新编英语教程第三版李观仪Unit课文及译文参考

Unit 1 恰到好处
Have you ever watched a clumsy man hammering a nail into a box? He hits it first to one side, then to another, perhaps knocking it over completely, so that in the end he only gets half of it into the wood. A skillful carpenter, on the other hand, will drive the nail with a few firm, deft blows, hitting it each time squarely on the head. So with language; the good craftsman will choose words that drive home his point firmly and exactly. A word that is more or less right, a loose phrase, an ambiguous expression, a vague adjective （模糊的形容词）, will not satisfy a writer who aims at clean English. He will try always to get the word that is completely right for his purpose.
你见过一个笨手笨脚的男人往箱子上钉钉子吗？只见他左敲敲，右敲敲，说不准还会将整个钉子锤翻，结果敲来敲去到头来只敲进了半截。

而娴熟的木匠就不这么干。

他每敲一下都会坚实巧妙地正对着钉头落下去，一钉到底。

语言也是如此。

一位优秀的艺术家谴词造句上力求准确而有力地表达自己的观点。

差不多的词，不准确的短语，摸棱两可的表达，含糊不清的修饰，都无法使一位追求纯真英语的作家满意。

他会一直思考，直至找到那个能准确表达他的意思的词。

The French have an apt（贴切的） phrase for this. They speak of “le mot juste,” (the exact word) the word that is just right. Stories are told of scrupulous（一丝不苟的） writers, like Flaubert, who spent days trying to get one or two sentences exactly right. Words are many and various; they are subtle（微妙的） and delicate（细腻的） in their different shades（色调）of meaning, and it is not easy to find the ones that express precisely（正是，恰恰） what we want to say. It is not only a matter of having a good command of language and a fairly wide vocabulary; it is also necessary to think hard and to observe accurately. Choosing words is part of the process of realization, of defining our thoughts and feelings for ourselves, as well as for those who hear or read our words. Someone once remarked: “How can I know what I think till I see what I say?” this sounds stupid, but there is a great deal of truth in it.
法国人有一个很贴切的短语来表达这样一个意思，即“le mot juste”, 恰到好处的词。

有很多关于精益求精的作家的名人轶事，比如福楼拜常花几天的时间力求使一两个句子在表达上准确无误。

在浩瀚的词海中，词与词之间有着微妙的区别，要找到能恰如其分表达我们意思的词绝非易事。

这不仅仅是扎实的语言功底和相当大的词汇量的问题，还需要人们绞尽脑汁，要观察敏锐。

选词是认识过程的一个步骤，也是详细描述我们的思想感情并表达出来使自己以及听众和读者深刻理解的一个环节。

有人说：“在我思想未成文之前，我怎么知道自己的想法？”这听起来似乎很离谱，但它确实很有道理。

It is hard work choosing the right words, but we shall be rewarded by the satisfaction that finding them brings. The exact use of language gives us mastery（掌握） over the material we are dealing with. Perhaps you have been asked “What sort of a man is so-and-so（某某等）?” You begin: “Oh, I think he’s quite a nice chap （家伙）but he’s rather…” and then you hesitate trying to find a word or phrase to express what it is about him that
you don’t like, that constitutes（构成） his limitation. When you find the right phrase you feel that your conception of the man is clearer and sharper.寻找恰如其分的词的确是件不容易的事。

一旦找到了那个词，我们就会感到很欣慰：辛劳得到了回报。

准确地用语言有助于我们深入了解我们描述的事物。

例如，当有
人问你：“某某是怎么样的人？”你回答说：“恩，我想他是个不错的家伙，但他
非常……”接着你犹豫了，试图找到一个词或短语来说明他到底讨厌在哪里。

当你
找到一个恰当的短语的时候，你发觉自己对他的看法更清楚，也更精确了。

Some English words have a common root but are used in very different senses. Consider human and humane（人道，仁慈的）, for example. Their origin is the same and their meanings are related, but their usage is distinct. A human action is not the same thing as a humane action. We cannot speak of a Declaration of Humane Rights. --- There is a weapon called a humane killer, but it is not a human killer.
一些英语词汇词根相同而意义却截然不同。

