From ground level to its highest point, the troposphere (or "turning sphere") is about ten miles thick at the equator and no more than six or seven miles high in the temperate latitudes where most of us live. Eighty percent of the atmosphere's mass, virtually all the water, and thus virtually all the weather are contained within this thin and wispy layer. There really isn't much between you and oblivion.
从地面到最高点，对流层（亦称“对流圈”）在赤道位置上大约为16公里厚，在我们大多数人居住的温带位置上还不足10—11公里厚，80%的大气质量，实际际上所有叫变化，都包含在这又薄又稀的一层里。你和苍穹之间其实没有多少东西。

Beyond the troposphere is the stratosphere. When you see the top of a storm cloud flattening out into the classic anvil shape, you are looking at the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere. This invisible ceiling is known as the tropopause and was discovered in 1902 by a Frenchman in a balloon, Leon-Philippe Teisserenc de Bort. Pause in this sense doesn't mean to stop momentarily but to cease altogether; it's from the same Greek root as menopause. Even at its greatest extent, the tropopause is not very distant. A fast elevator of the sort used in modern skyscrapers could get you there in about twenty minutes, though you would be well advised not to make the trip. Such a rapid ascent without pressurization would, at the very least, result in severe cerebral and pulmonary edemas, a dangerous excess of fluids in the body's tissues. When the doors opened at the viewing platform, anyone inside would almost certainly be dead or dying. Even a more measured ascent would be accompanied by a great deal of discomfort.
对流层的上面是平流层。当你看到一片雷雨云的顶端扩展成典型的砧形，你是在看着对流层和平疏层的交界之处。这个看不见的天花板被称之为对流层顶，是一位法国人于1902年乘气球发现的。他的名字叫莱昂-菲利普·恭瑟朗·德·傅尔特。“顶”在这里的意恩不是“暂停”，而是“封顶”，它与“绝经”源自同一希腊语词根。即使在对流层最高的地方，对流层顶离我们并不遥远。现代摩天大楼使用的快速电梯只要用20分钟左右就能把你送到那里，但是我劝你还是别做那种施行。在没有密封的条件下这佯快速上升，少说你也会得严重的脑水肿和肺水肿，组织里的体液会增加到危险的程度。当观景台的门打开的时候，里面的任何人几乎肯定会呜呼哀哉或奄奄一息。即使攀升的速度比较缓慢，你也会觉得很不舒服。