中学时期的马斯克表现如何？

Musk was a good student, but not a superstar. When he was nine and ten, he got A’s in English and Math. “He is quick to grasp new mathematical concepts,” his teacher noted. But there was a constant refrain in the report card comments: “He works extremely slowly, either because he dreams or is doing what he should not.” “He seldom finishes anything. Next year he must concentrate on his work and not daydream during class.” “His compositions show a lively imagination, but he doesn’t always finish in time.” His average grade before he got to high school was 83 out of 100.

马斯克是个好学生，但不是超级明星。九岁和十岁时，他的英语和数学成绩都是 A。"他的老师说："他很快就能掌握新的数学概念。但是，在成绩单的评语中，有一句话始终萦绕在耳边："他做得特别慢，不是因为他在做梦，就是在做他不该做的事。""他很少完成任何事情。明年他必须集中精力做作业，不要在上课时做白日梦"。"他的作品展现了丰富的想象力" "但他总是不能及时完成"上高中前，他的平均成绩是 83 分（满分 100 分）。

After he was bullied and beaten in his public high school, his father moved him to a private academy, Pretoria Boys High School. Based on the English model, it featured strict rules, caning, compulsory chapel, and uniforms. There he got excellent grades in all but two subjects: Afrikaans (he got a 61 out of 100 his final year) and religious instruction (“not extending himself,” the teacher noted). “I wasn’t really going to put a lot of effort into things I thought were meaningless,” he says. “I would rather be reading or playing video games.” He got an A in the physics part of his senior certificate exams, but somewhat surprisingly, only a B in the math part.

在公立高中受到欺负和殴打后，他的父亲将他转到了一所私立学校--比勒陀利亚男子高中。这所学校以英国模式为基础，校规严格，有鞭笞、强制性礼拜和校服。在那里，除了两门科目外，他的其他科目都取得了优异成绩：南非荷兰语（最后一年的满分是 100 分，他考了 61 分）和宗教教育（老师说他 "没有扩展自己"）。"他说："我并不想在我认为毫无意义的事情上花费太多精力。"我宁愿去读书或玩电子游戏"。在高级证书考试中，他的物理部分得了 A，但令人有些意外的是，数学部分只得了 B。

In his spare time, he liked to make small rockets and experiment with different mixtures—such as swimming-pool chlorine and brake fluid—to see what would make the biggest bang. He also learned magic tricks and how to hypnotize people, once convincing Tosca that she was a dog and getting her to eat raw bacon.

业余时间，他喜欢制作小火箭，并用不同的混合物--比如游泳池里的氯和刹车油--做实验，看哪种混合物能发出最大的爆炸声。他还学习魔术和催眠术，有一次他让托斯卡相信自己是一只狗，还让她吃了生熏肉。

As they would later do in America, the cousins pursued various entrepreneurial ideas. One Easter, they made chocolate eggs, wrapped them in foil, and sold them door-to-door. Kimbal came up with an ingenious scheme. Instead of selling them cheaper than the Easter eggs at the store, they made them more expensive. “Some people would balk at the price,” he says, “but we told them, ‘You’re actually supporting future capitalists.’ ”

就像他们后来在美国所做的那样，这对表兄弟追求各种创业想法。有一年复活节，他们制作了巧克力蛋，用铝箔纸包裹，挨家挨户推销。金巴尔想出了一个巧妙的办法。他们并没有卖得比商店里的复活节彩蛋便宜，而是卖得更贵。"他说："有些人会对这个价格表示反对，但我们告诉他们，'你们实际上是在支持未来的资本家'。"

Reading remained Musk’s psychological retreat. Sometimes he would immerse himself in books all afternoon and most of the night, nine hours at a stretch. When the family went to someone’s house, he would disappear into their host’s library. When they went into town, he would wander off and later be found at a bookstore, sitting on the floor, in his own world. He was also deeply into comics. The single-minded passion of the superheroes impressed him. “They’re always trying to save the world, with their underpants on the outside or these skin-tight iron suits, which is really pretty strange when you think about it,” he says. “But they

are

trying to save the world.”

阅读仍然是马斯克的心理避风港。有时，他整个下午和大半夜都沉浸在书海中，一读就是九个小时。当一家人去别人家时，他会消失在主人的图书馆里。当他们进城时，他会四处游荡，后来在一家书店被发现，他坐在地板上，沉浸在自己的世界里。他还对漫画情有独钟。超级英雄们一心一意的热情给他留下了深刻印象。"他说："他们总是试图拯救世界，外面穿着内裤或紧身铁衣，仔细想想真的很奇怪。"但他们试图拯救世界"。

Musk read both sets of his father’s encyclopedias and became, to his doting mother and sister, a “genius boy.” To other kids, however, he was an annoying nerd. “Look at the moon, it must be a million miles away,” a cousin once exclaimed. Replied Elon, “No, it’s like 239,000 miles, depending on the orbit.”

马斯克阅读了父亲的两套百科全书，在宠爱他的母亲和姐姐眼里，他是个 "天才儿童"。然而，在其他孩子眼里，他却是个讨厌的书呆子。"有一次，他的一个堂兄感叹道："你看月亮，它一定在一百万英里之外。埃隆回答说："不，好像是23.9万英里，这取决于轨道。"

One book that he found in his father’s office described great inventions that would be made in the future. “I would come back from school and go to a side room in my father’s office and read it over and over,” he says. Among the ideas was a rocket propelled by an ion thruster, which would use particles rather than gas for thrust. Late one night at the control room of his rocket base in south Texas, Musk described the book at length to me, including how an ion thruster would work in a vacuum. “That book is what first made me think about going to other planets,” he said.

他在父亲的办公室里发现了一本书，书中描述了未来的伟大发明。"他说："我放学回来，就会跑到父亲办公室的一间偏房，反复阅读这本书。他说，"这些想法中包括用离子推进器推进火箭，这种推进器利用粒子而不是气体提供推力。一天深夜，在得克萨斯州南部火箭基地的控制室里，马斯克向我详细描述了这本书，包括离子推进器如何在真空中工作。"他说："正是这本书让我第一次想到要去其他星球。