第二章全面回顾了Musk的童年和家庭关系。简单来说，1、家里牛人多，对Musk 影响大；2、童年不快乐，酷爱读书，专注力强 ，志向在童年已经初现倪端。
牛人从Musk的外祖父说起，绝对特立独行，标新立异，勇于冒险。to become an eccentric and exceptional man and a model for Musk . 此人太厉害了，冒险精神随处可见。随便说几件都让人佩服不已。一，买了架飞机，开飞机到处周游，外祖父和外祖母曾创造多项驾驶单引擎飞机跨洲飞行的壮举（要知道六十年前的通讯雷达还远没有现在发达，有几次死里逃生的经历，这在当时绝对算的上壮举！）,而且老爷子最后也是因为玩飞机出事故去世的。冒险不羁从一而终啊 ；二，毅然举家从加拿大搬迁到之前根本没去过的南非；三，全家在南非的大沙漠里探险，几遇险境。读到这里，我们只有感慨的份儿了，这家人真的不是一般人啊！难怪Musk也坦言，自己继承了外祖父勇于冒险的基因Elon buys into the idea that his unusual tolerance for risk may well have been inherited directly form his grandfather .
Musk的母亲在强悍父母的熏陶下，也是一位爱学习的学霸，不过因为外形条件好，后来成为一名模特（Musk的外祖母就是舞蹈老师）；父亲是一名工程师，从小对Musk兄弟俩严格要求，教他们物理知识。
Musk 的童年是什么样的呢？酷爱读书，太爱了！总是在读书，总是沉浸于自己的世界中，显露出内敛好静的书生气质。博览群书使他成为“活字典”， 但是带来的弊端就是不爱运动，没有朋友。尽管家里物质条件好，但是Musk的童年却不快乐，主要原因有两个，一是家里父亲严厉而固执，言行举止之间让小小的Musk感到压抑和受折磨。“...have to endure some form of psychological torture ” Musk回忆起来，并不愿多说，只是 “it would certainly be accurate to say that I did not have a good childhood . It may sound good , It was not absent of good ,but it was not a happy childhood ,it was like misery ” . 其二，在学校里受欺凌。"For three or four yeare , Musk endured relentless hounding at the hands of thes bullies. "
关于Musk童年的一个重要的点，就是他的志向和兴趣实际上在青少年时期已现雏形。例如大量阅读科幻小说，使Musk将科幻和现实结合起来，甚至从小就将改变人类命运视为己任。科幻小说中拯救世界已然成为小Musk的梦想。12岁时他就曾经编程太空游戏，并获得奖励。上高中时，Musk就已经有了无纸化银行的念头.在当时大肆开采自然能源的时代，他就冒天下之大不韪，反对使用化石能源。 也就是说，日后Musk所成就的Palpay ,Space ，Clean energy 事实上都不是凭空而出，是他从青少年时代就已经逐渐构筑并渐渐清晰的目标。
所以读完本章，我的感触是，童年和家庭关系是理解Musk的重要的接入点。当我们了解到Musk家族中那么多非同寻常的经历，牛人涌现时，就不会对Musk所从事的冒险事业大惊小怪了，家族冒险基因如此啊！；当了解Musk的童年的时候，我只想到一句“you are what you read ” 博览群书让小Musk从小树立了志向，在书的世界里他看到了未来的奋斗目标和方向。
积累词句
我们会如何形容一个博览群书的人呢？
He churned through (plowed through ) two sets of encyclopedias and the encyclopedias turned him into a fact factory . he came off as a classic know-it-all .At the dinner table ,Tosca would wonder aloud about the distance from Earth to the Moon . Elon would spit out the exact measurement.
活脱脱的一个活字典啊，用a fact fatory 和 a classic know-it-all 都很形象。博览群书的感觉plow through ，churn through。另外一个词组wonder aloud =think aloud 说话不加思索；说话不经大脑；If youthink aloud, you express your thoughts as they occur to you, rather than thinking first and then speaking.
Summary
The Chapter Africa informs us of the teenage years of Musk. Family has a great impact on him and his unusual tolerance for risk may well have been inherited from his grandfather, an eccentric and exceptional man and a model for Musk. The most striking part of Elon’s character as a young boy was his compulsion to read. He plowed through fiction books and came to see man’s fate in the universe as a personal obligation. Literally, his great ideas about space, clean energy, and paperless bank originated from his child dream. Despite his unhappy childhood, partly because of his strict father, who was not a pleasant person to be around,partly due to school bullies, he grows up to be a man surviving hardships.
