10 Fascinating International Facts That Are Wrong

原文地址：

http://listverse.com/2010/02/05/10-fascinating-international-facts-that-are-wrong/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheListUniverse+(The+List+Universe)

10 Fascinating International Facts That Are Wrong

十大奇异的国际误解

My first list was accused of being too American-centric. So here are 10 more corrections to misconceptions that non-Listverse people may have but this time you’ll need your passport handy to read it.

我的第一个列表被指责说是太以美国为中心了。于是我找出了另外十个大家可能常有误解的正确解读，但是这次你要有护照在手方能一读。

10

俄国（Russia）

The Error: The former Soviet Union celebrated the October Revolution in October.

Although the Bolsheviks took control over October 25-26, 1917, this was under the Old Style (Julian) calendar. One of the first things the Communists did was to modernize their calendar to the Gregorian Calendar – thereby pushing the day ahead 13 days (into November). This was a major holiday in the Soviet Union, mostly because with the official ban on religion the biggest holidays were civil holidays such as May Day and the October Revolution.

误解：前苏联在十月份庆祝十月革命。

尽管布尔什维克在1917年十月25-26日之间取得了胜利，但这是俄罗斯旧历（儒略历）的十月。而共产主义者们最先做的事之一就是把历法换成了现代的格里历（公历）——因此把革命胜利这天后推了13天（成了11月）。这是苏联的主要节日之一，主要是因为禁止庆祝以前的节日而要庆祝国际劳动节和十月革命日这样的节日。

9

德国&英国（Germany & Britain）

The Error: The British king George I of Hanover used English or German when speaking with his cabinet.

I don’t know that this is so much a misconception as “it’s obvious” that a British monarch would speak English. Those who know history and realize George I was a German prince who spoke no English may then think that “it’s obvious” he and his advisors spoke German. The reality is that since his cabinet did not speak German, the lingua franca in the meetings was French.

错误：英国国王乔治一世

汉诺威选帝侯在同内阁讲话时使用英语或德语。

我不知道这种是否是一种“想当然的”英国元首自然可以说英语的误解。那些学过历史的人会意识到乔治一世是位完全不会说英语的德国王子，然后会认为“明显的”他和他的 顾问们说德语。而是事实，由于他的内阁成员不会说德语，当他们会面时他们之间说的混合语是法语。

8

英国&法国（Britain & France）

The Error: The Titanic was the first ship known to use the distress code “SOS”?

Although British ships preferred the traditional distress call “CQD”, most of the other European countries used the International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea standard set in 1908 of “SOS”. The French ship Niagara is known to have used “SOS” well before the Titanic did. Incidently, in CQD, the CQ was a general call on a telegraph line with the D standing for Distress. In James Cameron’s “Titanic”, he did get it right that the radio operator tried both CQD and SOS after the new distress call was suggested to him.

误解：泰坦尼克号是第一艘使用国际遇险求救电码“SOS”的船？

尽管英国的船只更喜欢使用传统的求救信号“CQD”，但是欧洲大陆的大部分国家使用在1908年在国际海上无线通信标准会议上确定的“SOS”。法国船只尼亚加拉号在泰坦尼克之前就使用了“SOS”。顺便说一句，在“CQD”之中，CQ表示了通常用的无线电线路而D代表了求救。在詹姆斯卡梅隆的电影《泰坦尼克》中，他正确的让无线电操作者发出了CQD和在新的求救信号发出时使用了SOS。

7

黎巴嫩（Lebanon）

The Error: John Kennedy was the first to say “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

Yes, the misconception is American but the backstory is international. American politicians are renowned for plagiarizing their best lines from foreign sources. For example, Abraham Lincoln took the phrase “a government of the people, by the people and for the people” from the preface of John Wycliff’s 1384 edition of the Bible and current Vice-President Joe Biden cribbed a few speeches while in the Senate from Labour Party MP Neil Kinnock. This quote thought by many Americans to be pure Kennedy was actually from Lebanese writer Khalil Gibran in an article advocating his Lebanese brethren to rebel against the occupying Ottoman Turks.

