英语阅读科幻ASoundofThunder.docx

1、英语阅读科幻ASoundofThunder英语阅读-科幻A-Sound-of-ThunderLTThe Machine howled. Time flew past. Suns fled and ten million moons fled after them. Think, said Eckels. Every hunter that ever lived would envy us today. The Machine slowed; its scream fell to a murmur. The Machine stopped. The sun stopped in the sky.

2、The fog that had enveloped the Machine blew away and they were in an old time, a very old time indeed, three hunters and two Safari Heads with their blue metal guns across their knees.Christ isnt born yet, said Travis, Moses has not gone to the mountains to talk with God. The Pyramids are still in t

3、he earth, waiting to be cut out and put up. Remember that. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler-none of them exists. The man nodded.That - Mr. Travis pointed - is the jungle of sixty million two thousand and fifty-five years before President Keith.He indicated a metal path that struck off into green

4、wilderness, over streaming swamp, among giant ferns and palms.And that, he said, is the Path, laid by Time Safari Company for your use. It floats six inches above the earth. Doesnt touch so much as one grass blade, flower, or tree. Its an anti-gravity metal. Its purpose is to keep you from touching

5、this world of the past in any way. Stay on the Path. Dont go off it. I repeat. Dont go off. For any reason! If you fall off, theres a penalty. And dont shoot any animal we dont okay.Why? asked Eckels.They sat in the ancient wilderness. Far birds cries blew on a wind, and the smell of tar and an old

6、salt sea, moist grasses, and flowers the color of blood.We dont want to change the Future. Not knowing it, we might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing species.That doesnt make sense, said Eckels.All right, Travis continued,

7、say we accidentally kill one mouse here. That means all the future families of this one particular mouse are destroyed, right?RightAnd all the families of the families of the families of that one mouse! With a stamp of your foot, you annihilate first one, then a dozen, then a thousand, a million, a

8、billion possible mice!So theyre dead, said Eckels. So what?So what? Travis snorted quietly. Well, what about the foxes thatll need those mice to survive? For want of ten mice, a fox dies. For want of ten foxes a lion starves. For want of a lion, all manner of insects, vultures, infinite billions of

9、life forms are thrown into chaos and destruction. Eventually it all boils down to this: fifty-nine million years later, a caveman, one of a dozen on the entire world, goes hunting wild boar or tiger for food. But you, friend, have stepped on all the tigers in that region by stepping on one single mo

10、use. So the caveman starves. And the caveman, please note, is not just any man, no! He is an entire future nation. From him would have sprung ten sons. From them, one hundred sons, and thus an civilization. Destroy this one man, and you destroy a race, a people, an entire history of life. It is comp

11、arable to slaying some of Adams grandchildren. With the death of that one caveman, a billion others yet unborn are throttled in the womb. Perhaps Rome never rises. Perhaps Europe is forever a dark forest, and only Asia waxes healthy and teeming. Step on a mouse and you crush the Pyramids. Step on a

12、mouse and you leave your print, like a Grand Canyon, across Eternity. Queen Elizabeth might never be born, Washington might not cross the Delaware, there might never be a United States at all. So be careful. Stay on the Path. Never step off!I see, said Eckels. Then I cant even touch the grass?Correc

13、t. Crushing certain plants could add up infinitely. A little error here would multiply in sixty million years. Of course maybe our theory is wrong. Maybe Time cant be changed by us. Or maybe it can be changed only in little subtle ways. A dead mouse here makes an insect imbalance there, a population

14、 disproportion later, a bad harvest further on, a depression, mass starvation, and finally, a change in social temperament in far-flung countries. Something much more subtle, like that. Who knows? Who really can say he knows? We dont know. Were guessing. But until we do know for certain whether our

15、messing around in Time can make a big roar or a little rustle in history, were being careful. This Machine, this Path, your clothing and bodies, were sterilized before the journey. We wear these oxygen helmets so we cant introduce our bacteria into an ancient atmosphere.How do we know which animals

