新世纪大学英语综合教程4unit3课逐段文翻译..docVIP

Unit 3 Text A 知识彩虹克雷格·拉塞尔Preface The acquisition of knowledge is self-contradictory by nature. The more one knows, the more he knows how little he knows. Reading often leads to more questions than answers. Writing opens things up rather than closes them off. The author of the following essay regards truth as a rainbow that cannot be really grasped. He urges us to be humble about what we dont know as we pride ourselves on what we know. 我这辈子四分之三以上的时间（50年中有39年）是在纽约的中小学或大学里度过的，不是在上学，就是在教学。 For more than 3/4 of my life – 39 of my 50 years – Ive either studied or taught in a school or a college in New York. 于是，你或许会认为，经过这么长一段时间，我应该了解一些情况，确实知道一些东西，对知识和对生活该会积极地予以把握和肯定了。可是，我却没有做到这一点。事实 上，我知道的东西越多，反倒越觉得自己无知。 You might think, then, that after all this time Id have some grasp of the situation, that Id actually know things – that Id have some positive sense of assurance, of certainty, about knowledge and about life. But I dont. In fact, the more I know, the more I know I dont know. 当然，说自己知道的东西越多，反倒越觉得自己无知，这种说法是矛盾的。然而，现代物理学告诉我们，现实世界本身就是矛盾的。科学家们对物质现实世界研究得越多，就越无法对它进行把握。在某种意义上，他们了解的越多，知道的就越少。 To say that the more I know, the more I know I dont know is, of course, contradictory. But then, modern physics tells us that reality itself is contradictory. The more scientists look into our physical reality, the more it slips away from them. In a way , the more they learn, the less they know. 知识本身就是矛盾的。打个比方，假设你的知识是一个点，就像这个句子末尾的句号一样。请注意这个句号微小的圆周，假设它代表我们已知和未知的分界——换句话说，就是你对自己不知道的东西的认知。 Knowledge itself is contradictory. For example, picture your knowledge as a dot , as perhaps the period at the end of this sentence. Notice the tiny circumference of that period, and let that represent the interface of the known with the unknown – in other words, your awareness of what you dont know. 但现在想象一下那个小小的句号在渐渐扩大，它的黑色部分占据页面越来越多的地方。随着它的扩大，它的周缘也跟着扩大。如果那个正在增大的黑色部分代表你的知识的 话，在知识增长的同时，你会意识到自己有许多不知道的东西。也就是说，你知道的越多，就越觉得自己无知。 But now imagine that little period growing, its blackness consuming more and more of the