Chapter 2 Positive and Negative (8) 第2章 正与反 (8)
原文赏析：
My article was hotly debated, causing a fine old uproar.
It rallied a number of supporters. Moreover, the solution it proposed allowed for free play of the imagination.
The human mind enjoys impressive visions of unearthly creatures.
Now then, the sea is precisely their best medium, the only setting suitable for the breeding and growing of such giants--next to which such land animals as elephants or rhinoceroses are mere dwarves.
The liquid masses support the largest known species of mammals and perhaps conceal mollusks of incomparable size or crustaceans too frightful to contemplate, such as 100-meter lobsters or crabs weighing 200 metric tons!
Why not? Formerly, in prehistoric days, land animals were built on a gigantic scale.
Our Creator cast them using a colossal mold that time has gradually made smaller.
With its untold depths, couldn't the sea keep alive such huge specimens of life from another age, this sea that never changes while the land masses undergo almost continuous alteration?
Couldn't the heart of the ocean hide the last-remaining varieties of these titanic species, for whom years are centuries and centuries millennia?
中文译文：
我的文章引起了热烈的讨论，产生了很大的反响。
很有一部分人拥护它。而且章中提出的结论可以让人随便去设想，没有什么限制。
人们总是对那些神奇怪诞的幻想感到兴趣。
而海洋正是这些幻想的最好泉源，因为只有海才是巨大动物可以繁殖和成长的环境，陆上的动物，大象或犀牛之类。跟它们比较起来，简直渺小得很。
一片汪洋大海里：既然有我们所知道的最巨大的哺乳类动物，说不定也有硕大无比的软体动物和看起来叫人害怕的甲壳动物，如一百米长的大虾，或二百吨重的螃蟹！
为什么不能有呢？从前，跟地质学纪年同时代的陆上动物，四足兽，四手兽，爬虫类，鸟类，都是按照巨大的模型创造的。
造物者甩高大的模型把它们造出来，经过漫长的岁月，这模型渐渐缩小了。
在深不可测的海洋底下，为什么不能保存从前另一时代的巨大生物的品种呢？
海洋内部，为什么不能藏有那些巨大生物的最后变种，以一世纪为一年，以一千年为一世纪的那些巨大品种呢？
重点词汇：
1、 contemplate ['kɔntəm,pleit]
vt. 沉思；注视；思忖；预期
vi. 冥思苦想；深思熟虑
例： It is therefore our duty as curriculum developers to contemplate, what biology knowledge is of most worth?
因此身为课程发展者，我们有责任思考，哪些生物知识才是最有价值的？
2、 uproar ['ʌprɔ:] n. 骚动；喧嚣
例：He simply could not understand the uproar over Watergate.
他根本无法理解水门事件引起的喧嚣。
3、 medium ['mi:diəm, -djəm]
adj. 中间的，中等的；半生熟的
n. 方法；媒体；媒介；中间物
例：One of my suitcases is small, and the other one is medium size.
我的一个手提箱是小个的，不过另外一个是中号的。
4、 conceal [kən'si:l] vt. 隐藏；隐瞒
例：He concealed the key inside his tie. 他把钥匙藏在领带里面。
5、 prehistoric [,pri:hi'stɔrik] adj. 史前的；陈旧的
例：In prehistoric time people from Africa and Asia migrated to other continents.
在史前时代，人们从亚洲和非洲迁移到其他大洲。
6、 liquid ['likwid]
adj. 液体的；清澈的；明亮的；易变的
n. 液体，流体；
例：Air whether in the gaseous or liquid state is a fluid.
空气，无论是气态的还是液态的，都是一种流体。