电梯坠落如何逃生？

 　　Let's say you're an international spy and a dastardly villain¹ has just used his laser eye to cut the cable to your elevator car, sending you plunging² hundreds of stories to your death. Everyone knows the best way to survive such a fate would be to jump just before you hit, right?

　　假设你是名国际间谍，现在有个恶棍用激光弄断你所乘电梯的缆绳，意图使你从几百层楼高的地方坠亡。大家都认为最好的逃生办法就是在坠地之前跳起来，对吧？

　　Well, not really. As proven by the Myth Busters, that just doesn't work.

　　其实不然。密斯·巴斯特证实，这样做于事无补。

　　As part of a promotion³ for a book entitled "How to Survive Anything," travel-book giant Lonely Planet has just released a series of videos showing how to survive a variety of situations from getting locked out of your hotel room naked, to yes -- how to emerge from a plunging elevator alive.

　　世界最大的私人旅游指南出版商《孤独星球》在推销《如何脱离险境》一书活动中发布了一系列相关视频。比如说，一个人什么也没穿，还被锁在了酒店房间门外，在这种情形下该怎么办？又或者，怎样从一直往下坠的故障电梯中逃生。

　　Note that steps given in the Lonely Planet video, embedded⁴ below, are in contradiction to the advice Eliot H. Frank, at the time a research engineer for the Center for Biomedical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave to a New York Times reader in 2012.

　　要说明的是，《孤独星球》在其视频中给出的措施步骤与艾略特·H·弗兰克（时任麻省理工学院生物医学工程研究中心工程师）于2012年向《纽约时报》读者给出的意见是相左的。

　　Frank said that the best course of action would be to lie flat on the floor to distribute the impact across your whole body. And he specifically said not to bend your knees or brace⁵ yourself (two pieces of advice given in the Lonely Planet video) because "at high G-forces, your legs would simply not be able to support the weight of your body. Even the weight of your own head would be too much for your neck to support."

　　弗兰克建议，最好的办法就是躺平，使受力遍及全身。他还专门指出，最好不要屈膝或抱住自己（这两点恰是《孤独星球》在视频中提到的建议），因为“在高倍重力下，你单单靠腿是支撑不了你自身重量的，甚至你的脖子也难以支撑头的重量”。

　　So it's pretty much your call.

　　总之呢，怎么样来由你自己决定。

1 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

2 plunging   

adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• War broke out again, plunging the people into misery and suffering. 战祸复发，生灵涂炭。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He is plunging into an abyss of despair. 他陷入了绝望的深渊。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

4 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

5 brace   

n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备

参考例句：

• My daughter has to wear a brace on her teeth. 我的女儿得戴牙套以矫正牙齿。
• You had better brace yourself for some bad news. 有些坏消息,你最好做好准备。