1、说它“古老”是因为它创作于一百五十多年以前，那时的科学发展才刚刚起步；说它“新”是因为弗兰肯斯坦的问题也就是我们今天所面临的问题。科学给予我们力量去改造世界，但这种力量也可能与我们作对并毁灭我们。弗兰肯斯坦创造了一个新的人，他比任何其他人都要巨大和强壮然而弗兰肯斯坦控制不了他，这个怪物毁灭了弗兰肯斯坦所爱的一切。今天的科学家正在创造着巨大的机器、电脑和武器，他们声称这些东西对我们有益但我们能够驾驭它们吗？玛丽雪莱（17971851）是维多利亚时代的一位重要作家。她的丈夫是英格兰最著名的诗人之一珀西比希雪莱。1Captain！ Something is moving on the iceLook
2、 over there！The sailor stood at the top of the mast， high above the Captain His hand pointed away from the ship， across the miles of ice that covered the seaThe Captain looked to the north， where the sailor was pointing He saw something coming fast towards the ship across the ice He put his telescop
3、e to his eye， and through it he could see the shapes of ten dogs pulling a sledge over the ice He could also see the driver of the sledgea huge figure，much bigger than a manThe sledge came nearer and nearer to the sea Soon it was only a quarter of a mile from the shipNo one needed a telescope now to
4、 see the huge figure of the driverSuddenly the sledge went behind a mountain of ice and disappeared At that moment another sledge appeared It， too，was moving fast， and was clearly chasing the first sledge This driver was a smaller figure， more like an ordinary manFaster and faster the dogs ran；then
5、the second sledge also disappeared behind the mountain of iceTwo hours passed The sledges did not appear again Nothing moved on the ice Soon night came， and in the night there was a storm In the morning，the sailors saw that great pieces of ice were floating round the shipSuddenly the sailor on the m
6、ast shouted again：Captain， I can see a man on the iceThe sailor was pointing to a piece of ice that was floating near the ship A man was sitting on the ice， and near him was a broken sledge The man was nearly dead from cold and could not walk The sailors carried him carefully onto the ship， and took
7、 him to the Captain， who said：Welcome to my shipI am the Captain and my name is Robert WaltonThank you， Captain Walton， the man saidMy name is Frankenstein， Victor FrankensteinThen he fainted and said no moreTwo days passed before the man was strong enough to talk and then the Captain asked him to t
8、ell his storyI am trying to catch someone， said FrankensteinThat is why I have come so far north on the iceWe saw you following someone， the Captain saidHe was huge， much bigger than a man We saw his sledge just in front of you on the night before the stormI am pleased you all saw that huge figure，
9、Frankenstein saidPerhaps that will help you to believe my storyDuring the days， while the Captain worked on the ship，Frankenstein wrote down his story， and each evening he read what he had written to the CaptainHere is Victor Frankensteins story2I was born in Switzerland， in the town of Geneva My pa
10、rents loved each other very much， and I learnt from the example of their loveI learnt that to love and to be patient are the most important things in the worldMy mother hoped to have a daughter after I was born， but for five years I was the only child And then my mother found a sister for meShe was
11、helping a family in which there were five children They were very poor，and the children were thin and hungry One of the children was a little girl， with golden hair and blue eyes Her name was Elizabeth My mother took the little girl into our family，and Elizabeth became the daughter that my mother ha
12、d always wanted As I grew older， my love for Elizabeth became stronger all the timeLater my mother had two other sons， Ernest and WilliamA young woman called Justine came to live in the house to help my mother with the children We loved her as much as she loved usThe years passed happily， and we had
13、 everything that we needed At school I met another very fine person His name was Henry Clerval， and he was very clever My family also liked him very much， so he was a welcome visitor to our houseI studied very hard at schoolI wanted to know the secrets of life， and， most of all， I wanted to know how
14、 to make living thingsI read all the books that I could findOne day，something happened that added a new idea to the ideas that I already hadI was fifteen at the time， and we were on holiday in the mountains There was a wild storm， and with it came the most frightening thunder and lightning that I ha
15、d ever seen in my life About twenty metres in front of our house was a great treeSuddenly a huge fork of lightning hit the treeAfter a few seconds， there was nothing left of it except a black piece of wood two metres high The lightning had destroyed itI saw how strong electricity was I began to read
16、 all the books that I could find about electricity and its terrible power维克多的故事开始了3For seventeen years my life was very happy Then the first sad thing happened My mother became very ill，and soon she knew that she was dying Just before she died，she asked Elizabeth and me to go to her room She held ou
