经典科幻文学
那景象阿瑟从没真正习以为常，又或者觉得腻味。他和福特沿着谷底的小河往前走，来到平原边，然后爬到一棵大树的树枝上，好把银河系里最为古怪奇妙的景象看个清楚。
The great thunderous herd of thousand upon thousand of Perfectly Normal Beasts was sweeping in magnificent array across the Anhondo Plain. In the early pale light of the morning, as the great animals charged through the fine steam of the sweat of their bodies mingled with the muddy mist churned up by their pounding hooves, their appearance seemed a little unreal and ghostly anyway, but what was heart-stopping about them was where they came from and where they went to, which appeared to be, simply, nowhere.
无数头绝对正常兽排出气势雄伟的阵型，轰隆隆地横扫过安宏朵平原。在清晨苍白的阳光下，这些大块头埋头往前冲，汗水蒸发，与蹄子激起来的泥雾混在一起。它们的模样的确显得有些诡异和不真实，但真正让你的心脏停止跳动的还是那不解之谜：它们从哪儿来，又到哪儿去——总的来说，答案仿佛就是空气。
They formed a solid, charging phalanx roughly a hundred yards wide and half a mile long. The phalanx never moved, except that it exhibited a slight gradual drift sideways and backwards for the eight or nine days that it regularly appeared for. But though the phalanx stayed more or less constant, the great beasts of which it was composed charged steadily at upwards of twenty miles an hour, appearing suddenly from thin air at one end of the plain, and disappearing equally abruptly at the other end.
它们组成了一个密集的方阵，大约一百码宽，半英里长，在它们定期出现的八九天里，方阵从来看不出多大变动，只除了朝旁边和后方稍微漂移一点点。不过，尽管队形基本上保持恒定，组成方阵的巨兽却在维持以每小时二十英里的速度往上冲，它们突然从平原一端凭空出现，然后又同样突然地消失在平原的另一头。
No one knew where they came from, no one knew where they went. They were so important to the lives of the Lamuellans, it was almost as if nobody liked to ask. Old Thrashbarg had said on one occasion that sometimes if you received an answer, the question might be taken away. Some of the villagers had privately said that this was the only properly wise thing they’d ever heard Thrashbarg say, and after a short debate on the matter, had put it down to chance.
没人知道它们从哪儿来，也没人知道它们去了哪里。它们对拉姆拉人的生活太过重要，重要到没人愿意打听。有一次老刷希巴说，有时如果你得到一个答案，问题就会被带走。一些个村民私下里说，这是老刷希巴讲过的唯一一句真正贤明的话。然后，在一场短暂的争论之后，大家又认定他不过是瞎猫碰上死耗子。
The noise of the pounding of the hooves was so intense that it was hard to hear anything else above it.
蹄子落地的声音如此之大，你几乎听不见任何别的声音。
‘What did you say?’ shouted Arthur.
‘I said,’ shouted Ford, ‘this looks like it might be some kind of evidence of dimensional drift.’
“我说，”福特也喊，“看起来好像是空间漂流的某种证据！”
‘Which is what?’ shouted Arthur back.
adj. 强烈的，剧烈的，热烈的
adv. 突然地，莽撞地，陡峭地，不连贯地
n. 数组，(陈)排列，大批，一系列
n. 差额，利润，页边空白，边缘
adj. 轻微的，微小的，纤细的，脆弱的
经典科幻文学
‘I’ve eaten, thanks,’ said Arthur. ‘No, really. I’ve eaten.’
“我吃过了，谢谢。”阿瑟急忙说，“真的不必，我吃过了。”
‘I’m sure you have,’ said the old lady. She stirred with the stick. After a few minutes she fished a lump of something out, blew on it to cool it a little, and then put it in her mouth.
“当然当然。”老妇人说。她继续拿棍子搅她的肉汤。几分钟之后她捞出了块什么东西，吹几口气让它凉下来，然后把它塞进嘴里。
She chewed on it thoughtfully for a bit.
Then she hobbled slowly across to the pile of dead goat-like things. She spat the lump out on to the pile. She hobbled slowly back to the can. She tried to unhook it from the sort of tripod-like thing that it was hanging from.
然后她跛着腿，慢吞吞地走到那堆长的好像山羊的东西跟前，把嘴里的那一团吐到上头，又跛着腿慢吞吞地走回锡锅旁边。他想把锅子从那个三脚架一样的东西上解下来。
‘Can I help you?’ said Arthur, jumping up politely. He hurried over.
“要帮忙吗？”阿瑟颇为礼貌地一跃而起，快步上前。
Together they disengaged the tin from the tripod and carried it awkwardly down the slight slope that led downwards from her cave and towards a line of scrubby and gnarled trees, which marked the edge of a steep but quite shallow gully, from which a whole new range of offensive smells was emanating.
他俩齐心协力解下了锡锅。从她的洞口往外是一个角度不大的下坡，顺着坡往下走就会看见一排矮小粗壮的树木，这排树守在一条陡峭却并不太深的水沟边缘。一阵全新的恐怖气味正从沟里往外弥漫。
‘Ready?’ said the old lady.
‘Yes…’ said Arthur, though he didn’t know for what.
“恩……”阿瑟回答道，尽管他并不明白自己这是准备好干嘛。
‘One,’ said the old lady.
‘Two,’ she said.
‘Three,’ she added.
Arthur realised just in time what she intended. Together they tossed the contents of the tin into the gully.
阿瑟在最后一瞬间及时破解了她的意图。他们一道把锅里的东西倒进了水沟。
adj. 令人不快的，侮辱的，攻击用的
n. 范围，行列，射程，山脉，一系列
n. 倾斜，斜坡，斜面，斜线，斜率
adj. 陡峭的，险峻的，（价格）过高的
n. 贝卵，蚝卵，蚝仔 n. 鞋罩 n. 小争吵，轻打声
n. (摄影机的)三脚架，三脚用具，三足鼎
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