《万物简史》简体中文版，堪称误译的“宝库”
《万物简史》简体中文版，堪称误译的“宝库” 关注 作者 关注 作者 关注 作者 关注 作者 前天 11:552005年，《万物简史》的中文版甫一出版，就有读者阮一峰撰写博文，题目是[《〈万物简史〉中文版翻译质量低劣》](《万物简史》中文版翻译质量低劣 - 阮一峰的网络日志)（此文至今仍能在网上查到，就在阮一峰本人的博客上）。阮一峰仅分析了该书的引言部分，就得出了这样的判断：
它的中文版（严维明、陈邕译，接力出版社，南宁，2005）的翻译质量却是异常低劣，活生生把这本好书给糟蹋了。
正是阮一峰这篇博文，让我开始关注这本书。 sugarrush1000demo trustguru.com.br
不过，我是先找到了它的英文版，而且是 .lit 扩展名的版本——很多网友可能都不知道有这种文件格式。这是微软专有的Reader Literature（LIT）格式，是MS Reader项目的一部分，而.lit 文件是用来存储和分发电子书的。当年，我用一个惠普的大块头手持电脑+手机，跑的是Windows Mobile系统，里面内置支持这种电子书格式。就是在那部惠普上面，我好像是在2006年的暑期，一口气读完了这本书的英文版。真的是一口气读完的，因为布莱森的文笔太好了。而且，书的内容也太精彩了。
此后，我又找来这本书的中文版，开始了对于该书的译文长达20年不定期的阅读对比和捉虫工作。 348ntr-097 jvid.asia
不得不说，阮一峰仅仅凭对”引言“部分的读后感，就做了上面的判断，还真不是”匆忙判断“，而是真正的”窥一斑而知全豹“。
《万物简史》简体中文版，堪称误译的”宝库“。这些鲜活的误译案例，我至少在四篇正式发表的论文中仔细分析过，其中一篇是收录于Springer出版的英文翻译学专著，另外三篇如下： demotigrinho trustguru.com.br pesquisa trustguru.com.br
[1]徐彬. 人工翻译与AI翻译误译对比研究[J].中华译学,2025,(02):181-197. pedro trustguru.com.br
摘要：误译是翻译实践中普遍存在的问题，误译研究在翻译学术研究和翻译教育方面都具有重要价值。本文系统整理了《万物简史》中文版部分章节中的误译，对其进行分类，并对比分析了人类译者与ChatGPT和Kimi两款人工智能应用对这些文本的翻译，试图解答“翻译中人所犯的错，AI是否仍在犯”这个问题，并探索AI翻译中的易错类型。本研究有助于让翻译学习者和从业者更清晰地看到人类译者和人工智能各自的优缺点，为人机协作提供指引，并对各自如何改进翻译能力提供有价值的参考。 bruno trustguru.com.br
[2]郭红梅,徐彬. 科普作品《万物简史》中幽默的理解与表达[J].中国科技翻译,2024,37(03):60-62+28.DOI:10.16024/j.cnki.issn1002-0489.2024.03.016. jogosdemopg trustguru.com.br
摘要：优秀的科普作品往往既具有文学性又有高度的趣味性，读者往往需要一些高阶的认知能力才能充分欣赏此类作品。比尔·布莱森的科普名著《万物简史》就是一部趣味性突出的科普作品。本文通过对此书中典型的幽默话语的分析指出，对于趣味性突出的科普作品，译者需具有广博的知识，了解大众流行文化，掌握时尚的幽默话语，才能精准、适切地翻译出源语文本中的趣味元素。
[3]徐彬,郭红梅. 科普翻译中的“三还原”策略[J].科普创作评论,2022,2(03):5-13.DOI:10.19957/j.cnki.kpczpl.2022.03.001. sobre trustguru.com.br
摘要：科普作品翻译有其特有的难点。在翻译科普作品时，译者要做到叙事生动，说明清晰，论证合乎逻辑。科普作品所涉及或包含的科学背景知识、科学实验过程情景以及科学原理构成了翻译中的挑战。对此，本文提出“三还原”策略，指出科普译者需要关注三个层面的“还原”，并选取了一些畅销科普译著中的实例来说明重要性。这三个层面信息的还原其实是知识的重新建构以及译者在此基础上进行的重新表述。在科普翻译中采用“三还原”策略，能够有效改善科普译文的可读性，提高翻译质量。
除了正式的学术文章，我还写过多篇翻译的散评，放在了我的公众号上（我译故我在）。 ana trustguru.com.br KTO trustguru.com.br
这里，是我这几天经过对比阅读，从第10章筛选出来的误译。包括原文、译文，以及误译的分析。仅仅一章之中，我就挑出了28个例子，每个例子有1-3处翻译不当之处。大家就说，这个比例高不高吧。
而且，《万物简史》这本书在2017还出了”修订本“。大家如果有这个版本，不妨对比一下，看看这些错误改了没改。我个人对比过前面的章节，发现绝大多数的误译，其实修订本也根本没修订出来。
《万物简史》修订本1
IN THE LATE 1940s, a graduate student at the University of Chicago named Clair Patterson (who was, first name notwithstanding, an Iowa farm boy by origin) was using a new method of lead isotope measurement to try to get a definitive age for the Earth at last. Unfortunately all his samples came up contaminated—usually wildly so. Unfortunately all his samples came up contaminated—usually wildly so. Most contained something like two hundred times the levels of lead that would normally be expected to occur. Many years would pass before Patterson realized that the reason for this lay with a regrettable Ohio inventor named Thomas Midgley, Jr. carlos trustguru.com.br
20世纪40年代末，芝加哥大学一位名叫克莱尔·彼得森（尽管姓彼得森，但他原先是艾奥瓦州的一个农家孩子）的研究生在用一种新的铅同位素测量法，对地球的确切年龄做最后的测定。不幸的是，他的岩石样品全部给污染了——而且还污染得异常严重。大多数样品里的铅含量超过正常浓度的大约200倍。许多年以后，彼得森才明白，问题出在俄亥俄州一个名叫小托马斯·米奇利的人身上。
...Clair Patterson (who was, first name notwithstanding, an Iowa farm boy by origin)... 原译为“……克莱尔·彼得森（尽管姓彼得森，但他原先是……）”。这里译者完全理解错了“first name”的意思。Clair 在英语中通常是女性的名字，作者在这里用括号备注，是想幽默地解释：虽然他名字（first name）叫克莱尔（听起来像女生），但他其实是个地道的艾奥瓦农场汉子。原译文写成“尽管姓彼得森”，逻辑上完全不通，丢失了原书幽默的语调。
此外，译者对专有名词的翻译也不准确。 Patterson 常译为“帕特森”。“彼得森”通常对应 Peterson 或 Petersen。虽然是小事，但反映出译者不仔细、不求甚解的态度。 bet365 trustguru.com.br
此外，原译还漏译了“regrettable”这个定语。在本书语境中，Midgley 被认为是对环境造成巨大破坏的科学家（发明了含铅汽油和氟利昂），作者用“regrettable”带有明显的讽刺和批判色彩，译为“令人遗憾”或“声名狼藉”较为贴切。 jvid av jvid.asia
2
Midgley was an engineer by training, and the world would no doubt have been a safer place if he had stayed so. Instead, he developed an interest in the industrial applications of chemistry. pglucky88 trustguru.com.br
米奇利是一名受过训练的工程师，要是他一直当工程师，世界本来会太平一些。但是，他对化学的工业用途发生了兴趣。但是，他对化学的工业用途发生了兴趣。
把an engineer by training翻译为受过训练的工程师，非常生硬，完全不顾中文的表达习惯，典型的食英不化。完全可以表达为“米奇利受过正规的工程学训练”。 pesquisa trustguru.com.br
接下来，“……要是他一直当工程师，世界本来会太平一些”，这句话译文过于平铺直叙。“Stayed so”在语境中带有一种“安分守己”的暗示，而“safer”译为“太平一些”显得力度不足，甚至有些口语化。译为“安分地当一辈子工程师”和“安全得多”，能更好地传达作者对米奇利后续发明带来的环境灾难的伏笔。
3
