现代大学英语精读第二版（第二册）学习笔记（原文及全文翻译）——8A - The Man in Asbestos（穿石棉衣服的人）
Unit 8A - The Man in Asbestos
The Man in Asbestos
Stephen Leacock
To begin with, let me admit that I did it partly from jealousy.
It seemed unfair that other writers should be able at will to drop into a sleep of four or five hundred years, and to plunge headfirst into a distant future and be a witness of its marvels.
I wanted to do that too.
I made preparations for the sleep.
It was, in a way, clear, straight suicide, but I did it.
I could feel my senses leaving me. I fell into the deep immeasurable sleep in which the very existence of the outer world was hushed. Dimly I could feel the days go past, then years, and then the long passage of the centuries.
Then quite suddenly, I woke up, and looked about me.
Where was I?
I found myself sitting on a broad couch in some kind of museum.
Beside me sat a man. His face was hairless, but neither old nor young. He wore clothes that looked like the grey ashes of paper that had burned and kept its shape. He was looking at me quietly, but with no particular surprise or interest.
"Quick," I said, eager to begin. "Where am I? Who are you?"
"What a queer, excited way you have of speaking," he looked annoyed.
"Tell me," I said again. "Is this the year 3000?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," he said.
"Don't you keep track of them any more?" I gasped.
"We used to," said the man. "But it died out. Why," he continued, "after we eliminated death—"
"Eliminated death!" I cried, sitting upright.
"I was saying—after we had eliminated death, and food, and—"
"Stop!" I said, my brain reeling. "Tell me one thing at a time."
"Humph!" he ejaculated. "I see, you must have been asleep a long time. Go on then and ask questions."
Oddly enough the first question that sprang to my lips was—
"What are those clothes made of?"
"Asbestos," answered the man.
"Thank you," I answered. "Now tell me where I am."
"You are in a museum. The figures in the cases are specimens like yourself. But here," he said, "if you want really to find out about what is evidently a new epoch to you, get off your platform and come out on Broadway."
I got down. But the moment we came out upon the street, I stood riveted in astonishment.
Broadway! Was it possible? The change was absolutely appalling! In place of the roaring thoroughfare that I had known, this silent, moss-grown desolation. Great buildings had fallen into ruin. The place was soundless. Not a vehicle moved. There were no wires overhead—no sound of life or movement except, here and there, there passed slowly to and fro human figures dressed in the same asbestos clothes as my acquaintance, with the same hairless faces, and the same look of infinite age upon them.
Good heavens! And was this the era of the conquest that I had hoped to see? I had always taken for granted that humanity was destined to move forward. This picture of desolation rendered me almost speechless.
I gasped out a question.
"Where are the streetcars and the motors?"
"Oh, done away with long ago," he said.
"But how do you get about?"
"We don't," he answered. "Why should we? It's just the same being here as being anywhere else."
A thousand questions surged into my mind at once. I asked one of the simplest.
"But how do you get back and forth to your work?"
"Work!" he said. "There isn't any work."
I looked at him a moment open-mouthed.
I tried to pull my senses together. I realized that if I was to find out about this new and undreamed-of future, I must go at it systematically.
"I see," I said after a pause, "that momentous things have happened since my time. I wish you would explain to me bit by bit. First, what do you mean by saying that there is no work?"
"Why," answered my strange acquaintance, "it died out of itself. Machinery killed it. If I remember rightly, you had a certain amount of machinery even in your time."
I nodded assent.
"But you found it did you no good. The better your machines, the harder you worked. The more things you had, the more things you wanted. You were all caught in the cogs of your own machines."
"That is quite true," I said.
"Well, then, there came the Era of the Great Conquest of Nature, the final victory of Man and Machinery."
"They did conquer it?" I asked quickly, with a thrill of the old hope in my veins again.
"Conquered it," he said, "beat it out! Things came one by one. In a hundred years it was all done. In fact, just as soon as mankind turned its energy to decreasing its needs instead of increasing its desires, the whole thing was easy. Chemical Food came first. Heavens! The simplicity of it. Agriculture went overboard. Eating and all that goes with it, domestic labor, housework—all ended. Nowadays one takes a concentrated pill every year or so, that's all.