例如human 和humane,二者的词根相同，词义也相关，但用法完全不同。

“ human action (人类行为)”和“humane action ( 人道行为)”完全是两码事。

我们不能说“人道权力宣言”，而是说“人权宣言”。

有一种屠杀工具叫“humane killer ( 麻醉屠宰机)，而不是human killer ( 杀人
机器)。

We don’t have to look far afield to find evidence of bad carpentry in language. A student, replying to an invitation to dinner, finished his letter: “I shall be delighted to come and I am looking forward to the day with anxiety.”Anxiety carries with it suggestions of worry and fear. What the writer meant was possibly eagerness. Anxiety has some kinship（亲属关系） with eagerness but it will not do as a substitute（替代） in this context.
语言中的坏手艺的例子在我们身边随处可见。

有人邀请一名学生去吃饭，他写信给予回复。

请看他的信是这样结尾的：“我将很高兴赴约并满怀不安（anxiety ）期
待着那个日子的到来。

”“Anxiety” 含有烦恼和恐惧的意味。

作者想表达的很可能是一种翘首期盼的心情。

“Anxiety” 跟热切期盼有一定的关联，但在这个场合是不能等同的。

The leader of a political party in Uganda wrote a letter to the Press which contained this sentenc e:
乌干达一政党领袖给新闻界的一封信中有一句这样写道：
Let us all fight this selfishness, opportunism, cowardice and ignorance now rife in Uganda and put in their place truth, manliness, consistency and singularity of mind.
让我们打破这自私、投机、怯懦和无知充斥的乌干达，代之以真理，刚毅，坚定和奇异的精神。

This stirring appeal is spoilt by a malapropism in the last phrase, the word singularity. What the writer meant, I think, was singleness of mind, holding steadfastly to the purpose in mind, without being drawn aside by less worthy objects. Singularity means oddity or peculiarity, something that singles a man out from other men
这一激动人心的呼吁被最后一个词“奇异（singularity）” 的误用破坏掉了。

我
猜想作者真正要表达的意思是思想的专一，即抱定一个信念永不改变，咬定青山不
放松，不被次要的目的干扰。

而singularity 指的是古怪，特性，是将一个人从众
多人中区分出来的那种东西。

Without being a malapropism, a word may still fail to be the right word for the writer’s purpose, the “mot juste”. A journalist, writing a leader about Christmas, introduced a quotation from Dickens by saying:
即使没有出现词语误用，这词仍可能不是符合作者意图的恰如其分的词。

一名记者在一篇有关圣诞节的社论中这样引出狄更斯的话：
All that was ever thought or written about Christmas is imprisoned in this sentence….Imprisonment suggests force, coercion（强迫）, as if the meaning were held against its will. It would be better to write contained or summed up. Epitomized（集中体现）might do, though it is rather a clumsy-sounding word. Searching a little farther for the “mot juste” we might hit on the word distilled（提取）. This has more force than contained or summed up. Distillation suggests essence and we might further improve the sentence by adding this word at the beginning:
任何有关圣诞节的想法和文字已经被禁锢(imprisoned )在这句话中……“Imprisonment” 暗示着强迫，威逼，这么一来似乎意思是有悖其初衷的。

用“包含(contained )”或“归结（summed up ）”就要好些。

“概括（epitomized）”也行，尽管听起来有点僵硬。

稍微再用点心我们就能准确地找到“mot juste (恰
倒好处的词) ”，那就是“distilled”.它比包含和归结语气更强。

“Distillation (提炼)”意味得到本质（essence）的东西。

因此我们可以进一步把这个句子修改为： The essence of all that was ever thought or written about Christmas is distilled in this sentence.
所有有关圣诞节的想法和文字的精华都被提炼到这句话之中。

English has a wide vocabulary and it is a very flexible language. There are many different ways of making a statement. But words that are very similar in meaning have fine shades of difference, and a student needs to be alive to these differences. By using his dictionary, and above all by reading, a student can increase his sensitivity to these shades of difference and improve his ability to express his own meanings exactly.
英语词汇丰富，运用灵活。

一个意思有很多种表达方式。

但是无论意思上如何相近
的词总是存在着些许区别。

作为学生就要敏感地意识到这些区别。

通过查字典，尤
其是通过阅读，学生对这类细微差别敏感性将逐步增强，准确表达自己意思的能力
也相应提高。

Professor Raileigh once stated: “there are no synonyms, and the same statement can never be repeated in a changed form of words.”This is perhaps too absolute, but it is not easy to disprove. Even a slight alteration in the wording of a statement can subtly shift the meaning. Look at these two sentences:
(1)In my childhood I loved to watch trains go by.
(2)When I was a child I loved watching trains go by.
罗利教授曾经说过：“同义词是不存在的。

