太空中可以用肉眼看到长城吗？自美国1969年第一次载人登月成功之后，太空中用肉眼可以看见中国的长城这种说法，不知何时开始在中国流传开来。人们把太空中可以看到长城这种说法挂在嘴边，甚至在幼儿园就给小朋友传授这个所谓“常识”，培养他们的民族自豪感。2003年中国的神舟五号载人飞船发射成功，航天员杨利伟亲口说他在太空没有看到长城，这件事情在中国社会上引起了不小的轰动。有人说，皇帝的新装终于被揭开了；有人却说，杨利伟没看到，不代表别的宇航员也看不到。

Could the Great Wall be seen by naked eyes in the outer space? The statement that the Great Wall could be seen in the outer space has been spread in China after the first US manned mission to the moon in 1969. This is very much in the talk among the public and even kids are taught with the “common sense” at the kindergarten so as to cultivate their sense of national pride. In 2003, the Shenzhou V manned flight mission was a greet success, but astronaut Yang Liwei said that he didn’t see the Great Wall in the outer space, which has caused a huge stir in China. Some argued that the truth is unveiled; but others said that the fact that Yang Liwei’s failure in seeing the Great Wall doesn’t necessarily mean that other astronauts couldn’t see the Great Wall in the outer space.

我有个爱好，喜欢在google earth上浏览熟悉的北京城，从太空中辨认出自己以前去过的地方，是一件很有趣的事情。有一天，我找到了八达岭镇的位置，试图找到长城，结果我失败了，长城在卫星图片上是如此的难以辨认，只有放大到最大清晰度才能分辨出长城。现在，至少在我心里，太空中能不能看到长城这个问题，已经有了属于我自己的答案，我认为，肉眼在太空中看到长城是不可能的，因为人眼不是望远镜，而只有把卫星图片放大到连公路上的汽车都清晰可辨的时候，才能勉强分辨出长城。

My hobby is to glance over the familiar Beijing through Google Earth and identify the places I went to from the outer space. It’s truly interesting. Some day, I found the location of Badaling Town and tried to find the Great Wall. But I failed as the Great Wall is difficult to be recognized in the satellite images and only could be distinguished by zooming in to the largest definition. Now, I have my own answer to whether the Great Wall could be seen in the outer space. I believe it’s totally impossible because human eyes are not telescope and moreover, only by zooming in the satellite images to a point where autos on the highways could be easily seen, the Great Wall could only be distinguished with great difficulty.

尽信人不如不信，尽信书不如无书，凡事随大流者，欠缺独立思考的能力。我的怀疑主义精神，让我逐渐形成了独立思考的能力。

We should not fully believe what others and all books have said. Those who follow the mainstream are lack of independent thinking ability. My skepticism has helped me develop an ability to think independently.

本文由北京翻译公司品格翻译提供，未经允许，不得转载。