Who Knows?

 These things are quite improbable, to be sure; but are they impossible?

 

Our big world rolls over as smoothly¹ as it did centuries ago, without a squeak² to show it needs oiling after all these years of revolution³. But times change because men change, and because civilization, like John Brown's soul, goes ever marching on.

 

The impossibilities of yesterday become the accepted facts of to-day.

 

Here is a fairy tale founded upon the wonders of electricity and written for children of this generation. Yet when my readers shall have become men and women my story may not seem to their children like a fairy tale at all.

 

Perhaps one, perhaps two—perhaps several of the Demon's devices⁴ will be, by that time, in popular use.

 

Who knows? 

 

1 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

2 squeak   

n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密

参考例句：

• I don't want to hear another squeak out of you!我不想再听到你出声！
• We won the game,but it was a narrow squeak.我们打赢了这场球赛，不过是侥幸取胜。

3 revolution   

n.革命，大变革；旋转；周期，循环

参考例句：

• The earth makes a yearly revolution around the sun.地球每年绕太阳一周。
• This volume records the history of the country's revolution.这卷书记载了这个国家的革命历史。

4 devices   

n.设备；装置( device的名词复数 )；花招；（为实现某种目的的）计划；手段

参考例句：

• electrical labour-saving devices around the home 节省劳力的各种家用电器
• modern labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers 诸如洗衣机和洗碗机之类的现代化省力设备