句子用词改变了，句子就不再是原来的意思了。

”这也许过于绝对，但是很难驳倒。

措辞稍有变更，意思会有微妙的变化。

看下面两个句子：
（1）童年时候我喜欢去看火车开过。

（2）当我是个小孩子的时候我喜欢看火车开过。

At fist glance these two sentences are exactly the same. But look more closely and you will see that there are very tiny differences. In my childhood is a shade more abstract than when I was a child. Watching perhaps emphasizes the looking at trains a little more than to watch. This is a very subtle example, and it would be possible to argue about it, but everyone would at once agree that there is a marked difference between the next two statements:
乍一看这两个句子的意思完全一样。

但仔细一看你会发现它们之间存在细微的差别。

在
我童年时候比当我是小孩子的时候更加抽象。

而看很可能比去看更强调看火车这一
动作。

这个例子不是很明显，可能有待商榷。

但每个人看了下面例子后一定马上同意。

两者之间存在显着区别。

(1)He died poor.
(2)He expired（断气、死） in indigent（贫困） circumstances.
In one sense expired is a synonym for died and in indigent circumstances for poor, but when the whole statement is considered, we cannot maintain that the two are the same. The change in words is a change in style, and the effect on the reader is quite different. It is perhaps easier to be a good craftsman with wood and nails than a good craftsman with words, but all of us can increase our skill and sensitivity with a little effort and patience. In this way we shall not only improve our writing, but also our reading.
（1）他死的时侯很穷。

（2）他断气时穷困潦倒。

在某种意义上，expired 是died 的同义词，in indigent circumstances 是poor 的同义词。

但当看整个句子时，我们就不能坚持认为两句是一样的了。

措辞的变化往往意味着
风格的改变，并给读者以不同的感受。

也许当好一个谴词造句的工匠比当好一个与木头钉子打交道的木匠要难一些，但是只要我们付出努力和耐心，我们就能提高自
己的技能和敏感性。

这样我们不仅可以提高我们的写作能力，还可以提高阅读能力。

English offers a fascinating variety of words for many activities and interests. Consider the wide range of meanings that can expressed by the various words we have to describe walking, for example. We can say that a man is marching（行军）, pacing（起搏）, patrolling（巡逻）, stalking（缠扰）, striding(大步), treading（踩水）, tramping（流浪）, stepping out（走出去）, prancing（昂首阔步）, strutting（神气活现）, prowling（潜行）, plodding
（单调乏味）, strolling（散步）, shuffling（洗牌）, staggering（惊人的）, sidling（侧身而行；悄悄贴近）, trudging（跋涉）, toddling（蹒跚学步；东倒西歪地走）, rambling（散漫）, roaming（漫游）, sauntering（参观船上）, meandering （蜿蜒）, lounging（闲逛）, loitering（游荡）, or creeping（匍匐）.
英语为各种活动和嗜好提供了丰富多彩的词汇。

就那走路来说，通过我们拥有的各种各样的词语的意义范围有多么广阔。

我们可以说行军，踱步，巡逻，潜进，跨过，践踏，重步走，蹦蹦跳跳地走，昂首阔步，高视阔步，徘徊，沉重缓慢地走，溜达，曳足而行，摇摇晃晃地走，侧身而行，跋涉，蹒跚学步，漫步，徜徉，漫游，闲荡，悄悄地走。

The foreign student of English may be discouraged and dismayed（惊惶）when he learns that there are over 400,000 words in the English language, without counting slang（俚语）. But let him take courage. More than half of these words are dead. They are not in current use. Even Shakespeare used a vocabulary of only some 20,000 words. The average Englishman today probably has a vocabulary range of from 12,000 to 13,000 words. It is good to make your vocabulary as complete as you can, but a great deal can be said and written with a vocabulary of no more than 10,000 words. The important thing is to have a good control and command over the words you do know. Better know two words exactly than three vaguely. A good carpenter is not distinguished by the number of his tools, but by the craftsmanship（手艺） with which he uses them. So a good writer is not measured by the extent of his vocabulary, but by his skill in finding the “mot juste”, the word that will hit the nail cleanly on the head.
即使不包括俚语在内英语就有四十余万单词，这很可能让学习英语的外国学生感到气馁和沮丧。

