1705053890 “飞天”，也许是城里人老掉牙的传说。但在不久的将来，这些科幻小说中的故事将化为科学的事实。科幻连环图画杂志和小说中各式各样奇特怪异的宇宙飞船，将不再只是人类创造性的空想，它们有可能成为未来的真实景象。

1705053891

1705053892 cliché者，“陈词滥调”也。在科技文章中出现此词，足显作者纵横的笔力，语体上这一句也极为口语化，特别是其中的may not be so far away。语体向下破格的情况非常显见。译文应尽量保留这种语体破格的口吻：冷冻活人可能不是遥远的事情。

1705053893

1705053894 Engineers and designers are already designing craft capable of propelling us beyond Earth’s orbit, the Moon and the planets. They’re designing interstellar spaceships capable of travel across the vast emptiness of deep space to distant stars and new planets in our unending quest to conquer and discover. Our Universe contains over a billion galaxies, star cities each with a hundred billion inhabitants. Around these stars must exist planets and perhaps life. The temptation to explore these new realms is too great.

1705053895

1705053896 工程师和设计者已在着手进行飞船的设计工作，这种飞船能将人类送离地球轨道以及月球和九大行星以外的太空。他们正在设计能穿越浩瀚的外层空间，到达遥远恒星和带外行星的星际飞船，以帮助人类实现不断征服和揭开宇宙奥秘的追求。整个宇宙拥有十亿多个河外星系，一个河外星系，就是一座星城，每座星城有“居民”上千亿颗。在这些恒星周围必定有行星存在，或许，还有生命存在。探索这些未知的领域实在太具吸引力了。

1705053897

1705053898 上文中的star cities和inhabitants均属浅显形象的表达，系破格遣词。如此遣词，化深为浅，变枯燥为生动，大大增强了表达效果。翻译时，能直译就直译。同时，也应兼顾灵活变通的处理手法。比如，inhabitants直译“居民”即可，但最好添加引号。

1705053899

1705053900 First things first—we’ll have to build either a giant orbiting launch platform, far bigger than the International Space Station (ISS), or a permanently manned lunar base to provide a springboard for the stars. Some planners feel we should limit ourselves to robotic probes, but others are firmly committed to sending humans. “There’s a debate right now about how to explore space,” says astronaut Bill Shepherd, destined to be the first live-aboard Commander of the ISS. “Humans or machines—I think they are complementary.”

1705053901

1705053902 重要的事情先来。我们必须建造一座巨型的轨道发射台，其规模要远大于国际空间站，或者，建造一个长期驻人的月球基地，作为飞往周围恒星的“跳板”。一些设计者认为，我们应控制在机器探测的限度内，而其他设计者则坚决主张将人送入太空。“目前正在就如何探索太空的问题展开辩论，”宇航员比尔·谢泼德如是说。他被任命为国际空间站首任驻站指挥官。“人或机器——我认为两者是相辅相成的。”

1705053903

1705053904 本段的springboard系“转”的典型，使用了名词springboard的转义。springboard的本义是“跳板”。而其转义为“出发平台”（starting platform）。值得考虑的是，翻译时，是保留本义，让读者意会其转移，还是直接译出转义？这是一个非常有趣的问题。看来，不宜一刀切。作者使用springboard的目的是为了简化和形象，译者何乐而不为呢？故将springboard译成“跳板”。

1705053905

1705053906 The human problem

1705053907

1705053908 人类的问题

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1705053910 Space is the most hostile environment we will ever explore. Even a single five-hour spacewalk requires months of training, and a vast technical backup to keep it safe. The astronauts and cosmonauts who live aboard the ISS will be there for only a few weeks or months; if we want to travel into deep space it could take years. First we’ll have to find out just how long the human body can survive in a weightless environment. In zero gravity, four pints of body fluid rush from the legs to the head where it stays for the duration of the mission. Astronauts often feel as if they have a permanent cold, and disorientation can become a major problem. In space there’s no physical sensation to let you know when you’re upside down and astronauts have to rely on visual clues from their surroundings. A few hours after reaching orbit, one in three of all astronauts will experience space sickness—a feeling rather like carsickness. And weightless conditions lead to calcium being leached from the bones, and problems with the astronauts, immune systems.

