机长有点绝望：“告诉他们我们情况危急！”

　　And what does Klotz say?

　　听听克鲁兹说了些什么？

　　That's right to one-eight-zero on the heading and, ah, we'll try once again. We're running out of fuel.

　　“我们正在18000英尺的右上方，嗯，我们将再试一次，我们的燃油快用完了。”

　　To begin with, the phrase "running out of fuel" has no meaning in Air Traffic Control terminology.

　　首先，对于空管员来说，“油量不足”是飞行员们的习惯说法，

　　All planes, as they approach their destination, are by definition running out of fuel.

　　这是所有飞行员在即将到达目的地时惯用的一句话。

　　Did Klotz mean that 052 no longer had enough fuel to make it to another, alternative airport?

　　克鲁兹是想表明他们的燃油是否能支持他们去另一个备选机场？

　　Did he mean they are beginning to get worried about their fuel?

　　或是想表明他们开始担心燃油不足？

　　Next, consider the structure of the critical sentence.

　　第二点，看看这段重要句子的结构问题。

　　Klotz begins with a routine acknowledgement of the instructions from Air Traffic Control and doesn't mention his concern about fuel until the second half of the sentence.

　　克鲁兹是用ATC习以为常的术语来开场的，直到第二句话他才提起，他有些担心燃油问题。

　　It's as if he were to say in a restaurant, "Yes, I'll have some more coffee and, ah, I'm choking in a chicken bone."

　　这就好像他在餐馆里对侍者说：“请给我来杯咖啡，因为我被鸡骨头卡住了。”

　　How seriously would the waiter take him?

　　侍者会认为他真的被鸡骨头卡住了吗？

　　The Air Traffic Controller whom Klotz was speaking with testified later that "I just took it as a passing comment."

　　交管员稍后得到确认，那天与克鲁兹通话的人的确“没当回事”。

　　On storming nights, Air Traffic Controllers hear pilots talking about running out of fuel all the time.

　　在一个风雨交加的夜晚，交管员会随时听到飞行员们燃油用尽的信息。

　　Even the "ah" that Klotz inserts between the two halves of his sentence serves to undercut the importance of what he's saying.

　　据那天为52号航班提供指令的交管员反映，副驾的语气非常冷静，

　　Klotz spoke, according to another of the controllers who handled 052 that night, "in a very nonchalant manner.... There was no urgency in the voice."

　　甚至在他说的两句话之间还加了“嗯”，这就更加弱化了他所描述事态的严重性。

　　The term used by linguists to describe what Klotz was engaging in in that moment is "mitigated speech," which refers to any attempt to modify or sugarcoat the meaning of what's being said.

　　语言学家称克鲁兹那一刻所使用的语气为“舒缓语气”，这是指他在试图修饰并且美化自已所要表达的信息。

　　We mitigate when we're being polite, or when we're ashamed or embarrassed, or when we're being deferential to authority.

　　当我们试图表示礼貌时，我们会使用舒缓语气；当我们在感到惭愧或尴尬时，我们会使用舒缓语气；或者当我们为了表示对权威的敬畏时，我们也使用舒缓语气。

　　If you want your boss to do you a favor, you don't say, "I'll need this by Monday."

　　如果你想让你的老板帮你做件事，你不会说：“我星期一就要。”

　　You mitigate. You say, "Don't bother, if it's too much trouble, but if you have a chance to look at this over the weekend, that would be wonderful."

　　你会舒缓地说：“如果不是很麻烦的话，您要是有时间，就请帮忙在周末的时候看看，我将十分感激。”

　　In a situation like that, mitigation is entirely appropriate.

　　在这种情况下，舒缓语气是十分恰当的。

　　In other situations, however-like a cockpit on a stormy night-it's a problem.

　　然而，在其他时候，比如在那个风雨交加夜晚的驾驶舱里——这就是个很严重的问题。