万物简史 第268期:砰!(3)（在线收听）

 　　At the library in Manson they are delighted to show you a collection of newspaper articles and a box of core samples from a 1991-92 drilling program, 在曼森图书馆，他们会很高兴给你看一批收藏的报纸文章和一箱子取自1991-1992年钻探工程的岩心样品，

　　indeed, they positively bustle to produce them—but you have to ask to see them. 更确切地说，他们肯定会连忙把它们取出来，但是，你非得向他们要来看。
　　Nothing permanent is on display, and nowhere in the town is there any historical marker. 没有永久性的东西陈列在外面，镇上也没有修建任何历史标志物。
　　To most people in Manson the biggest thing ever to happen was a tornado that rolled up Main Street in 1979, tearing apart the business district. 对大多数曼森人来说，发生过的最大事件是1979年的一场龙卷风。那风席卷主街，把商业区刮得七零八落。
　　One of the advantages of all that surrounding flatness is that you can see danger from a long way off. 周围地势平坦有个好处，危险在老远的地方你就看得见。
　　Virtually the whole town turned out at one end of Main Street and watched for half an hour as the tornado came toward them, 实际上，整个镇上的人都来到主街的一头，有半个小时光景一直望着龙卷风朝他们袭来，
　　hoping it would veer off, then prudently scampered when it did not. 希望它会改变方向。但是没有。接着，他们小心行事，四散逃跑。
　　Four of them, alas, didn't move quite fast enough and were killed. 天哪，有四个人跑得不够快，结果丢了性命。
　　Every June now Manson has a weeklong event called Crater Days, 如今，每年6月，曼森人都要举行为期1周的“大坑节”。
　　which was dreamed up as a way of helping people forget that unhappy anniversary. 这项活动是有人为了让大家忘却那个不愉快的周年纪念日而想出来的，
　　It doesn't really have anything to do with the crater. 它其实跟那个大坑毫无关系。
　　Nobody's figured out a way to capitalize on an impact site that isn't visible. 谁也没有想出个办法来利用那个已经看不见的撞击现场。
　　"Very occasionally we get people coming in and asking where they should go to see the crater “偶尔有人过来，问在哪里能看见那个大坑。
　　and we have to tell them that there is nothing to see," says Anna Schlapkohl, the town's friendly librarian. 我们不得不告诉他们，没有什么可看的，”友好的镇图书馆员安娜·施拉普科尔说，
　　"Then they go away kind of disappointed." “他们听了有点失望，就走开了。”
　　However, most people, including most Iowans, have never heard of the Manson crater. 然而，大多数人，包括艾奥瓦人，从来没有听说过曼森大坑。
　　Even for geologists it barely rates a footnote. 连地质学家也觉得它不大值得一提。
　　But for one brief period in the 1980s, Manson was the most geologically exciting place on Earth. 但是，到了20世纪80年代，曼森一时之间成了全球地质界最激动人心的场所。
  原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/syysdw/wwwjs/411610.html