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18 The Bounding Main
第十八章 浩瀚的海洋
Imagine trying to live in a world dominated by dihydrogen oxide, a compound that has no taste or smell and is so variable in its properties that it is generally benign but at other times swiftly lethal. Depending on its state, it can scald you or freeze you. In the presence of certain organic molecules it can form carbonic acids so nasty that they can strip the leaves from trees and eat the faces off statuary. In bulk, when agitated, it can strike with a fury that no human edifice could withstand. Even for those who have learned to live with it, it is an often murderous substance. We call it water.
请你想像一下，你能不能生活在一个由一氧化二氢主宰的世界里。那是一种无色无味的化合物，性质极为多变，一般情况下比较温和，但有时候一下子可以致命。它可以灼伤你，也可以冻坏你，这取决于它处于什么状态。要是存在某种有机分子，它可以形成碳酸。碳酸简直可恶之极，会使树叶掉个精光，会侵蚀雕像的表面。要是数量很大，而且受到剌激，它就会发起猛烈的袭击，人类的任何建筑物都不是它的对手。即使对于那些已经学会与它一起过日子的人来说，它也往往充满危险。我们把这东西称之为水。
Water is everywhere. A potato is 80 percent water, a cow 74 percent, a bacterium 75 percent. A tomato, at 95 percent, is little but water. Even humans are 65 percent water, making us more liquid than solid by a margin of almost two to one. Water is strange stuff. It is formless and transparent, and yet we long to be beside it. It has no taste and yet we love the taste of it. We will travel great distances and pay small fortunes to see it in sunshine. And even though we know it is dangerous and drowns tens of thousands of people every year, we can't wait to frolic in it.
哪里都有水。一个马铃薯80%是水，一头牛74%是水，一个细菌75%是水。一个西红柿95%是水，几乎全是水。连人也65%是水，因此我们身上的液体和固体之比差不多是2:1。水是一种古怪的东西。它没有形状，晶莹透明，然而，我们渴望待在它的身边。它没有味道，我们却爱尝尝它的味道。我们千里迢迢，花上好多的钱，就是为了去看一眼它在阳光下闪耀的情景。尽管我们知道它很危险，每年要淹死成千上万个人，我们还是迫不及待地要去水里泡一泡。
Because water is so ubiquitous we tend to overlook what an extraordinary substance it is.
由于水是无处不在的，因此我们往往不在意它是一种极不寻常的物质。
