【Quora】有哪些名不副实的历史人物？ [美国媒体]

Which historical figure is overrated?

【Quora】有哪些名不副实的历史人物？


【答案一】Sebas Sujeen, （现居印度）

Winston Churchill温斯顿·丘吉尔



British imperialism had long justified itself with the pretense that it was conducted for the benefit of the governed. Churchill's conduct in the summer and fall of 1943 gave the lie to this myth. "I hate Indians," he told the Secretary of State for India, Leopold Amery. "They are a beastly people with a beastly religion." The famine was their own fault, he declared at a war-cabinet meeting, for "breeding like rabbits."

英帝国主义一直以来用“为了被统治者的利益进行管理”为借口来证明自己的正当性。1943年的夏秋季，丘吉尔的行为揭穿了这一神话。“我讨厌印度人，”他对印度事务大臣利奥波德·埃默里说，“他们是一群有着野蛮宗教的野蛮人。” 他在一次战时内阁会议上宣称，饥荒是他们自己的错，因为“（他们）就像兔子一样产崽。”

1943, some 3 million brown-skinned subjects of the Raj died in the Bengal famine, one of history's worst. Some of India's grain was also exported to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to meet needs there, even though the island wasn't experiencing the same hardship; Australian wheat sailed past Indian cities (where the bodies of those who had died of starvation littered the streets) to depots in the Mediterranean and the Balkans; and offers of American and Canadian food aid were turned down. India was not permitted to use its own sterling reserves, or indeed its own ships, to import food. And because the British government paid inflated prices in the open market to ensure supplies, grain became unaffordable for ordinary Indians. Lord Wavell, appointed Viceroy of India that fateful year, considered the Churchill government's attitude to India "negligent, hostile and contemptuous."

在1943年，有约三百万大英帝国统治下的棕色皮肤的臣民死于孟加拉大饥荒中，这是历史上最严重的一次饥荒。印度的一些粮食仍被出口到锡兰（今斯里兰卡）以满足那里的需求，即使这个岛国并没有经历同样的困境；满载澳大利亚小麦的货船驶过印度的城市（在那里，饿殍遍地）到达地中海和巴尔干半岛的仓库；美国和加拿大提供的粮食援助被拒绝了。印度不被允许使用本国的英镑储备甚至是本国的船只，来进口食物。而且由于英国政府在公开市场上支付高价以确保供应，导致普通印度人买不起粮食。在那灾难性的一年，韦维尔勋爵被任命为印度总督，他认为丘吉尔政府对印度的态度是“疏忽、敌意和轻蔑的”。

Churchill said that history would judge him kindly because he intended to write it himself. The self-serving but elegant volumes he authored on the war led the Nobel Committee, unable in all conscience to bestow him an award for peace, to give him, astonishingly, the Nobel Prize for Literature — an unwitting tribute to the fictional qualities inherent in Churchill's self-justifying embellishments.

丘吉尔说，历史会对他做出善意的评价，因为他打算自己写。令人惊讶的是，他写作出版的关于这场战争的自私却优雅的作品，让诺贝尔委员会虽然出于良心无法授予他和平奖，但却授予了他诺贝尔文学奖——这是对丘吉尔为自我开脱而虚构的情节中所固有的虚构品质的一种无心的致敬。

Churchill's only response to a telegram from the government in Delhi about people perishing in the famine was to ask why Gandhi hadn't died yet.

丘吉尔对一封来自德里政府的关于饥民的电报，是这样回复的：为什么甘地还没死？

An image from the Bengal famine..Yes, it is not Somalia, it happened very much in India.

一幅来自孟加拉大饥荒的图片。是的，这不是索马里，这在印度频繁发生。

Makes me wonder, if Hitler had won the war, would he be praised now considering that history is written by the victors.

我很好奇，如果希特勒赢得了战争，他也许现在也会受到赞扬，因为历史是胜利者书写的。

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【答案二】Jennifer Lai, （现居澳大利亚）
Hard to be more controversial than saying that Mother Theresa is overrated, but history has seriously questioned the labeling of Alexander the great ... stating he should have been labeled: "Alexander the not-so-great".

很难说比特蕾莎修女被高估更有争议，但历史已经严重质疑了“伟大的亚历山大”这个标签……认为他应该被称为：“不那么伟大的亚历山大”。

Alexander the III of Macedon, son of Philip II and descendant – at least in his own mind – of the great warrior Achilles, has been known throughout the annals of history as Alexander the Great. Within the context of his time, and viewing his deeds in the context of a society that essentially condoned violence and worshiped gods that were both violent and unforgiving, Alexander was certainly deserving of this epithet.   Some historians have referred to Alexander as “possibly the greatest warrior in world history.”

马其顿的亚历山大三世，是腓力二世的儿子、（至少在他自己的想象中）是伟大的勇士阿喀琉斯的后裔，在历史史册中被称为亚历山大大帝。在他的时代背景下，在一个本质上容忍暴力和崇拜神的社会背景下来看他的行为，亚历山大当然配得上这个称号。一些历史学家认为亚历山大“可能是世界历史上最伟大的勇士”。

More recently however, modern historians have questioned whether he should be renamed Alexander the Terrible, or Alexander the Insignificant. His life and conquests have been re-examined and terms such as megalomaniac and mass murderer have emerged when describing his exploits. Much has been published that brings into question the greatness of Alexander - from discussions of his drunken brawls and paranoia to his murderous rampages. And while Alexander did spread Hellenistic culture, the spread appears to have been an unplanned side effect.

