【正文】 開(kāi)羅迷宮般的大街小巷、居民區(qū)、集市所構(gòu)成 的復(fù)雜體系，宛如古代說(shuō)書人編造的迷津。自從十來(lái)年前她丈夫撒手人寰，留下兩個(gè)十多歲的孩子和她的雙親之后，她就一直開(kāi)出租車養(yǎng)家糊口。這輛破舊的小車不是她的，而是一個(gè)老板的。 it belongs to a boss from whom she in turn rents it whenever she can. She has been a driver ever since her husband died some ten years earlier and left her with two teenage kids and her parents to support. 娜格特向我解釋說(shuō)，她每周開(kāi)幾個(gè)晝夜的出租車。別擔(dān)心，”她說(shuō)。這時(shí)我才松了一口氣。而且這個(gè)女人將親自開(kāi)車送我。這輛車的風(fēng)光已過(guò)—— 如今車身上有不少擦傷，輪胎磨得光禿禿的，擋風(fēng)玻璃上還有一道裂縫。一個(gè)旅游者，特別是一個(gè)婦女，有些時(shí)候就不得不信賴某個(gè)人。她什么都沒(méi) 有問(wèn)，只是拉著我穿過(guò)人群。t worry, she says. 我感到一只有力的手抓住了我的左臂。I feel a firm hand holding my left arm. You want taxi, follow me, the woman says. She doesn39。在開(kāi)羅，出租司機(jī)人更多，更喧鬧。Do you know what it is like to arrive in a strange city in the middle of the night? Nobody, not even a ray of sunshine is here to greet you. When I walk out of the terminal, I am facing the crowd of taxi drivers milling about in front of every airport the world over. Here in Cairo, it is large and noisy. Taxi! You want taxi? I hear all round me. 你知道在深夜到達(dá)一個(gè)陌生的城市是一種什么感受嗎？沒(méi)有任何人，甚至沒(méi)有一縷陽(yáng)光來(lái)迎接 你。s airport terminal. A woman taxi driver the only woman, for that matter, among a large crowd of her male counterparts. 我第一次見(jiàn)到她是在開(kāi)羅機(jī)場(chǎng)。 開(kāi)羅的女出租車司機(jī)Her name is Nagat. 她叫娜格特。InTaxiUnit6:The”I can only trust that someone as curious as he is also owns a dictionary. And that he figures out that, no matter what his passengers may say, haste doesn39。t really know my own language. 直到那時(shí)，我一直在為這位司機(jī)學(xué)習(xí)英語(yǔ)的執(zhí)著而感動(dòng)，陶醉于能有機(jī)會(huì)與一個(gè)充滿好奇心的 人一起來(lái)滿足自己對(duì)語(yǔ)言詞語(yǔ)的好奇心，卻未能充分意識(shí)到在這輛出租車上可能犯下的語(yǔ)言欺詐錯(cuò)誤。s cab. Now I could barely allow myself to imagine what kind of deformed English he was being fed by cowards like me who couldn39。s determination to learn English, so enthralled by the chance to indulge my curiosity about words with another curious soul, that I didn39。Until that moment, I39。因此我退卻了。s tongue as naturally as leaves from an October tree. So I retreated. 這我可以回答，但不是在此時(shí)。最后我低聲說(shuō)：“欲速則不達(dá)？”But was that a proverb? Wait. Weren39?！盇 what? “一種什么？”Never mind. A proverb is a condensed saying that teaches you a lesson. “算了，別管它，諺語(yǔ)是給人們以警示的短小精悍的句子。But did it really qualify as idiomatic? I had no idea because the longer I thought about idioms the less sure I was what they were. 可這算得上名副其實(shí)的慣用語(yǔ)嗎？我不得而知?！盬atching his puzzled look, I did what a person often does when at a loss for the right words: I went on talking, as if a thousand vague words would add up to one accurate definition. 看著他迷惑不解的樣子，我不知用什么恰當(dāng)?shù)脑~才好，只好繼續(xù)解釋下去，似乎一千個(gè)模糊的詞加起來(lái)可以等于一個(gè)準(zhǔn)確的定義。t part of that group aren39。s something that39。idiom39。Idiomatic39。Uh, let39。t municate. 我自以為“獨(dú)特”一詞用得很妙，他卻一臉的迷惑?！盜 thought my use of peculiar was kind of clever. He looked confused, a reminder that clever39。那么，idiomatic呢？”I cleared my throat. Um, it39?！爸钙嫣亍⒐殴?，經(jīng)常帶點(diǎn)兒懷疑的意味，”我說(shuō)。Peculiar, he said. What does this mean? “Peculiar，這個(gè)詞什么意思？”他問(wèn)。于是我故意轉(zhuǎn)移話題。s another to explain it. I resorted to shifting the topic. 我沮喪地看著紙條上的字，就好像在晚會(huì)上你盯著幾個(gè)以前曾經(jīng)見(jiàn)過(guò)的面孔，卻怎么也想不起他們的名字。ve seen somewhere before but whose names have escaped your mind. Proverb? Peculiar? Idiomatic? How on earth should I know? It39。