纽约时报 犹他州发现神秘金属柱(1)（在线收听）

Mono Mania

偏执狂

By Jody Rosen

文/乔迪·罗森

The desert of southeastern Utah is a wilderness of flat-topped mesas, jutting buttes and plunging canyons.

犹他州东南部的沙漠是一片由平顶的台地、突出的孤峰和低洼的峡谷组成的荒野。

It is a fantastical landscape, the kind of scenery that pulls your thoughts toward things not quite of this earth.

这是一幅梦幻般的风景，那种把你的思想拉向不完全属于这个地球的风景。

Indigenous people from the region have told stories of deities who formed the mountains by sweeping rocks through a hole in the heavens, and of warrior gods who stomped the topography into existence with their mighty footfalls.

当地土著居民讲述了神灵们通过在天上的一个洞里扫石头而形成山脉的故事，以及武士神灵们用他们沉重的脚步踏成如今地形的故事。

Other local legends hold that the desert is haunted by screaming ghosts or stalked by a phantom wolf.

其他当地传说认为，沙漠一直回荡着鬼魂尖叫声，还能寻到幽灵狼的踪迹。

The area is known for U.F.O. sightings, and its arid terrain, dotted with crimson sandstone outcroppings, has often been likened to Mars.

该地区已观测到不明飞行物而闻名，这片不毛之地上点缀着深红色的砂岩，常常被比作火星。

Since 2001, a group advocating the human settlement of Mars has maintained a research center outside a small town called Hanksville, where crews live for weekslong stretches to simulate habitation on the red planet.

自2001年以来，一个倡导人类在火星定居的组织在一个叫汉克斯维尔的小镇外建立了一个研究中心，工作人员在那里居住了数周，模拟火星上的居住环境。

The desert is, literally, home to would-be Martians.

实际上，沙漠是未来火星人的家园。

Recently, an alien presence of another kind brought this place into the news.

最近，这里发现了另一种外星人，这令该地区再次登上新闻。

On Nov. 18, a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter crew, flying over public land in San Juan County with a team of biologists to conduct an aerial count of bighorn sheep, spotted an object that, clearly, was not a sheep.

11月18日，犹他州公共安全局的直升机机组人员与一组生物学家在圣胡安县的公共用地上空飞行，对大角羊进行空中计数，发现了一个明显不是羊的物体。

The crew landed and went to investigate on foot.

机组人员着陆后步行前往调查。

What followed is documented in brief cellphone videos.

手机短视频记录了接下来发生的事情。

One clip shows workers in green jumpsuits descending a rock formation while a voice chuckles off-camera: "OK, the intrepid explorers go down to investigate the alien life form."

一段视频显示，穿着绿色连身衣的工人们正从岩层上下来，这时一个声音在镜头外咯咯地笑着：“好吧，勇敢的探险家们下去调查外星人的生命形式。”

A second video focuses in on the "life form": a triangular pillar, nearly 10 feet tall, sheathed in metal and held together with rivets.

第二个视频聚焦于“生命形式”：一个用金属包裹、用铆钉固定在一起的、将近10英尺高的三角形柱子。