然而最近，现代的历史学家质疑他是否应该改名为“可怕的亚历山大”，或者“渺小的亚历山大”。他的生活和征服活动被c重新审视，人们开始用自大狂和杀人狂这样的词来描述他的功绩，并出版了很多书籍文章来质疑他的伟大——从他的酒后闹事到他狂暴的杀人妄想。尽管亚历山大的确传播了希腊文化，但这似乎只是一种意料之外的副产品。

While his accomplishments are many, Alexander’s flaws cannot be ignored. Half a million soldiers and sailors were wiped out during the building of his empire.  In addition, probably another half a million people were sold into slavery, of which half were women and children. Of his own troops, he suffered at least 25,000 deaths –approximately half the army.

虽然他有很多成就，但也不可忽视亚历山大的缺点。在他的帝国建立的过程中，有五十万名士兵和水手丧生。此外，可能还有五十万人被贩为奴隶，其中一半是妇女和儿童。而在他自己的军队中，至少有两万五千人死亡——大约是军队的一半人数。

Alexander appeared unstable at times and was capable of murder without a moment’s hesitation, even of his closest allies and friends. When Cleitus defended the memory of Alexander’s father, he grabbed a spear and murdered him at the dinner table. He then proceeded to taunt the dead man before being overcome by grief and remorse. Alexander’s response to those who opposed him or espoused opinions different from his own was brutal.  The Theban dead alone numbered more than 6,000 and there were more than 30,000 people, including women and children, who were sold into slavery. The council voted to demolish the city, after taking in all the money in plunder.

亚历山大有时显得很不稳定，他甚至能毫不犹豫地杀死他最亲密的盟友和朋友。当克雷塔斯在争执中用亚历山大的父亲来辩护时，亚历山大抓起一只长矛，在餐桌上杀了他。而在他嘲笑完了死者后，又开始陷入悔恨和悲伤。
至于那些反对他的人或者意见与他不同的人，亚历山大对他们是很残酷的。底比斯，单就死亡人数就超过六千，还有包括妇女和儿童在内的三万多人被贩卖为奴隶。在把底比斯的所有金钱都洗劫一空后，议事会投票决定摧毁这座城市。
（译者注：底比斯——公元前四世纪与斯巴达、雅典并称为希腊三大城邦，被腓力二世所征服，后在亚历山大统治时期曾发动起义。）

It is said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Alexander undoubtedly changed over time, and not for the better. As a result of the combined effects of unbroken victories, unparalleled wealth, absolute and unchallenged power, continual heavy physical stress, and incipient alcoholism… Alexander became an uncontrollable megalomaniac.  As his megalomania grew, he sought greater confirmation of his divinity.  After his defeat of Darius he sent an order to the Greeks to take a vote making him divine. The laconic response from the Spartans was “since Alexander wants to be a god, let him be a god” by which they meant to expose what they believed to be the stupidity of this request.

人们常说，绝对的权力导致绝对的腐败。毫无疑问，随着时间的推移，亚历山大也在发生变化，而且并没有变得更好。由于接连的胜利、无与伦比的财富、绝对而未受挑战的力量、频繁的身体重负，酗酒的早期迹象……亚历山大成为了一个无法控制的自大狂。随着他的虚荣心不断膨胀，他开始要人们认可他的神性。他打败大流士后，向希腊人发出了一个命令，让他们投票，推选他为神。斯巴达人的简洁回应是“既然亚历山大想成为神，那就让他成为神”，这意味着他们认为这个要求很蠢。

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【答案三】Martin Lindner, seeking wisdom（现居德国）
Princess Diana 戴安娜王妃
The biggest achievement of this spoiled brat is charity. She was born into wealth, followed her nature as a gold digger and married into even more. Only a few people dared to criticize her or her cult.
这个被宠坏的孩子最大的成就是慈善。她生来就有钱，她天生就是个淘金者【译者注：这个词也指以色诱骗男人金钱的女人】，嫁给了更有钱的人。只有少数人敢于批评她或者她的个人崇拜。

Christopher Hitchens was one of those people who spoke openly against her. Something humorous (and harsh) he said about her:
"She was in Angola on her landmine campaign, and there was a hushed, reverent BBC commentator. And he said, 'The thing about mine fields is that they're very easy to lay, but they're very difficult and dangerous, and even expensive to get rid of' - the perfect description of Prince Charles's first wife."

克里斯托弗·希金斯是公开反对她的人之一。他对她说了些幽默（和苛刻）的话：
“她在安哥拉参加反地雷运动时，一位恭敬的BBC评论员说，‘地雷区的问题是，它们很容易铺设，但是要清除就非常困难而危险，且代价高昂。’——这真是对查尔斯王子第一任妻子的完美描述。”

Her charity work is vastly overrated. In her will she didn't left a penny to charity, it was obviously a tool for her. Her dignity could be interpreted as rebellion against the monarchy. She was a spoiled brat in the sense that she didn't behave. No one forced her into her second marriage and she made no sacrifices for duty after she married into the royal family.

人们极大高估了她的慈善事业。在她的遗嘱中，她没给慈善捐一分钱，显然，慈善对她来说就是个工具而已。她的自尊被解释为对君主制的反抗。就某种意义而言，她是个被宠坏的小孩。没人强迫她进入第二次婚姻，而且在她加入皇室后，她也没有为义务做出任何牺牲。

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【答案四】Feifei Wang, The Interpreter （华裔美籍）

Leonardo da Vinci 列奥纳多·达·芬奇



Sure, the guy is a great painter, have some interesting ideas and crazy inventions, he did some mysterious (not really provocative) paintings here and there, and was probably a genius of some sort... But seriously, the hype over this guy is disproportionate.

