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I often think that we are like the carp swimming contentedly in that pond. We live out our lives in our own "pond," confident that our universe consists of only those things we can see or touch. Like the carp, our universe consists of only the familiar and the visible. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. If our scientists invent concepts like forces, it is only because they cannot visualize the invisible vibrations that fill the empty space around us.
我常想我们就像在池塘里心满意足地游水的鲤鱼。我们在自己的"池塘"里度过一生，确信我们的世界仅仅是由我们看得到或摸得着的那些东西组成的。与鲤鱼一样，我们认为我们的世界只有熟知的和看得见的东西。我们自我陶醉地拒不承认在我们近旁，就在我们抓不到摸不着的地方可能存在其它相似的世界或维。假若我们的科学家发明了像力这样的概念，那只是因为他们不能想像我们周围的空间充斥着看不见的振动。
A second incident from my childhood also made a deep, lasting impression on me. When I was 8years old, I heard a story that would stay with me for the rest of my life. I remember my schoolteachers telling the class about a great scientist who had just died. They talked about him with great reverence, calling him one of the greatest scientists in all history. They saidthat very few people could understand his ideas, but that his discoveries changed the entire world and everything around us. I didn't understand much of what they were trying to tell us, but what most intrigued me about this man was that he died before he could complete his greatest discovery. They said he spent years on this theory, but he died with his unfinished papers still sitting on his desk.
我儿时发生的第二件事也给我留下了深刻持久的印象。我八岁时听到了一个终生难忘的故事。我记得老师们向班上的同学讲了一位刚去世的伟大科学家的事。他们怀着极其崇敬的心情谈论他，称他为有史以来最伟大的科学家之一。他们说没有多少人能理解他的思想，但是他的种种发现改变了整个世界和我们周围的一切。对于他们试图告诉我们的这番话，我有许多地方都不太懂，但此人最让我感到好奇的是，他在完成他最重大的发现前去世了。他们说他花了多年时间研究这一理论，但未完成的论文还搁在书桌上他就去世了。