Then came the Asbestos Clothes. In one year humanity made enough suits to last for ever and ever. That, of course, could never have been if it hadn't been connected with the revolt of women and the fall of Fashion."
"Have the fashions gone," I asked, "that insane, extravagant idea of—?" I was about to launch into one of my old-time harangues about the sheer vanity of decorative dress, when my eyes rested on the moving figures in asbestos, and I stopped.
"All gone," said the Man in Asbestos. "Then next to that we killed the change of climate. I don't think that in your day you properly understood how much of your work was due to the shifts of what you called the weather. It meant the need of all kinds of special clothes and houses and shelters, a wilderness of work. How dreadful it must have been in your day—wind and storms, clouds flying through the air, the ocean tossed and torn by the wind, snow thrown all over everything."
"So," I said, "the Conquest of Nature meant that presently there was no more work to do?"
"Exactly," he said, "nothing left."
"Food enough for all?"
"Too much," he answered.
"Houses and clothes?"
"All you like."
Then I realized for the first time, just what work had meant in the old life, and how much of the texture of life had been bound up in the keen effort of it.
Presently my eyes looked upward: dangling at the top of a building I saw what seemed to be the remains of telephone wires.
"What became of all the system of communication?" I asked.
"Ah," said the Man in Asbestos, "all cut out. You see, when work stopped and commerce ended, and food was needless, and the weather killed, there was nothing to communicate and it was foolish to move about. Besides it was dangerous!"
"So!" I said. "You still have danger?"
"Why, yes," he said.
"Do you mean you can still die?" I asked.
"No," said the Man in Asbestos, "there's been no death for centuries past; we cut that out. Disease and death were simply a matter of germs. Well, we hunted them down one by one and destroyed them."
"And you mean to say," I ejaculated in amazement, "that nowadays you live for ever?"
"Yes," he said, "unless, of course, we get broken. Therefore we took steps to cut out all accidents. We forbid all streetcars, street traffic, airplanes, and so on."
We sat silent for a long time. I looked about me at the crumbling buildings, the unchanging sky, and the dreary, empty street. Here, then, was the fruit of the Conquest, the elimination of work, the end of hunger and cold, the cessation of the hard struggle, the downfall of change and death—nay, the very millennium of happiness. And yet, somehow, there seemed something wrong with it all. I pondered, then I put two or three rapid questions, hardly waiting to reflect upon the answers.
"Is there any war now?"
"Done away with centuries ago."
"Do you still have newspapers?"
"Newspapers! What on earth would we want them for? What is in them, anyway? Only things that happen, wars and accidents and work and death. When these went, newspapers went too. Listen," continued the Man in Asbestos, "you still don't seem to understand the new life at all. How used your people to spend all the early part of their lives?"
"Why," I said, "our first fifteen years or so were spent in getting education."
"Exactly," he answered, "now notice how we've improved on all that. Education in our day is done by surgery. Strange that in your time nobody realized that education was simply a surgical operation of opening the skull and engrafting into it a piece of prepared brain. Well, then, to continue, what used to occupy your time and effort after your education?"
"Why," I said, "one had, of course, to work, and then, to tell the truth, a great part of one's time and feeling was devoted toward the other sex, toward falling in love and finding some woman to share one's life."
"Ah," said the Man in Asbestos. "I’ve heard about your arrangements with the women, but never quite understood them."
Then it suddenly struck me that of the figures on the street, all had looked alike.
"Tell me," I said, "are there no women now? Are they gone too?"
"Oh, no," answered the Man in Asbestos, "they're here just the same. Some of those are women.
Only, you see, everything has been changed now. It all came as part of their great revolt, their desire to be like men."
"This, then, is your millennium," I said, as I turned on him in anger. "This dull, dead thing, with the work and the burden gone out of life, and with them all the joy and the sweetness of it. For the old struggle—mere stagnation; and in place of danger and death, the dull monotony of security and the horror of an unending decay! Give me back," I cried, "the old life of danger and stress, with its hard toil and its bitter changes, and its heartbreaks. Give me no rest," I cried aloud—
"Yes, but give a rest to the rest of the corridor!" cried an angered voice.