Even though lead was widely known to be dangerous, by the early years of the twentieth century it could be found in all manner of consumer products. Food came in cans sealed with lead solder. Water was often stored in lead-lined tanks. It was sprayed onto fruit as a pesticide in the form of lead arsenate. It even came as part of the packaging of toothpaste tubes. Hardly a product existed that didn’t bring a little lead into consumers’ lives. However, nothing gave it a greater and more lasting intimacy than its addition to gasoline. Superbet trustguru.com.br
到20世纪初，大家都知道铅很危险，但它仍然以各种形式存在于消费品之中。罐头食品以焊铅来封口，水常常储存在铅皮罐里，砷酸铅用做杀虫剂喷洒在水果上，铅甚至还是牙膏管的组成材料。几乎每一件产品都会给消费者的生活中增加一点儿铅。然而，人接触机会最多、接触时间最长的，还是添加在汽油里的铅。 Sportingbet trustguru.com.br
针对..nothing gave it a greater and more lasting intimacy than its addition to gasoline，原译采取了看似灵活的处理的做法，虽然意思勉强对，但完全丢失了原文的文学修辞。“Intimacy”一词用得极妙且带有讽刺感，意指由于汽油的广泛使用，铅从此与人类“形影不离”、“亲密接触”。原译将其拆解为“机会最多、时间最长”，语言显得苍白乏味，未能传达出那种令人不安的“亲密感”。 jogos trustguru.com.br fernanda trustguru.com.br
另外，专业术语翻译不地道。“lead-lined tanks”：在工业和建筑术语中，“lined”通常指“衬里”。“铅皮罐”听起来像是整个罐子是铅做的或外面包了层皮，而“衬铅水箱”则更准确地描述了当时为了防水漏而在储水容器内壁挂铅膜的实际做法。
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Among the many symptoms associated with overexposure are blindness, insomnia, kidney failure, hearing loss, cancer, palsies, and convulsions. In its most acute form it produces abrupt and terrifying hallucinations, disturbing to victims and onlookers alike, which generally then give way to coma and death.
与铅过分接触会引起很多病症，其中有失明、失眠、肾功能衰竭、失聪、癌症、瘫痪和抽搐。急性发作的时候，人可以突然产生恐怖的幻觉，令患者和旁人措手不及。
虽然“palsies”翻译成“瘫痪”不全错，但在医学语境下，“palsy”更多指代震颤、麻痹（如脑瘫、面瘫）。“瘫痪”通常用 paralysis。新译文采用“麻痹”更能涵盖这类神经受损导致的运动障碍。另，“Disturbing”的意思是“令人极度不安、惊恐、心神不宁”。原译将其译为“措手不及”（意为来不及应付），完全没有表达出那种恐怖的视觉冲击力和心理压力。
5
On the other hand, lead was easy to extract and work, and almost embarrassingly profitable to produce industrially—and tetraethyl lead did indubitably stop engines from knocking. So in 1923 three of America’s largest corporations, General Motors, Du Pont, and Standard Oil of New Jersey, formed a joint enterprise called the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation (later shortened to simply Ethyl Corporation) with a view to making as much tetraethyl lead as the world was willing to buy, and that proved to be a very great deal. They called their additive “ethyl” because it sounded friendlier and less toxic than “lead” and introduced it for public consumption (in more ways than most people realized) on February 1, 1923. slotsdemo trustguru.com.br
另一方面，铅很容易提炼和开采，大规模生产极其有利可图——四乙基铅确实可以防止发动机爆震。所以，在1923年，美国三家最大的公司——通用汽车公司、杜邦公司和新泽西标准石油公司——成立了一家合资企业，名叫乙基汽油公司（后来又简称为乙基公司），世界愿买多少四乙基铅，它就生产多少四乙基铅。结果证明，世界的需要量很大。他们之所以把这种添加剂称作“乙基”，是因为“乙基”听上去比较悦耳，不像“铅”那样含有毒物的意味。1923年2月1日，他们把这个名字（以比大多数人知道的更多方式）推向市场，让公众接受。 a5game trustguru.com.br plataformademo trustguru.com.br
译者此处出现了对于关键双关语/幽默感的误读，是较为严重的错误。“and introduced it for public consumption (in more ways than most people realized) on February 1, 1923”。针对这句话，作者采取了典型的“逐词硬译”的做法。原文中的“consumption”是一个双关语，既指“商业消费”，也指“摄入、吸收”。作者在此语带讥讽，暗示公众不仅在购买（消费）这种汽油，还在呼吸和摄入（消费）空气中的铅尘。原译完全没理解这层深意，译成“以更多方式推向市场”，逻辑混乱且毫无美感。
“almost embarrassingly profitable” ，译文漏掉了“embarrassingly”（令人尴尬地）。作者用这个词是形容利润高到了一种让人感到“不好意思”或“厚颜无耻”的程度，体现了资本的贪婪。新译文用“高得令人咋舌”来还原这种夸张感。
6
As Sharon Bertsch McGrayne notes in her absorbing history of industrial chemistry, Prometheans in the Lab, when employees at one plant developed irreversible delusions, a spokesman blandly informed reporters: “These men probably went insane because they worked too hard.” Altogether at least fifteen workers died in the early days of production of leaded gasoline, and untold numbers of others became ill, often violently so; the exact numbers are unknown because the company nearly always managed to hush up news of embarrassing leakages, spills, and poisonings. At times, however, suppressing the news became impossible, most notably in 1924 when in a matter of days five production workers died and thirty-five more were turned into permanent staggering wrecks at a single ill-ventilated facility.
