Chapter 4

That afternoon Amaryl went to Hari Seldon's office at Streeling University. That in itself was unusual, for Amaryl virtually never left his own office, even to speak with a colleague just down the hall.
    "Hari," said Amaryl, frowning and looking puzzled. "Something very odd has happened. Very peculiar¹."
    Seldon looked at Amaryl with deepest sorrow. He was only fifty-three, but he looked much older, bent², worn down to almost transparency. When forced, he had undergone doctors' examinations and the doctors had all recommended that he leave his work for a period of time (some said permanently) and rest. Only this, the doctors said, might improve his health. Otherwise- Seldon shook his head. "Take him away from his work and he'll die all the sooner-and unhappier. We have no choice."
    And then Seldon realized that, lost in such thoughts, he was not hearing Amaryl speak.
    He said, "I'm sorry, Yugo. I'm a little distracted. Begin again."
    Amaryl said, "I'm telling you that something very odd has happened. Very peculiar."
    "What is it, Yugo?"
    "It was Wanda. She came in to see me-very sad, very upset."
    "Why?"
    "Apparently³ it's the new baby."
    "Oh yes," Hari said with more than a trace of guilt⁴ in his voice.
    "So she said and cried on my shoulder-I actually cried a bit, too, Hari. And then I thought I'd cheer her up by showing her the Prime Radiant." Here Amaryl hesitated, as if choosing his next words carefully.
    "Go on, Yugo. What happened?"
    "Well, she stared at all the lights and I magnified a portion, actually Section 428254. You're acquainted with that?"
    Seldon smiled. "No, Yugo, I haven't memorized the equations quite as well as you have."
    "Well, you should," said Amaryl severely⁵. "How can you do a good job if- But never mind that. What I'm trying to say is that Wanda pointed⁶ to a part of it and said it was no good. It wasn't pretty. "
    "Why not? We all have our personal likes and dislikes."
    "Yes, of course, but I brooded about it and I spent some time going over it and, Hari, there was something wrong with it. The programming was inexact and that area, the precise area to which Wanda pointed, was no good. And, really, it wasn't pretty."
    Seldon sat up rather stiffly, frowning. "Let me get this straight, Yugo. She pointed to something at random⁷, said it was no good, and she was right?"
    "Yes. She pointed, but it wasn't at random; she was very deliberate."
    "But that's impossible."
    "But it happened. I was there."
    "I'm not saying it didn't happen. I'm saying it was just a wild coincidence."
    "Is it? Do you think, with all your knowledge of psychohistory, you could take one glance at a new set of equations and tell me that one portion is no good?"
    Seldon said, "Well then, Yugo, how did you come to expand that particular portion of the equations? What made you choose that piece for magnification?"
    Amaryl shrugged⁸. "That was coincidence-if you like. I just fiddled⁹ with the controls."
    "That couldn't be coincidence," muttered Seldon. For a few moments he was lost in thought, then he asked the question that pushed forward the psychohistorical revolution that Wanda had begun.
    He said, "Yugo, did you have any suspicions about those equations beforehand? Did you have any reason to believe there was something wrong with them?"
    Amaryl fiddled with the sash of his unisuit and seemed embarrassed. "Yes, I think I did. You see-"
    "You think you did?"
    "I know I did. I seemed to recall when I was setting it up-it's a new section, you know-my fingers seemed to glitch¹⁰ on the programmer. It looked all right then, but I guess I kept worrying about it inside. I remember thinking it looked wrong, but I had other things to do and I just let it go. But then when Wanda happened to point to precisely¹¹ the area I had been concerned about, I decided¹² to check up on her-otherwise I would just have let it go as a childish statement."
    "And you turned on that very fragment of the equations to show Wanda. As though it were haunting your unconscious mind."
    Amaryl shrugged. "Who knows?"
    "And just before that, you were very close together, hugging, both crying."
    Amaryl shrugged again, looking even more embarrassed.
    Seldon said, "I think I know what happened, Yugo. Wanda read your mind."
    Amaryl jumped, as though he had been bitten. "That's impossible!"
    Slowly Seldon said, "I once knew someone who had unusual mental powers of that sort"-and he thought sadly of Eto Demerzel or, as Seldon had secretly known him, Daneel- "only he was somewhat more than human. But his ability to read minds, to sense other people's thoughts, to persuade people to act in a certain way-that was a mental ability. I think, somehow, that perhaps Wanda has that ability as well."
    "I can't believe it," said Amaryl stubbornly.
    "I can," said Seldon "but I don't know what to do about it." Dimly lie felt the rumblings of a revolution in psychohistorical research-but only dimly.

1 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

2 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

5 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

6 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

7 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

8 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 fiddled   

v.伪造( fiddle的过去式和过去分词 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动

参考例句：

• He fiddled the company's accounts. 他篡改了公司的账目。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He began with Palestrina, and fiddled all the way through Bartok. 他从帕勒斯春纳的作品一直演奏到巴塔克的作品。 来自辞典例句

10 glitch   

n.干扰；误操作，小故障

参考例句：

• There is a glitch in the computer program somewhere.这个计算机程序中的某个部分有点小问题。
• It could just be a random glitch that can be solved by restarting the machine.可能只是一个小故障，重新启动主机就能解决了。

11 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

12 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。