Suddenly my sleep had gone.
I was back again in the room of my hotel.
参考译文——穿石棉衣服的人
穿石棉衣服的人
斯蒂芬·李科克
首先，我要承认，我这么做，部分原因是出于嫉妒。
我觉得，别的作家都能够随心所欲地睡上四五百年，然后直接进入遥远的未来，体验那时各种神奇的事物，而我不能。这太不公平了。
我也要那么做。
我为这次长眠作了充分的准备。
在某种意义上，这简直就是直截了当的自杀。但是我就这么做了。
我可以感到自己在慢慢失去知觉。我进入了深不可测的沉睡。周围万籁倶寂。我迷迷糊糊感觉到日子一天天过去，然后一年年，最后是一个一个世纪。
然后，我就突然醒来了。我往四下一望。
我这是在哪里啊？
我发现自己好像在一个博物馆模样的房子里，坐在一张宽宽的长沙发上。
在我旁边，还坐着一个人，他脸上光滑无毛发，看不出多大年纪。身上穿的衣服好像是纸糊的，被烧成灰以后仍然还保持着原来的形状。此人正在默默地望着我，既没有显得惊奇，也没表示丝毫兴趣。
“快！”我迫不及待地问道，“我现在是在什么地方？你是谁？”
“你怎么用这样激动的怪调说话，”这人显得有些不大高兴。
“请告诉我，”我又说，“今年是不是公元3000年？”
“我一无所知，”他回答道。
“难道你们不再记载时间了吗？”我吃惊地倒抽了一口气。
“我们曾经记载过，”那人说道。“但后来就没有了。因为，”他接着说，“在我们消灭了死亡以后——”
“消灭死亡！”我叫道，兴奋得坐直了起来。
“我刚才说到——在我们消灭了死亡和食物以及——”
“等等！”我说，这时我的脑子都晕了，“请您一件一件地讲。”
他突然“哼”了一声，说道：“我明白了，您肯定是睡了很长时间了。好吧，您有问题就问吧。”
奇怪的是，我脱口而出的第一个问题居然是——
“您身上穿的衣服是什么做的？”
“石棉，”那人回答说。
“谢谢，”我回答道，“现在请告诉我，我这是在哪里？”
“您现在在一家博物馆里。那些橱窗里的人都是像您一样的展品。但是，”他说，“如果您真想了解这个对您来说显然全新的时代，您就要从这展台上走下来，出去到百老汇大街看看。”
我走下了展台。可是我们刚走到街上，我就吃惊地站在那里，动弹不得了。
百老汇！这怎么可能？这变化也太让人吃惊了！我记得以前这是一条车水马龙的通衢大道，可现在却成了沉寂无声、长满青苔、一片荒凉的地方。那些大楼都倒塌了，成为堆堆瓦砾。整个地方鸦雀无声。没有一辆在移动的车子。头顶上方的电线也都不见了——没有任何生命的迹象和会动的东西。只有三三两两来回慢慢走动、穿着和我刚认识的那个人一样的石棉衣服的一些人影，一个个脸上也都没有毛发，都显出同样一种经历过无穷岁月的样子。
我的天哪！难道这就是我朝思暮想、期盼能见到的人类征服一切以后的新时代？我一直以为，人类总是会不断向前进步。可是现在眼前这幅荒凉的图景使我简直哑口无言了。
我喘着气问了一个问题。
“请问那些电车和汽车到哪里去了？”
“哦，早就打发掉了，”他说。
“那你们怎么出行呢？”
“我们不出行，”他回答说，“我们为什么要出行？在这里和在其他地方没有什么区别。”
这时，我脑中一下涌起千百个问题。我先问了个最简单的。
“那你们怎么上下班工作呢？”
“工作！”他说，“工作已经不存在了。”
我张大了嘴朝他看了一会儿。
我努力想使自己的头脑冷静下来。我现在意识到，如果我要想弄清楚这个做梦都没有想到过的新的未来，我就要系统地来了解。
