日常英語 一些板上釘釘的“事實”真相并非如此

1. 迪士尼創(chuàng)造了米老鼠？

Walt Disney did not create Mickey Mouse. His close friend and collaborator Ub Iwerks did, though he was "denied credit" for creating this major piece of pop culture history. Iwerks came up with the character in 1928.

華特·迪士尼沒有創(chuàng)造米老鼠。這一在流行文化史上舉足輕重的動畫形象是迪士尼的好友兼合伙人烏布·伊沃克斯創(chuàng)造的，但是伊沃克斯卻被剝奪了著作權。伊沃克斯于1928年創(chuàng)作出了米老鼠。

2. 愛因斯坦小學數學不及格？

Albert Einstein never flunked a math class as a child. When the adult Einstein was shown a newspaper article claiming he had, he replied, "Before I was 15, I had mastered differential and integral calculus." While Einstein achieved high grades throughout his childhood education, he "hated the strict protocols followed by teachers and rote learning demanded of students" at the schools he attended.

阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦小時候數學從未不及格。當有人讓成年的愛因斯坦看這條假新聞時，愛因斯坦答道：“我在15歲前就已經掌握微積分了?！北M管愛因斯坦小時候學習成績一直很優(yōu)異，但是他討厭那些學校里“老師遵循的條條框框和讓學生死記硬背的要求”。

3. 鯊魚不會得癌癥？

Sharks can get cancer too. The myth that they cannot is perpetuated partly by people trying to sell shark cartilage as a cancer treatment, even though it's been proven to be ineffective.

鯊魚也會得癌癥。鯊魚不會得癌癥的謠傳揮之不去，一部分原因是有人試圖將鯊魚軟骨作為抗癌藥物來售賣，盡管事實已證明，鯊魚軟骨對于治療癌癥是無效的。

4. 拿破侖是個矮子？

Despite the fact that his name has become synonymous with "angry short man," Napoleon Bonaparte was actually of average height for the time period in which he lived. His contemporaries described him as being 5'2", but the French measured height differently back in the day, so he was actually around 5'5". That made him just "an inch or so below the period’s average adult male height."

盡管拿破侖的名字已經等同于“憤怒的矮子”，但其實拿破侖·波拿巴在他所生活的那個年代身高算是中等水平。他的同輩人描述他的身高為5英尺2英寸（157厘米），但是法國人那時候測量身高的尺度和現在不同，所以拿破侖的實際身高應為5英尺5英寸（165厘米），也就“比同時期成年男性的平均身高矮了一英寸左右”。

5. 人類只利用了10%的大腦？

According to a survey from 2013, around 65 percent of Americans believe that we only use 10 percent of our brain. But this is just a myth, according to an interview with neurologist Barry Gordon in Scientific American. He explained that the majority of the brain is almost always active.

2013年的一項調查顯示，約有65%的美國人相信人類只用了10%的大腦。但這其實是誤解。神經學家巴里·戈頓在接受《科學美國人》的采訪時解釋道，人類大腦的大部分基本一直都處于活躍狀態(tài)。

6. 牛頓是被蘋果砸中了頭才發(fā)現萬有引力的？

Isaac Newton didn't discover gravity because an apple bonked him on the head. Rather, he witnessed an apple falling and wondered why objects always fall down instead of up or sideways, a thought that inspired his Law of Universal Gravitation.

艾薩克·牛頓發(fā)現地心引力并不是因為被蘋果砸中了腦袋。事實上，他是在目睹蘋果落地時忽然好奇為什么物體永遠向下落而不是向上或向兩邊，這個想法啟發(fā)他發(fā)現了萬有引力定律。

7. 右腦發(fā)達的人創(chuàng)造力更強？

People think that personalities whose right side of the brain is more developed tend to have good creative skills. And those who have their left side of the brain dominating tend to have better analytical and logical skills. However, recent research has completely destroyed this myth. Scientists analyzed the work of 1,011 brains. The participants were between 7 and 29 years old. They didn't find any signs of left or right hemisphere domination.

人們以為右腦更發(fā)達的人通常創(chuàng)造力更強，而左腦更發(fā)達的人通常分析能力和邏輯推理能力更強。然而，最近的一項研究徹底粉碎了這一誤解。科學家分析了年齡在7歲至29歲之間的1011個人的大腦運作，結果沒有任何跡象表明有人的左腦或右腦更發(fā)達。

8. 夢游的人不能叫醒？

The presumption that sleepwalkers will exhibit wildly disturbing behavior when awakened is largely unfounded. Although some people may become aggressive, researchers have found that most of the time sleepwalkers are simply confused, disoriented, scared, or embarrassed. Waking a sleepwalker should be done as gently as possible to avoid such responses.

人們認為，夢游者被叫醒后會產生非常令人不安的行為，其實這是沒有根據的。盡管有些夢游者被叫醒后會有攻擊性，但是研究人員發(fā)現，多數時候夢游者被叫醒時只會感到困惑、迷失方向、驚恐或尷尬。為了避免這樣的反應，叫醒夢游者時應該盡可能溫柔。

9. 蝙蝠是瞎子？

No, bats are not blind. Bats have small eyes with very sensitive vision, which helps them see in conditions we might consider pitch black. They don't have the sharp and colorful vision humans have, but they don't need that.

不，蝙蝠不是瞎子。蝙蝠有視覺非常敏銳的小眼睛，幫助它們在漆黑中看見東西。蝙蝠沒有人類那樣清晰而多彩的視覺，不過它們并不需要。

10. 黑洞是個洞？

Black holes. Not really "holes," but rather hugely dense objects with massive gravitational pull.

黑洞其實不是“洞”，而是能產生巨大引力的密度極高的物體。