当然，这家伙是一位伟大的画家，有些有趣的想法和疯狂的发明，他在各处都有些神秘的(并不真的具有煽动性的)画作，他可能是某种天才……但说真的，对这家伙的大肆宣传有夸大之嫌。

He's not a scientist, he's not an engineer (none of this crazy inventions works in real life), he's not a doctor (his famous fetus in womb drawing is modeled after a cow's womb and stick a fetus in it, I mean, no medical doctor would do that, but artist would.) He's not some secret cult member (No Dan Brown, he's not your secret cult leader!). He's probably gay, but he's most definitely not a crossdresser (Mona Lisa is not a self portrait). He's not what he make himself to be (this elderly philosopher looking dude), in fact, Leonardo was quite handsome when he's young. (Verrocchio's david is said modeled after the young Leonardo, cute guy!)  

他不是科学家，也不是工程师（这些疯狂的发明在现实生活中都没有），他不是医生（他那张着名的子宫中胎儿的素描，是模仿奶牛的子宫并把胎儿塞里面。我的意思是，没有医生会这么做，但艺术家会。）他不是某个神秘的邪教信徒（这儿没有丹·布朗！他不是你的秘密邪教领袖！）他很可能是同性恋，但他绝对不是一个异装癖（《蒙娜丽莎》不是自画像）。他并不是他自画像上的那个老年哲学家的样子，事实上，列奥纳多年轻时很英俊。（韦罗基奥的大卫据说是模仿了年轻时的列奥纳多【见下图】，可爱的家伙!)【译者注：韦罗基奥是达芬奇的老师】

He's mysterious and an artistic genius. He's an important figure in high renaissance, and he left us with a lot of interesting (arguably irrelevant) little puzzles, but he's not the most talented person in history as people often believed him to be.

他很神秘，是位艺术天才。他是文艺复兴盛期的一个重要人物，他留给我们许多有趣的（也可以说是无关紧要的）小谜题。但他并不像人们认为的那样，是历史上最有才华的人。

And if you ask me, Mona Lisa isn't all that great. Certainly don't deserved to be put in a separate room in the Louvre. My personal favorite is actually Last Supper, in which he demonstrate superb composition and character rendering skill. If only he could follow the right way to do tempera painting, namely, do it while it's wet, we'd end up having a much better reserved painting nowadays.

如果你问我，我觉得蒙娜丽莎并不那么伟大。不值得把它放在卢浮宫的一个单独的房间里。我个人最喜欢的实际是《最后的晚餐》，他在这幅画作中展示了精湛的构图和人物渲染技巧。如果他能按照正确的方法去完成蛋彩画，也就是，在湿的时候画，我们今天就会有一幅保存得更好的画。【译注：也许答主这是在讽刺？因为《最后的晚餐》在后世经过了十二次修复，据说只剩下20%的内容是达芬奇画的。谁知道原作长什么样？】

But enough with my rumbling... Da Vinci is great, but not "most talented person in the entire human history" great.

我抱怨得已经够多了……达芬奇是伟大的，但他的伟大还配不上“整个人类史上最有才华的人”这个称号。

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【答案五】Hairuo Guo, （现居马萨诸塞州剑桥市）
Christopher Columbus was a terrible character and an even more terrible navigator. When the captain of one of his ships sighted land, he claimed that he had seen it three hours earlier in order to collect the lifetime pension that was set aside for the first person to do so. He miscalculated latitude, which was the easier coordinate to get right, and he kept two logs: a personal one where he kept his own measurements, and one where he overestimated progress to impress the sailors. The latter ended up being more accurate.

克里斯托弗·哥伦布性格很糟糕，作为一名航海家的表现甚至更糟糕。当他船队中的一名船长看到陆地时，哥伦布为了拿到为发现新大陆第一人而设立的终身养老金，他声称他早在三小时前就已经发现陆地了。他算错了纬度，这本来是一个比较容易算对的坐标。他保留了两份航海日志：一份是他自己测量的，给他自己看的；而另一份日志，是他为了激励水手，故意夸大了进展的。结果，后面这份才更加准确。

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【答案六】Amy Christa Ernano, （意大利裔美国人）

Christopher Columbus. 克里斯托弗·哥伦布

For generations, American schoolchildren have been raised to see Columbus as the noble discoverer of America. We still have a national holiday honoring him, and he has become a symbol of pride for Italian-Americans all over the country.

世世代代，美国的小学生们都被教育说，哥伦布是杰出的美洲发现者。我们还有一个国家节日来纪念他，他已经成为全国的意大利裔美国人的骄傲。

But he was a monster.

但他是一个恶魔

When Columbus arrived in the New World, he landed in the Bahamas, and would later move on to Hispaniola. The indigenous people of the islands - the Arawaks, Lucayans, and Tainos - were peaceful, welcoming, and friendly. They also had gold jewelry, prompting Columbus to take several of them prisoner and demand the source of the gold. He wrote in his journal: “They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them.”

当哥伦布抵达新世界时，他在巴哈马群岛登陆，后来又前往伊斯帕尼奥拉岛。岛上的土着居民——阿拉瓦克人、卢卡约人和泰诺人——都是和平的、热情的、友好的。因为他们有黄金首饰，这促使哥伦布俘虏了他们中的一些人，要求他们透露黄金的来源。他在日记中写道:“他们应该成为优秀的、有技能的仆人，因为他们能很快地重复我们对他们说的话。”

The Natives were put to work in the gold mines, where they toiled until they died of exhaustion. Any worker who didn’t deliver his full quota of gold had his hands cut off and tied around his neck. Those who resisted slavery lost their nose or an ear. Those who tried to escape were hunted with dogs, and either mutilated by the dogs or burned alive. Arawak babies were used as dog food if supplies ran short, and girls as young as 9 were sold as sex slaves. At one point there was a mass suicide of over 100 Arawaks, so intolerable were their lives in slavery.

