they begin to build.
但是放进更多的白蚁后，它们便会开始建造了。
It is the presence of other termites,
是因为其它白蚁的存在，
in sufficient numbers at close quarters, that produces the work:
达到一定数量后，就紧紧聚在一起，开始工作。
they pick up each other's fecal pellets and stack them in neat columns,
它们用对方的小粪团堆起整整齐齐的柱状。
and when the columns are precisely the right height,
那些正好到合适高度的柱状物
the termites reach across and turn the perfect arches that form the foundation of the termitarium.
会横向延伸成为一个个极佳的拱形建筑，构成白蚁们修建蚁窝的基础。
No single termite knows how to do any of this,
一只只单个的白蚁不会做这种事，
but as soon as there are enough termites gathered together they become flawless architects,
可一旦数量足够的白蚁聚在一块儿，它们便成了完美的建筑师。
sensing their distances from each other although blind,
这些盲眼白蚁群不仅能察觉彼此间的距离，
building an immensely complicated structure with its own aircond

itioning and hmidity control.
而且能造成一个巨大的复杂建筑，该建筑还带有自身的空调系统和温度控制系统。
They work their lives away in this ecosystem uint by themselves.
在自己建成的生态系统中，白蚁们一直工作着，忙碌一生。
The nearest thing to a termitarium that I can think of in human behavior is the making of language,
我能想起的和蚁窝搭建最相似的人类行为是语言的创造。
which we do by keeping at each other all our lives,
在终生相互交往的过程中，
generation after generation,
我们一代接一代地创造语言，
changing the structure by some sort of instinct.
并出于某种本能改变其结构。
Very little is understood about this kind of collective behavior.
对于这种集体行为，我们还了解得很少。
It is out of fashion these days to talk of "superorganisms",
谈论起“超有机个体”，现在已不时髦了。
but there simply aren't enough reductionist details in hand to explain away the phenomenon of termites and other social insects:
但是，要解释清楚白蚁现象和其他群居昆虫现象，我们手头上基于单个昆虫研究的资料数量还远远不够。
some very good guesses can be made about their chemical signaling systems,
这些昆虫群的化学反应系统可以由我们作出一些极好的推测，
but the plain fact theat they exhibit something like a collective intelligence is a mystery,
但它们为什么会显现出集体的智慧，这一明明白白的事实却始终是个迷。
or anyway an unsolved problem,
或者不管怎样也是个带没解答的，
that might contain important implications for social life in general.
也许对整个社会生活都有重要含义的问题。
This mystery is the best introduction I can think of to biological science in college.
由此我想到，在大学生物学课上，这个神秘问题应该是最好的开场白。
It should be taught for its strangeness,
老师们应当告诉学生们这个问题的奇特之处，
and for the ambiguity of its meaning.
及意义的含糊之处。
It should be taught to premedical students,
这些应该教给医科大学预科生们
who need lessons early in their careers about the uncertainties in science.
他们需要在事业开创早期通过上课来了解科学领域内所存在的一些尚未确定的问题。
College students, and for that matter high school students,
大学生，还有那些中学生，
should be exposed very early,
应该尽早地，
perhaps at the outset,
也许从一开始，
to the big arguments currently going on among scientists.
就得去了解目前科学家正在争论不休的一些重大问题。
Big arguments stimulate their interest,
这类重大争论可以激起学生们的兴趣，
and with luck engage their absorbed attention.
如果弄得好的话，甚至可以吸引他们全部的注意力。
Few things in life are as engro

ssing as a good fight between highly trained and skilled adversaries.
生活中绝大多数事都比不上训练有素，经验丰富的论敌间的激烈辩论引人入胜。
But the young students are told very little about the major disagreements of the day;
不管怎样，对于当代那些主要争论，年轻学生们却不很了解。
they may be taught something about the arguments between Darwinians and their opponents a century ago,
关于达尔文主义者和他们论敌间所展开的争论，年轻的学生们也许被老师教过一点。
but they do not realize that similar disputes about other matters,
但是其他方面正在进行相仿的争论。
many of them touching profound issues for our understanding of nature,
其中许多已触及到有关我们自然界理解的深奥问题，
are still going on and, indeed,
实际上仍然在继续着
and an essential feature of the scientific process.
并反映了科学进程中的本质特征。
There is , I fear, a reluctance on the part of science teachers to talk about such things,
这一切，学生们并不了解。我担忧的是，理科老师自己不情愿谈论这事情，
based on the belief that before students can appreciate what the arguments are about they must learn and master the "fundamentals".
因为他们相信学生们对这些争论的理解只能建立在领会掌握了“基本知识”的基础上。
I would be willing to see some experiments along this line,
我很想看到与这方面相关的一些实验，
and I have in mind several examples of contemporary doctrinal dispute in which the drift of the argument can be readily perceived without deep or elaborate knowledge of the subject.
心目中已有不少当代学术争鸣的例子。即使对这些主题没有深刻，详尽地了解，人们也容易理解争论的大意。
There is, for one, the problem of animal awareness.
这儿有个例子是有关动物意识问题的。
One school of ethologists devoted to the study of animal behavior has it that human beings are unique in the possession of consciousness,
有一派生态学家，他们专门从事动物行为的研究，他们断言道，人类是唯一拥有意识的，
differing from all other creatures in being able to think things over,
在能够仔细考虑事情方面，不同于其他生物，
capitalize on past experience,
充分利用过去的经验，
and hazard informed guesses at the future.
大胆有根据地推测未来。
Other, "lower", animals (with possible exceptions made for chimpanzees, whales, and dolphins) cannot do such things with their minds;
而其他“低级”动物（黑猩猩，鲸鱼和海豚可能要排除在外），是不能用大脑做出类似事情的。
they live from moment to moment with brains that are programmed to respond,
它们大脑只能按一定程序作出，
automatically or by conditioning,
自动的或有条件的反应。
to contingencies in the environm