但千万不要灰心，因为超过半数的词已不再通用。

就算大文豪沙士比亚也只使用了两万左右的词汇。

今天普通英国人的词汇量在12000到13000之间。

一个人的词汇量当然是尽量扩大的好，但仅仅10000的词汇量就够他说话写字表达丰富的意义了。

关键是你要扎实地掌握你知道的单词。

粗略地认识三个单词还不如准确地掌握两个。

衡量一个木匠的好坏并不在于他拥有工具的数量多少，而是在于他运用工具的技艺如何。

同样的，衡量一个作家好不好不能通过其认识单词的数量，而应通过其找到恰如其分的词的能力。

这个词要不偏不倚正中要害，一言中的。

UNIT 2 BEWARE THE DIRTY SEAS
当心肮脏的海洋--杰弗里· 利恩
1Every year 100 million holiday-makers are drawn to the Mediterranean. With one-third of the world's tourist trade, it is the most popular of all the holiday destinations; it is also the most polluted.
每年都有一千万的渡假者到地中海去度假，这里占去了世界旅游业的三分之一，是最受欢迎的度假胜地，但与此同时，它也成了受污染最严重的地方。

It has only 1 per cent of the world's sea surface, but carries more than half the oil and tar floating on the waters. Thousands of factories pour their poison into the Mediterranean, and almost every city, town and village on the coast sluices its sewage, untreated, into the sea.
虽然地中海仅占全球海洋面积的百分之一，但在它的海面上却漂浮着全球海面一半以上的汽油和焦油。

成千上万的工厂将他们排放的有毒物质倾人地中海，而且几乎每一个靠地中海海岸的城市、城镇和乡村也都把未经处理的污水排到海里。

The result is that the Mediterranean, which
civilizations, is gravely ill --- the first of the seas to 2fall victim to 3
the people who inhabit and visit its shores.
其结果导致孕育了高度文明的地中海周围环境极其恶劣― 第一个由于人们对其利
用能力的增强和对其环境污染的忽视态度而受害的海洋。

这种污染不仅使海洋生物感到窒息，而且对于那些居住在地中海周围并喜欢游赏海滨的人们也是一个威胁。

不只是
4and food
cholera.
伤寒、副伤寒、痢疾、小儿麻痹症、病毒性肝炎和食物中毒是这个地区的常见病，并且还会引发阶段性的霍乱。

5The mournful litany of disease is caused by sewage. Eighty-five per cent of the waste from the Mediterranean's 120 coastal cities is pushed into the waters where their people and visitors bathe and fish. What is more, most cities just drop it in straight off the beach; rare indeed are the places like Cannes and Tel Aviv which pipe it even half a mile offshore.
这一系列令人扼腕的疾病（这种恶疾的反复）爆发是由下水道污水造成的。

地中海的120 个海滨城市中85 ％的垃圾被倾人到供居民们和参观者游泳嬉戏，钓鱼的水域，而且，大多数城市直接将其废物倾倒在海滩上，实际上很少有像（嘎纳）坎城和特拉维夫那样用管道把废物抽到离海岸半英里的地方。

6Less than 100,000 of Greece's four million coastal people have sewage properly treated and Greece, as our map shows, is one of the cleaner countries of the northern shore.
在希腊，生活在海滨城市的人有四百万，但只有不到十万的人将他们的污水进行适当处理。

正如我们的地图所显示的那样，希腊还算是北方海岸比较干净的国家之一。

What does the author want to tell his readers in Paragraph 6?
SA: He wants to tell his readers in Paragraph 6 that because of man’s irresponsibility and indifference towards environmental protection, Greece is rated one of the few cleaner countries of the northern shore.
7The worst parts of the sea are the Israeli / Lebanon coast and between Barcelona and Genoa, which flushes out over 200 tons of sewage each year for every mile of its length.
叫最糟糕的则要数以色列及黎巴嫩海滨和巴赛罗那与热那亚之间的海洋部分，那里每年会向其海岸线的每一英里倾倒200 多吨的污水。

8Not surprisingly, vast areas of the shallows are awash with bacteria and it doesn't take long for these to reach people. Professor William Brumfitt of the Royal Free Hospital once calculated that anyone who goes for a swim in the Mediterranean has a one in seven chance of getting some sort of disease. Other scientists say this is an overestimate; but almost all of them agree that bathers are at risk.
一点也不感到惊奇的是，大面积的浅水区都滋生着细菌，而它们接触到人并不需要花费太多的时间。

