A Short History of Nearly Everything
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這是一部有關(guān)現(xiàn)代科學(xué)發(fā)展史的既通俗易懂又引人入勝的書(shū)，作者用清晰明了、幽默風(fēng)趣的筆法，將宇宙大爆炸到人類(lèi)文明發(fā)展進(jìn)程中所發(fā)生的繁多妙趣橫生的故事一一收入筆下。驚奇和感嘆組成了本書(shū)，歷歷在目的天下萬(wàn)物組成了本書(shū)，益于人們了解大千世界的無(wú)窮奧妙，掌握萬(wàn)事萬(wàn)物的發(fā)展脈絡(luò)。
收獲英語(yǔ) 收獲一本好書(shū)~！

書(shū)本的朗讀語(yǔ)音很charming的磁性英音~(yú)~~大家可以好好學(xué)著模仿哦~~~！！

因?yàn)樵鵀槊绹?guó)人所寫(xiě),單詞采用美式拼法,不抄全文,不寫(xiě)各句標(biāo)號(hào)。

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Hints:
protoplasmal primordial atomic globule
Gilbert and Sullivan

So thank goodness for atoms. But the fact that you have atoms and that they assemble in such a willing manner is only part of what got you here.[---1---] Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business. Of the billions and billions of species of living thing that have existed since the dawn of time, most-99.99%-are no longer around. Life on Earth, you see, is not only brief but dismayingly tenuous. [---2---]

[---3---] You must be prepared to change everything about yourself-shape, size, color, species affiliation, everything-and to do so repeatedly. That's much easier said than done, because the process of change is random. [---4---] So at various periods over the last 3.8 billion years you have abhorred oxygen and then doted on it, grown fins and limbs and jaunty sails, laid eggs, flicked the air with a forked tongue, been sleek, been furry, lived underground, lived in trees, been as big as a deer and as small as a mouse, and a million things more. The tiniest deviation from any of these evolutionary shifts, and you might now be licking algae from cave walls or lolling walrus-like on some stony shore or disgorging air through a blowhole in the top of your head before diving 60 feet for a mouthful of delicious sandworms.

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To be here now, alive in the 21st century and smart enough to know it, you also had to be the beneficiary of an extraordinary string of biological good fortune. It is a curious feature of our existence that we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it. The average species on Earth lasts for only about 4 million years, so if you wish to be around for billions of years, you must be as fickle as the atoms that made you. To get from "protoplasmal primordial atomic globule", as the Gilbert and Sullivan song put it, to sentient upright modern human has required you to mutate new traits over and over in a precisely timely manner for an exceedingly long while.
所以，謝天謝地，有了原子。不過(guò)，有了原子，它們心甘情愿地聚集在一起，這只是你來(lái)到這個(gè)世界的部分條件。你現(xiàn)在在這個(gè)地方，生活在21世紀(jì)，聰明地知道有這回事，你還必須是生物方面一連串極不尋常的好運(yùn)氣的受益者。在地球上幸存下來(lái)，這是一件非常微妙的事。自開(kāi)天辟地以來(lái)，存在過(guò)上百上千億物種，其中大多數(shù)--據(jù)認(rèn)為是99.9％--已經(jīng)不復(fù)存在。你看，地球上的生命不僅是短暫的，而且是令人沮喪的脆弱的。我們產(chǎn)生于一顆行星，這顆行星善于創(chuàng)造生命，但又更善于毀滅生命，這是我們的存在的一個(gè)很有意思的特點(diǎn)。 　　地球上的普通物種只能延續(xù)大約400萬(wàn)年，因此，若要在這里待上幾十億年，你不得不像制造你的原子那樣變個(gè)不停。你要準(zhǔn)備自己身上的一切都發(fā)生變化--形狀、大小、顏色、物種屬性等等--反復(fù)地發(fā)生變化。這說(shuō)起來(lái)容易做起來(lái)難，因?yàn)樽兓倪^(guò)程是無(wú)定規(guī)的。從"細(xì)胞質(zhì)的原始原子顆粒"（用吉爾伯特和沙利文的話來(lái)說(shuō)），到有知覺(jué)、能直立的現(xiàn)代人，要求你在特別長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間里，以特別精確的方式，不斷產(chǎn)生新的特點(diǎn)。因此，在過(guò)去38億年的不同時(shí)期里，你先是討厭氧氣，后又酷愛(ài)氧氣，長(zhǎng)過(guò)鰭、肢和漂亮的翅膀，生過(guò)蛋，用叉子般的舌頭舔過(guò)空氣，曾經(jīng)長(zhǎng)得油光光、毛茸茸，住過(guò)地下，住過(guò)樹(shù)上，曾經(jīng)大得像麋鹿，小得像老鼠，以及超過(guò)100萬(wàn)種別的東西。這些都是必不可少的演變步驟，只要發(fā)生哪怕最細(xì)微的一點(diǎn)偏差，你現(xiàn)在也許就會(huì)在舔食長(zhǎng)在洞壁上的藻類(lèi)，或者像海象那樣懶洋洋地躺在哪個(gè)卵石海灘上，或者用你頭頂?shù)谋强淄鲁隹諝?，然后鉆到18米的深處去吃一口美味的蚯蚓。