ent.
对于生活环境中的突发性事件，
Behavioral psychologists believe that this automatic or conditioned response accounts for human mental activity as well,
但他们认为人的心理活动可以通过这种自动的或条件化的反应得以解释。
although they dislike that word "mental".
尽管行为心理学家们不太喜欢“心理的”一词，
On the other side are some ethologists who seem to be more generous-minded,
另一派生态学家，则显得更为宽容大度。
who see no compelling reasons to doubt that animals in general are quite capable of real thinking and do quite a lot of it --- thinking that isn't as dense as human thinking,
一般动物完全能够真正地思维并且正在进行大量的思维。他们认为没有理由必须去怀疑这一事实。与人类的思维比较起来，
that is sparser because of the lack of language and the resultant lack of metaphors to help the thought along,
动物思维稀疏得多，这也是动物缺乏语言，缺乏比喻去推动思维进程。
but thinking nonetheless.
但无论如何它们是在思维。
The point about this argument is not that one side or the other is in possession of a more powerful array of convincing facts;
争论中，哪一方的事实比另一方的更强有力，更有说服力，这不是争论的意义所在，
quite the opposite.
而是刚好相反。
There are not enough facts to sustain a genuine debate of any length;
两方想展开真正的长期的争论，但却都没有充分的事实来支持自己的观点。
the question of animal awareness is an unsettled one.
动物意识问题还处于未被解决的状态。
Another debatable question arises when one contemplates the whole biosphere,
人们开始仔细考虑整个生物圈时，另一个可争论的问题便出现了。
the conjoined life of the earth.
生物圈也就是地球上所有连接在一起的生命。
How could it have turned out to possess such stability and coherence,
它是如何能保持这样稳定、和谐，
resembling as it does a sort of enormous developing embryo,
象一个硕大无比正发育着的胚胎一样的呢？
with nothing but chance events to determine its emergence?
只是由于一个偶然的事件决定其出现的吗？
Lovelock and Margulis, facing this problem,
洛夫洛克和马克利斯就这一问题，
have proposed the Gaia Hypothesis,
提出了盖亚假说。
which is in brief, that the earth is itself a form of life,
用简短的话来说，该假说认为地球本身就是一种生命形式。
"a complex entity involving the Earth's biosphere, atmosphere, oceans and soil;
“这一囊括了地球生物圈、大气层、海洋和土壤的复杂实体，
the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet."
整个构成了一个为地球生命寻求最佳物理和化学环境的反馈或控制

系统。
Lovelock postulates, in addition,
拉夫洛克还假定了，
that "the physical and chemical condition of the surface of the Earth,
地球表面的物理和化学条件，
of the atmosphere, and of the oceans has been and is actively made fit and comfortable by the presence of life itself."
“越来越适宜的大气层由生命本身的存在已经创造出来并且现在仍然在积极地创造着。”
This notion is beginning to stir up a few signs of storm,
这述观点正开始激起风暴，已有一些迹象表明了这一点。
and if it catches on, as I think it will,
我认为这一观点如果流行的话，
we will soon find the biological community split into fuming factions,
生物学界将很快地分裂成怒气十足的两派：
one side saying that the evolved biosphere displays evidences of design and purpose,
一派认为进化了的生物圈是按计划有目的地进行的结果。
the other decrying such heresy.
另一派谴责这类异端邪说。
I believe that students should learn as much as they can about the argument.
对于这场争论，这认为学生们应尽可能多去了解。
One more courrent battle involving the unknown is between sociobiologists and antisociobiologists,
另一场同时存在的争论是在社会生物学家和反社会生物学家之间展开的，它也是一场有关世界未知领域的论战。
and it is a marvel for students to behold.
对学生们来说，它提供了一次绝妙的机会使他们拓宽视野。
To observe, in open-mouthed astonishment,
观看这场论战的人们会惊愕得张大嘴。
one group of highly intelligent, beatuifully trained,
一群科学家，他们聪明绝顶，训练有素，
knowledgeable, and imaginative scientists maintaining that all behavior,
知识广博，想象丰富，主张，
animal and human, is governed exclusively by genes,
基因无疑整个控制了所有动物的或人类的行为；
and another group of equally talented scientists asserting that all behavior is set and determined by the environment or by culture,
另一群科学家，同样出类拔萃，则坚持环境和文化决定了一切行为。
is an educational experience that no college student should be allowed to miss.
每个大学生都不要错过这场很有教育意义的论战。
The essential lesson to be learned has nothing to do with the relative validity of the facts underlying the argument.
在这儿，论据的相对可靠程度并不是我们要学的十分必要的一课。
It is the argument itself that is the education:
实际上，这里的教育意义就在于争论本身：
we do not yet know enough to settle such questions.
我们依靠目前的知识想解决这类问题，那还是远远不够的。