当地土着被带到金矿里干活儿，在那里做苦力，直到精疲力竭地死去。任何一个没能如数交纳黄金的工人，都要被砍手。凡是敢抵抗的人都会被割鼻或割耳。那些试图逃跑的人被狗追捕，要么被狗肢解，要么被活活烧死。如果狗粮不够了，阿拉瓦克的婴儿就会被用来喂狗，9岁的女孩被卖作性奴。有一次，一百多名阿拉瓦人集体自杀，他们的奴役生活是令人无法忍受的。

Columbus was so bad that Francisco de Bobadilla, the man who succeeded him as Governor of the Indies, arrested him and his brothers, Bartolomeo and Giacomo (sometimes called Diego), put them in chains, and sent them back to Spain to stand trial for their crimes against the Natives as well as the Spanish colonists. But the King and Queen really liked all the gold Columbus had provided - so they pardoned all three.

哥伦布太坏了，以至于接替他成为西印度群岛总督的弗朗西斯科·德·博巴迪拉，逮捕了他和他兄弟——巴尔托洛梅奥和贾科莫(有时说是迭戈)——给他们带上镣铐，把他们送回西班牙，让他们为自己对当地人和西班牙殖民者所犯下的罪行接受审判。但国王和王后真的很喜欢哥伦布带来的黄金——所以他们赦免了这三个人。

Within 50 years of Columbus’ arrival on Hispaniola, every one of the roughly 3 million Natives on the island were gone. The lost Native slaves were soon replaced by African slaves, and in fact, Columbus’ son Diego was the first African slave trader in the New World.

在哥伦布到达伊斯帕尼奥拉岛的五十年里，岛上大约三百万土着居民消失了。这些消失的土着奴隶很快被非洲奴隶所取代，事实上，哥伦布的儿子迭戈是新大陆的第一个非洲奴隶贩子。

This is a man that we actually celebrate in this country. The horror and shame of that cannot be measured. Christopher Columbus should be held up as one of the great villains of world history, not one of its heroes. I’m an Italian-American, and Columbus Day doesn’t exist for me. The sooner it’s changed to Indigenous People’s Day at the federal level, the better.

我们在这个国家纪念的就是这样一个人。这种厌恶和羞愧简直无法估量。克里斯托弗·哥伦布应该被定义成世界史上的大恶棍之一，而不是英雄。我是意大利裔美国人，哥伦布日对我来说并不存在，它越早变成联邦土着居民日，越好。

There are also those in the comments saying that Columbus was just like anyone else in his time, and that his brutality was par for the course. That’s simply not true. If it were, he would not have been arrested and stripped of his governorship for his brutal treatment of Natives and Spanish colonists alike.

有一些人在评论中说，哥伦布就像他同时代的其他人，他的暴行是意料之中的事。但这根本不是事实。否则，他就不会被逮捕，也不会因为残酷对待当地人和西班牙殖民者，而被剥夺总督头衔。

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【答案七】Julio Cesar Pino,（加利福尼亚大学博士，历史学家）

“My admiration for the Duce is undiminished, but I was wrong to treat him as an equal.” Adolf Hitler, April 1945. I feel exactly the same way today. Mussolini was once a titan in European politics, and certainly an original political thinker, but when he was wrong, well, my god! Hitler once remarked that Italy’s decision to enter the war in 1940 was “the single biggest reason for Germany failing to obtain victory”. On what grounds? First, the disastrous Italian invasion of Greece forced Germany to invade both Yugoslavia and Greece, postponing Operation Barbarossa for several crucial months and tying up hundreds of thousands of German troops in the Balkans.

“我对领袖【译注：意大利法西斯统治时期对墨索里尼的称呼】的钦佩没有减弱，但我不该平等对待他。”——阿道夫·希特勒，1945年4月。我今天的想法也完全一样。墨索里尼曾经是欧洲政治的巨人，他无疑是一位具有原创性的政治思想家。但一旦他犯错，我的上帝！希特勒曾评价道，意大利在1940年的参战决定是“德国未能取胜的一个最大原因”。为什么这么说？
首先，意大利入侵希腊损失惨重，这迫使德国派兵到南斯拉夫和希腊应援，导致在关键时间推迟了巴巴罗萨计划【译注：德国在二战中发起侵苏行动的代号，原计划是5月份，但因希腊战役推迟到6月】，几十万德军被牵制在巴尔干半岛。

Second, Mussolini’s botched attempt to build an Italian empire in North Africa made it impossible for the Germans to reach out to critical Arab allies from Egypt to Iraq, making for “a revolutionary alliance with Islam.”

其次，墨索里尼试图在北非建立一个意大利帝国，但却搞得一团糟。还使得德国人将手伸向从埃及到伊拉克的重要的阿拉伯盟友，导致他们无法建立“与伊斯兰的革命联盟”。

Stalin received a visit from Harry Hopkins, FDR’s top aide, in 1941. When Hopkins asked him if he was worried about the many Italian troops stationed on the Eastern Front, Stalin laughed and replied, “No. I wish Mussolini would send us more.”

1941年，罗斯福的高级助手哈里·霍普金斯访问斯大林。当霍普金斯问斯大林是否担心驻扎在东线的意大利军队时，斯大林大笑着回答说:“不。我希望墨索里尼能派更多军队过来。”

If Mussolini had stayed out of the war France and Britain were prepared to offer him important colonies, including Tunisia and Malta. After the war he could have continued as Duce, much like Franco in Spain.

