【英文读物】Another Earth.docx

《【英文读物】Another Earth.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《【英文读物】Another Earth.docx（11页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、【英文读物】Another Earthchapter 1Lieutenant Colonel Philip Snow, Flight Surgeon, USAF, and Test Director of the Aero-Medical Laboratory, was pacing the study floor in his quarters, asking himself for the dozenth time in the past half-hour: What had happened to Richardson during the test that afternoon?He

2、 was no stranger to problems. He had been living with them for the past few years, and they had been problems the like of which had never before challenged the ingenuity of man. For he was the head of a small community of men, scientists like himselfmedical specialists of all kinds, psychologists, e

3、lectronic technicians, physicists, pressure engineers, mathematicians and so on, each one of them an acknowledged expert in his particular fieldwho had worked together with one end in view: to send a man into space and bring him back safely to Earth again. To put it more excitingly: to enable man to

4、 take his first step toward the conquest of the universe.The result of their labors to date was the Capsule, a bottle-shaped contraption which occupied the center of the laboratory floor.It wasnt very big; just big enough to contain a man enclosed in a spacesuit, lying on a couch surrounded by instr

5、uments. But there wasnt a square inch of the capsule itself, the spacesuit, and the instruments which hadnt presented innumerable problems, the solving of which had been the result of endless research and theorizing and testing.And in the same way, and almost to the same extent, there wasnt a square

6、 inch of the man, too, which didnt present problems, all of which must be solved before he could be sent into space.And so, in test after test, one of the chosen astronauts had lain on the couch in the capsule, wired through his spacesuit to the dozens of dials and graph recorders on the consoles at

7、 which sat the watching specialists. It seemed there was nothing that could happen inside his body that they could not know about. They could read every flexing of his muscles, every heartbeat, every tiny shifting of temperature, every reaction of his blood and of his complicated nervous system. On

8、the encephalograph, they could even detect reactions in the mass of gray matter which was his brain, any sign of tension there, and above all, any symptom of that strange phenomenon of which so little was yet known, and which was called the breakoffthe eerie sensation of complete isolation from Eart

9、h, the trancelike apathy and indifference to survival that can attack not only high-flying pilots, but deep-sea divers, the rapture of the depths, and sometimes it was accompanied by hallucinations in which strange forms and sounds were seen and heard.In the case of Lieutenant Hamilton Richardson, U

10、SN, there had been no mysterious troubles of this kindin fact, no troubles of any kind at all. Aged thirty-six, he had been one of the first of the astronauts to volunteer. He had passed with flying colors every one of the grueling preliminary tests, mental and physical, and as far as could be judge

11、d by science, he had seemed to be the perfect specimen, mentally and physically, for the job. In the many tests made with him inside the capsule, nothing had gone wrong with him. There had been no signs of fatigue or failure of any kind. Had Snow been asked who, in his opinion, would be the first ma

12、nor, at any rate, the first Americanto go into deep space, he would unhesitatingly have nominated Richardson. That is to say, until that afternoon when the thing had happened.It had been a long test, one made for the first time. The object of it was to find out how the spacesuit, which was sealed of

13、f from the rest of the capsule, would stand up if something happened to the capsule itself. If, for instance, in its headlong flight through space, something struck it, something, maybe, no bigger than a small pebble. The odds were that in collision with even so small a meteor, the shell of the caps

14、ule would be punctured, and within a minute or less, the atmospheric pressure inside it, fixed at about five thousand feet above sea level, would be reduced to zero. In other words, the capsule would become a vacuum in which nothing on Earth could live. The astronaut would then have to depend upon h

15、is spacesuit which, being pressurized, and being really a capsule within a capsule, with its own supply of oxygen, would be the one hope of survival.That day, the test had consisted of the puncturing of the capsule. At a given signal, the pressure inside it had been reduced to that of fifty miles ab

16、ove the Earths surfacein other words, to zeroby pumping out the air inside it. Richardson, the ace of the astronauts, had been chosen for this important test.It had gone well. With the other scientists at their dials, Snow, seated at the big console of literally dozens of dials, the only one to be c