正如沙伦·伯奇·麦格雷恩在她的工业化学史《实验室里的普罗米修斯》一书中指出的，要是哪家工厂的雇员得了不可治愈的幻觉症，发言人便会厚颜无耻地告诉记者：“这些人之所以精神失常，很可能是因为工作太辛苦。”在生产含铅汽油的初期，至少有15名工人死亡，数不清的人得病，常常是大病。确切的数字无法知道，因为公司几乎总是能掩盖过去，从不透露令人难堪的泄漏、溢出和中毒等消息。然而，有的时候，封锁消息已经不可能——尤其值得注意的是在1924年，在几天时间里，光在一个通风不良的场所就有5名生产工人死亡，35名工人终身残疾。 jvid视频 jvid.asia
此处提供台湾版供对比：
就像女作家麥克格雷尼（SharonBertschMcGrayne）在她那本極有趣的化學工業史《實驗室內的奇績創造》（PrometheansintheLab）中記述的，當該公司的工廠有員工發展出醫不好的幻想症時，公司的發言人漠然的告訴記者：「這些人大概是工作過勞才發瘋的。」在早期剛開始生產含鉛汽油的日子裡，至少有十五名工人死於鉛中毒，生病的員工不知凡幾，而這些員工的病況通常都非常嚴重。詳細數字之所以不明，是因爲公司幾乎永遠能防堵、壓制難堪的滲漏、溢出及中毒事件。但是偶爾也會有幾次，新聞壓制不住，其中最有名的一次是在1924年，就在單一設施內，由於通風不良，數天之中造成了五人死亡，三十五人變成了步履蹣跚的永久性傷殘。
原文：...a spokesman blandly informed reporters...
- 台译：公司的發言人漠然的告訴記者……
- 前译：发言人便会厚颜无耻地告诉记者…
- 台译的“漠然”完美对应了“blandly”。作者在这里的幽默感是冷峻的——最可怕的不是坏人叫嚣，而是坏人以一种“若无其事、平淡”的态度谈论工人的死亡。台译保留了这种“冷暴力”的语感，而前译的“厚颜无耻”情感色彩过浓，反而破坏了原文那种高冷的讽刺张力。
台译特意补充了“女作家”这一身份（原文虽未明说，但译者通过查证或名字判断补充了信息），且书名《實驗室內的奇績創造》虽然与直译有出入，但其副标题式的处理（Prometheans译为奇迹创造者虽略有偏差，但气势较足）体现了译者对书籍推广背景的理解。
大陆译本更像是一种初级阶段的硬译，不仅在专业词汇上偷懒（如把所有症状简化），而且在文学润色上几乎为零。台湾译本则展现了译者对作者布莱森（Bill Bryson）文风的深刻理解——布莱森的特点就是用最俏皮、最冷幽默的语言讲最严肃（甚至恐怖）的事。台译本通过“漠然”、“步履蹒跚”、“不知凡几”等词汇，成功复刻了这种文人气息与科学严谨性并存的特质。
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As rumors circulated about the dangers of the new product, ethyl’s ebullient inventor, Thomas Midgley, decided to hold a demonstration for reporters to allay their concerns. As he chatted away about the company’s commitment to safety, he poured tetraethyl lead over his hands, then held a beaker of it to his nose for sixty seconds, claiming all the while that he could repeat the procedure daily without harm.
随着有关新产品很危险的谣言四起，为了打消人们的担心，四乙基铅汽油的发明者小托马斯·米奇利决定当着记者的面做一次现场表演。他一面大谈公司如何确保安全，一面往自己的手上泼含铅汽油，还把一烧杯这类汽油放在鼻子跟前达60秒之久，不停声称他每天可以这么干而不受任何伤害。 jogue trustguru.com.br sofia trustguru.com.br
把 tetraethyl lead 翻译为 含铅汽油 是重大的理解错误。米奇利当时泼的是纯四乙基铅（原液），而不是稀释后的“含铅汽油”。作者在这里强调的是米奇利为了公关不惜玩命，用剧毒的原液作秀。译成“含铅汽油”大大淡化了行为的疯狂程度和铅原液的危险性。 Energiabet trustguru.com.br
never went near the stuff if he could help it 译为“现在除了在记者面前以外决不接近那玩意儿，只要可能的话”，完全按照英文语序倒装，中文读起来极其别扭（“只要可能的话”挂在句尾）。 isabela trustguru.com.br
8
Buoyed by the success of leaded gasoline, Midgley now turned to another technological problem of the age. Refrigerators in the 1920s were often appallingly risky because they used dangerous gases that sometimes leaked. One leak from a refrigerator at a hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1929 killed more than a hundred people. Midgley set out to create a gas that was stable, nonflammable, noncorrosive, and safe to breathe. With an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny, he invented chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs.
加铅汽油获得成功，米奇利深受鼓舞，现在又把注意力转向那个时代的另一个技术问题。20世纪20年代，冰箱使用有毒而危险的气体，时常泄漏，风险很大。1929年，俄亥俄州克利夫兰有家医院发生冰箱泄漏事故，造成100多人死亡。米奇利着手发明一种很稳定、不易燃、不腐蚀、吸入很安全的气体。凭着办事几乎从不后悔的本能，他发明了氯氟烃。
原译文在关键成语的理解上出现了严重偏差。With an instinct for the regrettable that was almost uncanny... 译为“凭着办事几乎从不后悔的本能” 是整段翻译中错得最离谱的地方。Regrettable在这里不是指米奇利个人“后不后悔”，而是指“令人遗憾/倒霉的事物”。Uncanny 意为“超自然的、不可思议的、邪门的”。作者在这里是用极度辛辣的讽刺笔调说：米奇利仿佛有一种邪门的直觉，总能在人类科学的十字路口精准地选中那条通往灾难的道路（上一个是铅，这一个是破坏臭氧层的氟利昂）。原译将其理解为“办事不后悔”，完全偏离了文本的黑色幽默感。 fortunetigerbônusgrátissemdepósito trustguru.com.br marcos trustguru.com.br
refrigerators... were often appallingly risky... 将appallingly（惊人地、可怕地、令人毛骨悚然地）直接略过，只剩下一个平淡的“很大”。程度把握不好。 pg trustguru.com.br plataformademográtis trustguru.com.br jogodotigrinhodemo trustguru.com.br
9
Seldom has an industrial product been more swiftly or unfortunately embraced. CFCs went into production in the early 1930s and found a thousand applications in everything from car air conditioners to deodorant sprays before it was noticed, half a century later, that they were devouring the ozone in the stratosphere. As you will be aware, this was not a good thing. Pixbet trustguru.com.br
很少有哪个工业产品如此快速而又不幸地被大家接受。20世纪30年代初，氯氟烃投入生产，结果派上了一千种用场，从汽车空调器到除臭喷雾剂什么都离不开它。半个世纪以后人们才发现，这玩意儿正吞噬着平流层里的臭氧。你将会明白，这不是一件好事情。
As you will be aware, this was not a good thing. 这是布莱森典型的“英式冷幽默”。“As you will be aware”并非指读者“将来会明白”，而是一种委婉的表达，意为“正如你所知/大家都知道”。“Was not a good thing”则是极度的轻描淡写（Understatement），用平淡的词描述足以毁灭地球的灾难，从而产生强烈的讽刺效果。原译“你将会明白”读起来像是在说教，丢掉了原文的俏皮劲儿。
10
Ozone is a form of oxygen in which each molecule bears three atoms of oxygen instead of two. It is a bit of a chemical oddity in that at ground level it is a pollutant, while way up in the stratosphere it is beneficial, since it soaks up dangerous ultraviolet radiation. Beneficial ozone is not terribly abundant, however. If it were distributed evenly throughout the stratosphere, it would form a layer just one eighth of an inch or so thick. That is why it is so easily disturbed, and why such disturbances don’t take long to become critical.