“我懂了，”我停了停，说，“自从我那个年代到现在，已经发生了巨大的变化。我希望您能 一点一点地给我解释。首先，您说工作已经不存在了，是什么意思？ ”
“很简单，”我那新交的怪朋友回答说，“它自己就消失了。是机器把它给消灭了。假如我没有记错的话，在您那个时代就有一些机器了，是吧？”
我点了点头。
“但是你们发现那些机器对你们没什么好处。机器越好，你们干活就干得越辛苦。你们生产的东西越丰富，你们要的东西也就越多。你们都像被卡在那些机器的齿轮之间，动弹不得。”
“您说得一点也不错，”我说。
“后来，就到了‘征服自然的伟大时代’，人和机器取得了最终的胜利。”
“这么说，他们真的把自然征服了？”我马上问他，当年的希望，重新使我血脉偾张起来。
“征服了，”他说，“把它彻底打败了！之后，很多东西就一一出现了。100年之内，一切都解决了。实际上，当人类把他们的精力从扩大欲望转向减少需要，一切就立刻变得十分容易了。先是化学食品。我的天！这简直简单得不能再简单了。这一来，农业就没用了。吃饭，以及与此有关的工作、家务劳动，一切的一切，都没有了。现在，每个人只要一年左右服一粒浓缩药丸，就全妥了。”
“这以后就是石棉服了。就一年的时间，人类就做了足够多的这种衣服，永远也穿不完。当然这与妇女的造反运动和时尚的衰落紧密相关，不然，这是永远不可能的。”
“现在人们不讲时髦了，”我问道，“不讲那种愚蠢的荒谬的——？”我当时正想再讲一遍反对那种纯粹为了虚荣追求时髦的老话，但我突然看到那些正在走动的穿着石棉服的人，我就不下去了。
“都没有了，”那个穿石棉衣服的人说，“在那之后，我们把气候变化也给消灭了。我相信在你们那个时候，你们并不知道你们有多少工作是和你们所谓的气候变化有关的。它意味着需要各种各样特别的衣服和能挡风霜雨雪的房屋建筑，那真是一大堆令人头昏目眩的工作。 你们那时候日子肯定是够可怕的——不是狂风就是暴雨，空中乌云乱飞，海洋给风搅得白浪滔天，地上的一切都让冰雪盖得严严实实。”
“这么说来，”我说，“‘征服了自然’的意思是现在已经没事情要做了？”
“一点儿也不错，”他说，“无事可做了。”
“人人都有饭吃？”
“根本吃不完，”他回答说。
“房子和衣服？”
“要多少有多少。”
这下我才第一次明白工作在我们原来的生活中的意义，明白生活的质量和内涵与我们对生活的热切追求的努力多么密切相关。
过了一会儿，我的眼睛往上一看，发现一座建筑的顶上有个东西在摆动，好像是残留下来的电话线头。
“那些通信系统现在怎么样了呢？”我问道。
“哦，”那个穿石棉衣服的人说，“也全都去掉了。你看，工作停止了，商业没有了，食品不需要了，天气变化也消灭了。这样一来，就没有需要交流的东西了。那如果有人还要四处走动，就成傻瓜了。再说，这还有危险！”
“原来！”我说，“你们还仍然会有危险？”
“对，有啊，”他说。
“这意思是不是你们还是有可能死去？”我问道。
“不，”那个穿石棉衣的人说，“已经有几百年没人死了。我们把死亡给消除了。疾病和死亡其实就是细菌惹的祸。我们把细菌一个一个找了出来，统统消灭了。”
“那您的意思是，”我马上吃惊地问道，“现在你们能永远活下去？”
“不错，”他说，“当然，除非我们受伤。所以我们采取措施，把一切事故都消灭了。为此我们禁止一切电车、车辆和飞机等交通工具的使用。”