如果墨索里尼没有参战，法国和英国原打算给他重要的殖民地，包括突尼斯和马耳他。这样一来，二战结束后，他本可以继续作他的领袖，就像西班牙的佛朗哥一样。

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【答案八】Abhilash Pattnaik

Guglielmo Marconi古列尔莫·马可尼

The world of invention has had a few scoundrels –- and Marconi, the alleged inventor of radio, makes Edison look good. Nikola Tesla, one of Edison’s most brilliant engineers, discovered (and published) a way to transmit and receive radio signals in 1895. For all his genius, Tesla is the forgotten man of invention. He had been royally screwed by his boss, and would be conned even more disgracefully by Marconi.

发明界已经有了一些无赖——而马可尼，所谓的无线电发明者，他的行为让爱迪生都看起来像个好人了。尼古拉·特斯拉是爱迪生最杰出的工程师之一，他在1895年发现（并公布）了一种传输和接收无线电信号的方法。尽管特斯拉才华横溢，但他还是被人们遗忘。他彻头彻尾地被他老板骗了，而马可尼对他干的事更加可耻。

Marconi, a wealthy tinkerer with family ties to the English aristocracy, took credit for Tesla’s discovery, patenting it in England before Tesla got around to it. The Yugoslav-American Tesla then decided to make do with a US patent, so Marconi rushed it through to the US Patent Office, playing dumb when the office suggested that he must surely have seen Tesla’s papers. He eventually used his friends in high places to take out the patent, while Tesla’s patent was voided. Marconi became even wealthier, won a Nobel Prize, and is still known as the inventor of radio. Face it, the guy was a scum! In 1943, however, the Patent Office gave the patent back to Tesla, which was pretty useless as Tesla and Marconi were both dead.

马可尼是个喜欢鼓捣小发明的人，他很有钱，与英国贵族有亲戚关系，他把特斯拉的发现归功于他自己，在特斯拉考虑申请专利之前，他抢先在英国取得了专利权。于是，南斯拉夫裔的美国人特斯拉决定在美国申请专利，马可尼又立马把他的申请送到美国专利局。办公人员暗示他肯定看过了特斯拉的论文，他对此装聋作哑。最终，他通过他身居要职的朋友获得了专利权，而特斯拉的申请则被作废了。马可尼变得更加富有，还获得了诺贝尔奖，仍然被认为是无线电的发明者。面对现实吧，那家伙就是个人渣！
在1943年，专利局将这项专利还给了特斯拉，但已经没用了，因为特斯拉和马可尼都死了。

The Actual Story!

这就是故事的真相！

the great Nikola Tesla is frequently being remembered as the forgotten man of invention. The Serbo-American genius’ greatest work was credited to Edison, stolen by Marconi, or in that “obscure stuff that most of us can’t understand so we don’t know who did it” category. He made major inroads into X-rays, remote control, radar, robotics, nuclear physics and computers –- and this was back in the 19th and early 20th century.

伟大的尼古拉·特斯拉经常被人铭记为“被遗忘的发明家”。这位塞尔维亚裔美国天才的最伟大的作品被归功于爱迪生【译注：指交流电】，被归功于马可尼，或者是归到“我们大多数人都无法理解的晦涩难懂的东西，所以我们不知道是谁干的”范畴。他在X射线、遥控、雷达、机器人、核物理和计算机方面取得了重大进展——而这发生在19世纪和20世纪初。

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【答案九】Chrys Jordan, taught himself history because school stank
Christopher Columbus, the hero of America because he discovered America. He showed extraordinary courage in proving that the world was round.

克里斯托弗·哥伦布，美国的英雄，因为他发现了美洲。他用非凡的勇气证明了地球是圆的。

So I was taught in school. That statement is wrong for many reasons.

这就是我在学校中学到的。而这种说法是错误的。

Columbus in fact:

哥伦布实际上：

Did not have to prove the world was round: the majority of Medi thinkers who had any opinion on whether the Earth was round or flat chose the former.
Was mistaken on the size of this round Earth; his calculations made the Earth appear smaller than it is. That is why sailing westwards towards India seemed reasonable.

没必要证明世界是圆的：大多数思考过这个问题的中世纪思想家都认为地球是圆的。他弄错了地球的大小，他的计算使地球显得比实际更小。这就是为什么向西航行到印度似乎合理的原因。

Was badly lost throughout his voyage, never understanding where he was.

他在航行中迷路了，从来没搞清楚他在哪里。

Failed to discover North America. Failed to discover South America, despite having seen the coast of Venezuela, because he thought he was seeing another island. Nor was Columbus the first to discover the Americas. Nor was Columbus innocent of slavery. Nor can we reasonably say he was innocent of the genocide of the American Indians via disease. Though unintentional, Columbus exposing people to smallpox resulted in many deaths. We can never know how many people died from infection, but the numbers are surely appalling.

他没发现北美。他也没发现南美，尽管他看到了委内瑞拉的海岸，但他以为他看到的是另一个岛。哥伦布也不是第一个发现美洲的人。哥伦布对奴隶制负有责任。而且我们也不能说在美洲印第安人因疾病导致种族灭绝这件事情上，哥伦布完全无辜。虽然并非有意，但哥伦布让人们接触了天花，导致了许多人死亡。我们永远也不知道有多少人死于天花感染，但这些数字无疑是惊人的。

As a hero for America, the man who "discovered America," is overrated forreasons.