臭氧是氧的一种形式，每个分子含有三个而不是通常的两个原子。它的化学特性有点儿古怪：它在地面上是一种有害物质，在高高的平流层却是一种有益物质，因为它吸收危险的紫外辐射。然而，有益的臭氧的量并不很大。即使均匀地分布在平流层里，它也只能形成大约2毫米厚的一层。这就是它很容易受扰动的原因。
译文漏掉了本段最后也是最重要的一句结论：...and why such disturbances don’t take long to become critical。作者强调臭氧层不仅“易受干扰”，而且这种干扰会“迅速恶化到临界点/危机状态”。漏掉这一句，使得读者无法理解为什么CFCs的破坏力会如此迅速且致命。 como trustguru.com.br 200gana-3359 jvid.asia
11
Midgley never knew this because he died long before anyone realized how destructive CFCs were. His death was itself memorably unusual. After becoming crippled with polio, Midgley invented a contraption involving a series of motorized pulleys that automatically raised or turned him in bed. In 1944, he became entangled in the cords as the machine went into action and was strangled.
这一点米奇利永远不会知道。在人们意识到氯氟烃的破坏力之前，他早已不在人世。他的死亡本身也是极不寻常的。米奇利患脊髓灰质炎变成跛子以后，发明了一个机械装置，利用一系列机动滑轮自动帮他在床上抬身或翻身。1944年，当这台机器启动的时候，他被缠在绳索里窒息而死。
注意strangled这个词，虽然“窒息”是结果，但 strangled 特指“被勒死”。考虑到他是被滑轮组的绳索缠绕，译为“勒死”不仅更精准，也更能体现那种被自己的发明反噬的荒诞感。
布莱森在书中对米奇利的描写是整本书最精彩的讽刺段落之一。正如历史学家常说的：“米奇利对大气层的影响，比历史上任何一个单一生物都要大。” 他先用铅毒害了当代人，又用CFCs威胁了后代，最后死于自己的发明。好的译文应当把这种“天道好轮回”的黑色幽默感翻译出来。
12
Curiously, just as the technique was becoming widespread, certain flaws within it became apparent. To begin with, it was discovered that one of the basic components of Libby’s formula, known as the decay constant, was off by about 3 percent. By this time, however, thousands of measurements had been taken throughout the world. Rather than restate every one, scientists decided to keep the inaccurate constant. “Thus,” Tim Flannery notes, “every raw radiocarbon date you read today is given as too young by around 3 percent.” The problems didn’t quite stop there. It was also quickly discovered that carbon-14 samples can be easily contaminated with carbon from other sources—a tiny scrap of vegetable matter, for instance, that has been collected with the sample and not noticed. For younger samples— those under twenty thousand years or so—slight contamination does not always matter so much, but for older samples it can be a serious problem because so few remaining atoms are being counted. In the first instance, to borrow from Flannery, it is like miscounting by a dollar when counting to a thousand; in the second it is more like miscounting by a dollar when you have only two dollars to count. jvid视频 jvid.asia jogodotigrinhodemo trustguru.com.br
有意思的是，随着这项技术的广泛使用，有些疵点也日渐显露出来。首先，人们发现，利比公式里有个名叫衰变常数的基本成分存在3%的误差。而到了这个时候，全世界已经进行了数千次计算。科学家们没有修正每个计算结果，而是决定保留这个不准确的常数。“这样，”提姆·弗兰纳里说，“你只要把今天见到的每一个以放射性碳年代测定法测定的年代减去大约3%。”问题没有完全解决。人们又很快发现，碳-14的样品很容易被别处的碳污染——比如，一小点儿连同样品一起被采集来的而又没有被注意到的植物。对于年代不大久远的样品来说——年代小于大约2万年的样品——稍有污染并不总是关系很大，而对于年代比较久远的样品来说，这有可能是个严重的问题，因为统计中的剩余原子数实在太少了。借用弗兰纳里的话来说，在第一种情况下，就像是1 000美元里少数1美元；而在第二种情况下，就像是仅有的2美元里少数了1美元。 jvid視頻 jvid.asia
...every raw radiocarbon date... is given as too young by around 3 percent 这句话的翻译出现了物理逻辑上的重大失误。原文说由于常数误差，测出来的结果比实际年轻（数值偏小），这意味着如果要得到准确年代，应该加上3%才对。原译建议减去，会使原本就偏小的数值变得更错，彻底搞反了修正方向。
miscounting by a dollar... 原文“miscounting”是“数错”，包含数多或数少。虽然在语境下误差表现为偏差，但原译在第二种情况说“2美元里少数了1美元”，听起来像是丢了钱。
13
Finally, and perhaps a little unexpectedly, readings can be thrown out by seemingly unrelated external factors—such as the diets of those whose bones are being tested. One recent case involved the long-running debate over whether syphilis originated in the New World or the Old. Archeologists in Hull, in the north of England, found that monks in a monastery graveyard had suffered from syphilis, but the initial conclusion that the monks had done so before Columbus’s voyage was cast into doubt by the realization that they had eaten a lot of fish, which could make their bones appear to be older than in fact they were. The monks may well have had syphilis, but how it got to them, and when, remain tantalizingly unresolved. Brazino777 trustguru.com.br
最后，也许有点儿出人意料的是，计算结果可能由于表面看来毫不相干的外因——比如动物的饮食结构——而完全失去意义。最近有个案例引起了广泛激烈的争论，即梅毒究竟起源于新大陆还是旧大陆。赫尔的考古学家们发现，修道院坟地里的修道士患有梅毒。最初的结论是，修道士在哥伦布航行之前就已经患上了梅毒。但是，该结论受到了质疑，因为科学家们发现，他们吃了大量的鱼，这会使他们骨头的年代看上去比实际的要古老。修道士可能患有梅毒，但究竟是怎么患上的，什么时候患上的，问题似乎容易解决，却依然没有解决。
这一段翻译有两个比较明显的错误。
1. 主体指代错误（错误程度：高） rafael trustguru.com.br kto trustguru.com.br
- 原文：...the diets of those whose bones are being tested.
- 原译：……比如动物的饮食结构……
- 分析：原文指的是“那些被检测者”（即下文提到的僧侣），原译不知为何翻译成了“动物”。虽然僧侣在生物学上也是动物，但在考古和人文语境下，译为“被检测者”或“僧侣”才符合逻辑。
2. 关键逻辑误译（错误程度：高） Betano trustguru.com.br miguel trustguru.com.br
- 原文：...remain tantalizingly unresolved.