17、onnected with Richardson by sound and speech, had given the signal. In a minute, the capsule had become a vacuum fifty miles above the surface of the Earth, outside its envelope of atmosphere.Richardsons voice, reading his instruments, acknowledging Snows instructions, answering his questions, had c

18、ome through as normal and as calm as ever. Snow had felt a rising excitement as the test proceeded.And then, without warning, the thing had happened. Richardsons voice had stopped in the middle of an instrument reading, as if it had suddenly been cut off. A few seconds later, it had resumed. But whe

19、n it did so, the voice was uttering a stream of unintelligible sounds in a low, lilting chant. Snow had listened incredulously for perhaps thirty seconds, at the end of which the sounds had suddenly ceased. Immediately, Snow had given instructions for the normal pressure inside the capsule to be res

20、tored. Almost as he had done so, Richardsons voice, once again normal, had resumed the reading of the instruments, taking up from where it had left off a minute before.Acting on a sudden impulse. Snow had decided to say nothing over the wire to Richardson at the time. He had continued his conversati

21、on with the astronaut, telling him they were bringing him down and asking the usual questions until the test ended.When, with the others, he had stood around watching while Richardson was helped out of his spacesuit, he had carefully watched their faces, looking for some sign of doubt or puzzlement.

22、 But he saw none. On the contrary, they all seemed triumphantly satisfied. Even Richardson had shown no sign that anything unusual had occurred. He had been his usual cheerful self, seeming not even slightly fatigued by the long test.Being the only one who had been in contact with Richardson, Snow h

23、ad suddenly found himself wondering if he really had heard those sounds, if, maybe, he had been the victim of a hallucination. This was why he had said nothing about it at the time. He had just asked, as casually as he could, if any of them had anything they wanted to bring up immediately. They had

24、shaken their heads, beaming their satisfaction, and he had dismissed them all, saying that in view of the length of the test they might all call it a day, and postponing the usual interrogation until the morrow. Then he had hurried back to his quarters, bringing with him the recording machine on whi

25、ch, as was the practice, his conversation with Richardson during the test had been recorded. Controlling his impatience with difficulty, he had rewound the tape on the machine and played it back, the tension rising within him as he listened.There had been no hallucination. He heard Richardsons voice

26、 reading the instrument, the sudden cut-off in the middle of it, the short silence, then the voice uttering the strange sounds in a low-pitched chant with a gentle rise and fall to it. Three times he had played it back, and now it seemed to him that these were not just disconnected sounds. They appe

27、ared to have a cadence, a phrasing which indicated that they belonged to a language of some sort.Snow was no linguist. He had less than a fair conversational knowledge of French and German, and a scholars acquaintance with Latin, but he had travelled very extensively in his time and had been accusto

28、med to hear many languages spoken. He was quite sure he had never heard anything even remotely resembling these sounds. Certainly Richardson was no linguist either. He was third-generation American from British stock, and all he knew about languages was what he had learned in school.Then where had t

29、hose sounds come from? Were they a language, and if so, what did they mean? How could this happen to a man like Richardson without his knowing about it? Did it mean that here was, after all, something strange about him which the man himself might not even know about, and which might mean that he was

30、 not fit for the project? This last question worried Snow more than the others.He went to the telephone on his desk and dialed the Richardson bungalow. The voice of Richardsons pretty wife answered him.Yes? Sandra Richardson here.Hello, Sandra. Phil Snow calling. Is Ham there?Hes in the shower singi

31、ng his head off. Shall I get him?No, it isnt important. I just wanted to ask him again if he feels all right after the test. It was rather a long one, and I wondered if he might feel tired, or.Tired? He seems even more full of pep than usual. Was the test so very long, then?Yes, it was. Thats why I

32、called andjust to tell him it was a success. I havent checked all the reports yet, but it looks good. And you say hes as usual?Yes. Why? There wasnt anything.?No, no, nothing at all. Just as I said. Ill be seeing you.He rang off, hoping that nothing he had said was now making Sandra Richardson suspi

33、cious, and resumed his pacing up and down the floor. Now another question came into his mind. The same test would be run several times again before final conclusions could be made. Should he wait for them to see if this thing happened again before starting anything with Richardson and his colleagues

