悬崖边的疯狂：骇人的新潮流

 　　A face peers over the edge several hundred feet above me. It is a grown man gripped by a morbid¹ elation² as he looks down on a sheer drop to the rocks, the beach — where I am standing³ — and the sea.

　　一个成年男子站在几百英尺高的悬崖边缘往下看，峭壁之下是巨石，是沙滩，还有大海，我站在下面，看着他沉浸在病态的喜悦之中。

　　What he can’t see from his perch⁴ is that he is resting on an overhang, a lump of chalk protruding⁵ over thin air and a very long drop. At any minute, the ground might simply give way, as this famous English beauty spot has had a habit of doing since time immemorial.

　　但他看不见自己正站于一大块向外突出的白垩岩上，巍巍高耸的峭壁之上空气稀薄，那块岩石随时都有可能垮塌，自古以来在这个著名的英国景点可没少发生这种事。

　　What happens next, though, is a more recent phenomenon.

　　接下来这个男人要进行一项如今风靡全球的活动。

　　悬崖边的疯狂：骇人的新潮流

　　Slowly a hand comes in to view and it is holding — what else? — a selfie-stick. Click. Moments later, the man has retreated back from the brink⁶ and moved on.

　　他慢慢地伸出了一只手，拿着一个什么东西？哦，自拍杆，咔哒！过一会儿他从悬崖边退了回去，继续上路了。

　　How much longer can it be before a new category is added to the list of verdicts available to a coroner? In addition to ‘accident’, ‘misadventure’ and ‘open’, there will soon be a new pronouncement: ‘death by selfie’.

　　估计过不了多久，在验尸官开具的死亡鉴定类型上除了“事故”、“意外”、“存疑”以外，又会多上一条新判决了，那就是“自拍死”。

　　Last year, it was reported that the number of people killed by sharks around the world had, for the first time, been overtaken by the number of those killed while snapping themselves on a phone (and in a record year for shark attacks, too).

　　去年，有报告称全世界“自拍死”的人数有史以来第一次超过了被鲨鱼袭击而死的人数（并且这年的鲨鱼袭击事件也创了新高。）

　　Pretty soon, no doubt, someone will kill two birds — and themselves — by taking a selfie with a shark moments before they are chomped⁷ to death.

　　很快，我们就会看到这样的新闻，有人为了与鲨鱼一同自拍而葬身鲨腹，这可就是两种死因都占全了。

　　But the number of narcissistic⁸ fatalities⁹ just keeps on rising. Last month alone, there were at least 15 selfie-related deaths.

　　这种自恋导致的死亡人数还在不断攀升，仅上个月就有15起与自拍相关的死亡案例。

　　Leading the world in this idiocy¹⁰ is India, where selfie-cide is almost a daily occurrence.

　　而印度可以算是这种蠢事的多发之地，几乎每天都有“自拍死”的事故。

　　In Britain, we have got off fairly lightly thus far. But if it is going to happen anywhere, it could easily be here, on the Sussex coast.

　　英国到目前为止还未有太多自拍致死的案例，但现如今这类事件已遍布世界各地，谁能说萨塞克斯海岸不会是下一个案发地呢？

　　For this six-mile cliff-top between Newhaven and Beachy Head — a stretch of corrugated¹¹ peaks and troughs known as the Seven Sisters — has become so popular with selfie-seekers that the locals are about to take pre-emptive action.

　　在纽黑文和比奇角之间，有一片波澜起伏的山脉，绵延长达六英里，这里的七姐妹悬崖已经成为自拍爱好者们十分青睐的景点，当地人听闻也都纷纷抢先一步前去游览。

　　Lately, we have seen images of jaw-dropping stupidity as daredevil walkers — mainly young men, it seems — creep to the edge of these chalk faces in considerable numbers for that must-have selfie.

　　近来在新闻上我们常能看见一些让人跌破眼镜的图片，这些冒失鬼——多是年轻人——成群结队来到悬崖的边缘只为了一张“这辈子一定要拍”的自拍照。

　　Last summer, a local photographer captured a row of irresponsible people sitting at the site, with their feet dangling¹² over an edge which is not even there any more.

　　去年夏天，一个本地摄影师在该景点拍下了一张照片，一群人坐在悬崖边缘，他们的腿在空中晃来晃去，但那块崖石现在已经不知所踪了。

　　In another shot, a man is sitting on a chalk overhang which already has a very obvious fault line running down the side.