皇家自由医院的威兼· 布鲁佛特教授曾经计算过任何到地中海游泳的人都会有七分之一感染疾病的可能。

其他科学家说这种估计过高，但几乎所
9lurks in the seductive seafood dishes that add much interest to holiday menus. Shellfish are prime carriers of many of the most vicious diseases of the areas.
在那些诱人的、为假日的菜单增色不少的海鲜中还隐藏着一种更大的危险。

贝类水生物是本地区大部分恶性疾病最主要的携带者。

10They often grow amid pollution. And even if they don't they are frequently infected by the popular practice of "freshening them up" --- throwing filthy water over them in markets.
他们通常在污染中生长，而且即使不是这样，他们也会被“使它们变得新鲜一些”这一普遍做法所污染― 在市场里它们身上被卖主拨上脏水以保持鲜活。

11Industry adds its own poisons. Factories cluster round the coastline, and even the most modern rarely has proper waste-treatment plant污水净化厂. They do as much damage to the sea as sewage.
工业也加重了地中海的污染。

海岸线上，工厂密密匝匝，即使是最现代化的工厂也鲜有合适的污物处理设备。

他们对海洋造成的损害同污水造成的差不多。

127foul the Italian Ligurian 6riviera. Sixty
Italian coast! receives
15 , 000 家工厂污染着意大利利古里亚的沿海游憩胜地。

6, 000 家工厂污染着撤丁岛和西西里岛之间的第勒尼安海，以及西部的意大利海滨！仅威尼斯的礁湖就
遭受着76个工厂废水的污染。

13More filth comes washing down the rivers from industries far inland. The PO and the Rhone are the dirtiest, followed by the Ebro and the Llobregat in Spain, by the Adige and the Tiber in Italy, and by the. Nile.
更多的污物来自于内陆工业，自河流冲人到这里。

波河和罗纳河是最脏的，其次就是西班牙的埃布罗河、巴塞罗那，意大利的阿迪杰河和台伯河，再就是尼罗河。

14Thousands of tons of pesticides are blown off the fields into the sea, detergents from millions of sinks kill fish, and fertilizers, flushed out to sea, nourish explosions of plankton which cover bathers with itchy slime.
数千吨的杀虫剂从田间流人海里；数以百万的洗涤剂从洗碗槽中流出，毒死了海鱼；被冲到海里的肥料，滋养了海里的浮游生物并使其数量激增，它们粘在游泳者
身上，成为一层令人发痒的黏液。

15Then there is the oil --- 350,000 tons pouring each year from ships, 115,000 tons more from industries round the shore. Recent studies show that the Mediterranean is four times as polluted by oil as the north Atlantic, 40 times as bad as the north-east Pacific.
还有就是汽油― 每年有350 , 000 吨废油从船上倒人海里，还有ns , 00 多吨来自于海岸周围的工业。

最近的研究显示地中海的油污染是北大西洋的四倍，是东
北太平洋的40倍。

16the nine-mile-wide Strait of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean is
11cleanse itself. It takes 80 years for the
process to cope with the
除了九英里宽的直布罗陀海峡之外，地中海完全被陆地包围，因此它实际上不具备自洁功能。

因为海峡既窄且浅，地中海需要80 年才能完成水循环进行自洁，这个过程太缓慢，远远跟不上无情的污染大势肆虐的进程。

17Weak coastal currents keep sewage and industrial waste close to the shore and gently spin floating oil and tar towards the beaches. And the sea's feeble tides can do little to help remove it.
海边的浪花无力地拍打着海岸，冲不走岸边的污水和工业废料，浪花轻轻地打着旋，把浮着汽油与焦油的海水冲向海滩。

18 0f course, the people of the Mediterranean have always used the sea for their wastes. The canals of Venice, the waters of the Bosphorus and the sea off the Nile Delta have been health hazards for centuries.
很自然，地中海的人们也总是利用海洋来处理他们的废物。

威尼斯运河、博斯普鲁斯海峡和尼罗河三角洲一带的水域，几个世纪以来一直威胁着人们的健康。

19But the population has increased round the shores to 100 million and a further 100 million tourists come annually. The population of the French and Italian rivieras trebles every summer.
但是，海岸周围的人口已增长到了l 千万，而且每年还有1 千多万旅游者来此旅游。