- 原译：……问题似乎容易解决，却依然没有解决。
- 分析：这是对“tantalizingly”的严重误读。这个词源于希腊神话中的坦塔罗斯（Tantalus），意为“诱人的、令人心痒难耐的”。在这里，作者是说答案就在眼前（只差那一点定年的准确性），却偏偏无法确定的那种折磨人的感觉。原译将其处理为“容易解决”，完全背离了作者表达的“这种谜团明明呼之欲出却始终无法揭晓”的遗憾感。
改译：最后，或许还有些出人意料的是，定年读数可能会被一些看似毫不相关的外部因素所干扰——例如被检测者的饮食习惯。最近的一个案例涉及一场持久的争论：梅毒究竟是起源于新大陆还是旧大陆。英格兰北部赫尔市的考古学家发现，当地一家修道院墓地里的僧侣曾患有梅毒。最初的结论认为这些僧侣在哥伦布首航之前就已染病，但随后人们意识到，这些僧侣生前摄入了大量的鱼类，这一发现令先前的结论备受质疑——因为食鱼习惯会使骨骼的定年结果看起来比实际年龄更“老”。僧侣们确实患有梅毒，但病源从何而来、何时染病，至今仍是令人心痒却又悬而未决的谜团。 pondo-022126_001 jvid.asia
14
Because of the accumulated shortcomings of carbon-14, scientists devised other methods of dating ancient materials, among them thermoluminesence, which measures electrons trapped in clays, and electron spin resonance, which involves bombarding a sample with electromagnetic waves and measuring the vibrations of the electrons. But even the best of these could not date anything older than about 200,000 years, and they couldn’t date inorganic materials like rocks at all, which is of course what you need if you wish to determine the age of your planet.
由于碳-14年代测定法的缺点加起来还真不少，科学家们发明了别的办法来测定古代物质的年代，其中有发热光测定法和电子自旋共振测定法。前者用来测定存留在泥土里的电子数；后者以电磁波轰击一件样品来测定电子的振动。但是，即使用最好的方法，你也无法测定20万年以上的东西的年代，也根本无法测定岩石那样的无机物质的年代。然而，若要确定我们这颗行星的年龄，这当然是必不可少的。
- 科学名词错误（严重错误）：
- 原文：thermoluminesence
- 原译：发热光测定法
- 分析：这是该学科的固定术语，标准中文译名为“热释光”。原译“发热光”属于望文生义的业余错误，会误导读者对物理机制的理解。
15
Holmes was heroic as much for the obstacles he overcame as for the results he achieved. By the 1920s, when Holmes was in the prime of his career, geology had slipped out of fashion—physics was the new excitement of the age—and had become severely underfunded, particularly in Britain, its spiritual birthplace. At Durham University, Holmes was for many years the entire geology department. Often he had to borrow or patch together equipment in order to pursue his radiometric dating of rocks. At one point, his calculations were effectively held up for a year while he waited for the university to provide him with a simple adding machine. Occasionally, he had to drop out of academic life altogether to earn enough to support his family—for a time he ran a curio shop in Newcastle upon Tyne—and sometimes he could not even afford the £5 annual membership fee for the Geological Society.
无论在克服困难方面，还是在取得的成就方面，霍姆斯都很有英雄气概。20世纪20年代，正当他的事业进入全盛期的时候，地质学已经不再吃香——物理学是那个时代的热门科学——资金严重缺乏，尤其在它的精神诞生地英国。多少年来，他是达勒姆大学地质系唯一的人员。为了进行测定岩石年代的工作，他常常不得不借用或拼凑设备。有一次，为了等校方为他提供一台简单的加法机，他的计算工作竟然耽搁了1年时间。有时候，他不得不完全停止学术工作，以便挣钱来养家糊口——一度在纽卡斯尔开了个古董店，有时候他连地质学会每年5英镑的会费也缴不起。
原文用“excitement”带有一种时代性的狂热和躁动。原译“热门科学”显得中规中矩。新译文“新宠”或“新焦点”更能传达出科学领域权力转移的动态感。
Holmes was... the entire geology department：原文用“整个系（entire department）”来形容一个人，这是一种带点冷幽默的夸张写法，旨在反衬他当时的形单影只。原译“唯一的人员”磨平了这种文学修辞。可以译为“形单影只，支撑起了整个地质系”，以保留这种反差感。 Bet365 trustguru.com.br
此外，Newcastle upon Tyne 国内通用译名为“泰恩河畔纽卡斯尔”，以区别于其他叫纽卡斯尔的地方。译者没有注意到这一点。
16
But there were many technical difficulties to overcome. Holmes also needed—or at least would very much have appreciated—sophisticated gadgetry of a sort that could make very fine measurements from tiny samples, and as we have seen it was all he could do to get a simple adding machine. So it was quite an achievement when in 1946 he was able to announce with some confidence that the Earth was at least three billion years old and possibly rather more. Unfortunately, he now met yet another formidable impediment to acceptance: the conservativeness of his fellow scientists. Although happy to praise his methodology, many maintained that he had found not the age of the Earth but merely the age of the materials from which the Earth had been formed.
但是，有许多技术上的困难需要克服。霍姆斯还需要——至少会很高兴拥有——一种能对细小样品进行精密测量的先进仪器，而我们已经知道，他所能得到的不过是一台简单的加法机。因此，他竟然能在1946年较有把握地宣布，地球至少已经存在30亿年，很可能还要长。这是一项相当了不起的成就。不幸的是，他又一次遇到了巨大的障碍：他的科学界同行们非常保守，对他的成就拒不承认。许多人尽管乐意赞赏他的方法，却认为他得出的不是地球的年龄，而只是组成地球的材料的年龄。
原文“impediment to acceptance”直译是“获得认可的障碍”。原译加重了语气，译为“对他的成就拒不承认”，这在学术讨论中显得过于绝对且带有敌意。事实上，同行是持保留意见或持怀疑态度（dubious），而非完全“拒不承认”。
16
It was just at this time that Harrison Brown of the University of Chicago developed a new method for counting lead isotopes in igneous rocks (which is to say those that were created through heating, as opposed to the laying down of sediments). Realizing that the work would be exceedingly tedious, he assigned it to young Clair Patterson as his dissertation project. Famously he promised Patterson that determining the age of the Earth with his new method would be “duck soup.” In fact, it would take years.
就在这个时候，芝加哥大学的哈里森·布朗发明了一种统计火成岩（即通过加热形成的岩石，而不是通过沉积形成的岩石）里铅同位素的新方法。他意识到这项工作相当乏味，便把它交给了年轻的克莱尔·彼得森，作为他的论文项目。他向彼得森保证，以他的新方法来测定地球的年龄会“易如反掌”。实际上，这项工作花了几年时间。
...those that were created through heating... 火成岩（Igneous rocks）并非是通过“加热”形成的，而是由岩浆或熔岩“冷却凝固”形成的。原文“created through heating”是比尔·布莱森为了向大众解释所做的通俗化描述，但翻译为“加热形成”在中文里会产生歧义（像是把石头拿去加热）。新译文处理为“由熔岩冷却凝固形成”，更符合地质学常识。 pgdemo trustguru.com.br Cassinos trustguru.com.br
17
Patterson began work on the project in 1948. Compared with Thomas Midgley’s colorful contributions to the march of progress, Patterson’s discovery of the age of the Earth feels more than a touch anticlimactic. For seven years, first at the University of Chicago and then at the California Institute of Technology (where he moved in 1952), he worked in a sterile lab, making very precise measurements of the lead/uranium ratios in carefully selected samples of old rock.