1705053911

1705053912 太空是人类探索所进入的最恶劣的环境。即便是一趟五小时的太空行走，也需要数月的强化训练以及庞大的技术支持来确保其安全。居住在国际空间站的宇航员只能在太空中逗留几周或几个月；但假使我们想进入太阳系外的外层空间，则需要呆上数年。首先，我们得确定人体在失重的情况下能坚持多久。在零重力的环境中，有将近四品脱的体液会从肢端涌至头部，并且，这种状况将一直持续到太空任务结束为止。宇航员会像得了永久性感冒一样，搞不清方向将是他们遇到的一个大的问题。在太空中，你无法从生理上感知自己是倒立还是正立着，宇航员只能通过观察周围的环境据以做出推断。在进入轨道后的几小时内，三分之一的宇航员便会出现宇宙病——一种类似晕车的感觉。同时，失重的环境会导致钙质从骨骼中流失，并引起宇航员免疫系统的紊乱。

1705053913

1705053914 hostile（本义：充满敌意的）文学色彩如此浓重的形容词，让读者眼睛一亮！hostile又体现了“转”字，其转义之一是：unfavorable to health and life（不利于健康及生活的），另如a hostile climate（恶劣气候）。和翻译上段的springboard相反，译the most hostile environment中的hostile却不能守其本义，而必须与其转义译之。所以，科技英语中体现“转”的意境的词汇，翻译时到底如何处理，是译其本义，还是译其转义，要应汉语的表达习惯而定，语言的奥妙与魅力，也许就在于此。

1705053915

1705053916 Trillions of rocky fragments—meteoroids—roam our Solar System at speeds of up to 150,000 miles an hour. A meteoroid no bigger than a grain of salt could pierce a spaceship window. Protection from the extreme hazards of space is going to need some clever technology. Space is also full of lethal radiation—X-rays, gamma rays and the high-speed particles called cosmic rays.

1705053917

1705053918 无数岩石块，即流星体，以每小时15万英里的速度漫游在太阳系中。即便是盐粒大小的流星体也足以穿透宇宙飞船的船窗。为了避免太空中隐藏的巨大危险，我们需要一些先进奇巧的技术手段。同时，宇宙中还充满了致命的射线——X射线、γ射线，还有被称为宇宙射线的高速粒子束。

1705053919

1705053920 读者也许难以设想，roam（漫游；闲逛；徜徉）会出现在本文。这是第三境界（“破”）的一个用词，从本应更正式的用词破入具有描写性质的普通用词。翻译时，不妨随“破”逐流，将roam our Solar System译作“漫游在太阳系中”。

1705053921

1705053922 Down here on Earth we are protected by the atmosphere and by our planet’s magnetic field, but in space long haul astronauts suffer gradual but irreversible radiation sickness unless they are carefully shielded. Commander Shepherd is confident the ISS will help us crack the problems “The ISS is going to answer a number of questions about long range exploration in space. A lot of things are going to be pioneered on the space station for future exploration.”

1705053923

1705053924 在地球上，我们受到大气层及其地球磁场的保护，而在太空中，长时间逗留的宇航员会逐渐患上不可逆的辐射病，除非他们全身都能防护得滴水不漏。谢泼德指挥官很有信心地认为，国际空间站能帮助我们解决这些问题。“国际空间站将对许多有关远距太空探索的问题做出解答。许多事物将在空间站中得到首次尝试，为将来进一步探索提供基础。”

1705053925

1705053926 本段遣词集中体现了科技文章遣词的第三境界：“破”。

1705053927

1705053928 本段首句中的long haul是什么意思？《美国传统词典》对其释义明明白白地写：［informal］a long period of time。词典添加的这个informal不可小视！科技文章使用如此informal的词组，不是明显的破吗？

1705053929

1705053930 如前所说，破在科技文章中多为往下破格，孰料，本段就出现了向上破格的例子。gradual but irreversible radiation sickness中的irreversible便是一例。很多词典对其解释是：［律］不能取消的，不能改变的。这个“律”告诉我们，irreversible本来就是一个法律用词，因而，属庄重语体。从正式语体遣词到庄重语体遣词，应是往上破格。

1705053931

1705053932 当含有俚语性质的long haul和法律专用形容词的irreversible出现在同一句中，行文活泼，文采灿烂。

1705053933

1705053934 Stepping stones

1705053935

1705053936 太空起降点

1705053937

1705053938 Saturn V is still the most powerful rocket ever built. But even this vast 3,000 tonne giant carried only enough fuel to send a tiny manned capsule with just three men on a 250,000 mile journey—a mere drop in the cosmic ocean. It is over a quarter of a century since the last man stood on the Moon (commander Gene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission in 1972), and it seems that it will be another quarter of a century before we return to build a permanently manned base there. Bob Forward—who earns his living from designing spaceships of the future—believes we’ll have to find a cheap way of reaching the Moon before we think of living there. His slingshot concept may seem radical at the start of the 21st century, but it is certainly ingenious.” If you have something rotating quite fast around another thing on the end of a string, it has a tendency to fly away. You have to decide when to let go (from Earth-orbit) and—like a trapeze artist catching his partner—you have to decide when to catch the payload (in lunar orbit).” A lunar base would become a viable stepping stone to deep space. In the 1990s, the Clementine and Lunar Prospector spacecraft detected and broken down to make liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel needed to blast off into deep space.

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