误解：约翰肯尼迪是第一个说出：“不要问你的国家为你做了什么，问问你自己能为国家做什么”的人。

是的，这个误解是美国的，但背景确实国际的。

美国的政客因为在他们的演讲中抄袭外国的名句而出名。举例来说吧，林肯从约翰·威克里夫1384年版本的圣经中抄袭了“一个民有、民治、民享的政府”这段话，而现任的副总统拜登向前英国工党党魁基诺克那里抄袭了一些演讲词。这段被美国人民奉为箴言的肯尼迪的引言其实是黎巴嫩作家

Khalil Gibran在一篇动员号召黎巴嫩人民抗击奥斯曼帝国的文章中写出的。

6

澳大利亚&苏格兰（Australia & Scotland）

The Error: Alexander Fleming invented the antibiotic “penicillin”.

Many will disagree with this since it is more a question of semantics than a misconception. Although Alexander Fleming DISCOVERED that the mold Penicillium notatum has antibacterial properties, he was not a chemist and growing and culturing the mold was difficult for him. Howard Florey with the assistance of Ernst Chain was able to purify the penicillin and put it in a form for use in humans, thereby INVENTING penicillin as a true antibiotic.

误解：亚历山大·弗莱明发明了抗生素“盘尼西林（青霉素）”

很多人不同意这个问题因为错误更多的是基于语义上的。尽管弗莱明发现了霉菌盘尼西林可以抗菌，但是他并不是一位化学家而且培育霉菌对他来说也是一件难事。

Howard Florey在

Ernst Chain的帮助下提纯了盘尼西林并把它转化成人们能使用的形式，这样才真正发明了抗生素盘尼西林。

5

瑞士和英国（Switzerland and Britain）

The Error: Watson and Crick discovered DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).

Again, people on Listverse will say “everyone knows that” but many people learn the simplified version that James Watson and Francis Crick discovered DNA, probably because they won the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. The true discoverer was Friedrich Miescher was analyzing pus cell nuclei in 1868 when he discovered nuclein. He was able to analyze this further and discovered an acid component which he called deoxyribonucleic acid. Scientists Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty were the first to show a link between DNA and heredity in 1943 and Rosalind Franklin did the first X-ray diffraction pattern study of DNA. What Watson & Crick did was to develop a model of DNA that accounted for all of the previous research discoveries.

误解：沃森和克里克发现了DNA（脱氧核糖核酸）。

又一次，人们会说“人尽皆知”但是很多人很多人知道的是简化的版本说詹姆斯·沃森和弗朗西斯·克里克发现了DNA，也许是因为他们因为发现了DNA的双链结构而赢得了诺贝尔奖。其实真实的发现者

Friedrich Miescher

是在1868年分析核蛋白质的时候发现了DNA。他还进一步分析了和这发现这中酸化合物而他把这较为脱氧核糖酸。科学家

Avery, MacLeod和McCarty在1943年第一次解释了DNA之间的链而

Rosalind Frankli第一次对DNA进行了X光扫描研究。沃森和克里克发现的其实是基于前人基础上的DNA双链结构。

4

法国（France）

The Error: Mouton-Rothschild is a top-grade Chateau claret.

The five growths (classes) of red Bordeaux were determined in 1855. Four were considered First Class Lafite-Rothschild, Latour, Margaux, Haut-Brion. Mouton-Rothschild did not like being place in second class so their motto is “Premier ne puis. Second ne daigne. Mouton suis.” (First I cannot be. Second I do not deign to be. I am Mouton.) All I know is I certainly would not turn down a glass of it.

误解：木桶罗斯柴尔德庄

是顶级的红酒庄园。

五大酒庄是在1855年确定的。四个是

Lafite-Rothschild、

Latour、Margaux、Haut-Brion。

Mouton-Rothschild并不喜欢位列二等酒庄因此他们的座右铭是“

Premier ne puis. Second ne daigne. Mouton suis

”（一等吾未进，二等非吾愿，吾乃木桶庄）我所知道的是我十分不想给他降低等级。

3

苏格兰和意大利（Scotland and Italy）

The Error: The fax machine was invented after the telephone.