每年夏天，意大利的沿海游憩胜地的人口呈三倍地增长着。

20Three tourists visit the northern shore every year for every yard of beach. With the numbers of holiday-makers expected to double in the next 20 years, it is hard for even the best treatment plants to cope.
在北海岸平均每年每码海岸就有三个观光者。

在今后20 年里渡假者的数量有可能会增加两倍，到时即使是最好的污水处理厂也很难应付了。

21The good news is that the countries of the Mediterranean have been coming together to work out how to save their common sea.
但也有一个好消息：地中海周围的一些国家已经联合到一起正为拯救他们共同的海洋而努力工作着。

22But it will be a long time before the measures they approved take effect in cleaning up the sea.
但是离他们一致同意的净化海水措施确实产生效应之前还有很长的一段时间。

Unit3 My Friends, Albert Einstein
He was one of the greatest scientists the world has ever known, yet if I had to convey the essence of Albert Einstein in a single word, I would choose simplicity. Perhaps an anecdote will help. Once, caught in a downpour, he took off his hat and held it under his coat. Asked why, he explained, with admirable logic, that the rain would damage the hat, but his hair would be none the worse for its wetting. This knack for going instinctively to the heart of a matter was a secret of his major scientific discoveries - this and his extraordinary feeling for beauty.
爱尔伯特·爱因斯坦是世界上最伟大的科学家之一，但如果要我用一个词来概括他
这个人的品质，那我会选"质朴"。

也许一个小故事能让我们略知一二。

有一次，天
降大雨，爱因斯坦躲之不及，于是他摘下了帽子，把它夹在外衣下。

当别人问他为
什么要这么做时，他解释说，雨水会弄坏他的帽子，但是他的头发湿了不会有什么
大碍。

他的逻辑真是无懈可击。

他这种本能地把握事物本质的能力正是他能够做出重大科学发现的秘诀所在，除此之外，还有他对美的那种非凡的感觉。

I first met Einstein in 1935, at the famous Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, . He had been among the first to be invited to the institute, and was offered carte blanche as to salary. To the director's dismay, Einstein asked for an impossible sum: it was far too small. The director had to plead with him to accept a larger salary.
我第一次见到爱因斯坦是在1935年，在位于新泽西New Jersey的着名的普林斯顿大学高级研究中心。

他是最早被邀请到该中心的科学家之一。

薪水方面，研究中心让他自己全权决定。

但让研究中心主任感到沮丧的是，爱因斯坦开出了一个让人无法接受的数目：他要的实在是太少了。

中心主任不得不恳求他接受一份更高的工资。

I was in awe of Einstein, and hesitated before approaching him about some ideas I had been working on. When I finally knocked on his door, a gentle voice said, "Come" - with a rising inflection that made the single word both a welcome and a question. I entered his office and found him seated at a table, calculating and smoking his pipe. Dressed in ill-fitting clothes, his hair characteristically awry, he smiled a warm welcome. His utter naturalness at once set me at ease.
我对爱因斯坦充满了敬畏，因此当我想就一些我正在研究的问题与他探讨时，一直犹豫不决。

最终我还是鼓起勇气我敲了门，里面传来了非常温和的声音：请进---他说这个词的时候声调上扬，听起来即像是欢迎又像是在提问。

我进到他的办公室，发现他正坐在桌旁，抽着烟斗，演算一个问题。

他的衣服很不合身，头发乱蓬蓬的。

他朝我微笑，表示对我的热忱的欢迎。

他的自然随意立刻让我放松了。

As I began to explain my ideas, he asked me to write the equations on the blackboard so he could see how they developed. Then came the staggering - and altogether endearing - request: "Please go slowly. I do not understand things quickly." This from Einstein! He said it gently, and I laughed. From then on, all vestiges of fear were gone.
当我开始向他解释我的想法时，他让我把方程写在黑板上，这样让他能看到每一步的推演。

然后他提出了一个让我极其震惊同时又备感亲切的要求："请讲得稍微慢一点，我理解问题的速度比较慢"。

这种话出自爱因斯坦之口！他说这话时非常温和，我不由得笑了。

从此，我对他的畏惧之心烟消云散。

Collaborating with Einstein was an unforgettable experience. In 1937, the Polish physicist Leopold Infeld and I asked if we could work with him. He was pleased with the proposal, since he had an idea about gravitation waiting to be worked out in detail. Thus we got to know not merely the man and the friend, but also the professional.
和爱因斯坦的合作是让人终身难忘的经历。

