The identification cards described him as Ernest Temple, an unemployed1 electrician, drawing a weekly subsistence from the State of New York, with a wife and four children in Buffalo2 and less than a hundred dollars in assets. A sweat-stained green card gave him permission to travel and to maintain no fixed3 address. A man looking for work needed to travel. He might have to go a long way.
As he rode across town in the almost empty bus, Anderton studied the description of Ernest Temple. Obviously, the cards had been made out with him in mind, for all the measurements fitted. After a time he wondered about the fingerprints4 and the brain-wave pattern. They couldn't possibly stand comparison. The walletful of cards would get him past only the most cursory5 examinations.
But it was something. And with the ID cards came ten thousand dollars in bills. He pocketed the money and cards, then turned to the neatly-typed message in which they had been enclosed.
At first he could make no sense of it. For a long time he studied it, perplexed6.
The existence of a majority logically implies a corresponding minority.
The bus had entered the vast slum region, the tumbled miles of cheap hotels and broken-down tenements7 that had sprung up after the mass destruction of the war. It slowed to a stop, and Anderton got to his feet. A few passengers idly observed his cut cheek and damaged clothing. Ignoring them, he stepped down onto the rain-swept curb8.
Beyond collecting the money due him, the hotel clerk was not interested. Anderton climbed the stairs to the second floor and entered the narrow, musty-smelling room that now belonged to him. Gratefully, he locked the door and pulled down the window shades. The room was small but clean. Bed, dresser, scenic9 calendar, chair, lamp, a radio with a slot for the insertion of quarters.
He dropped a quarter into it and threw himself heavily down on the bed. All main stations carried the police bulletin. It was novel, exciting, something unknown to the present generation. An escaped criminal! The public was avidly10 interested.
"... this man has used the advantage of his high position to carry out an initial escape," the announcer was saying, with professional indignation. "Because of his high office he had access to the previewed data and the trust placed in him permitted him to evade11 the normal process of detection and re-location. During the period of his tenure12 he exercised his authority to send countless13 potentially guilty individuals to their proper confinement14, thus sparing the lives of innocent victims. This man, John Allison Anderton, was instrumental in the original creation of the Precrime system, the prophylactic15 pre-detection of criminals through the ingenious use of mutant precogs, capable of previewing future events and transferring orally that data to analytical16 machinery17. These three precogs, in their vital function...."
The voice faded out as he left the room and entered the tiny bathroom. There, he stripped off his coat, and shirt, and ran hot water in the wash bowl. He began bathing the cut on his cheek. At the drugstore on the corner he had bought iodine18 and Band-aids, a razor, comb, toothbrush, and other small things he would need. The next morning he intended to find a second-hand19 clothing store and buy more suitable clothing. After all, he was now an unemployed electrician, not an accident-damaged Commissioner20 of Police.
In the other room the radio blared on. Only subconsciously21 aware of it, he stood in front of the cracked mirror, examining a broken tooth.
"... the system of three precogs finds its genesis in the computers of the middle decades of this century. How are the results of an electronic computer checked? By feeding the data to a second computer of identical design. But two computers are not sufficient. If each computer arrived at a different answer it is impossible to tell a priori which is correct. The solution, based on a careful study of statistical22 method, is to utilize23 a third computer to check the results of the first two. In this manner, a so-called majority report is obtained. It can be assumed with fair probability that the agreement of two out of three computers indicates which of the alternative results is accurate. It would not be likely that two computers would arrive at identically incorrect solutions—"
Anderton dropped the towel he was clutching and raced into the other room. Trembling, he bent24 to catch the blaring words of the radio.
"... unanimity25 of all three precogs is a hoped-for but seldom-achieved phenomenon, acting-Commissioner Witwer explains. It is much more common to obtain a collaborative majority report of two precogs, plus a minority report of some slight variation, usually with reference to time and place, from the third mutant. This is explained by the theory of multiple-futures. If only one time-path existed, precognitive information would be of no importance, since no possibility would exist, in possessing this information, of altering the future. In the Precrime Agency's work we must first of all assume—"
Frantically26, Anderton paced around the tiny room. Majority report—only two of the precogs had concurred27 on the material underlying28 the card. That was the meaning of the message enclosed with the packet. The report of the third precog, the minority report, was somehow of importance.
Why?
His watch told him that it was after midnight. Page would be off duty. He wouldn't be back in the monkey block until the next afternoon. It was a slim chance, but worth taking. Maybe Page would cover for him, and maybe not. He would have to risk it.
He had to see the minority report.
收听单词发音 |
1
unemployed
|
|
| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
buffalo
|
|
| n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
fingerprints
|
|
| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
cursory
|
|
| adj.粗略的；草率的；匆促的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
perplexed
|
|
| adj.不知所措的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
tenements
|
|
| n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
curb
|
|
| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
scenic
|
|
| adj.自然景色的，景色优美的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
avidly
|
|
| adv.渴望地，热心地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
evade
|
|
| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
tenure
|
|
| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
countless
|
|
| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
confinement
|
|
| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
prophylactic
|
|
| adj.预防疾病的；n.预防疾病 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
analytical
|
|
| adj.分析的；用分析法的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
iodine
|
|
| n.碘，碘酒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
second-hand
|
|
| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
commissioner
|
|
| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
subconsciously
|
|
| ad.下意识地，潜意识地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
statistical
|
|
| adj.统计的，统计学的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
utilize
|
|
| vt.使用，利用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
unanimity
|
|
| n.全体一致，一致同意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
frantically
|
|
| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
concurred
|
|
| 同意（concur的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
underlying
|
|
| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |