问题描述：
英译汉 One small step back to where we started
The Apollo missions were supposed to reveal the truth about the Moon.In fact,they taught us about the Earth — and ourselves.
Mark Mason
In July 1969,soon after their return from the moon,Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were shown footage of the world’s reaction to the lunar landing.They saw the US newscaster Walter Cronkite wiping away his tears; people gathered around televisions from China to Brazil; pavements outside TV shops crammed as people watched in awe.Aldrin turned to Armstrong.“Neil,” he said,“we missed the whole thing”.
That comment (reminiscent of George Harrison’s complaint that the Beatles felt left out because “We were the only people who never got to see the Beatles”) reveals the surprising truth about the Apollo missions:they weren’t about the Moon.They were about the Earth.
The clues had been there from the start,when the crew of Apollo 8became the first humans to leave their home planet’s orbit.Orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968,fulfilling dreams as old as mankind itself,their real wonder was not at the dead grey planet beneath them,but at the vibrant blue globe in the distance.The first three men to see the Moon up close soon realised — with a much deeper sense of reverence — that they were the first three men to see the Earth from a distance.Witnessing an earthrise made them feel humble.They read the opening chapters of Genesis to a worldwide audience of millions,signing off with,“Merry Christmas and God bless all of you,all of you on the good Earth.”
Over the next four years,Apollo taught us what it means to be human:in a word,restless.Curiosity is never satisfied,it merely finds new targets.Quite how quickly the shift can occur was learnt by Pete Conrad,the third man to walk on the Moon (and the first to fall over on it).Once Armstrong and Aldrin had claimed the prize,no one was interested in Apollo 12.Conrad later appeared in an American Express advert of famous Americans nobody recognized.(Others included Mel Blanc,the voice of Bugs Bunny.) Yet in many ways Conrad’s was the most interesting Apollo mission of all.His fellow moonwalker,Al Bean,never the most naturally gifted astronaut,compensated with sheer hard work.Finally standing on the lunar surface,he threw his silver Nasa badge into the distance,knowing that the moonwalk had earned him a gold one.But as they flew back to Earth,he turned to Conrad and admitted disappointment in the Moon itself:“It’s kind of like the song Is that all there is?” Another timeless truth:achievements themselves aren’t what count,it’s the fact that you worked for them.
When Bean returned to Earth he would sit in shopping malls,simply to marvel at the variety of human life.And he has never again complained about the weather:“I’m just glad there is weather.” As so often,a journey into the unknown had revealed more about the traveller’s home than about the destination.
Virtually every Apollo astronaut came back with a deep sense of the Earth’s fragility.Ed Mitchell,Moonwalker No 6:“When we see ourselves in this bigger perspective — call it the ET point of view,the God point of view — a shift takes place in your perception and you start to think quite differently.” Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke describes Earth as “hanging in space like a jewel”.“People are always asking what we discovered when we went to the Moon,” says dick Gordon,of Apollo 12.“What we discovered was the Earth.”
The Apollo missions were supposed to reveal the truth about the Moon.In fact,they taught us about the Earth — and ourselves.
Mark Mason
In July 1969,soon after their return from the moon,Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were shown footage of the world’s reaction to the lunar landing.They saw the US newscaster Walter Cronkite wiping away his tears; people gathered around televisions from China to Brazil; pavements outside TV shops crammed as people watched in awe.Aldrin turned to Armstrong.“Neil,” he said,“we missed the whole thing”.
That comment (reminiscent of George Harrison’s complaint that the Beatles felt left out because “We were the only people who never got to see the Beatles”) reveals the surprising truth about the Apollo missions:they weren’t about the Moon.They were about the Earth.
The clues had been there from the start,when the crew of Apollo 8became the first humans to leave their home planet’s orbit.Orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968,fulfilling dreams as old as mankind itself,their real wonder was not at the dead grey planet beneath them,but at the vibrant blue globe in the distance.The first three men to see the Moon up close soon realised — with a much deeper sense of reverence — that they were the first three men to see the Earth from a distance.Witnessing an earthrise made them feel humble.They read the opening chapters of Genesis to a worldwide audience of millions,signing off with,“Merry Christmas and God bless all of you,all of you on the good Earth.”
Over the next four years,Apollo taught us what it means to be human:in a word,restless.Curiosity is never satisfied,it merely finds new targets.Quite how quickly the shift can occur was learnt by Pete Conrad,the third man to walk on the Moon (and the first to fall over on it).Once Armstrong and Aldrin had claimed the prize,no one was interested in Apollo 12.Conrad later appeared in an American Express advert of famous Americans nobody recognized.(Others included Mel Blanc,the voice of Bugs Bunny.) Yet in many ways Conrad’s was the most interesting Apollo mission of all.His fellow moonwalker,Al Bean,never the most naturally gifted astronaut,compensated with sheer hard work.Finally standing on the lunar surface,he threw his silver Nasa badge into the distance,knowing that the moonwalk had earned him a gold one.But as they flew back to Earth,he turned to Conrad and admitted disappointment in the Moon itself:“It’s kind of like the song Is that all there is?” Another timeless truth:achievements themselves aren’t what count,it’s the fact that you worked for them.
When Bean returned to Earth he would sit in shopping malls,simply to marvel at the variety of human life.And he has never again complained about the weather:“I’m just glad there is weather.” As so often,a journey into the unknown had revealed more about the traveller’s home than about the destination.
Virtually every Apollo astronaut came back with a deep sense of the Earth’s fragility.Ed Mitchell,Moonwalker No 6:“When we see ourselves in this bigger perspective — call it the ET point of view,the God point of view — a shift takes place in your perception and you start to think quite differently.” Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke describes Earth as “hanging in space like a jewel”.“People are always asking what we discovered when we went to the Moon,” says dick Gordon,of Apollo 12.“What we discovered was the Earth.”
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