Scottish inventor Alexander Bain had invented the electric clock back in 1841. In 1843 he used his work on electric clock to patent a device that could be synchronized with a twin over telegraph lines, which according to some stories he did so he could transmit a picture of a new-born calf (if true it would need to be a daguerreotype which seems very unlikely for just a cow). Frederick Bakewell patented a better fax machine in 1848, two years before Bain updated his and in 1861 an Italian Giovanni Caselli invented the first high quality fax. All of this was done before both Alexander Bell and Elisha Gray independently filed for the telephone patent on 14 February 1876.

误解：传真机的发明在电话发明之后。

苏格兰发明家亚历山大·贝恩在1841年发明了电子钟。在1843年他在电子表上的工作能通过两根电信同步时间，而除此之外他也传输了一个新生的小牛的照片。

Frederick Bakewell在1848制造了一个更好的传真机，这是在贝恩更新他的机器的两年之前而1861年意大利人

Giovanni Caselli发明了第一个高质量传真机。所有的这一切都在贝尔和格雷1876年2月14日发明电话之前完成。

2

德国（Germany）

The Error: Albert Einstein was a poor student.

The myth that Einstein was a poor student started when an American researcher mistranslated some of Einstein’s report cards by not taking into account the grading system at the time. While Einstein was in school, students were given grades 1 to 6, 1 being the best. This was reversed (1 was worst) the year after Einstein graduated. Further research has uncovered a letter from Albert’s mother to his aunt complimenting his grades, but I guess the image of Einstein going from failing school to being a top physicist is too good to be changed because of the truth.

误解：爱因斯坦是个差学生。

关于爱因斯坦是个差学生的虚构自一个美国学者误解了爱因斯坦的学习报告时候的评级标准。当爱因斯坦上学的时候，学生们的成绩是从1到6，1分是最高的成绩。这种情况从爱因斯坦毕业的那年开始反转了（1是最差的成绩）。还有研究发掘出了阿尔伯特的妈妈给他阿姨的心中抱怨他的成绩，但是我猜测就算有这封信爱因斯坦从一个差学生到最牛的物理学家的转变也是不太可能发生的。

1

中国（China）

The Error: Pandas eat only bamboo.

The reason that pandas eat so much bamboo is that it doesn’t run away. They are omnivores that have adapted to a primarily bamboo diet but they will eat anything they can catch like small animals and carrion. The problem is that they are so slow from the fact that bamboo doesn’t provide a lot of energy that it is hard to catch anything else – a vicious cycle. There are a couple of great articles by National Geographic about the pandas from the 1980’s

误解：大熊猫只吃竹子。

熊猫吃这么多竹子的原因只在于竹子没腿不会跑。它们是适应了以竹子为主的食谱的杂食动物，但是它们会吃一切它们能逮到的小动物和腐肉。问题是他们因为吃了竹子不能获得足够的能量导致行动缓慢，这更进一步让它们不能抓住其他的食物，这是一个恶性循环。关于这方面，《国际地理杂志》在1980年代有很多伟大的作品来反映。

附加

不是美国（Not the United States）

The Error: The United States is the only country that measures things by feet, gallons, pounds, and degrees Fahrenheit.

To demonstrate how out-of-date the U.S. is from basically everyone else in the world, it is pointed out by scientists and metricians that we still use the archaic English system. It may be true, but we are not the only ones. Liberia uses the same system which is not a surprise considering that the country was started by former American slaves who named their capital after American president James Monroe and it was only recently that Liberia’s president was not a descendent of the original American emigrants. And there is a third country that uses the system – Myanmar (pictured above). As a former British colony, they of course adopted the English system. After gaining their independence, the country changed its name from Burma but not how it measured things.

误解：美国是唯一一个以英尺、加仑、磅和华氏温度作为计量单位的国家。

为了解释美国跟世界上的其他国家相比是多么的过时，科学家指出我们仍在用原始的英制单位系统。这也许是真的，但是我们不是唯一还在用的。利比里亚也在使用相同的制式，鉴于这个国家是为原来美国的黑奴所建立的首都还以美国总统詹姆斯蒙罗维亚命名而且直到最近利比里亚的总统才不是美国移民的后裔，这并不让人感到惊讶。还有第三个国家还在用这种制式——缅甸（上图中的国家）。作为英国的前殖民地，他们理所当然的接受了英国的计量系统。在获得独立之后他们改变了英文名但是并没有改变如何计量东西。