1948年，彼得森着手从事这个项目。与小托马斯·米奇利丰富多彩、不断推动历史前进的贡献相比，彼得森测定地球年龄的工作有点儿平平庸庸的味道。有7年时间，先是在芝加哥大学，后在加州理工学院（他于1952年迁往那里），他在无菌实验室里埋头苦干，仔细选择古老岩石的样品，精密测定里面铅/铀的比例。 pgslotgacor trustguru.com.br
Midgley’s colorful contributions to the march of progress... 这是《万物简史》中极具代表性的反讽（Irony）。托马斯·米奇利发明了含铅汽油和氟利昂，被认为是“地球历史上对大气影响最大的单体生物”，他的贡献是灾难性的。作者在这里用“colorful”和“march of progress”带有强烈的讥讽意味。原译将其完全理解为正面的“推动历史前进”，彻底丧失了布莱森幽默冷峻的批判性。 pragmatic trustguru.com.br
a touch anticlimactic: “Anticlimactic”意为“令人扫兴的、高潮过后的平淡”。帕特森做的是极其重要的科学突破，但过程枯燥且缺乏米奇利那种戏剧性的（虽然是负面的）轰动效应。原译“平平庸庸”带有贬义，暗示帕特森本人或其成就庸常，而原文是指“过程”不像预想中那样激动人心。
a sterile lab...：在地质化学和同位素分析背景下，这里的“sterile lab”不是生物学意义上的“无菌”，而是指超净实验室（Clean lab），目的是为了防止环境中的铅污染实验样本。这是帕特森成功的关键。译为“无菌”在科学语境下是错误的。 JogodoTigrinho trustguru.com.br A5game trustguru.com.br bonus trustguru.com.br
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The problem with measuring the age of the Earth was that you needed rocks that were extremely ancient, containing lead- and uranium-bearing crystals that were about as old as the planet itself—anything much younger would obviously give you misleadingly youthful dates—but really ancient rocks are only rarely found on Earth. In the late 1940s no one altogether understood why this should be. Indeed, and rather extraordinarily, we would be well into the space age before anyone could plausibly account for where all the Earth’s old rocks went. (The answer was plate tectonics, which we shall of course get to.) Patterson, meantime, was left to try to make sense of things with very limited materials. Eventually, and ingeniously, it occurred to him that he could circumvent the rock shortage by using rocks from beyond Earth. He turned to meteorites. 测定地球年龄的问题在于， trustguru trustguru.com.br
你需要有极其古老的岩石，内有含铅和铀的晶体，其古老程度几乎与这颗行星一样——要是岩石年轻得多，测出的年代显然会比较年轻，从而得出错误的结论，而真正古老的岩石在地球上是很难找得着的。到20世纪40年代末，谁也不知道这是什么原因。实际上，要等到太空时代，才可能有人貌似有理地说明地球上古老岩石的去向，这真是不可思议的。（答案在于板块构造，我们当然将谈到这个问题。）与此同时，彼得森只能在材料非常有限的情况下把这一切搞清楚。最后，他突然聪明地想到，他可以利用地球之外的岩石，从而绕开缺少岩石的问题。他把注意力转向陨石。 fortuneoxdemográtis trustguru.com.br tigrinhodemo trustguru.com.br
misleadingly youthful dates 在定年学（Dating）中，“youthful”是一个专业修辞，指测出的年代偏近。原译将其拆解为“比较年轻”和“错误结论”，显得冗长且消减了原文的讽刺感（即测出来的地球像个“年轻人”）。此外，一个比较严重的错误是 well into the space age 的翻译。“Well into” 意为“进入……很久之后”或“深处……之中”。原译将其淡化为“等到太空时代”，未能体现出这种科学认知滞后的严重程度——即即便人类能飞上天了，依然花了很久才搞清楚地下的岩石去哪了。
“Plausibly”在科学语境下指“合乎情理地、有说服力地”。原译“貌似有理”在中文里带有强烈的贬义（贬低这个解释），而原文是在赞扬板块构造论终于提供了一个合理的解释。
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As always, however, nothing was quite as straightforward as such a breezy description makes it sound. Meteorites are not abundant and meteoritic samples not especially easy to get hold of. Moreover, Brown’s measurement technique proved finicky in the extreme and needed much refinement. Above all, there was the problem that Patterson’s samples were continuously and unaccountably contaminated with large doses of atmospheric lead whenever they were exposed to air. It was this that eventually led him to create a sterile laboratory—the world’s first, according to at least one account. noticias trustguru.com.br siro-5639 jvid.asia slot trustguru.com.br
然而，通常来说，总是说来容易做来难。陨石数量不多，陨石样品不是很容易能采集到手。而且，布朗的测量方法过分注重细节，需要做很多改进。最大的问题是，彼得森的样品只要接触空气，就莫名其妙地不断地受到大气里铅的严重污染。正是由于这个原因，他最后建立了一个消过毒的实验室——世界上第一个无菌实验室，至少有一份材料里是这么说的。
这是前一段错误的延续，但在此处性质更严重。在铅同位素分析中，必须排除的是环境中的铅元素干扰，而非细菌。翻译为“消过毒”和“无菌”不仅是科学名词的张冠李戴，更抹杀了帕特森对现代分析化学最重要的贡献之一——发明了用于微量分析的“超净实验室”（Clean room/Clean lab）。这种实验室通过滤除空气颗粒来控制化学污染，而不是通过高温或化学药品灭菌。 cassinos trustguru.com.br
finicky in the extreme...：“Finicky”在实验语境下是指实验条件“极其苛刻”、“极其挑剔”或“极难操作”，形容实验非常敏感。原译“过分注重细节”听起来像是在评价布朗个人的工作态度，而非描述实验本身的难度和局限性。 demo trustguru.com.br
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It took Patterson seven years of patient work just to assemble suitable samples for final testing. In the spring of 1953 he traveled to the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, where he was granted time on a late-model mass spectrograph, a machine capable of detecting and measuring the minute quantities of uranium and lead locked up in ancient crystals. When at last he had his results, Patterson was so excited that he drove straight to his boyhood home in Iowa and had his mother check him into a hospital because he thought he was having a heart attack.