我们默默地坐着，久久没有说话。我望着四周随时可能倒塌的建筑，头上永远不变的天空， 和那阴沉空荡的街道。这么说，原来这就是人类征服自然的结果，消灭了工作，结束了饥饿和寒冷，停止了一切艰苦的奋斗，消除了一切变化和死亡——不，这就是幸福的千年盛世。可是，不知为什么，总感觉这一切有点问题。我想了想，然后连着向那个穿石棉衣服的人问了几个问题，几乎都没有停下来想想他的回答。
“现在还有战争吗？”
“几个世纪以前就消除了。”
“你们还有报纸吗？”
“报纸！我们要它干什么？报上有什么可登的呢？无非是发生的一些事情，什么战争啦，事故啦，工作啦，死亡啦。那些东西没有了，报纸也就没有了。你听我说，”那个穿石棉衣服的人接着说，“您好像还是根本没懂我们的新生活。你们那个时候，在人生的前期，人们做些什么？”
“前15年左右，”我说，“我们一般用来上学受教育。”
“不错，”他回答道，“现在请你注意我们是如何对此加以改进的。我们现在的教育是用外科手术来完成的。奇怪的是，你们那时候，竟无人意识到，教育只需要一个外科手术，把头盖骨打开植入一片事先准备好的脑子就行了。下面，接着说，那受完教育以后的时间又忙什么呢？”
“忙什么？”我说，“一个人当然得工作，然后，说实话，很多时间和感情是投入到异性身上的，就是谈恋爱，找一个能和你共同生活的女人。”
“哦，”那个穿石棉衣服的人说，“我听说过你们和女人作出的这种安排，但我从来没有明白是什么意思。”
这时，我才突然想到，街上的那些人，看起来都是一个模样。
“告诉我，”我说，“现在是不是没有女人了？她们是不是也被你们给清除掉了？”
“不，不，”那个穿石棉衣服的人回答道，“她们还在。您看见的这些人中，有些就是女的。
只是，您知道，一切都已经改变了。这一切都和她们当年的大造反运动有关，因为她们都强烈要求和男人一样。”
“原来，这就是你们的千年盛世，”我愤怒地对他说，“这个毫无趣味、没有生气的世界，生活中没有了工作和与之有关的负担，同时也就没有了所有的快乐和甜蜜。原来的奋斗，现在变成了停滞；以前的危险和死亡，现在换来了单调的所谓安全和可怕的永远不停的衰败！把你们破坏的东西还给我，”我叫喊道，“过去那充满危险和压力的生活，包括那艰苦的劳动，令人难受的变化，和随之而来的各种痛苦。我不要什么平静！”我大声叫嚷着。
“行，但是你也让走廊里其他人清静一会儿吧！”一个愤怒的声音大叫道。
这时我突然醒了。
我发现自己回到了旅馆的房间里。
Key Words:
particular [pə'tikjulə]
adj. 特殊的，特别的，特定的，挑剔的
plunge [plʌndʒ]
v. 使投入，跳入，栽进
n. 跳入，投入
witness ['witnis]
n. 目击者，证人
vt. 目击，见证，出席，
jealousy ['dʒeləsi]
n. 妒忌
upright ['ʌp'rait]
adj. 正直的，诚实的，合乎正道的
platform ['plætfɔ:m]
n. 平台，站台，月台，讲台，(政党的)政纲
haven ['heivn]
n. 港口，避难所，安息所 v. 安置 ... 于港中，
annoyed
adj. 恼怒的；烦闷的 v. 使烦恼；打扰（annoy
track [træk]
n. 小路，跑道，踪迹，轨道，乐曲
v. 跟踪
astonishment [əs'tɔniʃmənt]
n. 惊讶，令人惊讶的事
fro [frəu]
adv. 向那边，向后，离开，回来
absolutely ['æbsəlu:tli]
adv. 绝对地，完全地;独立地
except [ik'sept]
vt. 除，除外
prep. & conj.
