25. Among the many shaping factors, I would single out the country's excellent elementary schools: a labor force that welcomed the new technology； the practice of giving premiums to inventors; and above all the American genius for nonverbal, "spatial" thinking about things technological.

[參考譯文] 在許多形成因素當中，我將挑選出這些:這個國家優秀的小學教育:歡 迎新技術的勞動者們:獎勵發明者的做法；而且最重要的是美國人在對 那些技術性事物的非言語的、"空間性的"思考方面的天賦。

26. As Eugene Ferguson has pointed out, "A technologist thinks about objects that can not be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions: they are dealt with in his mind by a visual, nonverbal process...The designer and the inventor.., are able to assemble and manipulate in their minds devices that as yet do not exist".

[參考譯文] 正如尤金•弗格森所指出的那樣:"一個技術專家思考那些不能被簡化成 能被清楚的語言描述的東西。這些東西在他的思維中是通過一種視覺的、 非語言表述的過程宋處理的……設計者和發明者……能夠在他們的腦中 裝配并*作那些還不存在的裝置。"

27. Robert Fulton once wrote, "The mechanic should sit down among levers, screws, wedges, wheel, etc, like a poet among the letters of the alphabet, considering them as an exhibition of his thoughts, in which a new arrangement transmits a new idea".

[參考譯文] 羅伯特•法歐特曾經這樣寫到:"一個技師會坐在杠桿、螺絲釘、楔子、 輪子等等當中，就像一個詩人沉浸在字母表的字母中，把這些字母看成 自己思想的展示，在這樣的展示中，每種新的次序安排都傳達了--種新 的思想。"

28. In the last three chapters, he takes off his gloves and gives the creationists a good beating. He describes their programs and, tactics, and, for those unfamiliar with the ways of creationists, the extent of their deception and distortion may come as an unpleasant surprise.

[參考譯文] 在最后三章中，他脫下手套，將神造論者好好地揍了一頓。他描述了他 們的活動和戰術，而且，對于那些對神造論者的做事方式刁；熟悉的人來 說，神造論者的欺騙和扭曲事實的程度可能會令這些人有一種不快的詫異。

29. On the dust jacket of this fine book, Stephen Jay Gould says: "This book stands for reason itself." And so it does-and all wound be well were reason the only judge in the creationism/evolution debate.

[參考譯文] 在這本杰出的書的外紙封面上，史蒂芬•杰伊•古爾德寫道:"這本書本 身就代表理性。"而它確實是這樣的--而且如果理性成為神造論/地化 論之間的辯論中的惟一評判標準的話，一切就都好辦了。

30. After six months of arguing and final 16 hours of hot parliamentary debates, Australia's Northern Territory became the first legal authority in the world to allow doctors to take the lives of incurably ill patients who wish to die.

[參考譯文] 經過了六個月的爭論以及最后16個小時激烈的議會辯論，澳大利亞北 部地區成了世界上第一個允許醫生終止希望死去的絕癥病人生命的立 法當局。

31. Some have breathed sighs of relief, others, including churches, right-to-life groups and the Australian Medical Association, bitterly attacked the bill and the haste of its passage. But the tide is unlikely to turn back.

[參考譯文] 一些機構終于松了一口氣，但是其他一些機構，包括教堂，倡導生命之 權的團體和澳大利亞醫學協會，尖銳地抨擊這個法案，指責法案的通過 過于匆忙。但是大勢已定，不可逆轉。，

32. In Australia- where an aging population, life-extending technology and changing community attitudes have all played their partother states are going to consider making a similar law to deal with euthanasia.

[參考譯文] 在澳大利亞--人口老齡化，延長壽命的技術和變化看的社會態度，這 些因素都在發揮作用一一其他的州也會考慮制定相似的關于安樂死的 法律。

33. There are, of course, exceptions. Small--minded officials, rude waiters, and ill mannered taxi drivers are hardly unknown in the US. Yet it is an observation made so frequently that it deserves comment.

[參考譯文] 當然，例外是存在的。在美國，心胸狹窄的官員，粗魯的傳者，和沒有 禮貌的出租車司機也并不少見。然而人們常常得出這樣的觀察意見，這 使得它值得被討論一下。

34. We live in a society in which the medicinal andsocial use of substances (drugs) is pervasive: an aspirin to quiet a headache, some wine to be sociable, coffee to get going in the morning, a cigarette for the nerves.

[參考譯文] 我們生活在一種藥品(毒品)的醫學用途和社會用途都很廣泛的社會里: 一片用來止頭痛的阿斯匹林，一些用來社交的葡萄酒，早上自己提提神 所喝的咖啡，一支用來定神的香煙。

35. Dependence is marked first by an increased tolerance, with more and more of the substance required to produce the desired effect, and then by the appearance of unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the substance is discontinued.

[參考譯文] 對藥品的依賴性首先表現為不斷增長的耐藥量，要產生想得到的效果所 需要的藥品劑量越來越大，然后表現為當停止用藥后，令人不快的停藥 癥狀的出現。

36. "Is this what you intended to accomplish with your careers?" Senator Robert Dole asked Time Warner executives last week. "You have sold your souls, but must you corrupt our nation and threaten our children as well?"

