常識都對嗎?讓你Hold不住的真相 (雙語組圖)
作者:滬江英語編譯
2011-10-15 09:15
先有雞先有蛋
What came first, the chicken or the egg?
先有雞還是先有蛋?
The egg. Final answer.?As the geneticist Haldane remarked, "The most frequently asked question is: 'Which came first, the chicken or the egg?' The fact that it is still asked proves either that many people have never been taught the theory of evolution or that they don't believe it." With that in mind, the answer becomes obvious. Bird evolved from reptiles, so the first bird must have come out of an egg--laid by a reptile.
最終答案:先有蛋。遺傳學(xué)家霍爾丹說,“人們經(jīng)常會問先有雞還是先有蛋這個問題,那只能說明人們沒有學(xué)過進化理論或者說大家根本不相信進化理論?!比绻嘈胚M化理論的話,那么這個問題的答案是顯而易見的。禽類是由爬蟲類進化而來,所以,第一只禽鳥肯定是從爬蟲類孵化的蛋里出來的。
長生不老的生物
Can anything live forever?
長生不老可能嗎?
Yes. We are proud to introduce: the immortal jellyfish. What makes the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula so special is that once it reproduces, it doesn't die, but transforms itself back into its juvenile polyp state. Their adult cells and the whole organism becomes "young" again. Barring any sea-borne dangers, there is no biological reason why it can't live forever.
可能。這里要介紹一種可以長生不老的水母。這種可以永生的水母叫做燈塔水母,它可以在性成熟后重新回到幼蟲階段(水螅狀態(tài))。燈塔水母的所有成年細胞和其它生理機制都可以返老還童。只要不被天敵吃掉,理論上說,燈塔水母就可以做到長生不老!
拋硬幣的概率
What are the chances of a coin landing on heads?
硬幣是頭朝上還是字朝上?
It isn't fifty-fifty. If the coin is heads up to begin with, it's more likely to land on heads. Students at Standford University recorded thousands of coin tosses with high-speed cameras and discovered the chances are approximately fifty-one to forty-nine.
拋硬幣的概率并不是50比50. 如果硬幣是頭朝上往上拋,那么很有可能掉下來時也是頭朝上。斯坦福大學(xué)的學(xué)生們用高速攝像機拍下了數(shù)千次拋硬幣的過程,發(fā)現(xiàn)頭朝上和字朝上的概率大約為51比49.
浮云的重量
How much does a cloud weigh?
浮云有多重?
A lot. According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, an average cumulus cloud weighs about 100 elephants, while a big storm cloud tips the scales at 200,000 elephants.
答案是很重。根據(jù)美國科羅拉多州博爾德的國家大氣研究中心的研究,一朵普通的積雨云的重量相當于100頭大象的重量,而一朵暴風云的重量則可以達到20萬頭大象的重量!
偉大的黃金比例
What's so great about the golden ratio?
黃金比例有多偉大?
Every Dan Brown fan has heard of this mysterious figure that crops up everywhere--in the human body, in ancient architecture, in the natural world--and whose appeal nobody can explain. The truth is it doesn't appear in most of the places it's supposed to, and many of the claims about it are false.
每個丹·布朗的書迷都聽說過這一充斥于我們周遭的神秘的黃金比例,人體內(nèi)、古代建筑、自然界,而這一現(xiàn)象無人可以給出解釋。真相是,黃金比例并沒有出現(xiàn)在那些人們認為它應(yīng)該出現(xiàn)的地方,關(guān)于黃金比例的很多說法都是錯誤的。
The Greeks knew about the golden ratio, and the Parthenon is the usual example given of its use in architecture. But any diagrams showing how its side or front elevations demonstrate a "golden rectangle" always either include some empty air at the top or leave out some steps at the bottom.
希臘人知道黃金比例并把它用在了帕臺農(nóng)神廟的建造中,這是黃金比例在建筑中的普通運用。但是,根據(jù)其側(cè)視圖和前視圖顯示,這一“黃金矩形”的誕生是由于誤算了其高度,不是多算了頂部的高度,就是少算了底部的高度。
橙色是啥色
What color are oranges?
橙子是啥色?
That depends. In many countries, oranges are green, even when ripe, and are sold that way in shops. Oranges were first grown in Southeast Asia. There were green there then, and today they still are. Vietnamese and Thai oranges are bright green on the outside and orange only on the inside.
這可說不準。在很多國家,橙子是綠色的,即使是橙子成熟之后,可以拿到店里去賣了,它也還是綠色的。橙子最早是在東南亞種植的,那時就有綠色的橙子,直到現(xiàn)在也還有。越南和泰國的橙子外面是亮綠色,剝開里面才是橙黃色的。
- 相關(guān)熱點:
- 放大英文怎么說