charles预告（进化之谜的钥匙）
charles预告（进化之谜的钥匙）小猎犬号之旅改变了查尔斯的生活，他准备从事科学家这一职业。父亲也接受了这一点，关于查尔斯成为牧师的话题也没有再提及。The Beagle voyage had changed Charles's life. He was ready to pursue a career as a scientist. His father accepted this. There was no more talk of Charles becoming a minister.骑象（Ride on an elephant）After a stop in South Africa the Beagle sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and headed for England. The ship docked on October 2 1836. Thre
Chapter 5 Secret notebooks
第五章 绝密笔记
From the Galapagos Islands the Beagle headed west to Tahiti in the south Pacific. Then it sailed to New Zealand and Australia and into the Indian Ocean. On the island of Mauritius Charles had a special treat – an elephant ride! He was surprised such a large animal walked so quietly.
从加拉帕戈斯群岛出发，小猎犬号向西驶往南太平洋的塔希提岛。然后它航行到新西兰和澳大利亚，进入印度洋。在毛里求斯岛上，查尔斯获得了一种特殊的享受——骑大象！这么大的动物走起路来竟然这么安静，他感到很惊讶。
骑象（Ride on an elephant）
After a stop in South Africa the Beagle sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and headed for England. The ship docked on October 2 1836. Three days later Charles was back home. He was glad to see his father and the rest of his family. He'd been away for five long years.
在南非停留后，小猎犬号绕过好望角驶往英国。船于1836年10月2日靠岸。三天后，查尔斯回到了家。他很高兴见到父亲和家人，他已经离家5年了。
The Beagle voyage had changed Charles's life. He was ready to pursue a career as a scientist. His father accepted this. There was no more talk of Charles becoming a minister.
小猎犬号之旅改变了查尔斯的生活，他准备从事科学家这一职业。父亲也接受了这一点，关于查尔斯成为牧师的话题也没有再提及。
Right away Charles set to work. Soon he was meeting famous scientists like geologist Charles Lyell whose book he'd read. Now the two became close friends.
查尔斯立即着手工作。不久，他就遇到了著名的科学家，就是他之前拜读过其著作的地质学家查尔斯·莱尔，两人很快就成了亲密的朋友。
地质学家查尔斯·莱尔（Charles_Lyell Scottish Geologist 图片来源：Science Photo Library）
Charles also began turning his Beagle diary into a book and spent hours sorting his collections Charles needed the help of experts to identify his finds. So he gave away many specimens to museums. The museum experts told him some of his fossils did belong to unknown animals. Then came even more astonishing news.
查尔斯还开始把他的小猎犬号旅行日记编成一本书，花了无数小时来整理他的收藏。查尔斯需要专家的帮助来辨认他的发现。所以他把许多标本送给了博物馆。博物馆的专家告诉他，他的一些化石确实属于未知的动物。接着传来了更令人震惊的消息。
John Gould was an ornithologist a scientist who studies birds. Gould examined the finches Charles took from the Galapagos Islands. He looked at their feathers the shape of their beaks the length of their bones and other things. He wanted to know where each finch came from. But that wasn't possible because the birds hadn't been labeled that way.
约翰·古尔德是一名鸟类学家。古尔德研究了查尔斯在加拉帕戈斯群岛找到的雀类。他看了看它们的羽毛、喙的形状、骨头的长度以及其他一些东西。他想知道每只雀是从哪里来的。但这是不可能的，因为鸟类并没有做这样标记。
Charles contacted Captain FitzRoy and other crew members whod also collected specimens. With their help Gould and Charles were able to identify which finches came from which islands.
查尔斯联系了菲茨罗伊船长和其他船员，他们也收集了标本。在他们的帮助下，古尔德和查尔斯能够辨别出哪些雀类来自哪个岛屿。
Then Gould told Charles something astonishing—birds on one island were not the same Species as birds from another island. They were different species! Charles was amazed. He knew that in South America there was only one finch that looked like the finches in the Galapagos Islands. Charles had assumed that the South American finch and all the Galapagos Island finches belonged to the same species. But John Gould said that was wrong.
