美国三人赢得创纪录彩票头奖

The rush to buy tickets for what U.S. officials say is the world's largest lottery jackpot is about to pay off. Mega Millions lottery officials say there were three winning tickets for the record $640 million jackpot sold in three states.

美国兆彩乐透产生的世界最大数额的彩票头奖6亿4千万美元，花落三张中奖彩票的持有人手中。唯一的问题是，赢家当中还没有任何一人出面领奖。乐透活动组织者说，他们只知道赢家来自马里兰、堪萨斯和伊利诺伊州。

In the hours leading up to the Mega Millions drawing, there was a rush on tickets like lottery officials have never seen.

在兆彩彩票开奖前的几个小时里，人们争先恐后地去购买彩票，连彩票官员都从来没有见过这种火热的场景。

"Last night, between the hours of, oh, 5 to 10 o'clock, around the country, we were selling Mega Millions tickets at the rate of about $1 million a minute. Never before have we seen that kind of frenzy," noted Mega Millions lead director Gary Grief.

兆彩抽奖负责人盖瑞•格里夫说：“我们在全国各地以每分钟差不多1百万美元的速度在销售兆彩彩票。我们以前从来没有见过这么狂热的场面。”

And then the fateful moment arrived. Lottery officials say three tickets - each worth about $213 million before taxes - have the winning numbers. One of the winning tickets was sold at a store in Baltimore County, Maryland, 60 kilometers north of Washington.

几个小时之后，决定命运的时刻到了。乐透官员表示，三张带有正确中奖号码的彩票每张税前价值2亿1千3百万美元。其中一张中奖彩票是华盛顿以北60公里的马里兰州巴尔的摩郡的这家商店售出的。Most of those buying tickets to the Mega Millions lottery Friday knew their chances of winning were slim.

星期五购买了一张或多张面值1美元彩票的绝大多数人都知道，自己中奖的机率非常小。

"It's the idea of a dream," said Lottery ticket buyer Andy Morenstern. "I think it's just another way of living the American dream. To have a lottery available here like this is pretty amazing. And everybody thinks that, 'One day if I win the lottery, what will I do with it all?'"

还有一个人说：“买彩票是一种梦想的形式，我觉得这就是另外一种实现美国梦的途径。有现在这样一种高额的彩票实在是令人惊叹。每个人都会想，‘如果有一天我彩票中奖，我会怎么花这些钱？’”

For some lucky Americans, the time to answer that question for real is here.

对于一些幸运的美国人来说，回答这个问题的时间真的已经到来了。