全球最贵的东西 350亿美元的是啥

 True or false? A new nuclear power station in the south-west of the UK will be the most expensive object on Earth. That's the claim about the proposed plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset - but has anything else ever cost so much to build?

真的还是假的?英国西南部新建的核电站将成为地球上最昂贵的物体。这里说的是计划建在萨默塞特郡的欣克利角核电站——但是，我们建过任何如此昂贵之物吗?

"Hinkley is set to be the most expensive object on Earth… best guesses say Hinkley could pass ￡24bn ($35bn)," said the environmental charity Greenpeace last month as it launched a petition against the project. Even if you stick with the expense of construction alone, though, the price is still high - the main contractor¹, EDF, puts it at ￡18bn ($26bn).

上个月，环保慈善组织“绿色和平”发起了一场反对该工程的请愿活动，称“欣克利核电站将成为地球上最昂贵之物……最准确的估值是它会超过240亿英镑(350亿美元)”。即使只计算建筑本身的花销，也是相当昂贵的——主建筑EDF花费为180亿英镑(260亿美元)。

For that sum you could build a small forest of Burj Khalifas - the world's tallest building, in Dubai, cost apiffling ￡1bn ($1.5bn). You could also knock up more than 70 miles of particle accelerator. The 17-mile-long Large Hadron Collider, built under the border between France and Switzerland to unlock the secrets of the universe, cost a mere² ￡4bn ($5.8bn).

用这笔钱，你可以建一座由诸多哈利法塔组成的小丛林——哈林法塔是世界上最高的建筑物，建于迪拜，成本仅为微不足道的10亿英镑(15亿美元)。你还可以马马虎虎建一台超过70英里的粒子加速器。建于法瑞边境、用于揭开宇宙奥秘的17英里长大型强子对撞机仅仅花费了40亿英镑(58亿美元)。

The most expensive bridge ever constructed is the eastern replacement³ span of the Oakland Bay Bridge in San Francisco, designed to withstand the strongest earthquake seismologists would expect within the next 1,500 years. That cost about ￡4.5bn ($6.5bn).

史上最昂贵桥梁是位于旧金山的奥克兰海湾大桥东段新桥。地震专家预测该地将在1500年内遭遇一次最强烈的地震，而该桥的设计可以抗震，花费约为45亿英镑(65亿美元)。

1 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

2 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

3 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。