接着，古尔德告诉查尔斯一件令人吃惊的事：一个岛的鸟和另一个岛的鸟不是同一种，它们是不同的物种！查尔斯感到吃惊。他知道在南美洲只有一种雀类长得像加拉帕戈斯群岛的雀类。查尔斯曾认为这种南美雀科鸟和加拉帕戈斯群岛的所有雀科鸟属于同一物种。但约翰·古尔德认为这是错误的。
加拉帕戈斯群岛雀（图片来源：bionews-tx.com）
So Charles came up with some ideas about what might have happened.
所以查尔斯想到了一些可能发生的事情。
Charles thought that perhaps some finches of the South American had gone to the Galapagos Islands long ago. Maybe a storm had blown them there. So at first there'd been only one species of finch on all the different islands. Then somehow from a common ancestor the finches on various islands changed over time or evolved into different species.
查尔斯认为，也许南美的一些雀类很久以前就去过加拉帕戈斯群岛了。也许是暴风雨把他们吹到那里的。所以，一开始，在所有的岛屿上只有一种雀类。然后，不知何故，不同岛屿上的雀类从一个共同的祖先演变成不同的物种。
If the finches had changed thought Charles maybe other creatures could change too. He hadn't forgotten the giant armadillo fossils that he'd found.
查尔斯想，如果雀类变了，也许其他生物也会变。他没有忘记自己发现的巨型犰狳化石。
What а Species?
什么是物种？
А species is a group of similar plants or animals. Scientists usually identify a species in two ways. First all members of the same species share similar species can mate with one another.
所谓物种，是一组相似的植物或动物。科学家通常用两种方法来识别一个物种。首先，所有拥有相似物种的成员都可以彼此交配。
For example there are many different breeds of dogs. But all dogs belong to te same species. They share traits or characteristics form their common ancestors. They can mate and have puppies. A beagle and a collie will have puppies that are half beagle half collie.
例如，有许多不同品种的狗。但是所有的狗都属于同一个物种。他们有共同的特征，形成他们共同的祖先。它们可以交配并生出小狗。小猎犬和牧羊犬会生出一半是小猎犬一半是牧羊犬的幼犬。
不同品种的狗（图片来源：curiosityguide.org）
An eagle and a sparrow are different species. Although eagles and sparrow are both birds and both can fly there are many things about them are different. They can’t mate and have babies successfully. That’s because they’re different species.
鹰和麻雀是不同的种类。虽然鹰和麻雀都是鸟，都能飞，但它们有很多不同之处，它们不能成功交配并生育后代。那是因为它们是不同的物种。
Every plant or animal species has two parts in its scientific name. The first part is the genus (a group of several similar species). The second part is the particular species. For instance big cats belong to the group Panthera. A tiger is Panthera Tigris while a lion is Panthera Leo. They are tow different species.
每一种植物或动物在其学名中都包含两个部分。第一部分是属（由几个相似的种组成的组），第二部分是特殊物种。例如，大型猫科动物属于豹属，但老虎称作孟加拉虎，狮子叫非洲狮。它们归属于两种不同的物种。
狮子与老虎（图片来源：Science ABC）
Some species like zebras and giraffes are easy to tell apart. But just like Charles Darwin even today scientists sometimes have a hard time telling one species from another.
有些物种很容易区分，比如斑马和长颈鹿。但是，就像查尔斯·达尔文一样，即使在今天，科学家有时也很难区分一个物种和另一个物种。
Charles couldn’t help wondering if the armadillo fossils were related to the smaller live armadillos he’d eaten.
查尔斯不禁想知道这些犰狳化石是否与他吃过的体型更小的活犰狳有关系。
With his own eyes Charles had seen that changes on Earth could take place through natural forces like volcanoes. Wasn’t it possible then that plants and animals could also change through natural force? But what was that force and how did it work?
查尔斯亲眼看到，地球上的变化可以通过火山等自然力量发生。那么，植物和动物是不是也可以通过自然力量来改变呢？但是这个力是什么，它是如何起作用的?