由于以上原因，作为美国英雄的这个“发现美洲”的人，名不副实。

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【答案十】André Levy, （现居澳大利亚悉尼）

Steve Jobs乔布斯

【译注：以下是这位答主列举的一些关于乔布斯的新闻标题】

（1）President Obama on Steve Jobs: "The World Has Lost a Visionary"

《奥巴马总统评价史蒂夫·乔布斯：“世界失去了一个梦想家”》

The Ideas That Apple Stole | Infographic

《那些被苹果窃取的想法》

（2）How Steve Jobs changed capitalism | The Guardian

《史蒂夫·乔布斯是怎样改变资本主义的》——卫报

Steve Jobs Threatened Palm To Stop Poaching Employees*

《史蒂夫·乔布斯威胁Palm公司停止挖走员工》

（3）Steve Jobs: Management Innovator | Forbes

《史蒂夫·乔布斯：管理创新者》——福布斯

Steve Jobs: A genius but a bad, mean manager

《史蒂夫·乔布斯:一个天才，一个糟糕的吝啬的经理》

（4）'America lost a genius,' Bloomberg says of Jobs

《布隆伯格谈论乔布斯，美国失去了一个天才》

Jonathan Ive: Steve Jobs stole my ideas

《乔纳森·伊夫：史蒂夫·乔布斯偷走了我的想法》

（5）Steve Jobs: the five Apple products 'that changed the world' - Telegraph

《史蒂夫·乔布斯：改变世界的五种苹果产品》

Apple's total device market share to grow from 10% to 14% - new forecast

《苹果的设备市场份额从10%增长到14%》

（6）With Pixar, Steve Jobs changed the film industry forever | CNET

《皮克斯，史蒂夫·乔布斯永远地改变了电影行业》

Pixar Myth No. 5: Steve Jobs Ran Pixar

《皮克斯神话5：史蒂夫·乔布斯运营皮克斯》

（7）How Steve Jobs' Love of Simplicity Fueled a Design Revolution | The Smithsonian

《史蒂夫•乔布斯对简约的爱是如何推动设计革命的》

（8）Steve Jobs on Organ Transplant Lists: "I Almost Died" Waiting

《器官移植名单上的史蒂夫·乔布斯:“我快死了”等着》

Did Steve Jobs' money buy him a faster liver transplant?

《史蒂夫·乔布斯的钱加快了他的肝脏移植吗?》

Steve Jobs' liver transplant: Did he game the system

《史蒂夫·乔布斯的肝脏移植：他赢了体制吗》

（9）The Pancreatic Cancer That Killed Steve Jobs | TIME.com

《杀死史蒂夫·乔布斯的胰腺癌》

Did Steve Jobs Have a Liver Transplant To Treat Pancreatic Cancer?

《史蒂夫·乔布斯是否接受过肝脏移植来治疗胰腺癌？》

Diana among 1,600 New Yorkers waiting for liver transplant

《1600名纽约人正在等待肝脏移植》

（10）Steve Jobs secretly gave millions to charity, publically criticised for not doing enough

《史蒂夫•乔布斯秘密捐赠数百万美元，公众批评他做得不够》

Buffett Makes $2 Billion Donation to Gates Foundation

《巴菲特向盖茨基金会捐赠20亿美元》

Who will Inherit Steve Jobs' $8.3 Billion?

《谁将继承史蒂夫·乔布斯的83亿美元?》

Bill Gates loses “world’s richest” title after giving $28 billion to charity

《比尔·盖茨捐赠280亿美元，失去了“世界首富”头衔》

Apple's $76B in cash reserves surpasses US government operating balance

《苹果的现金储备760亿美元，超过了美国政府的营余》

What did he give humanity?  Consumer electronics.

他给人类带来了什么？消费类电子产品而已。

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【答案十一】Prateek Baghel
I'll say Marilyn Monroe.

我想说玛丽莲·梦露。



I has always baffled me that on what grounds Marilyn is considered an iconic person in history. One of my friends( a girl) told me that Marilyn was such an inspirational person. When I asked the reasons, she apparently had no explanations. I guess she had that image of Marilyn,probably because media portrayed Marilyn in such a way. Later, I pricked my friend's bubble with some of the following Marilyn trivia.

我一直很困惑，为什么玛丽莲被认为是一位历史标志性人物。我朋友(一个女孩)告诉我，玛丽莲是如此激励人心的一个人。当我问原因时，她显然无法解释。我想她对玛丽莲有这样的印象，可能是因为媒体把玛丽莲描绘成了这样。后来，我用下面这些玛丽莲的小事戳破了我朋友的幻想。

1、She was a below average actress who mostly played the "dumb blonde" stereotype roles.

    她是一个低于平均水准的女演员，主要扮演“金发傻妞”这类刻板角色。

2、She only served as a major sex symbol during 50's.

    她在50年代只作为一个重要的性符号。

3、She was uneducated by choice.

    她出于自愿，没有接受过教育。

4、She was a promiscuous lady. 3 of her marriages failed. Her affairs with the Kennedy brothers are no longer secret to anyone.

    她是个随便的女人。她的三次婚姻失败了。她与肯尼迪兄弟的情事已不是秘密。

5、She finally died( some speculate it was a probable suicide) from drug overdose.

    她最终死于药物过量，(有些人推测这可能是自杀)。

She was never in the leagues of actresses such as Katherine Hepburn or Audrey Hepburn. She was neither a philanthropist nor a social activist(as Angelina Jolie or Emma Watson are). She never fought for women rights or for any other social issues. She only served as an eye-candy either on the silver screen or on the Playboy magazine. What did she inspire in people? What was in her,that made people look up to her? I,for one, still  can't fathom the reason behind.

她从来不是像凯瑟琳·赫本或奥黛丽·赫本那样的女演员。她既不是慈善家也不是社会活动家(安吉丽娜·朱莉或艾玛·沃森)。她从来没有为妇女权利或其他社会问题而奋斗。她只在银幕上或《花花公子》杂志上充当花瓶。她到底在人们身上激励了什么？她身上到底有什么让人仰慕的？就我而言，仍然无法领会这背后的原因。

So on what grounds is she considered a role model?