I stared at the paper, wondering. Was this a joke? A threat? Handprinted on the paper in tiny block letters was this: proverb、peculiar、idiomatic 　我盯著紙條，疑心頓起：難道他在開(kāi)玩笑？抑或是威脅？紙條上是手寫的工工整整幾個(gè)小字：proverb，peculiar，idiomatic?！倍覅s高聲地說(shuō)：“當(dāng)然可以。 無(wú)言以對(duì)Several weeks ago I was riding in a cab when the driver39。A:Tonguetied Unit5 If their instincts are wrong, the backlash against cloning and indeed science as a whole could be catastrophic. 如果他們的直覺(jué)出錯(cuò)，對(duì)克隆技術(shù)乃至對(duì)整個(gè)科學(xué)事業(yè)的沖擊將是災(zāi)難性的。But the world will never embrace the first cloned baby if it is unhealthy or deformed or the sole survivor of hundreds of pregnancies. In jumping the gun, Dr Miracle and his colleagues are taking one hell of a risk. 但是，如果第一個(gè)克隆嬰兒不健康、畸形，或者只是千百個(gè)克隆胎兒中的唯一幸存者，世界絕不會(huì)接受他。他相信人們定會(huì)擺脫由克隆生育帶來(lái)的情感沖突，將其作為另一種試管受精技術(shù)，這只是時(shí)間上的問(wèn)題。遲早我們將要做出抉擇：對(duì)克隆研究進(jìn)行規(guī)范是否比強(qiáng)行禁止更為有利。因?yàn)槊孛苎芯繒?huì)引起問(wèn)題，安蒂諾里和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)拒絕透露他們將把哪個(gè)國(guó)家作為研究基地。ll be using as their base. Like it or not, the research is going ahead. Sooner or later we are going to have to decide whether regulation is safer than prohibition. 那么，制定更加嚴(yán)厲的法律又將如何呢？雖然目前在很多國(guó)家移植克隆的人類胚胎是非法的，但是絕不是所有的地方都會(huì)禁止。s not just Antinori and his team who are eager to go. A religious group called the Raelians believes cloning is the key to achieving immortality, and it, too, claims to have the necessary egg donors and volunteers willing to be implanted with cloned embryos. 這不僅僅是安蒂諾里和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)熱衷于這項(xiàng)研究，還有一個(gè)叫做雷利安的宗教組織相信克隆是實(shí)現(xiàn)永生的關(guān)鍵，并聲稱已經(jīng)擁有了必要的卵子捐贈(zèng)者和自愿接受移植胚胎的人。然而，在現(xiàn)階段要想阻止生育克隆，似乎任何人對(duì)此都幾乎無(wú)能為力。將會(huì)浪費(fèi)大量的卵子和胚胎，很多婦女將經(jīng)歷懷孕的艱難過(guò)程，而結(jié)果卻是流產(chǎn)或墮胎。This is not to say that Antinori will fail, only that if he succeeds it is likely to be at an unacceptably high price. Hundreds of eggs and embryos will be wasted and lots of women will go through difficult pregnancies resulting in miscarriages or abortions. A few years from now techniques will have improved and the wasteful loss won39。所以我們先別去爭(zhēng)論復(fù)雜的倫理道德。The failure rate is a shocking 97 per cent and deformed babies all too mon. Even when cloning works, nobody understands why. So forget the plex moral arguments. To begin cloning people now, before even the most basic questions have been answered, is simply a waste of time and energy.克隆的失敗率令人震驚，高達(dá)97%，畸形嬰兒屢見(jiàn)不鮮。s the real problem. Five years on from Dolly, the science of cloning is still stuck in the dark ages. 但前提條件是要等到科學(xué)發(fā)展成熟之后，而這才是問(wèn)題的實(shí)質(zhì)。將來(lái)我們也許會(huì)改變觀點(diǎn)并允許在特殊的情況下使用克隆技術(shù)。很多人還難以理解利用克隆進(jìn)行生育的意義，但對(duì)某些夫婦而言，他們想要一個(gè)攜帶自己基 因的孩子，克隆技術(shù)是他們唯一的希望。為此他便理所當(dāng)然地被視為危險(xiǎn)人物。很顯然，他不是一位普通的科學(xué)家，而是一個(gè)愛(ài)出風(fēng)頭的人。s seen as being so dangerous. 七年前，安蒂諾里由于使用捐贈(zèng)的卵子幫助高齡婦女成功生育，頓時(shí)名聲大噪。上周在羅馬舉行的一次新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上，他們宣布已有上百對(duì)夫婦自愿成為實(shí)驗(yàn)對(duì)象。盡管在此之前安蒂諾里已多次提到過(guò)他的 遠(yuǎn)大志向，但這次不同的是他好像是要?jiǎng)诱娓竦牧?。s an ambition Antinori has expressed many times before. What39。And of course it39。In his clinics, Antinori already offers every IVF treatment under the sun, but still there are couples he cannot help. So now the man Italians call Dr Miracle is offering to clone his pat