VOA常速英语2014--北达科他州冷战遗址变身成为旅游景点

 

Cold War Legacy¹ a Tourist Attraction in Rural North Dakota 北达科他州冷战遗址变身成为旅游景点

COOPERSTOWN, NORTH DAKOTA —

The United States plans to shrink the total number of land-based nuclear missiles by 2018 to comply with an arms treaty signed with Russia in 2011.  North Dakota has been a traditional home to many of those land-based missiles.  It is a part of the state’s Cold War legacy that officials - and tourists - embrace.

Among amber² waves of grain in a remote part of North Dakota, the fate of millions hinged on the deployment³ of the lethal⁴ object housed below this concrete and metal barrier.

北达科他州地处偏僻呈琥珀色的谷物当中,数百万人的命运曾经同这个混凝土和金属屏障下致命物体的抉择紧紧联系在了一起。

Code-named November-33 during the Cold War, this site was home to an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear-tipped warhead that once waited to launch death and destruction to a destination unknown.

冷战期间代号为11月-33的这个地点曾有一枚装有核弹头的洲际弹道导弹默默等待着发射时机,而目的地则不明。

“I think there was kind of a standing⁵ joke that North Dakota was actually the third largest power in the world in terms of the nuclear capacity that we had here."

“我认为曾有个笑料,那就是按照我们曾在这里储备的武器能力而言，大家认为北达科他州实际上才是世界上的第三大核武器国家。”

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Growing up in North Dakota in the 1950s, Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger remembers the Cold War fears of a nuclear holocaust⁶. With more than 1,000 such missiles deployed⁷ around the state, he says there was reason to worry.

20世纪50年代在北达科塔州长大的州政府秘书长埃尔文·雅戈尔永远铭记冷战核毁灭的恐惧。而且曾经拥有超过1000枚这样的导弹部署在这个州,他坦言是有理由担心的。

“We all realize that we would have been a big target, but we just kept on."

“我们都意识到自己是个大靶子,但我们还是继续。”

"The threat was high enough that they had their keys in the consoles."

“威胁系数非常高，以致于他们紧紧握着控制台的钥匙。”

While the threat is now gone, the keys are still by the consoles of the Oscar Zero Launch facility outside Cooperstown, North Dakota.

而现在威胁早已消失,但钥匙还插在北达科他州库珀斯敦外奥斯卡零发射设施控制台的旁边。

Decommissioned by the U.S. Air Force in 1998 as part of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty 2-or START 2-Oscar Zero is now called the Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site.

作为《 第二阶段削减战略武器条约》或START 2的一部分，1998年美国空军宣布这里退出历史舞台，奥斯卡零现在被称为罗纳德·里根民兵导弹国家历史遗址。

Supervisor⁸ Gwen Hinman offers tours below the surface, taking visitors into the heart of the front line of the Cold War, where a small crew of missileers waited behind thick steel blast doors and reinforced concrete, for the fateful decision to launch their nuclear missiles.

主管格温·海宁曼负责带领大家地下旅游,他带领游客们进入冷战前线的心腹之地,这里曾有一小队的导弹人员在厚重的钢爆炸门和钢筋混凝土背后等待,等待发射他们的核导弹的重大决定。

“We like to say they were training for a job that they hoped to never have to do."

“我们想说他们所受的训练是他们绝不会希望去尝试的事情。”

But it is a job someone still has. About 150 active missile sites remain in North Dakota, although Jaeger says few know about them.

但这仍然是人们需要完成的使命。虽然雅戈尔表示鲜有人知，但在北达科他仍然有大约150枚主动制导导弹。

“Within 100 miles there is an active operating nuclear field that exists, and, again, people just go about their daily lives and we don't give it a lot of thought."

“在这100英里的范围内有一个活跃的可发射的核领域存在,再一次,人们只是想过普通日子,我们也不会施加任何过多想法。”

And although the active facilities are closed to the public, Hinman says they aren't too different from Oscar Zero.

虽然这一设施不对公众开放,但海宁曼表示奥斯卡零没有太大的区别。

“Most of this equipment is still the same. This is what they still use. It's all offline so it prevents hackers⁹ from hacking¹⁰ the system and potentially sending a missile."

“大部分的设备还是一样的。他们仍在使用这个。都已经设置成离线模式,所以可以防止黑客入侵系统发射一枚导弹。”

Four-hundred-and-50 land-based nuclear missiles currently are spread across the United States. Earlier this year, the Pentagon approved a plan to remove 50 of those missiles from their silos, bringing the total down to 400, the lowest number since the height of the Cold War in the 1960s.

目前美国有450枚地面核导弹遍布全国。今年早些时候,五角大楼批准了一项计划,将50枚导弹从发射仓中移走,将总数下降到了400枚，成为了20世纪60年代冷战以来的最少数量。

1 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

2 amber   

n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的

参考例句：

• Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗？
• This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。

3 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

4 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

7 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

8 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

9 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

10 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。