时差N小时 飞碟攻击?

June. Nineteen sixty-nine. Not one airliner¹ but two, plus the pilot of an Air National Guard fighter plane, report being harassed² by a team of UFOs. One man estimates the glowing ships have come within a few hundred feet. The pilot of the fighter plane even declares a near-collision.

一九六九年六月。两个航班和国民警卫队空军战机的飞行员报告称，他们受到一队不明飞行物的侵扰。其中一个人估计，发光的不明飞行物距离他们只有几百英尺。战机飞行员甚至宣称他们发生了近距离的擦撞。

What were these UFOs really? It turned out they were fragments of a meteor coming apart in the upper atmosphere. Now here's the most interesting part: the meteor fragments were at least one hundred and twenty five miles from the planes. How could you possibly think something over a hundred miles away was about to hit you?

这些不明飞行物到底是什么？原来，它们是来自高空大气层中的流星碎片。有趣的是，流星碎片距离飞机至少有一百二十五公里。你能想像得到一百多英里之外的东西可以撞到你吗？

Objects in the sky confuse our perceptual abilities. With no visual cues to help calculate distance, our brains rely on size and speed instead. How? By using a simple fact: far-away things look like they are going slower than close-up things. You may have noticed this when driving: those distant phone poles pass sluggishly³ while the ones on the road go zooming⁴ by. In a blank white sky, our brains default to a simple strategy: the bigger it looks and the faster it goes, the closer it probably is.

天空中的物体能够混淆我们的感知能力。没有视觉线索来帮助计算距离，我们的大脑只能依赖于物体的尺寸和速度。怎么依赖？这有一个简单的事实：远距离物体看起来比近距离物体的移动速度要慢。当你驾驶汽车时，你可能注意到了这样的事实：那些遥远距离的电话杆掠过车窗的速度很缓慢。在空旷的天空，我们的大脑默认了一个简单概念：物体体积越大，速度越快，它可能就距离我们越近。

This is a smart way to proceed, and it generally works. Still, our perception can be fouled⁵ by rare situations in which we find ourselves looking at something far away that nevertheless moves extremely fast, such as an incoming meteor. At thousands of miles an hour, that flaming object speeds across your field of vision, and your brain can easily conclude it must be much closer than it is--maybe even about to abduct⁶ you.

这种推理方式很聪明、也很有效。尽管如此，在罕见的情况下比如当我们看到远处高速移动的物体（例如流星碎片）时，我们的感知能力仍然会受到影响。但一个发光物体以数千英里的时速划过你的视野时，你的大脑可以很容易地得出这样的结论：它距离我太近了——可能是要绑架我。

1 airliner   

n.客机，班机

参考例句：

• The pilot landed the airliner safely.驾驶员使客机安全着陆。
• The passengers were shepherded across the tarmac to the airliner.旅客们被引导走过跑道去上飞机。

2 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

3 sluggishly   

adv.懒惰地；缓慢地

参考例句：

• The river is silted up and the water flows sluggishly. 河道淤塞，水流迟滞。
• Loaded with 870 gallons of gasoline and 40 gallons of oil, the ship moved sluggishly. 飞机载着八百七十加仑汽油和四十加仑机油，缓慢地前进了。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821

4 zooming   

adj.快速上升的v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去分词 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨

参考例句：

• Zooming and panning are navigational tools for exploring 2D and 3D information. 缩放和平移是浏览二维和三维信息的导航工具。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Panning and zooming, especially when paired together, create navigation difficulties for users. 对于用户来说，平移和缩放一起使用时，产生了更多的导航困难。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

5 fouled   

v.使污秽( foul的过去式和过去分词 )；弄脏；击球出界；（通常用废物）弄脏

参考例句：

• Blue suit and reddish-brown socks!He had fouled up again. 蓝衣服和红褐色短袜！他又搞错了。
• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories. 整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。

6 abduct   

vt.诱拐，拐带，绑架

参考例句：

• The police caught the man who tried to abduct the boy for ransom.警察抓住了那个企图拐走这男孩以便勒索赎金的家伙。
• The news that we see those use network abduct children sometimes filled with apprehension.我们有时看到那些利用网络诱拐儿童的新闻都心惊肉跳。