17、r hands and said：My children， I am very happy because you love each other，and because one day you will get married Everyone in the family loves you， Elizabeth Will you take my place in the family， my dear？ I can die happy if you will look after them when I have goneMy mother died， and we were very s
18、ad， because we loved her dearly Elizabeth was brave and helped us； her sweet smile gave us some happiness in the unhappy days after my mothers deathThe time came for me to go to universityI did not want to leave my sad family， but we all knew that I should go It was hard to leave， too， because the p
19、arents of my good friend Henry Clerval would not let him go to university with me And so I had to go aloneOn my first day at the university I met my teacher， Professor Waldman， who was one of the greatest scientists in the world He gave a wonderful talk to all the students who were starting at the u
20、niversity He ended his talk by saying：Some of you will become the great scientists of tomorrow You must study hard and discover everything that you can That is why God made you intelligentto help other peopleAfter the professors talk，I thought very carefullyI remembered the storm when I was fifteen
21、I remembered how the lightning had destroyed the treeI wanted to use electricity to help people， and I wanted to discover the secrets of lifeI decided to work on these two things I did not know then that my work would destroy me and the people that I lovedI started work the next day I worked very ha
22、rd and soon Professor Waldman and I realized that I could learn to be a very good scientistThe professor helped me very much， and other important scientists who were his friends helped me，too I was interested in my work and I did not take one days holiday during the next two years I did not go home，
23、 and my letters to my family were very shortAfter two years I had discovered many things and I built a scientific machine that was better than anything in the university My machine would help me answer the most important question of all How does life begin？ Is it possible to put life into dead thing
24、s？ To answer these questions about life I had to learn first about deathI had to watch bodies from the moment when they died and the warm life left them In the hospital and in the university， I watched the dying and the deadDay after day， month after month， I followed deathIt was a dark and terrible
25、 timeThen one day， the answer came to me Suddenly I was sure that I knew the secret of life I knew that I could put life into a body that was not aliveI worked harder and harder now I slept for only a short time each night， and I did not eat much foodI wrote to my family less often But they loved me
26、 and did not stop writing to meThey said they understood how busy I was They did not want me to stop work to write or to see them They would wait until I had more time They hoped to see me very soonThe professors realized that I was doing very important work， and so they gave me my own laboratory Th
27、ere was a small flat above the laboratory， where I lived， and sometimes I stayed inside the building for a week and did not go outAbove the laboratory I built a very tall mast It was 150metres high， and higher than the tallest building in the cityThe mast could catch lightning and could send the ele
28、ctricity down to my machine in the laboratory I had never forgotten the lightning that had destroyed the tree There had been so much power in the electricity of that lightning I believed I could use that electricity to give life to things that were deadI will say no more than that The secret of my m
29、achine must die with me I was a very clever scientist， but I did not realize then what a terrible mistake I was making4In my laboratory I made a body I bought or stole all the pieces of human body that I needed， and slowly and carefully， I put them all togetherI did not let anybody enter my laborato
30、ry or my flat while I was doing this awful work I was afraid to tell anybody my terrible secretI had wanted to make a beautiful man， but the face of the creature was horrible Its skin was thin and yellow， and its eyes were as yellow as its skin Its long black hair and white teeth were almost beautif
31、ul， but the rest of the face was very uglyIts legs and arms were the right shape， but they were hugeI had to use big pieces because it was too difficult to join small pieces together My creature was two and a half metres tallFor a year I had worked to make this creature， but now it looked terrible and frightening I almost decided to destroy itBut I could not I had to know if I could put life into itI joined the body to the wires from my machine More wires jo