16、to shoot?Theyre marked with red paint, said Travis. Today, before our journey, we sent Lesperance here back with the Machine. He came to this particular era and followed certain animals.Studying them?Right, said Lesperance. I track them through their entire existence. When I find one thats going to

17、die, when a tree falls on him, or one that drowns in a tar pit, I note the exact hour, minute, and second. I shoot a paint bomb at him. It leaves a red patch on his side. We cant miss it. Then I correlate our arrival in the Past so that we meet the Monster not more than two minutes before he would h

18、ave died anyway. This way, we kill only animals with no future, that are never going to mate again. You see how careful we are?But if you come back this morning in Time, said Eckels eagerly, you mustve bumped into us, our Safari! How did it turn out? Was it successful? Did all of us get through-aliv

19、e?Travis and Lesperance gave each other a look.Time doesnt permit that sort of thing. When such things happen, Time steps aside. You felt the Machine jump just before we stopped? That was us passing ourselves on the way back to the Future. We saw nothing. Theres no way of telling if this expedition

20、was a success, if we got our monster, or whether all of us - meaning you, Mr. Eckels - got out alive.Eckels smiled palely.Cut that, said Travis sharply. Everyone on his feet!They were ready to leave the Machine.The jungle was massive, and it was the entire world forever and forever. Sounds like musi

21、c and sounds like flapping tents filled the sky, and those were the sounds of pterodactyls soaring above them with cavernous gray wings, gigantic bats of delirium and night fever.Eckels, balanced on the narrow Path, aimed his rifle playfully.Stop that! said Travis. Dont even aim for fun, blast you!

22、If your guns should go off - - Eckels flushed. Wheres our Tyrannosaurus?Lesperance checked his wristwatch. Up ahead, Well intersect his trail in sixty seconds. Look for the red paint! Dont shoot till we give the word. Stay on the Path. Stay on the Path!They moved forward in the wind of morning.Stran

23、ge, murmured Eckels. Up ahead, sixty million years, Election Day over. Keith made President. Everyone celebrating. And here we are, a million years lost, and they dont exist. The things we worried about for months, a lifetime, not even born or thought of yet.Safety catches off, everyone! ordered Tra

24、vis. You, first shot, Eckels. Second, Billings, Third, Kramer.Ive hunted tiger, wild boar, buffalo, elephant, but now, this is it, said Eckels. Im shaking like a kid.Ah, said Travis.Everyone stopped.Travis raised his hand. Ahead, he whispered. In the mist. There he is. Theres His Royal Majesty now.T

25、he jungle was wide and full of twitterings, rustlings, murmurs, and sighs.Suddenly it all ceased, as if someone had shut a door.Silence.A sound of thunder.Out of the mist, one hundred yards away, came Tyrannosaurus Rex.It, whispered Eckels. It.Sh!It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It

26、towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail of a terrible warrior. Each

27、 thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone. Its mouth gaped,

28、 exposing a fence of teeth-like daggers. Its eyes rolled, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight.It ran with

29、 a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit area warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air.Why, why, Eckels twitched his mouth. It could reach up and grab the moon.Sh! Travis jerked angrily. He hasnt seen us yet.It cant be killed, Eckels

30、 pronounced this verdict quietly, as if there could be no argument. He had weighed the evidence and this was his considered opinion. The rifle in his hands seemed a cap gun. We were fools to come. This is impossible.Shut up! hissed Travis.Nightmare.Turn around, commanded Travis. Walk quietly to the

31、Machine. Well return to you half your fee.I didnt realize it would be this big, said Eckels. I miscalculated, thats all. And now I want out.It sees us!Theres the red paint on its chest!The Tyrant Lizard raised itself. Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted with s

32、lime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and undulate, even while the monster itself did not move. It exhaled. The stink of raw flesh blew down the wilderness.Get me out of here, said Eckels. It was never like this before. I was always sure Id come through alive. I had good guides, good safaris, and safety. This time, I figured wrong. Ive met my