2017考研英語拓展閱讀：比爾·蓋茨推薦的書

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Here in Seattle, summer is a gift you earn by gutting out nine months of rain and gloom. The skies are clear, there’s hardly any humidity, and the nights are cool. Best of all, you sometimes get the chance to sit outside reading a great book.

在西雅圖，夏季是自然饋贈的禮物。擺脫了9個月的陰雨連綿，天空一片晴朗，空氣干燥而清爽，而夜間則很涼快。最棒的是，你常常可以坐在戶外去讀一本好書。

This summer, my recommended reading list has a good dose of books with science and math at their core. But there’s no science or math to my selection process. The following five books are simply ones that I loved, made me think in new ways, and kept me up reading long past when I should have gone to sleep.

今年夏季，我的推薦書單中有很多是以科學和數學為核心。不過，在選擇過程中，我并沒有用到任何科學或數學。推薦以下5本書只是因為我喜歡這些書，這些書給我帶來了新的思維方式，讓我在夜間捧卷時欲罷不能。

As a result, this is an eclectic list—from an 800-page science fiction novel by a local legend to a 200-page nonfiction book on how Japan can get its economic mojo back. I hope you find at least one book here that inspires you to go off the beaten path when you get some time to yourself this summer.

因此，這是個主題很寬泛的書單，其中既有來自西雅圖知名作家的800頁科幻小說，也有200頁的非小說類圖書——介紹日本經濟如何奇跡般復蘇。我希望，這個夏天你有時間讀書的時候，這里至少有一本書能帶給你新的靈感。

①Seveneves---by Neil Stephenson

《七大家族》——尼爾·斯蒂芬森著

I hadn’t read any science fiction for a decade when a friend recommended this novel. I’m glad she did.

一位朋友向我推薦這本書的時候，我已有10年沒有讀過任何科幻小說。我很慶幸自己沒有錯過這本書。

The plot gets going in the first sentence, when the moon blows up. People figure out that in two years a cataclysmic meteor shower will wipe out all life on Earth, so the world unites on a plan to keep humanity going by launching as many spacecraft as possible into orbit.

小說從第一句開始，就直奔故事情節，月球爆炸了。人們發現，一場災難性的流星雨將在兩年后橫掃地球，摧毀一切生命。因此，全世界一起制定計劃，將盡可能多的飛船發射至太空，確保人類的延續。

You might lose patience with all the information you’ll get about space flight—Stephenson, who lives in Seattle, has clearly done his research—but I loved the technical details. Seveneves inspired me to rekindle my sci-fi habit.

關于航天飛行的細節信息，你可能會感到無趣。但生活在西雅圖的史蒂芬森明顯進行了研究，而我很喜歡其中的技術細節。Seveneves重新喚起了我對科幻小說的興趣。

②How Not to be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking---by Jordan Ellenberg

《魔鬼數學：數學思維的力量》——喬丹·艾倫伯格著

Ellenberg, a mathematician and writer, explains how math plays into our daily lives without our even knowing it.

愛倫伯格是一名數學家和作家。他在本書中解釋了，數學如何在我們不知情的情況下影響日常生活。

Each chapter starts with a subject that seems fairly straightforward—electoral politics, say, or the Massachusetts lottery—and then uses it as a jumping-off point to talk about the math involved. In some places the math gets quite complicated, but he always wraps things up by making sure you’re still with him.

這本書的每一章都有非常直觀的主題，例如選舉策略，或是馬薩諸塞州大樂透等，然后作者以此為出發點解釋了其中的數學道理。在某些地方，數學原理變得很復雜，不過他的講解方式能確保你跟上他的思路。

The book’s larger point is that, as Ellenberg writes, “to do mathematics is to be, at once, touched by fire and bound by reason”—and that there are ways in which we’re all doing math, all the time.

正如愛倫伯格在書中寫道，本書更主要是告訴大家，“數學就是讓你被激情點燃的同時，又被理性包圍”，而通過各種方式，我們實際上每時每刻都在接觸數學。

③The Vital Question---by Nick Lane

《至關重要的問題》——尼克·萊恩著

Nick is one of those original thinkers who makes you say: More people should know about this guy’s work.

作為一名原創思想家，萊恩給人的感覺就是：應當讓更多人知道這家伙的著作。

He is trying to right a scientific wrong by getting people to fully appreciate the role that energy plays in all living things. He argues that we can only understand how life began, and how living things got so complex, by understanding how energy works. It’s not just theoretical; mitochondria (the power plants in our cells) could play a role in fighting cancer and malnutrition.

他試圖讓人們充分理解能量在所有生物中扮演的重要作用，以此來糾正科學上的誤解。他認為，只有理解了能量的作用，我們才能理解生命的起源，以及生物為何如此復雜。這不僅僅只是理論，正如線粒體(人體細胞中的能量源)在對抗癌癥和營養不良方面發揮著重要作用。

Even if the details of Nick’s work turn out to be wrong, I suspect his focus on energy will be seen as an important contribution to our understanding of where we come from.

即使萊恩作品的細節最終是錯誤的，我也認為，他對能量的關注將對了解我們來自何處做出重要貢獻。

④The Power to Compete---by Ryoichi Mikitani and Hiroshi Mikitani

《競爭的力量》——良一谷浩史和三木谷浩史合著

I have a soft spot for Japan that dates back three decades or so, when I first traveled there for Microsoft.

30年前左右，我由于微軟的工作而首次前往日本時，當時的日本令我感觸良多。

Today, of course, Japan is intensely interesting to anyone who follows global economics. Why were its companies—the juggernauts of the 1980s—eclipsed by competitors in South Korea and China? And can they come back? Those questions are at the heart of this series of dialogues between Ryoichi, an economist who died in 2013, and his son Hiroshi, founder of the Internet company Rakuten.

今天，對任何關注全球經濟的人來說，日本都非常有趣。為何日本企業，那些80年代的巨頭們，在與韓國和中國的競爭中逐漸落敗?它們能否重振雄風?這些問題就是書中三木谷良一和他的兒子三木谷浩史一系列對話的核心。三木谷良一是一名經濟學家，于2013年去世，而三木谷浩史則是互聯網公司樂天的創始人。

Although I don’t agree with everything in Hiroshi’s program, I think he has a number of good ideas. The Power to Compete is a smart look at the future of a fascinating country.

盡管我并不完全贊同三木谷浩史，但我認為他提出了許多好的想法。通過《競爭的力量》這個巧妙的窗口，你可以一窺日本這個奇妙國度的未來。

⑤Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind---by Noah Yuval Harari

《智人：人類簡史》——諾亞·尤瓦爾·哈拉瑞著

Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table.

梅琳達和我都讀了這本書，它也引發了我們在餐桌上的許多很好的交流。

Harari takes on a daunting challenge: to tell the entire history of the human race in just 400 pages. He also writes about our species today and how artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and other technologies will change us in the future.

哈拉里完成的是一項很有難度的挑戰：用短短400頁講完人類的整個歷史。他也講到了人類的現狀，以及人工智能、基因工程和其他將給我們的未來帶來改變的技術。

Although I found things to disagree with—especially Harari’s claim that humans were better off before we started farming—I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species.

盡管有些東西我并不贊同——尤其是哈拉里認為人類在開始農耕之前情況更好，但我仍要向所有對人類歷史和未來感興趣的人推薦《人類簡史》一書。