《三体》英文简化版 第二集

2.   Battle Command Center

Wang was surprised by the chaos when he entered the large meeting room. He wasn’t sure if this was the Battle Command Center.

A general named Chang Weisi ran the meeting and greeted him.

“Professor Wang, welcome, please take a seat by Captain Shi.”

Wang Miao saw Shi Qiang sitting at the table. The smirk on Shi’s face was still annoying. Wang didn’t want to sit next to Shi, but he had no choice, because that was the only empty seat. As documents were handed out, Shi moved closer to Wang.

“Professor Wang, I understand you’re researching some kind of … new material?”

“Nanomaterial,” Wang answered.

“I’ve heard of it. That stuff is really strong, right? Do you think it could be used to commit crimes? Heh. I heard that a strand of that stuff could be used to lift up a truck. If criminals steal some and make it into a knife, can’t they slice a car in half with one stroke?”

“There’s no need to make it into a knife. That kind of material can be made into a line as thin as one-hundredth of a hair. If you hang it across a road, a passing car would be sliced into two halves like cheese—but what can’t be used for criminal purposes? You can even use a dull knife for descaling a fish. Did you ask me to the meeting just to talk about this?”

“No, no, nothing to do with that.” Shi put his mouth next to Wang’s ear. “Don’t be nice to them. They’re prejudiced against us. All they want is to get information out of us, but never tell us anything. Look at me. I’ve been here for a month, and I still don’t know anything, just like you.”

Chaos  n.  混乱/混沌理论

Chaotic  adj.  Chaotic era 乱纪元 Stable era 恒纪元

Smirk n. 坏笑/贼笑

Nanomaterial n. 纳米材料

Nanometer n. 纳米  Nano-  prefix

Length: 

km(kilometer千米)/cm(centimeter厘米)/mm(millimeter毫米)/µm(micrometer微米)/ nm(nanometer 纳米)

Weight: 

kg(kilogram千克)/g(gram克)/mg(milligram毫克)/ng(nanogram纳克)

Data: 

GB(gigabytes)/MB(megabytes)/KB(kilobytes) 

Commit Crime 犯罪，commit suicide 自杀

Criminal 罪犯，prisoner 囚犯，《prison break》越狱

Prejudice n. 偏见，歧视Pride and Prejudice傲慢与偏见

***********

“Comrades,” General Chang said, “let’s get started. We need to update the current situation for all the attending comrades.”

Wang looked at those foreign attendees sitting next to him. They seemed to be NATO or CIA officers. He was thinking that the general had forgotten to add “gentlemen.”

“They’re also comrades. Anyway, that’s how everyone calls each other here,” Shi whispered to Wang, pointing at the four foreigners with his cigarette. While he was puzzled by how Shi knew what he was thinking, Wang was surprised by his powers of observation.

Shi dropped the cigarette into a teacup then spoke loudly. “General, I have a request which I’ve made before: I want information parity.”

General Chang lifted his head. “There’s never been a military operation in which there was information parity. I have to apologize to all the scholars, but we cannot give you any more background.”

“We can’t be too picky,” a CIA officer said, in perfect Modern Standard Chinese. “We can no longer rely on the normal way of thinking.”

A British colonel nodded. “To be, or not to be…” he added in English. “It’s a matter of life and death.”

“What is he saying?” Shi asked Wang.

“Nothing,” Wang replied coldly. The people before him seemed to be speaking out of a dream. Time of war? Where is this war?

Comrade  n. 同志

Gentleman 先生们

Sir 爵士，男爵

e.g. Issac Newton was titled as knight, making him as Sir Issac Newton(full name).

e.g. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 柯南道尔  

NATO 北约，北大西洋公约组织 North Atlantic Treaty Organization

CIA/FBI/MI6

CIA：中央情报局 Central Intelligence Agency

FBI 联邦调查局 Federal Bureau of Investigation

MI6 英国秘密情报局，通称“军情六处”，Military Intelligence, Section 6

图：MI6伦敦总部大楼

information parity 信息对等