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Ten Misconceptions Rundown
十大误解概要
Number ten. The Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space.
第十。中国长城是唯一能在太空中看到的人造物体。
To see something on Earth from space, it would have to be pretty big, which the Great Wall of China, all five thousand miles of it certainly is. But it's only thirty feet across at its widest. Here's a photo taken from the International Space Station, two hundred miles above Earth. Can you spot the Great Wall amid the mountain tops? Here, right? No, that's a river. The Wall is actually here. Even if you guessed the right lines by pure luck, this photo was taken with a zoom lens, so from the window of the International Space Station, it would look more like this, which pretty clearly makes the Great Wall count as "not visible." As for the man-made part of this misconception, our glorious man-made cities' blasting lights into the void certainly are visible.
要从太空看到地球上的某个东西，它一定要是非常大，这中国长城全长五千英里(八千公里)，一定是很大。但是在它最宽的地方只有三十英尺(九公尺)宽。这是一张从国际太空站，距地表两百英里(三百二十公里)高处所拍摄的照片。你可以在山巅之中找出长城吗？这里，对吗？不，那是条河流。长城其实在这。即使你因为运气好猜对了线条，这张照片是用长镜头拍摄的，所以从国际太空站窗户它看起来更像是这样，那很明显地让长城属于“不可见的”。至于人造部分的误解，我们那光荣的、人造的、城市爆出来到太空中的光线一定是可见的。
Number nine. Cracking Your Knuckles Causes Arthritis.
第九。折你的关节造成关节炎。
Socially obnoxious? Yes. Gives you arthritis later in life as karmic punishment? No.
会在社交圈里令人厌恶吗？是的。会让你在日后生活中得到关节炎作为因果报应吗？不会。
Number eight. People Only Use Ten Percent of Their Brain.
第八。人们仅使用他们百分之十的大脑。
If you haven't seen a medical drama in the past oh, thirty year, you might not be aware that doctors now have machines that can see inside people's brains. And contrary to popular belief, ninety percent of the neurons don't sit around all day doing nothing. While scientists don't yet know exactly what each part does, they do know that all the bits matter. So if you think that someone could scoop out ninety percent of your brain and you'd still be just fine, then perhaps you really only do use ten percent of it.
如果你过去三十年没看过任何一部医疗影集，你可能不会知道医生现在有机器可以看进人们的脑袋里。而且不同于大家所想像的，百分之九十的神经细胞不会整天无所事事什么都不做。尽管科学家还不完全地知道每个部位的作用，他们的确知道所有的部分都很重要。所以如果你认为某人可以挖出你百分之九十的脑袋而你还会好好的，那么也许你真的只用了百分之十的大脑。
Number seven. Eskimos Have Hundreds of Words for Snow.
第七。爱斯基摩人有数百种描述雪的字汇。
This one is technically correct but misleading. Some languages, such as German, like to make compound words by running several smaller ones together, which is why German words are sometimes absurdly long. Inuit languages use compound words as well. So rather than say "yellow snow" as you would in English, an Inuit speaker combines the two words into one, but it's not really a new word, just a quirk of grammar. So technically Eskimos do have hundreds of ways to describe snow, but then so does every language.
这严格来说是正确但是误导人的。有些语言，像是德文，喜欢借由合并几个简短字汇来创造复合字，这是为何德文有时候长到很愚蠢的原因。伊努伊特(爱斯基摩一支)语也使用复合字。所以与其想你会用英文说“黄色的雪”，一位说伊努伊特语的人把这两个字合而为一，但这不真的是个新字，只是玩弄文法。所以严格来说爱斯基摩人的确拥有数百种描述雪的方法，但另一方面来说，每个语言都有。
Number six. You Need Eight Glasses of Water a Day.
第六。你一天需要八大杯水。
While doubtless some people would benefit from drinking more water and drinking less crap, there's no scientific evidence that eight glasses of water a day is the required amount, and some evidence says that it might be too much. And while we're talking about water...
尽管无庸置疑地有些人从喝多点水、少喝点垃圾中获益，没有科学证据说一天八杯水是必须的份量，还有些证据说这可能太多了。而当我们提到水...
Number five. Tap Water is Bad but Bottled Water is Good.
