The school system is a bastion of education and enlightenment, a fortress of higher learning where our children can safely discover the facts about the way our world works. Through this system we have the opportunity to grow and mature into responsible adults, secure in our knowledge of history, science, and mathematics.
学校系统是教育启蒙之堡垒，是我们的孩子获取知识，明晓世界如何运转之所在。在学校的教育下，我们有机会渐趋于成熟，成长为一代富于责任感、使命感的青年，同时因胸藏万象，熟习历史、科学与数学知识，从而常感富足安适之意。
Except, of course, for all the ridiculously irresponsible lies we're being fed. Here are ten of the biggest lies taught to us in school.
当然，我们在大书其优点时，也不能落下其灌输给学生的荒谬、不可靠的错误知识。下面就是那些年学校教给我们的10个最大的“谎言”。
10.Deoxygenated Blood Is Blue (Which Is Why Your Veins Appear Blue)
10.缺氧血液是蓝色的（这可以解释为何你的静脉呈蓝色）
If you look closely at the inside of your wrist, you'll probably see a small network of blue veins running up into your hand. Despite what they might teach you in elementary school, that's not blue blood running through there. The myth is that deoxygenated blood is blue, while blood leaving the heart is red because it's been filled with fresh oxygen. When you bleed, the blood is immediately red because it's exposed to oxygen in the air.
如果你仔细观察你的手腕内侧，可能就会发现手腕皮下交织成网的蓝色静脉。不管你的小学教科书对此如何说明，手腕下流经静脉的血液其实并非蓝色。我们不觉便陷入这样的一个误区：由于从心脏运输至全身各器官的血液里面富含新鲜的氧，故而动脉血是红色的，而缺氧血是蓝色的；当你流血时，血液随即变红则是因为接触到空气中的氧气。
But if you've ever given blood or had blood taken at the doctor's office, you'll know that it's not some alien blue liquid filling up that sealed tube—it's, well, it's blood. The reason your veins look blue is a simple trick of the light, and the way your eyes perceive colors. When light filters through the layers of skin, the low frequency wavelengths (like red) are refracted by pigmentation and thin fat layers, leaving mostly blue light to reflect back to your eyes. An albino person will usually have red veins because of the lack of pigmentation in their skin.
但是倘你曾经献过血或在医师处抽过血，你就会发现装在密封试管中的蓝色液体并不陌生——没错，那就是血液。你的静脉之所以呈现蓝色不过是光线的一个小把戏，取决于人眼对不同颜色的感知能力。当光线渗进皮肤表层时，低频率波长的光线（如红光）就被色素淀积和薄脂肪层折射出去，从而使反射回人眼的光线多为蓝光。而白化病患者的静脉通常呈现红色，那是因为他们的皮肤中缺乏色素淀积。
9.There Were Thirteen Original Colonies In America
9.北美地区最初有13个殖民地
It's easy to understand why people believe this lie, but it is a lie nonetheless. The American flag has thirteen stripes representing the original thirteen colonies—but really there were only twelve.
只要联想到美国国旗上的13道条纹代表着独立之初北美地区的13个殖民地，就很容易理解为何人们对这个“谎言”深信不疑，但事实却并非如此，实际上北美地区最初只有12个殖民地。
That's because Delaware was never a separate colony. After the British invaded the region and stole it from the Dutch in the 1660s, the Delaware territory was juggled between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Eventually it ended up under the ownership of William Penn—the guy who also owned Pennsylvania—and it remained a part of Pennsylvania until the Revolutionary War. In fact, it wasn't even called Delaware—it was just known as “The Three Lower Counties.”
这是因为那时候特拉华（Delaware）还不是一个单独的殖民地。自17世纪60年代英国入侵特拉华并成功从荷兰手中夺取此地起，特拉华的处境就一直颇为尴尬，它位于宾夕法尼亚州与马里兰州之间，但既不单独成州，也不属于任何州。最终威廉·佩恩（William Penn）获得该地区的所有权，由于他早先就曾拥有宾夕法尼亚州，因此在独立战争之前，特拉华地区一直属于宾夕法尼亚殖民地的一部分。实际上，它最初甚至不叫特拉华，而被称为“下三郡”（The Three Lower Counties）。
8.玻璃是液体
The myth: old windowpanes are thicker at the bottom because glass is a slow moving liquid.
误区：古时候的玻璃窗底部较厚，由此可推断玻璃是缓慢流动的液体。
At some point in time, a historian looked at an ancient windowpane and noticed something unusual: the glass was thicker at the bottom than at the top. Since there was no other way to account for it, he came to the conclusion that glass was an extremely slow moving liquid that settled over the years, resulting in thin, brittle glass at the top that gradually thickened towards the bottom edge of the windowpane.
曾经有一个历史学家在观察一扇古时玻璃窗时，注意到一个不同寻常的现象：玻璃底部部分较其他部分更厚。由于找不到其他原因对此现象加以阐释，他由此得出结论，认为玻璃是流动极其缓慢的液体，随着时间的推移逐渐趋于稳定，于是造就了后来我们所见的玻璃窗形态：上部稀薄易碎，而底部边缘则越发增厚。
And then everybody believed him. The myth spread until even college professors were teaching it in their classes, since even scientists don't understand science sometimes. But one researcher recently decided to test the viscosity (rate of flow) of glass, and came to the result that even the least viscous type of glass wouldn't change much before 10^32 years—about three times the length of the existence of the universe. Though why we should believe him more than the first scientist is a bit of a mystery—effectively they are both making it up.
那时所有人都相信他的说法。这个谣传便播散开来，甚至连大学老师在课堂上都是如此教授，但我们也不能过多苛责，毕竟就连科学家有时也不能理解科学。但最近有一个研究者决定测量玻璃的粘度（液体流动时,在其分子间产生内摩擦的性质称为液体的粘性，粘性的大小用粘度表示），最后测量结果显示，即使是粘度最低的玻璃也要经过10^32年（约是宇宙存在时间的三倍）才有较大的变化。但问题是我们究竟要相信谁呢——实际上，他们两人的说法都属子虚乌有。
The real reason antique glass windows are bottom-heavy goes back to the way they were made in the Middle Ages. Window-makers would blow glass into a large sphere, then flatten it into a disk by spinning it. The spinning motion caused the edges of the disk to thicken, much like spinning a pizza dough. And when they cut the disk into windows, they placed the thicker side at the bottom for stability.
其实关于古时玻璃窗底部更厚的原因还得追溯至中世纪的玻璃制造工艺。玻璃制造者用一个不锈钢的空心管挑适量高温熔化的玻璃水，将其吹成一个大玻璃球，然后通过旋转将其压制定形成一个圆盘。这样的旋转运动使得圆盘边缘越发增厚，这和旋转披萨面团的原理相类似。随后他们将圆盘切割成窗户形状，并将较厚的一端置于底部以固平衡。
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