全球最貴的東西 350億美元的是啥
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?
真的還是假的?英國西南部新建的核電站將成爲地球上最昂貴的物體。這裏說的是計劃建在薩默塞特郡的欣克利角核電站——但是，我們建過任何如此昂貴之物嗎?
"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 contractor, EDF, puts it at ￡18bn ($26bn).
上個月，環保慈善組織“綠色和平”發起了一場反對該工程的請願活動，稱“欣克利核電站將成爲地球上最昂貴之物……最準確的估值是它會超過240億英鎊(350億美元)”。即使只計算建築本身的花銷，也是相當昂貴的——主建築EDF花費爲180億英鎊(260億美元)。
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 mere ￡4bn ($5.8bn).
用這筆錢，你可以建一座由諸多哈利法塔組成的小叢林——哈林法塔是世界上最高的建築物，建於迪拜，成本僅爲微不足道的10億英鎊(15億美元)。你還可以馬馬虎虎建一臺超過70英里的粒子加速器。建於法瑞邊境、用於揭開宇宙奧祕的17英里長大型強子對撞機僅僅花費了40億英鎊(58億美元)。
The most expensive bridge ever constructed is the eastern replacement 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).
史上最昂貴橋樑是位於舊金山的奧克蘭海灣大橋東段新橋。地震專家預測該地將在1500年內遭遇一次最強烈的地震，而該橋的設計可以抗震，花費約爲45億英鎊(65億美元)。