第五。自来水不好但瓶装水很好。
If you live in a paradise, free from Government regulations like, say, Somalia, then you might have a good reason to prefer bottled water over tap. But modern, functioning countries have something called health regulations, which cover both kinds of water. Also, water is extremely dense, making transporting it from those pristine mountain tops and glaciers enormously expensive, which is why bottled water companies don't bother. "Bottled" water is often just local tap water with a fancy label and an enormous markup.
如果你住在世外桃源，没有政府规定，像是，比方说，索马利亚，那么你也许有个好理由选择瓶装水而不是自来水。但是近代的、运作中的国家有某种叫做健康条例的东西，那两种水都保护。同时，水密度非常高，使得从那些有名的山峰和冰河运送它变得极为昂贵，这是为什么瓶装水公司不会自找麻烦。“瓶装”水通常只是当地的自来水加上漂亮的标籤和昂贵的利润。
Number four. Gum Takes Seven Years to Pass Through Your Digestive system.
第四。口香糖要花上七年通过你的消化系统。
This is pretty easy to disprove yourself, but it's understandable why most people don't try the experiment.
要你自己去推翻这点很容易，但是可以了解为什么大部分的人不去尝试这实验。
Number three. Blood in your Veins is Blue.
第三。静脉里的血液是蓝色的。
The idea here is that the blood in veins is blue, and it only turns red when exposed to the oxygen in the air. Thinking this isn't unreasonable, after all, your veins look blue, and medical diagrams show arteries as red and veins as blue, but it's the same mistake as thinking that Mountain Dew is green because it's in a green bottle. Pour it out and you discover that Mountain Dew is really piss yellow, which is probably why it's in a green bottle to begin with. The next time you get blood withdrawn from a vein, take a look. What color is it? Red. How much oxygen is inside a good syringe? None. Unless you're a Horseshoe crab or Plavalaguna, your blood isn't blue.
这里的想法是说静脉里的血液是蓝色的，而且当它只有在接触到空气中的氧气时才会变成红色。这么想不是不合理，毕竟，你的静脉看起来是蓝色的，而且医学图表展示出动脉是红色的而静脉是蓝色的，但这跟我们认为Mountain Dew(注一)是绿色的，因为它在绿色的瓶子里面是相同的错误。把它倒出来你发现Mountain Dew实际上是尿黄色，这也许正是为何它一开始就是在绿色瓶子里的原因。下次你从静脉抽血，看一下。它是什么颜色？红的。一支优良的针筒里面有多少氧气？一点也没有。除非你是鲎鱼或是Plavalaguna(第五元素里蓝色外星歌姬Diva的本名)，不然你的血液不是蓝的。
Number two. Fan Death.
第二。电风扇吹死人。
This misconception is a specialty of South Korea. Here the belief is that if you spend too much time with a rotating fan in a confined space, it will use up all your oxygen and you'll asphyxiate to death. Exactly how the fan made of lifeless, anaerobic plastic, competes for your oxygen is unclear, but hilariously South Korea fan manufacturers(who surely must know better) include timers on fans to prevent them from running too long.
这个误解是个南韩的特产。这里的信念是说如果你在密闭空间花太多时间跟一台转动的电扇在一起，它会用光你的氧气然后你会窒息而死。确切来说用没生命、厌氧的塑胶制成的电扇如何抢你的氧气是不清楚的，但南韩电扇制造商(他们必定更清楚)很好笑地在电扇上装定时器，预防它们转太久。
Number one. People Swallow Eight Spiders a Year While Sleeping.
第一。人们一年在睡觉的时候吞下八只蜘蛛。
Supposedly while you're in bed, helplessly unconscious with your gob wide open, each year eight spiders find their way into your mouth, and you reflexively swallow them. This is plainly ridiculous. Spiders love warm, moist places, so eight is far too low an estimate.
推测当你在睡觉，无助的昏迷，嘴巴大开的时候，每年八只蜘蛛找到它们的路跑进你的嘴巴里，然后你反射性的吞下它们。这很明显的很荒谬。蜘蛛喜爱温暖、潮湿的地方，所以八只是太低估了。
注一：Mountain Dew是美国非常受欢迎的汽水品牌之一，颜色像维大力。