appalling [ə'pɔ:liŋ]
adj. 令人震惊的，可怕的
动词appall
acquaintance [ə'kweintəns]
n. 熟人，相识，了解
desolation [.desə'leiʃən]
n. 荒芜，荒废，荒凉
humanity [hju:'mæniti]
n. 人类，人性，人道，慈爱，(复)人文学科
vehicle ['vi:ikl]
n. 车辆，交通工具，手段，工具，传播媒介
infinite ['infinit]
adj. 无限的，无穷的
n. 无限
ruin [ruin]
v. 毁灭，毁坏，破产
acquaintance [ə'kweintəns]
n. 熟人，相识，了解
beat [bi:t]
v. 打败，战胜，打，敲打，跳动
n. 敲打，
simplicity [sim'plisiti]
n. 单纯，简朴
assent [ə'sent]
n. 同意，赞成 vi. 赞成
conquer [.kɔŋkə]
vt. 征服，战胜，克服
vi. 得胜
machinery [mə'ʃi:nəri]
n. (总称)机器，机械
concentrated ['kɔnsentreitid]
adj. 全神贯注的，浓缩的 动词concentrate
momentous [məu'mentəs]
adj. 重要的，重大的
domestic [də'mestik]
adj. 国内的，家庭的，驯养的
n. 家仆，
certain ['sə:tn]
adj. 确定的，必然的，特定的
vanity ['væniti]
n. 虚荣心，浮华，自负，无价值的东西
decorative ['dekərətiv]
adj. 装饰的，可作装饰的
extravagant [iks'trævəgənt]
adj. 奢侈的，浪费的，过度的，大量的
humanity [hju:'mæniti]
n. 人类，人性，人道，慈爱，(复)人文学科
sheer [ʃiə]
adj. 纯粹的，全然的，陡峭的
adv. 完
revolt [ri'vəult]
n. 叛乱，反抗，反感
vi. 叛乱，起反感<
wilderness ['wildənis]
n. 荒野，荒地
texture ['tekstʃə]
n. (材料等的)结构，特点，表面，基本结构
needless ['ni:dlis]
adj. 不需要的，无用的
keen [ki:n]
adj. 锋利的，敏锐的，强烈的，精明的，热衷的 <
communicate [kə'mju:nikeit]
v. 交流，传达，沟通
commerce ['kɔmə:s]
n. 商业，贸易
communication [kə.mju:ni'keiʃn]
n. 沟通，交流，通讯，传达，通信
cessation [se'seiʃən]
n. 中止，（短暂的）停止
reflect [ri'flekt]
v. 反映，反射，归咎
skull [skʌl]
n. 头骨，骷髅头
vt. 击打头部
occupy ['ɔkjupai]
vt. 占领，占用，占据，使忙碌，使从事
unchanging
adj. 不变的
surgery ['sə:dʒəri]
n. 外科，外科手术，诊所
understand [.ʌndə'stænd]
vt. 理解，懂，听说，获悉，将 ... 理解为，认为<
crumbling
v. 破碎；崩溃（crumble的ing形式） adj.
dreary ['driəri]
adj. 沉闷的，令人沮丧的，情绪低落的
elimination [i.limi'neiʃən]
n. 除去，消除
revolt [ri'vəult]
n. 叛乱，反抗，反感
vi. 叛乱，起反感<
devoted [di'vəutid]
adj. 投入的，深爱的 v. 投入 vbl. 投入
toil [tɔil]
n. 辛苦，苦工，网，罗网，圈套 v. 苦干，跋涉，费力
monotony [mə'nɔtəni]
n. 单调，枯燥，无味
security [si'kju:riti]
n. 安全，防护措施，保证，抵押，债券，证券
dull [dʌl]
adj. 呆滞的，迟钝的，无趣的，钝的，暗的
stress [stres]
n. 紧张，压力
v. 强调，着重
stagnation [stæg'neiʃən]
n. 停滞
corridor ['kɔridɔ:]
n. 走廊
decay [di'kei]
v. (使)衰退，(使)腐败，腐烂
n. 衰退
unending [ʌn'endiŋ]
adj. 不断的，不停的，永无止境的，不尽的
参考资料：
- http://www.kekenet.com/daxue/201703/49609shtml
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