所以她为什么被认为是一个榜样？

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【答案十二】Abhilash Pattnaik

Alexander Graham Bell 亚历山大·格拉汉姆·贝尔

We know that Bell did not invent the telephone, but stole the idea without acknowledgement from Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci. Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1847, and moved to Canada in 1870. He died in the US in 1922 as a highly respected millionaire scientist entrepreneur. He was indeed a gifted technician but had a nasty side to his personality. He presided for many years over the Eugenics Society, which proposed - and, in several cases, achieved - the forced sterilisation of individuals it considered inferior.

我们知道贝尔并没有发明电话，而是在未得到同意的情况下，从安东尼奥·梅乌奇那里偷走了这个想法。贝尔于1847年出生于苏格兰的爱丁堡，并于1870年移居加拿大，于1922年，在美国去世，是一位备受尊敬的百万富翁、科学家、企业家。他确实是一个有天赋的技术人员，但性格中却有肮脏下流的一面。他主持了多年的优生学协会，该协会提议对它所认为的下等人进行强制绝育————并在几个案例中已经实施了。

The real inventor of the telephone - which he called "electrophone" - was Meucci, who was born in Florence in 1808 and died impoverished in New York in the closing years of the 19th century. Meucci was a patriot and friend of Italy's national hero, Giuseppe Garibaldi (who also visited Hong Kong, Macau, Canton and Xiamen in 1851).

电话的真正发明者是梅乌奇，他把电话称为“electrophone”。梅乌奇于1808年出生在佛罗伦萨，19世纪末在纽约去世。梅乌奇是一位爱国者，也是意大利民族英雄朱塞佩·加里波第【译者注：意大利建国三杰之一，被称为现代游击战之父】的朋友，加里波第在1851年还到过香港、澳门、广州和厦门。

Meucci begun testing primitive telephones while working in Florence as a theatre technician. Later, for political reasons, he and his wife were arrested and expelled by the Tuscan State. They moved first to Cuba and then to the US.

梅乌奇在佛罗伦萨剧院当技师时，开始测试原始电话。后来由于政治原因，他和他的妻子被逮捕并驱逐出境。他们先到了古巴，然后去往美国。

Having fallen on hard times - his savings disappeared with fraudulent debtors - he spent what little money remained left pursuing his dream of voice communication across vast distances. He filed a patent caveat in 1871 - not a full patent that would cost US$250, which he did not have - five years before Bell filed his patent. When it came time to renew his own patent, Meucci couldn't even raise the US$10 renew fee.

他的积蓄被不诚实的借款人骗走了，生活困难，他把仅剩的一点钱花在他的远距离语音通信梦想上。他在1871年提交了一份保护发明特许权请求书——这并不是一个完整的专利申请，因为那要花250美元，而他没有——五年之后贝尔提交了他的专利申请。当轮到更新自己的专利申请书时，梅乌奇甚至不能筹集到10美元的更新费。

Meucci was aboard the Staten Island Ferry in 1871 when a boiler exploded killing 125 passengers and injuring hundreds more. While recovering from his burns, Meucci discovered that his wife had sold the contents of his lab, including the telephone, for a total of US$6 to buy medications.

1871年，梅乌奇在斯泰滕岛渡轮上，当时一个锅炉爆炸了，死了125名乘客，数百人受伤。当从烧伤中恢复过来，梅乌奇发现他的妻子已经卖掉了他实验室里的东西，包括电话，总共换了6美元买药。

Not yet resigned to his bad luck, Meucci took his notebooks with all his experiments and a new prototype of telephone to Western Union telegraph company, but their executives (friends and colleagues of Bell) failed to meet him and later claimed to have lost the items he had given them. Two years later Bell filed a patent and set up a company with Western Union.

他没有因为运气不好而放弃，梅乌奇把记着他所有实验的笔记本和一支新的电话原型带到了西联电报公司，但是这家公司的主管（也就是贝尔的朋友和同事）没能见到他，之后声称已经丢失了梅乌奇带给他们的东西。两年后，贝尔申请了一项专利，并与西联成立了一家公司。

Meucci sued, and the court case drew considerable public sympathy for the poor Italian immigrant who could barely speak English. But the judge ruled in favour of Bell, perhaps because he, as a skilled businessman and man of means that he was, had in the meantime set a company with branches around the world.

梅乌奇提起了诉讼，此案引起了公众对这位可怜的、几乎不会说英语的意大利移民的同情。但法官作出了有利于贝尔的判决，也许是因为他是一名老练的商人和有钱人，同时创立了一家在世界各地设立了分号的公司。

Meucci died without being able to appeal. In 2002, a new ruling by the US House of Representatives declared the ruling invalid. The US Congress found that Meucci had indeed tested a telephone in 1860 and that Bell had had access to his material.

梅乌奇没能再上诉就去世了。2002年，美国众议院的一项新裁决宣布该判决无效。美国国会发现，梅乌奇在1860年确实测试过电话，并且贝尔已经接触过他的资料。

This was not a case of two gifted inventors reaching the same conclusion at the same time, as often happens, but a clear cut case of fraud and misrepresentation. Alexander Graham Bell became a wealthy man with his invention but failed to extend a helping hand to its less fortunate inventor, who was an immigrant like himself. This should not surprise us because Bell showed himself to be a man who strongly believed in the survival of the fittest and, of course, the smartest.