彼得森任劳任怨地干了7年，才收集到可用于最后测试的样品。1953年春，他把样品送到伊利诺伊州的阿冈尼国家实验室。他及时获得了一台新型的质谱仪，可以用来发现和测定秘藏在古晶体里的微量铀和铅。彼得森终于得出了结果。他激动万分，直接驱车去艾奥瓦州他度过少年时代的家中，让他的母亲把他送进医院，因为他认为自己心脏病发作。
he was granted time on a late-model mass spectrograph... “Granted time”在科研语境下是指“获准使用时间”或“机时”。像质谱仪这种昂贵的精密仪器，研究者通常是申请一段时间的使用权，而不是“获得”了一台机器。原译让人误以为实验室送了他一台机器。 jvid jvid.asia
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His main work done, Patterson now turned his attention to the nagging question of all that lead in the atmosphere. He was astounded to find that what little was known about the effects of lead on humans was almost invariably wrong or misleading—and not surprisingly, he discovered, since for forty years every study of lead’s effects had been funded exclusively by manufacturers of lead additives. carlos trustguru.com.br
彼得森几乎马上把注意力转向大气里那个铅的问题。他吃惊地发现，有关铅对人体的影响，人们仅有的一点儿认识几乎无一例外是错误的，或者是令人产生误解的——这也不足为怪，因为40年来对铅的影响的每项研究，全是由铅添加剂的制造商们提供资金的。
“Nagging”是一个非常生动的词，意为“纠缠不休的、令人困扰的”。帕特森在七年的实验中一直被环境铅污染折磨，这个问题像噩梦一样缠着他。原译将其漏译，导致读者感受不到帕特森转向研究铅污染的强烈动机。 demo trustguru.com.br
原文中的“exclusively”至关重要，意为“唯独、排他性地、专有地”。这意味着当时在这个领域根本没有独立的第三方研究。原译虽然用了一个“全”字，但不如“独家资助”或“唯独由……资助”更能体现出那种利益捆绑的严重性。 siro-5652 jvid.asia Bet trustguru.com.br
大陆原译本在这一段的处理略显平淡。帕特森此时发现的不仅是科学错误，更是一场巨大的学术腐败和利益共谋。原译文由于漏掉了“nagging（纠缠不休）”和“exclusively（独家/排他）”等词，削弱了帕特森作为一个孤胆英雄挑战整个工业体制的悲壮感。 Blaze trustguru.com.br
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In one such study, a doctor who had no specialized training in chemical pathology undertook a five-year program in which volunteers were asked to breathe in or swallow lead in elevated quantities. Then their urine and feces were tested. Unfortunately, as the doctor appears not to have known, lead is not excreted as a waste product. Rather, it accumulates in the bones and blood—that’s what makes it so dangerous—and neither bone nor blood was tested. In consequence, lead was given a clean bill of health. slotdemo trustguru.com.br
在一项这样的研究中，一名没有受过化学病理学专门训练的医生承担了一个五年计划。根据计划，他让志愿者们吸入或吞下越来越大量的铅，然后对他们的大小便进行化验。不幸的是，那位医生似乎也不懂，铅不会被作为废物排泄出体外，只会积累在骨头和血液里——这正是铅很危险的原因，他既没有检查骨头，也没有化验血液。结果，铅被宣布对健康毫无影响。 fortunedragon demo trustguru.com.br
...lead is not excreted as a waste product 译文虽然意思没错，但“waste product”在生物学语境下通常指“代谢废物”。“排泄出体外”稍显啰嗦，直接用“排出”或“代谢排出”更符合中文科技术语习惯。“Give something a clean bill of health”是一个英语固定表达，原意是指给船只或人出具“健康证明”或“无疫证明”。作者在这里带有强烈的讽刺意味：一份完全错误的报告，却给这种毒物发了一张“良民证”。原译将其完全平铺直叙化，丢掉了作者的讽刺力度。
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As Patterson increasingly became a liability to his institution, the school trustees were repeatedly pressed by lead industry officials to shut him up or let him go. According to Jamie Lincoln Kitman, writing in The Nation in 2000, Ethyl executives allegedly offered to endow a chair at Caltech “if Patterson was sent packing.” Absurdly, he was excluded from a 1971 National Research Council panel appointed to investigate the dangers of atmospheric lead poisoning even though he was by now unquestionably the leading expert on atmospheric lead. jvid在线 jvid.asia
彼得森成了一个对本单位越来越不利的人。铅工业界官员不断向加州理工学院董事会成员施加压力，要么让他闭嘴，要么让他滚蛋。杰米·林肯·基特曼在2000年的《国家》杂志中写道，据说，乙基公司愿意向加州理工学院无偿提供一名教授讲席的费用，“如果能让彼得森卷铺盖走人的话”。荒唐的是，一个美国研究委员小组被指派来调查大气中铅毒的危险程度，彼得森竟然被排除在外，尽管他这时候毫无疑问已经是美国大气铅问题的主要专家。
to endow a chair... 指的是“捐赠讲席教授职位”或“设立冠名教授基金”。这是学术界极高荣誉和财富的象征。原译文“提供费用”显得琐碎，没能体现出这是一笔巨大的金钱交易和诱惑。
National Research Council (NRC) 是美国的“国家研究委员会”，是一个非常权威的法定学术机构。原译将其译为一个听起来像临时组织的小组，大大削弱了“官方排挤帕特森”这种行为的严重性和荒谬程度。
“Leading expert”翻译为“主要专家”显得太平常了。帕特森当时是该领域的开拓者和权威。“首席专家”或“顶级专家”，更能体现出他被调查小组排除在外的荒谬感——就像调查地心引力却不带牛顿一样。
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To his great credit, Patterson never wavered or buckled. Eventually his efforts led to the introduction of the Clean Air Act of 1970 and finally to the removal from sale of all leaded gasoline in the United States in 1986. Almost immediately lead levels in the blood of Americans fell by 80 percent. But because lead is forever, those of us alive today have about 625 times more lead in our blood than people did a century ago. The amount of lead in the atmosphere also continues to grow, quite legally, by about a hundred thousand metric tons a year, mostly from mining, smelting, and industrial activities. The United States also banned lead in indoor paint, “forty-four years after most of Europe,” as McGrayne notes. Remarkably, considering its startling toxicity, lead solder was not removed from American food containers until 1993.
幸好，彼得森从来没有动摇过。由于他的努力，最后提出了《1970年洁净空气法》，并于1986年在美国停止销售一切含铅汽油。美国人血液里的铅浓度几乎马上下降了80%。但是，由于铅是一种难以消除的物质，今天每个活着的美国人血液里的铅浓度，仍要比一个世纪以前的人高出大约625倍。大气里铅的含量还在以大约每年10万吨的速度继续增加，而且完全是以合法的方式，主要来自采矿、冶炼和工业活动。美国还禁止在家用油漆中添加铅，正如麦格雷恩所说，“比大多数欧洲国家晚了44年”。考虑到铅的惊人毒性，美国直到1993年才在食品罐头上停止使用焊铅，这是不可思议的。
原文“To his great credit”是一种高度的道德评价，意为“这极大归功于他的品质/令人肃然起敬的是”。原译“幸好”将其简化为一种运气或偶然，抹杀了帕特森在重压下展现出的伟大人格。But because lead is forever 作者在此处呼应前文提到的“lead never goes away”。“Forever”在这里用作名词性表述，带有文学上的宿命感。建议翻译为“铅永远不会消失”，比“难以消除的物质”这种啰嗦的解释更具冲击力，强调了污染的不可逆性。 pgslot trustguru.com.br
“Lead is forever” 其实是在模仿戴比尔斯（De Beers）那句著名的广告语：“A diamond is forever”（钻石恒久远，一颗永流传）。这种对比产生了一种特殊的张力：钻石的“永恒”象征着爱情、高贵和价值；而铅的“永恒”则变成了一种诅咒。它作为一种重金属元素，在自然界中极难降解，一旦进入环境和人体血液，其毒性影响是长期且难以根除的。布莱森用浪漫的辞藻来描述一种令人不安的污染现状，这种反差极具讽刺意味。或可译为“铅毒恒久远，一点永流传”。 fortunetigerdemográtis trustguru.com.br
另外一个关键的理解错误。原文“those of us alive today”指的是全人类（所有现代人），而不仅仅是美国人。铅污染是全球性的，格陵兰岛的冰芯证据已经证明了这一点。原译将其局限在美国人身上，缩小了作者的警示范围。 sweetbonanza1000demo trustguru.com.br
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As for the Ethyl Corporation, it’s still going strong, though GM, Standard Oil, and Du Pont no longer have stakes in the company. (They sold out to a company called Albemarle Paper in 1962.) According to McGrayne, as late as February 2001 Ethyl continued to contend “that research has failed to show that leaded gasoline poses a threat to human health or the environment.” On its website, a history of the company makes no mention of lead—or indeed of Thomas Midgley—but simply refers to the original product as containing “a certain combination of chemicals.”