　　另一张照片中，一个男人坐在一块突出的白垩岩上，但这块岩石已经出现了明显的裂纹，很有可能会滑落。

　　It is purely¹³ down to luck rather than judgment¹⁴ that no one has been sitting on these chunks¹⁵ of rock when the ground has given way. For erosion is a fact of life here.

　　目前还未有人坐在上面刚巧遇上岩石崩塌的情况，这不是因为判断力好，纯粹是走运，因为风化侵蚀是当地十分正常的自然现象。

　　‘Very often, you come here in the morning and see a great pile of chalk and rocks on the beach,’ says Molly, a volunteer in the National Trust visitor centre. ‘But with two tides a day, it gets washed away, so people don’t see it for long.’

　　“你早上来到这儿，很有可能会在沙滩上看见一些白垩岩粉末与石块，”英国国民托管组织游客中心的志愿者莫莉说，“只不过因为每天两次涨潮，这些石块都被海水带走了，所以人们往往看不见这些痕迹。”

　　And in recent years, for reasons which are not entirely¹⁶ clear, there has been a run of particularly hefty falls. Indeed, as Molly points out: ‘The Seven Sisters have now become eight.’

　　近年来，已经有数起崖壁垮塌事件发生，原因尚不清楚。并且如莫莉所说：“七姐妹悬崖现在不只是七座而是有八座悬崖了。”

　　That’s because one stretch of cliff has had such severe falls either side of a grassy¹⁷ promontory¹⁸ that it has now created an extra peak.

　　那是因为其中一处悬崖的石体数次坠塌落在长满草的海角周围，从而产生了一处新的陡崖。

　　The worst cliff-fall in living memory occurred during a storm in the winter of 2013-2014 when several yards fell into the sea at once. But these episodes are by no means restricted to extreme weather.

　　最严重的一次崖体坠落，发生在2013年到2014年那个暴雪肆虐的冬天，长达几英里的山崖岩石全部发生滑落，但这种小插曲绝不仅仅是极端天气导致的。

　　A German woman with two young children welcomes the idea of a fence but then wonders whether it would be wise to bash poles into ground that is already unstable¹⁹.

　　一位育有两个孩子的德国妈妈认为这里应该装上护栏，但转念一想，如果这块岩石本来就不稳固，插上护栏杆又有什么意义呢？

1 morbid   

adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的

参考例句：

• Some people have a morbid fascination with crime.一些人对犯罪有一种病态的痴迷。
• It's morbid to dwell on cemeteries and such like.不厌其烦地谈论墓地以及诸如此类的事是一种病态。

2 elation   

n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意

参考例句：

• She showed her elation at having finally achieved her ambition.最终实现了抱负，她显得十分高兴。
• His supporters have reacted to the news with elation.他的支持者听到那条消息后兴高采烈。

3 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。

4 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

5 protruding   

v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸

参考例句：

• He hung his coat on a nail protruding from the wall. 他把上衣挂在凸出墙面的一根钉子上。
• There is a protruding shelf over a fireplace. 壁炉上方有个突出的架子。 来自辞典例句

6 brink   

n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿

参考例句：

• The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
• The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。

7 chomped   

v.切齿，格格地咬牙，咬响牙齿( chomp的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He chomped his way through two hot dogs. 他呼哧呼哧地吃掉了两个热狗。
• The boy chomped his sandwich. 这个男孩大口嚼着三明治。 来自互联网

8 narcissistic   

adj.自我陶醉的，自恋的，自我崇拜的

参考例句：

• In the modern vocabulary, it was narcissistic. 用时髦话说，这是一种自我陶醉狂。 来自辞典例句
• This is our Nielaoshi, a dwarf has also grown narcissistic teachers. 这就是我们的倪老师，一个长得又矮又自恋的老师。 来自互联网

9 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 idiocy   

n.愚蠢

参考例句：

• Stealing a car and then driving it drunk was the ultimate idiocy.偷了车然后醉酒开车真是愚蠢到极点。
• In this war there is an idiocy without bounds.这次战争疯癫得没底。

11 corrugated   

adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• a corrugated iron roof 波纹铁屋顶
• His brow corrugated with the effort of thinking. 他皱着眉头用心地思考。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 dangling   

悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口

参考例句：

• The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果，那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
• The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上，摇晃着他们的双腿。

13 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

14 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

15 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

16 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

17 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

18 promontory   

n.海角；岬

参考例句：

• Genius is a promontory jutting out of the infinite.天才是茫茫大地突出的岬角。
• On the map that promontory looks like a nose,naughtily turned up.从地图上面，那个海角就像一只调皮地翘起来的鼻子。

19 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。