经济学人81:军事伪装 旧式迷魂战术

 　　Science and Technology Military camouflage¹ That old razzle dazzle

　　科技 军事伪装 旧式迷魂战术

　　How to confuse the enemy about how quickly you are travelling

　　如何让敌方无法判断己方的前行速度

　　IN THE second world war, many Allied² ships were painted with dark and light stripes, and other contrasting shapes, making them look a bit like zebra.

　　二战期间，许多盟军军舰船身都被喷涂了黑白条纹及其它迷彩图案，这让它们看上去有些象斑马。

　　The idea was to distort an enemy submarine commander's perception of the ship's size, shape, range, heading and speed, so as to make it harder to hit with the non-homing torpedoes⁴ of the period.

　　这样做的目的是为了迷惑敌军潜水艇指挥官，使其无法判断盟军船舰的尺寸，形状，距离，航向和速度。由于当时的鱼雷还不具备制导系统，因此想要击中目标愈加困难。

　　These had to be pointed⁵ not at the target directly but, rather, at the place where the commander thought the target would be when the torpedo³ arrived.

　　因此敌军指挥官不再让鱼雷直接对准目标发射，而是将它们发射到他认为盟军军舰可能会驶向的位置。

　　At the time, though, it was only an educated guess that this so-called dazzle camouflage would work.

　　当时, 对于这种所谓的迷彩伪装术的有效性判断还只是基于经验上的考量。

　　Now someone has actually tested it and the short answer is that it does work—but not in the way that Allied navies thought it did. Ships move too slowly for dazzle camouflage to be effective.

　　而如今已经有人对此进行了真实测试，结果验证这种迷彩伪装的确有效——但并不是按照盟军海军所设想的那种方式发挥作用。

　　However, it might well have a role in protecting faster-moving vehicles, such as military Land Rovers.

　　迷彩伪装无法保护航行速度过慢的船艇。但它对于军用路虎这样快速行驶的车辆却能起到很好的保护作用。

　　Nicholas Scott-Samuel, of the University of Bristol, and his colleagues, came to this conclusion by asking volunteers to watch patterned rectangles cross a computer screen.

　　以上结论是由布里斯托尔大学的Nicholas Scott-Samuel和他的同事通过实验得出的。

　　Some of the rectangles had horizontal stripes inside them. Some had vertical⁶ stripes. Some had zigzags⁷. And some had checks.

　　他们让志愿者观察在电脑屏幕内横向移动的长方形物体，这些物体内部被喷涂了不同图案，图案形式有横纹，竖纹，锯齿纹和方格纹。

　　Others, acting⁸ as controls, had no internal patterns.

　　而作为参照的物体则未喷涂任何图案。

　　Each test involved a jazzy rectangle crossing the screen either before or after a plain one. Volunteers had to estimate which of the two was travelling faster.

　　每次实验志愿者在观看了迷彩图案的长方形横过电脑屏幕之前或之后,还被要求观看一个没有条纹图案的物体横过屏幕，之后志愿者需要估计这两个物体哪个移动速度较快。

　　In fact, in all cases, the two rectangles travelled at the same speed.

　　实际上，在所有实验中，这两个长方形物体移动的速度都相同。

　　But the researchers varied⁹ the conditions in other ways, without telling the participants.

　　但研究人员通过其它方式改变了实验条件，志愿者对此却一无所知。

　　Sometimes both rectangles travelled slowly, at just over 3o of arc a second from the observer's point of view, as a ship might. Sometimes they travelled much faster, at 20o a second, mimicking¹⁰ the way a land vehicle moves.

　　有时两个长方形物体移动速度都很慢，从志愿者的观察角度看，就象一艘船以每秒驶过3度的距离在航行，有时它们都模仿陆地车辆行驶方式以每秒走过20度的距离快速移动。

　　The jazzy rectangles also came in different flavours. Some were low-contrast (ie, not very jazzy at all) and some high-contrast.