34、? But even as he asked himself the question, he knew the answer. If this never again happened in any future test, the fact would remain that it had happened once and could not be forgotten or brushed aside. It must be cleared up. Something had happened to Richardsons mind.He decided to take Abe Fran

35、stein, his head psychologist, into his confidence. As he dialed Fransteins bungalow, he recalled with a sense of comfort that the brilliant little man was not only a world authority in his particular subject, but that he was said to be able to read, write, and converse in a staggering number of lang

36、uages, some of them obscure Oriental dialects.When Franstein answered the call, Snow asked him to drop in for coffee after dinner.chapter 2Well, I must say, said Franstein as they sipped their coffee, yours is the first glum face Ive seen around here since that test this afternoon. Here we are, with

37、in sight of our goal at last, and look at you! Werent you satisfied?Before I go into that, Snow replied, there are a few things I want to ask you.About the test?In a way, but principally about Richardson. Have you ever had any reason to suspect that there is anything unusual about him?In what way?In

38、 your line.Franstein produced an enormous meerschaum pipe and proceeded to fill it from an untidy plastic pouch as he replied.Yes, there is. One very unusual thing.There is?Hes got a very rare type of mind. Its probably perfectly balanced. The little man lit his pipe and continued: The vast majority

39、 of us have some sort of imbalance, mentally. He hasnt. When I say imbalance, I mean the sort of thing that makes for genius, a phenomenal memory, an outstanding, effortless talent, amnesia, any form of insanity, or even something like a violent temper. Anything, so to speak, overemphasized.Is it ph

40、ysical? I mean, does it have anything to do with the size or weight of the brain, or anything like that?You can take the brain of a genius and that of an ordinary person of average intelligence, and find them exactly the same in measurements and tissue condition. The popular conception of the genius

41、 as a man with a bulging forehead is so much nonsense. Plenty of lunatics and retarded individuals have bulging foreheads.Then what does it have to do with?Ah! Thats the big question. Nobody knows. You can take two men, equal physically in every respect, equal in upbringing, education, health, and w

42、ith the same sized brain. One of them might turn out to be a genius, the other an average individual, and nobody knows what makes the difference. Nobody knows what makes an infant prodigy, or what it is which enables a child of two to read easily, or a kid of five or six to play some instrument as i

43、f hed been at it for years or compose symphonies, or master advanced mathematics. Same answer. Nobody knows. Its got nothing to do with heredity. So few geniuses have had genius offspring that they form exceptions to the rule. Again, why does an infant prodigy sometimes lose his gift or talent entir

44、ely as he grows older? We dont know. All we know is that the gift or talent is there, but where it comes from, or why it is in one brain and not in another, we dont know. But surely you dont have to have me to tell you all this, Phil? Whats on your mind?Listen to this, Snow said, and went to the tap

45、e recorder.He rewound the tape to its beginning, depressed the switch marked Play, and presently they heard the two voices, Snows and Richardsons.Now! said Snow as the point on the tape approached.There came the sudden stopping of Richardsons voice in the middle of an instrument reading, the short s

46、ilence, then Richardsons voice chanting the strange sounds. Franstein took his pipe from between his teeth and his mouth fell open as he listened. The sounds ceased and Richardsons voice resumed the instrument reading at the point at which it had left off.Thats all, said Snow, and switched off the m

47、achine.Franstein put his pipe back into his mouth. Is this the recording of this afternoons test?Yes. What dyou make of it?Lets hear it again.Snow played back the recording a second and a third time, and then said: Well?Franstein went to the table and helped himself to more coffee before replying. I

48、ts a new one on me, he said presently. Ive got about a thousand recordings of languages and dialects from all over the world, and not one of them is anything like that.You think it is a language, not just sounds?That weve got to find out, but Id say, offhand, its a primitive form of a language of so

49、me sort.Then how the devil does it come out of a man like Richardson whos never spoken anything but Englishnor his forebears, for that matter?Franstein shrugged his shoulders. How does great music come out of a child of six, and so on? Same question, same answer. Nobody knows. Have you spoken to Richardson about it?