British Vision Issue 69, 寻找东方的亚特兰蒂斯

Cut your reporting. Now a lost city under the sea--for centuries the stuff of myth--now, possibly, a reality. An Oceanographer in Japan says he is convinced he's found evidence of an ancient civilization that must have slipped into the ocean thousands of years ago and has released pictures that he thinks proves that. Sally Gould reports.

These steps of a submerged ancient city lost thousands of years ago to the Pacific Ocean. At least according to a Japanese Oceanographer, who's spent 2 decades studying the site, alerted by some scuba-diving tourists who noticed the area's rocks were unnaturally¹ smooth and seemed to form a stone staircase. Professor Masaaki Kimura believes the area contains the ruins of a lost city, which would've had a road, a castle, a shrine², statues, even a coliseum.

Judging by the design and disposition³ of the ruins, the city must have looked just like an ancient Roman city, I can envisage⁴ that a Triumphal Arch-like statue stood on the left side of the coliseum, and a shrine over the hill.

Professor Kimura thinks the city probably sank in an earthquake about 3,000 years ago, and that the myth of the lost continent of Mu and Atlantis, developed out of actual ancient cities like this one. But scientific opinion is divided. Skeptics believe the ruins could be explained by natural phenomena⁵, and point out very few artifacts like weapons, for instance, have been found to prove humans lived among these rocks.

When you look at the images, it's very hard not to think that these might have been something man-made, but all the other scientists that've gone to look at this site, can't find any evidence of human habitation. There is no man-made pots, there is no other signs that people lived there. That makes people much more cautious. So the other ideas are possibly that the natural phenomena, either volcanic⁶ activity or wave activity or water currents are of eroded⁷ features to, to look like this. It is something that I think all of us would,would love to see to be true, and to be fair, many archaeologists would love to stumble on as well. It's one of these things though that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

But so persistent⁸ are these myths of lost sunken cities, speculation⁹ has even crossed over to the search for alien life. In the 1960s and 70s, a cottage industry of books emerged, postulating¹⁰ that an ancient civilization could have been, and in fact still be, a base for UFOs.

Any chance you reckon on coming across Atlantis and really the amazing lost cities perhaps with aliens that are living inside them or?

Be fantastic if we could. That there are examples in South and Latin American jungle I think of, um, of temples that have been discovered ever now and then in the jungle , and simply just a question of people getting to these sites, and finding them. Aliens is a whole different ball game, we'll see.
Sally Gould, our Manha(ttan),

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1.scuba-diving:the sport of swimming under water while breathing through a tube that is connected to a container of air on your back

1 unnaturally   

adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地

参考例句：

• Her voice sounded unnaturally loud. 她的嗓音很响亮，但是有点反常。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her eyes were unnaturally bright. 她的眼睛亮得不自然。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

3 disposition   

n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署

参考例句：

• He has made a good disposition of his property.他已对财产作了妥善处理。
• He has a cheerful disposition.他性情开朗。

4 envisage   

v.想象，设想，展望，正视

参考例句：

• Nobody can envisage the consequences of total nuclear war.没有人能够想像全面核战争的后果。
• When do you envisage being able to pay me back?你看你什么时候能还我钱？

5 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

6 volcanic   

adj.火山的；象火山的；由火山引起的

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year.今年火山爆发了好几次。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

7 eroded   

adj. 被侵蚀的，有蚀痕的 动词erode的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The cliff face has been steadily eroded by the sea. 峭壁表面逐渐被海水侵蚀。
• The stream eroded a channel in the solid rock. 小溪在硬石中侵蚀成一条水道。

8 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

9 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

10 postulating   

v.假定，假设( postulate的现在分词 )

参考例句：