Charles didn’t yet know. But he made up his mind to find out. And so began one of the most exciting times in Charles Darwin’s life. He was on fire with questions. He poured his ideas into notebooks which he carried everywhere. He wrote at the library where he read book after book. He scribbled down thoughts while bumping along London streets in a carriage.
查尔斯当时还不知道。但他下定决心要弄清楚，查尔斯·达尔文一生中最激动人心的时刻之一就这样开始了。他问了很多问题。他随身携带着笔记本，把自己的想法都写在上面。他在图书馆写作，在那里他读了一本又一本书书。他甚至在伦敦街道上颠簸的马车上，还不停地写下了自己的想法。
Charles also talked to people who worked with animals and plants. At the time no one really understood inheritance. (That is how traits are passed from one generation to another – like brown eyes for example.) But Charles guessed inheritance might be an important part of the puzzle.
查尔斯还和从事动植物工作的人聊天。当时，没有人真正了解遗传（就是特征是如何代代相传的，例如，像棕色眼睛)，但查尔斯猜测，遗传可能是谜团的重要部分。
So Charles asked his barber who raised dogs about breeding hounds with good hunting instincts. He also went to the zoo looked at the animals and chatted with zookeepers. Charles asked questions listened carefully and looked closely. Yet he never told anyone why he was so curious.
于是查尔斯向他养狗的理发师询问，如何培育具有良好狩猎本能的猎犬。他还去了动物园看动物，和动物园管理员聊天。查尔斯问了些问题，仔细地听着，仔细地观察着。然而，他从未告诉任何人他为什么如此好奇。
Charles was leading a double life. To the outside world he was rising star in the science. He was famous for his voyage on the Beagle and his collections. He was invited to join important groups of scientists.
查尔斯过着双重生活。在外界看来，他是科学界的后起之秀。他以他的小猎犬号航行和他的收藏而闻名，被邀请参加重要的科学家团体。
But secretly Charles was trying to solve a scientific puzzle. He didn't dare tell anyone what he was working on. Almost everyone Charles knew believed God had created the world in just six days. The first horses and the first birds looked exactly the same at the beginning of creation as horses and birds did in Charles's time. People weren't ready to accept that the world as they knew it had come into being very slowly and that it was still changing.
但秘密地，查尔斯试图解开一个科学之谜。他不敢告诉任何人他正在做什么。几乎所有查尔斯认识的人都相信，上帝在短短六天内创造了这个世界。最早的马和鸟，在创世之初看起来和查尔斯时代的马和鸟一模一样。人们还没有准备好接受和他们认知完全不一样的世界：一个形成得非常缓慢，而且仍在变化的世界。
By October of 1838 Charles had a theory to explain how creatures could change. A lot of his thinking came from reading a book about human populations.
到1838年10月，查尔斯有了一个理论来解释生物是如何变化的。他的很多想法都来自于阅读一本关于人口的书。
Charles realized that living creatures produce lots of offspring. Birds for instance have many babies. But the world isn't overrun with birds. There aren't enough resources—enough space or food—for all of them. Some birds die before they can have babies of their own. Others live longer. They are better fit to survive and have babies of their own.
查尔斯意识到生物能繁衍后代。例如，鸟类有很多婴儿。但这个世界上并没有鸟类泛滥。没有足够的资源、足够的空间或食物供所有鸟类食用。有些鸟在它们能有自己的孩子之前就死了，别的会活得更久，（因为）它们更适合生存并拥有自己的下一代。
Charles knew there are many small differences or variations in individual members of a species. Take the finches in the Galapagos Islands. At one time long ago there probably had been only one species on all the islands. Even so not all those finches looked exactly alike. For example some finches might have been born with slightly thicker beaks than others. On an island with lots of hard seeds to eat it was probably easier for the finches with thicker beaks to eat seeds. Finches with longer narrower beaks would have had a harder time picking them up. So on this island the long-beaked birds might not have lived as long.
