英語文化隨身帶

新年新氣象，咱們的“英語文化隨身帶”也來變變臉。“英語文化隨身帶”將繼續為大家帶來各種有關英語文化的文章，但內容不再局限于英國（也就是說，你將聽到英音或美音的文章），習題形式也會有所改變。將英語文化裝進口袋里，利用閑散的時間隨身翻閱，英語學習者可以在潛移默化中了解當代英語世界的生活和文化。

在《饑餓游戲》、《分歧者》和《猩球崛起》等大熱電影中，我們看到的是一個黑暗、沒有前途的世界。難道人類的未來就只能朝著這種反烏托邦的結局發展？想想都覺得心酸。現在，一些學者和科幻小說作家表示，這些壓抑的內容太多了，是時候為科幻作品注入一些樂觀主義了！

What will the 1）be like？ Good or bad？ A lot of science-fiction[科幻小說] writing imagines a world which is dark and 2）. In Blade Runner， Harrison Ford hunts robots in a chaotic[混亂無序的] Los Angeles. Planet of the Apes shows a bleak[暗淡的] future for humankind. And what about The Hunger Games？ Don’t get me 3）.

There’s a word to describe the kind of future world which often 4）in science fiction： dystopia. It means an imagined place where things are unpleasant or bad. The opposite is utopia. But does tomorrow’s world have to be so depressing[壓抑的]？

No. A new project wants to use the power of science fiction to inspire people to create a better future. Project Hieroglyph[象形文字] brings 5）writers， scientists， engineers and artists to create optimistic[樂觀的] stories about things which really could happen in the next 50 years.

It’s just a matter of making an effort[努力]. Experts say

it’s easier to create a dystopia than write a 6）story. There’s more conflict[沖突] in a world full of problems， and stories are interesting when there are a lot of problems to resolve[解決]. No challenge， no story！

But the project produced a book with some promising[有前途的] plots. One of them is about environmentalists[環保主義者] who fight to 7）entrepreneurs[企業家] from building the first hotel in Antarctica. Well， there’s conflict there and it’s plausible[似乎合理的]， so it could be a good story.

But will these stories 8）change anything or just keep us entertained？ Ed Finn， the book’s editor， thinks the former. He says： “A good science-fiction story can be very powerful. It can inspire hundreds， thousands， millions of people to rally around[集體聲援] something that they want to do.”

The influence[影響] of science fiction can already be

seen in 9）research， says Braden Allenby， Project

Hieroglyph participant[參與者] and Professor of Engineering， Ethics[倫理學] and Law at Arizona State University. He asks：“Why are people working on， for example， invisibility[看不見的東西] cloaks？ Well， it’s Harry Potter， right？”

Time will tell how far we can go. Let’s dream big and think 10）the box. Who knows the wonderful things we can come up with.

未來將是什么樣子？是好還是壞？很多科幻小說想象出一個黑暗恐怖的世界。在《銀翼殺手》中，哈里森·福特在混亂無序的洛杉磯追捕機器人；《決戰猩球》為人類展示了一個暗淡的未來。《饑餓游戲》呢？別讓我說下去了。

有一個詞用來形容經常在科幻小說中出現的未來：反烏托邦，指一個想象的、情況很糟糕的地方，與之對立的是烏托邦。但是，以后的世界就只能如此壓抑嗎？

不。一項新計劃希望利用科幻小說的力量激勵人們創造一個更好的未來。“象形文字計劃”集中了多位作家、科學家、工程師和藝術家，圍繞未來50年里真有可能發生的事情創作各種積極向上的故事。……