至于乙基公司，它仍在发展，虽然通用汽车公司、标准石油公司和杜邦公司在该公司已经没有股份。（1962年，它们把股份卖给了雅宝造纸公司。）据麦格雷恩说，直到2001年2月，乙基公司依然坚持认为，“研究表明，含铅汽油无论对人的健康还是对环境都不构成威胁”。在它的网站上，公司的历史没有提及铅——也没有提及小托马斯·米奇利——只是简单地提到原先的产品里含有“某种化学混合物”。 bonus trustguru.com.br slots trustguru.com.br
在商业史背景下，"sold out" 强调的是这些巨头在意识到潜在风险或战略调整后“全盘套现”或“转手”。新译文使用“转手”，更能体现出资本在敏感时刻抽身的隐喻。Ethyl continued to contend...，原译是“乙基公司依然坚持认为……”，不当。在科学共识已经压倒性形成的2001年，乙基公司的这种行为不再是简单的“认为”，而是一种“坚称”或“诡辩”。改用“坚称”，更能体现出其死不悔改的讽刺感。 bonus trustguru.com.br
改译：至于乙基公司，它至今依然经营得有声有色，尽管通用汽车、标准石油和杜邦公司已不再持有其股份（这些巨头在1962年将公司转手给了一家名为雅宝造纸的公司）。据麦格雷恩记载，直到2001年2月，乙基公司仍坚称，“研究未能证明含铅汽油会对人类健康或环境构成威胁”。在公司的官网上，那段企业史对“铅”只字未提——甚至也没提到托马斯·米奇利——而只是轻描淡写地称其最初的产品包含“某种化学成分的组合”。 tigrinho gratis trustguru.com.br
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Ethyl no longer makes leaded gasoline, although, according to its 2001 company accounts, tetraethyl lead (or TEL as it calls it) still accounted for $25.1 million in sales in 2000 (out of overall sales of $795 million), up from $24.1 million in 1999, but down from $117 million in 1998. In its report the company stated its determination to “maximize the cash generated by TEL as its usage continues to phase down around the world.” Ethyl markets TEL through an agreement with Associated Octel of England. Caça-níqueis trustguru.com.br
乙基公司不再生产含铅汽油，但据2001年的公司报表，2000年四乙基铅的销售额仍达到2 510万美元（它的全部销售额为7.95亿美元），比1999年的2410万美元略有增长，但低于1998年的1.17亿美元。公司在它的报告中说，它决心“使四乙基铅产生的现金收入增加到最大限度，尽管全世界的使用量在不断下降”。乙基公司通过与英国奥克特尔联合公司的一项协议在全世界销售四乙基铅。 pragmaticplay trustguru.com.br
商业术语翻译不精准：“Company accounts”在语境下指公司的“年度财报”或“账目”。“报表”一词稍显业余。另外一个更严重的错误，是 maximize the cash generated 的翻译。这是一个经典的财务术语，指在产品退出市场前的“现金榨取策略（Cashing out）”。原译“增加到最大限度”听起来像是还要扩大规模，而原文的意思是：虽然市场在萎缩，但我们要榨干它的最后每一分剩余价值。可以译为“现金回笼榨取到最大程度”，这样更符合这种商业语境。
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As for the other scourge left to us by Thomas Midgley, chlorofluorocarbons, they were banned in 1974 in the United States, but they are tenacious little devils and any that you loosed into the atmosphere before then (in your deodorants or hair sprays, for instance) will almost certainly be around and devouring ozone long after you have shuffled off. autores trustguru.com.br
至于小托马斯·米奇利留给我们的另一个祸害氯氟烃，美国在1974年已经禁止使用，但它是个顽固不化的小魔鬼，以前（比如从除臭剂或喷发定型剂）排放到大气的这种东西几乎肯定还在那里，等你我上了西天很久以后还会在吞食臭氧。
这句话中出现了典型的文学语言翻译不当问题。"Shuffled off (this mortal coil)" 出自莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》，是“告别尘世/撒手人寰”的委婉语。原译“上了西天”虽然也是委婉语，但带有浓厚的中国宗教/民间文化色彩，破坏了原文中那种带着一丝冷幽默的科学叙事基调。建议译为“撒手人寰”，语感上更契合这种描述人类寿命与长周期污染物对比的语境。 guias trustguru.com.br slotpix trustguru.com.br
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Clair Patterson died in 1995. He didn’t win a Nobel Prize for his work. Geologists never do. Nor, more puzzlingly, did he gain any fame or even much attention from half a century of consistent and increasingly selfless achievement. A good case could be made that he was the most influential geologist of the twentieth century. Yet who has ever heard of Clair Patterson? Most geology textbooks don’t mention him. Two recent popular books on the history of the dating of Earth actually manage to misspell his name. In early 2001, a reviewer of one of these books in the journal Nature made the additional, rather astounding error of thinking Patterson was a woman. slots trustguru.com.br
克莱尔·彼得森于1995年去世。他没有因为自己的成就而获得诺贝尔奖。地质学家向来没有这个资格。更令人不解的是，尽管他在半个世纪的时间里坚持不懈，大公无私，取得越来越大的成就，他也没有获得多少名气，甚至没有受到多大重视。我们有理由认为，他是20世纪最有影响的地质学家。然而，谁听说过克莱尔·彼得森来着？大多数地质学教科书没有提到他的名字。最近出版的两本有关测定地球年龄的历史的畅销书，竟然还把他的名字拼错了。2001年初，有人在《自然》杂志里就其中的一本书写了一篇书评，结果又犯了一个错误，令人吃惊地认为彼得森是个女人。
首先，是语气和情感色彩的精准度还原不准确的错误。A good case could be made that... 这个短语在英文论证中语气很强，意为“完全有理由、证据充分地认定”。
其次，对讽刺语气的捕捉也欠准确。 the additional, rather astounding error 中，“additional（额外的）”和“astounding（极其离谱/令人震惊）”给人层层递进的感觉。在一个世界顶级的科学期刊（Nature）上，把该领域最重要人物的性别搞错，这不仅仅是“吃惊”，而是一种“荒唐的讽刺”。可以表达为“犯了一个极其离谱的错误”，这样会更贴合作者对帕特森被世人遗忘的愤慨。
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