　　长方形物体的迷彩图案也不尽相同，有些图案对比度不强烈（看起来不那么花哨），有些图案的对比度则很强。

　　The upshot, as Dr Scott-Samuel reports in the Public Library of Science, was that participants were not fooled by slow-moving rectangles, nor by low-contrast ones.

　　实验结果如同Scott-Samuel 博士在公共科学图书馆报告所说，志愿者对慢速移动或图案对比度不强的物体移动速度判断较准确。

　　Fast-moving, high-contrast shapes, however, did befuddle¹¹ them.

　　而对于快速移动和图案对比度强烈的物体,他们的判断常常出错。

　　On average, an observer reckoned that such a fast, jazzy rectangle was going 7% slower than was actually the case.

　　志愿者对于有迷彩图案和快速移动的正方形物体的速度估计要比它们的实际速度平均低了7%。

　　Ships, therefore, travel too slowly for dazzle camouflage to work.

　　因此喷涂迷彩伪装的军舰航行速度过于缓慢是起不到迷惑敌军作用的。

　　In any case, modern torpedoes and missiles are guided to their target electronically.

　　在任何情况下,现代的鱼雷和导弹都采用了电子制导来跟踪目标。

　　But 20o a second corresponds to the perceived movement of a vehicle 70 metres away that is travelling at 90kph.

　　但是从视觉角度看,每秒20度的移动速度相当于在70米外看到一部车辆在以90公里/小时行驶。

　　That is precisely¹² the sort of distance from which an unguided rocket-propelled grenade might be fired at a lightly armoured military vehicle, and just the sort of speed such a vehicle might be travelling at.

　　在与此相同的距离和速度条件下,一个非制导火箭推进榴弹能够击中一辆轻型装甲军车。

　　Perhaps the answer, then, is for modern armies to buy their Land Rovers second-hand¹³ from game parks, which often paint them in zebra stripes for effect.

　　如果果真如此,那么现代军队可以考虑在狩猎公园买个涂有斑马条纹的二手路虎车了。

　　Whether real zebra got their own jazzy stripes to confuse predators¹⁴ has yet to be determined¹⁵.

　　至于斑马身上的条纹能否让其躲过掠食动物的捕杀则还有待证实。

1 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

2 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

3 torpedo   

n.水雷，地雷；v.用鱼雷破坏

参考例句：

• His ship was blown up by a torpedo.他的船被一枚鱼雷炸毁了。
• Torpedo boats played an important role during World War Two.鱼雷艇在第二次世界大战中发挥了重要作用。

4 torpedoes   

鱼雷( torpedo的名词复数 )； 油井爆破筒； 刺客； 掼炮

参考例句：

• We top off, take on provisions and torpedoes, and go. 我们维修完，装上给养和鱼雷就出发。
• The torpedoes hit amidship, and there followed a series of crashing explosions. 鱼雷击中了船腹，引起了一阵隆隆的爆炸声。

5 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

6 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

7 zigzags   

n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。
• History moves in zigzags and by roundabout ways. 历史的发展是曲折的，迂回的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

9 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

10 mimicking   

v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的现在分词 )；酷似

参考例句：

• She's always mimicking the teachers. 她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
• The boy made us all laugh by mimicking the teacher's voice. 这男孩模仿老师的声音，逗得我们大家都笑了。 来自辞典例句

11 befuddle   

v.使混乱

参考例句：

• This is clearly designed to befuddle the public.这显然是为了蒙蔽舆论。
• Don't befuddle me with all those masses of detail.不要拿一大堆琐事把我搞迷糊。

12 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

13 second-hand   

adj.用过的，旧的，二手的

参考例句：

• I got this book by chance at a second-hand bookshop.我赶巧在一家旧书店里买到这本书。
• They will put all these second-hand goods up for sale.他们将把这些旧货全部公开出售。

14 predators   

n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 )；奴役他人者（尤指在财务或性关系方面）

参考例句：

• birds and their earthbound predators 鸟和地面上捕食它们的动物
• The eyes of predators are highly sensitive to the slightest movement. 捕食性动物的眼睛能感觉到最细小的动静。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。