查尔斯知道，在一个物种的个体成员中有许多微小的差异或变异。以加拉帕戈斯群岛的雀类为例，很久以前，在所有的岛屿上可能只有一种物种，不过并不是所有的雀类都长得一模一样。例如，一些雀类可能生来就比其他雀类的喙稍厚。在一个有很多坚硬的种子可以吃的岛上，对于喙较厚的雀类来说，可能更容易吃到种子，而喙较长较窄的雀会更难吃到这些种子。所以在这个岛上，长喙鸟可能活不了那么久。
Charles understood that a finch can't change the shape of its beak during its lifetime. But he figured finches with short thick beaks that can eat more food have a good chance of surviving long enough to have babies or offspring of their own. Their offspring will be part of the next generation of finches.
查尔斯明白，一只雀一生中不能改变它喙的形状。但他认为，喙短而厚，能吃更多食物的雀类有很好的机会活得足够长，从而能有自己的后代，它们的后代将成为下一代雀类的一部分。
If babies in the next generation inherit thick beaks they too will be better fit to survive and have offspring of their own. In other words if the fit members are having the most babies then each generation is more fit. The helpful trait (the thick beak) gets passed down while unfit traits (for example the long narrow beak) don't get passed down as much. So each generation is more fit to survive. In this way over many generations the populations of finches on the island with hard seeds are adapting to their environment. Over time the population may change so much that it may eventually become a separate species. In the Galapagos Islands over time the finch population on an island with hard seeds to eat came to have thick powerful beaks.
如果雀的下一代继承了厚喙，它们也将更适合存活下去，并有自己的后代。换句话说，如果适应（环境）的成员生的孩子最多，那么每一代都更适应。有利的特征（例如厚喙）被传承下来，而不利的特征（例如，长而窄的喙）就没有那么多被传承下来。所以，每一代都更适合生存。通过这种方式，经过许多代，岛上的雀类正在适应它们的环境。随着时间的推移，种群可能会发生很大的变化，最终可能成为一个独立的物种。在加拉帕戈斯群岛，随着时间的推移，在一个有坚硬种子可吃的岛屿上的雀类种群长出了厚实有力的喙。
加拉帕戈斯群岛雀的进化（图片来源：University of Central Arkansas）
Charles guessed that this same force could explain changes in other creatures such as the armadillos. He didn't know exactly what had happened but he suspected that fossils could help provide important clues.
查尔斯猜测，同样的力量也可以解释其他生物的变化，比如犰狳。他不知道到底发生了什么，但他怀疑化石可以提供重要的线索。
Charles understood that all creatures struggle to survive. The struggle causes populations of plants animals and even bacteria to change. Charles called this force natural selection.
查尔斯明白，所有的生物都在为生存而努力。这种努力导致植物、动物甚至细菌的数量发生变化。查尔斯称这种力量为自然选择。
Charles now had the key to part of the evolution puzzle. He had figured out something very important. But he wasn't ready to share his ideas with the world.
查尔斯现在掌握了解开部分进化之谜的钥匙。他发现了一件非常重要的事情。但他还没有准备好与全世界分享他的想法。
The London Zoo
伦敦动物园
Charles Darwin liked to visit the London Zoo where he could see a rhinoceros and orangutan and an elephant. The English had long been fascinated with exotic animals. King Henry I (1100-35) kept lions and leopards given to him by foreign kings.
查尔斯·达尔文喜欢参观伦敦动物园，在那，他可以看到犀牛、猩猩和大象。长期以来，英国人一直对奇异的动物着迷。国王亨利一世（1100年-1135年）曾养过了外国国王送给他的狮子和豹。
In the 1200s King Henry III was given three leopards a white bear and an African elephant. By 1821 the tower menagerie contained over 280 animals. People could pay a few pennies to see them. These animals became the core of the London Zoo which opened in 1828. In 1851 when the Darwins spent a week in London they took their children to the zoo. It is still a very popular spot in London.
在13世纪，国王亨利三世得到了三只豹、一只白熊和一只非洲象。到1821年，塔上的动物园里有超过280只动物。人们可以花几便士去看它们。这些动物成为了1828年开放的伦敦动物园的主要组成部分。1851年，达尔文夫妇在伦敦待了一个星期，他们就带着孩子去动物园。在伦敦，动物园仍然是一个非常受欢迎的地方。
伦敦动物园（图片来源：unilodgers.com）
***未完待续***
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