这并不是通常发生的，两名天才发明家在同一时间得出同一结论的案例。而是一个明显的欺诈和歪曲事实。亚历山大·格雷厄姆·贝尔凭借自己的发明成为一名富有的人，但未能向像他一样但缺少运气的移民发明家伸出援助之手。这并不会让我们感到惊讶，因为贝尔证明了自己是一个坚信适者生存的人，当然，也是最聪明的人。

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【答案十三）Rohit Chauhan,

THOMAS ALVA EDISON 托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生

Thomas Alva Edison is one of the famous big name in the scientific world.Some regard him one as one of the greatest pioneer in invention  . But  actually he was entirely a different man in reality for those who know very well about him.Impatience, intolerance, arrogance, jealousy , dictator , rude,less insight ,  eagerness to steal other ideas and patent  and to claim own credit over the works and efforts of others are some of the best few words that aptly describe him in brief.Many credit him with developing electricity and lighting up the world.

托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生的大名在科学界如雷贯耳。有些人认为他是发明领域最伟大的先驱之一。但实际上对于那些非常了解他的人来说，他是一个完全不同的人。这里有一些恰当描述他的最佳词语：急躁、偏狭、傲慢、嫉妒、独裁、粗鲁、缺乏洞察力、渴望窃取他人的想法和专利，并将他人的作品和努力归功于自己。许多人称赞他发展了电力事业和点亮了世界。

He is credited to have discovered the incandescent light bulb but the real credit to it's invention goes to Englishman Sir Joseph Swan ( 1824- 1914). His only original invention that  he did with the help of his assistant Harold P Brown.was a not so useful and remarkable kind of thing which was Electric Chair which he did just to topple the Tesla AC system out of shear arrogance and jealousy.

他因为发明了白炽灯泡而受到赞誉，但这项发明真正要归功于的是英国人约瑟夫·斯旺爵士(1824 - 1914)。他唯一的独创发明是在他的助手哈罗德·P·布朗的帮助下完成的。这是一件不那么有用而非凡的东西，它是一种电椅，出于爱迪生的傲慢和嫉妒，为了推翻特斯拉的交流系统而发明的。

He was a general in the battle field of currents determined to stop and dismantle Tesla AC system at any cost.That AC system which was a greatest advancement and breakthrough ever made in the history of human civilization.He was a hard task maker and the men who worked under him had to invent something anyhow......... no matter whose ideas and patent they  stole.

他是一名电流战场的将军，他决心不惜任何代价阻止并摧毁特斯拉交流电系统。交流电系统是人类文明历史上一项最伟大的进步和突破。他是一个艰巨任务的制造者，在他手下工作的人无论如何都要发明一些东西。不管他们偷了谁的想法和专利。

He called the AC current a killer current and to prove his point he designed an electric chair powered by AC  to kill men sentenced for execution.In order to prove that the AC system was better for execution ,Brown and Edison killed many animals including a circus elephant while testing their prototype.They also organized execution of animals through electrocution for press in order to ensure that AC current was the extremely dangerous and hence it's use should be stopped at earliest.It is from here the term Electrocution originated.   

他称交流电为致命电流，并证明了他的观点，他设计了一个交流电的电动椅子，来杀死被判死刑的人。为了证明交流电系统更适合处决，布朗和爱迪生在测试原型时杀死了许多动物，包括一只马戏团的大象。为了让人们确信交流电是极其危险的，应该尽早停止使用，他们还组织了动物电刑处决，请来媒体进行报道。这就是电刑这个词最初的由来。

( Edison laboratory in Melon Park, New Jersey where hundreds of animals which included horses,cats ,dogs and elephants were cruelly electrocuted to discredit the AC system by generating public fear against it owing to it's fatal nature.)

(美国新泽西州Melon Park的爱迪生实验室里，数百种动物，包括马、猫、狗和大象，都被残忍地电死，就为了引起公众对交流电致命性的恐惧，败坏交流电系统的名声。)

The first man to die from electrocution using electric chair was William Kremmler.The sentence was carried out in Aug6,1890.They got a Westinghouse AC generator secretly planted inside the prison to carry out the execution.George Westinghouse tried hard to stop it on the ground that it was inhuman and cruel but all his plea was turned down.

第一个在电椅上死于电刑的人是威廉·克莱姆勒。这个判决在1890年8月被执行。他们在监狱里秘密安放了一个西屋电气的交流发电机，以执行死刑。乔治·威斯豪斯【译注：西屋电气创始人】试图以不人道和残忍为由努力阻止它的发生，但他的请求被拒绝了。

Few words that summaries Thomas Alva Edison :

对托马斯·阿尔瓦·爱迪生的一些总结:

< i> He was extremely cruel fellow responsible for inhuman killing of men and hundreds of innocent animals in his personal vendetta against Tesla and Westinghouse and their AC system just to prove his point that his DC idea was far better and future promising than the AC.

1、他是一个极端残忍的人，为了反对特斯拉和西屋电气以及他们的交流电系统，为了证明他的直流电理念比交流电更好更有发展前途的观点，他要为不人道地杀害人类和数百只无辜的动物负责。。

< ii> No one could be more skilled and competent than Edison in stealing other's ideas and patent and earning credit to own for the work he never did or in which he was never involved .

2、在窃取别人的想法和专利并为自己从未做过的或参与过的工作赢得赞誉的方面，没人比爱迪生更加老练和胜任了。

He was excessively arrogant and ambitious with very little or no respect to others talents and competence ,dreaming to be a single name  in the world of electricity and trying hard to pull down  everyone who went in support of AC instead of DC.

3、他过于自大，野心勃勃，很少或不尊重别人的天赋和能力，梦想在电力行业成为世界上第一人，并努力推翻所有支持交流电而不是直流电的人。

Thus in my opinion , Edison was not a scientist or inventor at all .He was a man with less or almost no vision,whose only skill was to steal others ideas and claim credit for it and to demean others in the worst possible ways.

因此在我看来，爱迪生根本不是科学家或发明家。他是一个缺乏或者几乎没有远见的人，他的唯一技能就是窃取别人的想法并归功于自己，以及用最糟糕的方式贬低他人。