1937年，我和波兰物理学家列奥泼德·英费尔德问他是否可以和他合作，他欣然应允，因为他有一个重力方面的问题，有待仔细的研究。

于是，我们有机会认识了爱因斯坦作为一个普通人和朋友的一面，我们还了解了他作为一个科学家的职业素养。

The intensity and depth of his concentration were fantastic. When battling a recalcitrant problem, he worried it as an animal worries its prey. Often, when we found ourselves up against a seemingly insuperable difficulty, he would stand up, put his pipe on the table, and say in his quaint English, "I will a little tink" (he could not pronounce "th"). Then he would pace up and down, twirling a lock of his long, graying hair around his forefinger.
他极度的专注，全身心的投入，让人叹为观止。

当他处理一个难题的时候，他努力
思索，就像动物撕咬猎物。

通常，当我们碰到一个似乎是无法逾越的难题时，他会
站起来，把烟斗放在桌子上，用他那口音古怪的英语说："我要稍微思考一下。

"然
后他在房间里来回踱步，食指捻弄着他那长而灰白的发卷。

A dreamy, faraway and yet inward look would come over his face. There was no appearance of concentration, no furrowing of the brow - only a placid inner communion. The minutes would pass, and then suddenly Einstein would stop pacing as his face relaxed into a gentle smile. He had found the solution to the problem. Sometimes it was so simple that Infeld and I could have kicked ourselves for not having thought of it. But the magic had been performed invisible in the depths of Einstein's mind, by a process we could not fathom.他脸上会有一种恍惚出神而又深邃的表情。

没有专着的神情，也没有皱眉---只有宁静的内心的交流。

时间一分一秒过去，突然他会停止自己的脚步，脸上浮现出温和
的微笑。

他已经找出了问题的答案。

有的时候，答案非常简单，我和英费尔德都会
自责我们怎么会想不到呢。

爱因斯坦在他的脑海深处，施展了外人无法看见的魔法，这个高深的过程是我们无法理解的。

Einstein was an accomplished amateur musician. We used to play duets, he on the violin, I at the piano. One day he surprised me by saying Mozart was the greatest composer of all. Beethoven "created" his music, but the music of Mozart was of such purity and beauty one felt he had merely "found" it - that it had always existed as part of the inner beauty of the Universe, waiting to be revealed.
爱因斯坦还是一位出色的业余音乐家。

我们那时常进行二重奏，他拉小提琴，我弹
钢琴。

有一天他说莫扎特是所有作曲家中最伟大的一位，这让我吃惊不小。

他认为
贝多芬的音乐是"创造"出来的，而莫扎特的音乐是如此纯净和优美，让人感觉他只
是在哪儿"发现"了它---它一直是宇宙内在的美的一部分，一直存在着，等待着我们去发现。

It was this very Mozartean simplicity that most characterized Einstein's methods. His 1905 theory of relativity, for example, was built on just two simple assumptions. One is the so-called principle of relativity, which means, roughly speaking, that we cannot tell whether we are at rest or moving smoothly. The other assumption is the speed of light is the same no matter what the speed of the object that produces it. You can see how reasonable this is if you think of agitating a stick in a lake to create waves. Whether you wiggle the stick from a stationary pier, or from a rushing speedboat, the waves, once generated, are on their own, and their speed has nothing to do with that of the stick.
这种莫扎特式的淳朴正是大部分爱因斯坦理论的最显着特点。

比如他1905年提出的相对论就是建立在两个简单的假说之上的。

一个是所谓的相对原则，粗略的说，就
是我们无法判断自己是否是静止还是在平稳的移动。

另一个假定是：不管产生它的
物体速度如何，光的速度是恒定的。

如果你用一根木棍搅动湖水，你就会知道这个
假定是多么的有道理。

不管你是在一个静止的码头，还是在飞驰的高速游艇上搅动
棍子，波浪一旦产生，就不受外界的影响，它的速度和木棍没有任何关系。

Each of these assumptions, by itself, was so plausible as to seem primitively obvious. But together they were in such violent conflict that a lesser man would have dropped one or the other and fled in panic. Einstein daringly kept both - and by so doing he revolutionized physics. For he demonstrated they。