10個簡單卻無解的世界迷題(下)
plored Caves
3.沒有人跡的洞穴It's common knowledge that most of the Earth's oceans remain unexplored. That's not because we've spent all our time getting to grips with the land, though.
我們都知道地球上大部分海洋都沒有探測過。而原因並不是我們把所有精力都用在開發陸地上。Beneath our feet are literally thousands upon thousands of caves that no human being has ever set foot in. These subterranean worlds aren't even in the minority.
我們腳下有成千上萬個洞穴，至今還沒有人去過。這些地下世界數量很大。
One estimate by National Geographic put the number of undiscovered caves at 90 percent of the planet's total.
《國家地理》的一項評估認爲，還有90%的洞穴沒有被人類發現。That number is now slightly out of date, but it goes to show just how unknowable the ground beneath our feet is.
這個數據已經有些舊了，但依然可以說明要了解我們腳下的世界多麼困難。
It doesn't help that the vast majority of caves are hidden, with no visible entrances at ground level.
大部分洞穴還深藏不露，地面上沒有看得見的入口。Even in a region of the world as mapped and meticulously explored as the US, it's thought that only 50 percent of its caves have likely been found.
即使像美國這樣地圖信息比較完善，已經被仔細探索過的地方，仍有50%的洞穴未被發現。This means that all of those grand, crystal-filled caverns you occasionally see photos of online might be only the tip of the iceberg.
這也就是說，你在網上看見的那些震撼人心、充滿水晶的洞穴照片，可能只是冰山一角。There's a whole undiscovered world down there, a lightless place cut off from the surface for centuries, perhaps millennia. Who knows? There might even be Morlocks.
地下還有一整個沒被發現的世界，一個遠離地表幾年百年甚至上千年的黑暗世界。誰知道呢？說不定下面還有莫洛克人呢。Fate Of Pollution In Our Oceans
2.海洋污染物的結局Here's a sobering thought: There may be nowhere left on Earth that isn't polluted.
有一種觀點讓人心情沉重：地球上可能沒有哪一寸地方沒有被污染了。Thanks to swirling air and sea currents, along with millions of factories and billions of cars all spewing out gunk into the environment, there may not be a single patch of the world left that is completely pollution-free.
受到大氣環流和洋流的影響，幾百萬工廠和幾百萬車輛噴出的廢氣廢物已經污染了世界的各個角落。If that freaks you out, wait until you hear the next bit: Some scientists think that this planet will never again see an unpolluted sea.
這一個觀點更讓你驚恐：有些科學家認爲地球上的海洋也全部被污染，再也不會變乾淨了。
Thanks to our wastefulness in the 20th century, Earth's oceans may be polluted forever.
由於20世紀我們揮霍無度，地球海洋已經被污染了。This disturbing news comes courtesy of microplastics. Originally part of plastic bottles and bags, microplastics are the tiny fragments that split off and get broken down into ever smaller pieces.
塑料微粒誕生了這些讓人不安的消息。塑料微粒是由塑料瓶和塑料口袋分解而成的細微的塑料碎片。They can currently be found in just about every patch of ocean on Earth, and no one is sure if they can ever be properly cleaned up.
它們出現在地球海洋的任一水體中，沒人知道能否把它們清除乾淨。The most pessimistic scientists genuinely think that they will remain as long as there are oceans left on Earth.
最悲觀的科學家認爲，海洋存在多久，這些塑料微粒就會隨之存在多久。scovered Civilizations
1.未知文明It seems like you'd have to be pretty clumsy to lose something as massive as an entire civilization. Nevertheless, our species has managed this extraordinary feat not once, not twice, but dozens (maybe hundreds) of times.
能把整個文明弄丟的人不知道有多笨拙。然而，人類這樣的經歷卻不止一兩次，可能是十幾次，甚至幾百次。Many of those societies, like the Olmecs, have since been rediscovered. They may just be the tip of the iceberg, though.
人們重新發現了很多社會文明，比如奧梅克文明，而這可能只是冰山一角。Some scientists think that new technology has placed us on the verge of uncovering dozens of formerly lost civilizations.
有些科學家認爲新技術可以讓我們迅速找到十幾種消失的文明。
The depths of the rain forest have long been adept at hiding traces of human activity. Just ask any of the doomed explorers who set off to find El Dorado or the Lost City of Z.
熱帶雨林環境複雜，掩蓋了很多人類活動的痕跡。問問那些四處找尋埃爾多拉多或者失落的Z城卻空手而返的探險家，你就知道了。That's not to say that the rain forests are empty. We've occasionally glimpsed signs of widespread agricultural work or excavations that took place long ago.
這並不是說熱帶雨林裏什麼都沒有。我們偶爾會發現農業勞作或者挖掘土地留下的歷史悠久的痕跡。For such large-scale projects to have been undertaken, it stands to reason that there must have been a civilization in each area driving them.
這樣大規模的工程表明其背後必定有某種文明。The potential is now there for us to attempt to locate these long-gone peoples, possibly by flying specially equipped drones through remote areas of rain forest.
藉助帶有特殊裝備的無人飛機搜尋熱帶雨林，我們有可能找到這些消失很久的族羣。If we're lucky, we may yet find traces of a bygone people (or peoples) we'd somehow forgotten all about.
如果我們走運，我們或許能發現早以被遺忘的古老人羣（或說種羣）生活過的痕跡。