[參考譯文] 上星期參議員羅博特多爾質問時代華納公司的高級管理人員們:"難道這 就是你們希望能夠成就的事業?你們已經出賣了自己的靈魂，但是難道 你們還非要腐化我們的國家，威脅我們的孩子們嗎?"

37. "The test of any democratic society, he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column', "lies not in how well it can control expression but in whether it gives freedom of thought and expression the widest possible latitude, however disputable or irritating the results may sometimes be..."

[參考譯文] "對任何一個民主社會的考驗，"他在《華爾街雜志》的一個專欄文章中 寫到，"不在于它能夠多有效地控制各種意見的表達，而在于這個社會是 否能給予思考和表達的盡可能廣泛的自由，不管有時候這種結果是多么 的富有爭議或令人不快…"

38. During the discussion of rock singing verses at last month's stockholders' meeting, Levin asserted that "music is not the cause of society's ills" and even cited his son, a teacher in the Bronx, New York, who uses rap to communicate with students.

[參考譯文] 在-上個月的股東大會上關于搖滾歌詞的討論中，萊文宣稱說:"音樂不是 社會問題的原因"，他甚至還以他的兒子為例。他的兒子是紐約州布朗克 斯的一個教師，并用說唱音樂與學生們進行溝通。

39. Much of the language used to describe monetary policy, such as "steering the economy to a soft landing" of "a touch on the brakes" , makes it sound like a precise science. Nothing could be further from the truth.

[參考譯文] 有很多用于描述貨幣政策的詞匯，例如"輕踩剎車"以"*縱經濟軟著 陸"，使貨幣政策聽起來像是一門精確的科學。沒有什么比這更遠離實際 情況的了。
40. Economists have been particularly surprised by favorable inflation figures in Britain and the United States, since, conventional measures suggest that both economies, and especially America's, have little productive slack.

[參考譯文] 經濟學家們對英國和美國的有利的通貨膨脹數據尤其感到驚訝，因為傳 統的計量方法顯示兩國的經濟，特別是美國的經濟，幾乎沒有生產蕭條 的時候。

41. The most thrilling explanation is, unfortunately, a little defective. Some economists argue that powerful structural changes in the world have upended the old economic models that were based upon the historical link between growth and inflation.

[參考譯文] 很不幸，這最令人震驚的解釋有一點缺陷。一些經濟學家認為世界經濟 結構的強有力的變化已經結束了那個以經濟增長和通貨膨脹的歷史關聯 為基礎的舊的經濟模式。

42. The Aswan Dam, for example, stopped the Nile flooding but deprived Egypt of the fertile silt that floods left-all in return for a giant reservoir of disease which is now so full of silt that it barely generates electricity.

[參考譯文] 例如，阿斯旺大壩使得尼羅河不再洪水泛濫，但是它也奪去了埃及以前 所享有的洪水留下的肥沃淤泥--這些換宋的就是這么個疾病滋生的水 庫，現在這個水庫積滿了淤泥，幾乎不能發電了。
43. New ways of organizing the workplace--all that re-engineering and downsizing--are only one contribution to the overall productivity of an economy, which is driven by many other factors such as joint investment in equipment and machinery, new technology, and investment in education and training,

[參考譯文] 企業重組的新方法--所有那些重新設計、縮小規模的做法--只是對 一個經濟的整體生產力做出了一方面的貢獻。這種經濟還受許多其他因 素的驅動，比如結合設備和機械上的投資、新技術，以及在教育和培訓 上的投資。

44. His colleague, Michael Beer, says that far too many companies have applied re-engineering in a mechanistic fashion, chopping out costs without giving sufficient thought to long-term profitability.

[參考譯文] 他的同事邁克爾•比爾說，有太多的公司已經用一種機械的方式實行公 司內部的重新設計，在沒有充分考慮長期贏利的能力下削減了成本。

45. Defenders of science have also voiced their concerns at meetings such as "The Flight from S.cience and Reason" , held in New York City in 1995, and "Science in the Age of (Mis) information, which assembled last June near Buffalo.

[參考譯文] 科學衛士們在會議上也表述了他們的關注，比如1995年在紐約市舉行的 "逃離科學與理性"會議，以及去年6月在布法羅附近召開的"(錯誤) 信息時代的科學"會議。

46. A survey of news stories in 1996 reveals that the antiscience tag has been attached to many other groups as well, from authorities who advocated the elimination of the last remaining stocks of smallpox virus to Republicans who advocated decreased funding for basic research.

[參考譯文] 一項關于1996年新聞報道的調查顯示，反科學的標簽還可以貼在許多其 他團體身上，從提倡消滅最后存留的天花病毒的權威機構，到鼓吹削減 基礎研究經費的共和黨人(都被貼上了反科學的標簽)。

47. The 'true enemies of science, argues Paul Ehrllch of Stanford University, a pioneer of environmental studies, are those who question the evidence supporting global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer and other consequences of industrial growth.

[參考譯文] 環境研究的先驅、斯坦福大學的保羅•厄爾里西認為，科學真正的敵人 是那些對支持全球變暖、臭氧層損耗以及工業發展的其他后果的證據提 出置疑的人。