現(xiàn)在試著想象10億年(有多長)!
At that time there were no large animals, just creatures like snails and worms.
當時還沒有巨型動物,只有蝸牛和蟲這樣的生物。
And before then there weren't even any plants.
再往前,那時連植物也沒有。
The whole earth was a "formless void". There was nothing.
整個地球一片"荒涼和空漠"。地球上什么也沒有。
Not a tree, not a bush, not a blade of grass, not a flower, nothing green.
沒有樹,沒有灌木,沒有一片草地,沒有花,沒有綠色。
Just barren desert rocks and the sea. An empty sea: no fish, no seashells, not even any seaweed.
只有荒涼的石頭和大海。大??湛盏模簺]有魚兒,沒有貝類,甚至沒有海草。
But if you listen to the waves, what do they say?
但如果你傾聽波浪聲,它們在說什么?
"Once upon a time " Once the earth was perhaps no more than a swirling cloud of gas and dust,
“從前”從前地球也許只是一團聚集起來的氣云和灰塵,
like those other, far bigger ones we can see today through our telescopes.
跟我們用望遠鏡能夠看到的別的大得多的氣云和灰塵一樣。
For billions and trillions of years, without rocks, without water and without life,
千百萬億年里沒有巖石,沒有水,沒有生命,
that swirling cloud of gas and dust made rings around the sun.
那團聚集起來的氣云和灰塵繞太陽旋轉著。