10个简单却无解的世界迷题(下)

plored Caves

3.没有人迹的洞穴

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.

我们都知道地球上大部分海洋都没有探测过。而原因并不是我们把所有精力都用在开发陆地上。

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.

我们脚下有成千上万个洞穴，至今还没有人去过。这些地下世界数量很大。

One estimate by National Geographic put the number of undiscovered caves at 90 percent of the planet's total.

《国家地理》的一项评估认为，还有90%的洞穴没有被人类发现。

That number is now slightly out of date, but it goes to show just how unknowable the ground beneath our feet is.

这个数据已经有些旧了，但依然可以说明要了解我们脚下的世界多么困难。

It doesn't help that the vast majority of caves are hidden, with no visible entrances at ground level.

大部分洞穴还深藏不露，地面上没有看得见的入口。

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.

即使像美国这样地图信息比较完善，已经被仔细探索过的地方，仍有50%的洞穴未被发现。

This means that all of those grand, crystal-filled caverns you occasionally see photos of online might be only the tip of the iceberg.

这也就是说，你在网上看见的那些震撼人心、充满水晶的洞穴照片，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.

地下还有一整个没被发现的世界，一个远离地表几年百年甚至上千年的黑暗世界。谁知道呢？说不定下面还有莫洛克人呢。

Fate Of pollution In Our Oceans

2.海洋污染物的结局

Here's a sobering thought: There may be nowhere left on Earth that isn't polluted.

有一种观点让人心情沉重：地球上可能没有哪一寸地方没有被污染了。

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.

受到大气环流和洋流的影响，几百万工厂和几百万车辆喷出的废气废物已经污染了世界的各个角落。

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.

这一个观点更让你惊恐：有些科学家认为地球上的海洋也全部被污染，再也不会变干净了。

Thanks to our wastefulness in the 20th century, Earth's oceans may be polluted forever.

由于20世纪我们挥霍无度，地球海洋已经被污染了。

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.

塑料微粒诞生了这些让人不安的消息。塑料微粒是由塑料瓶和塑料口袋分解而成的细微的塑料碎片。

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.

它们出现在地球海洋的任一水体中，没人知道能否把它们清除干净。

The most pessimistic scientists genuinely think that they will remain as long as there are oceans left on Earth.

最悲观的科学家认为，海洋存在多久，这些塑料微粒就会随之存在多久。

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.

能把整个文明弄丢的人不知道有多笨拙。然而，人类这样的经历却不止一两次，可能是十几次，甚至几百次。

Many of those societies, like the Olmecs, have since been rediscovered. They may just be the tip of the iceberg, though.

人们重新发现了很多社会文明，比如奥梅克文明，而这可能只是冰山一角。

Some scientists think that new technology has placed us on the verge of uncovering dozens of formerly lost civilizations.

有些科学家认为新技术可以让我们迅速找到十几种消失的文明。

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.

热带雨林环境复杂，掩盖了很多人类活动的痕迹。问问那些四处找寻埃尔多拉多或者失落的Z城却空手而返的探险家，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.

这并不是说热带雨林里什么都没有。我们偶尔会发现农业劳作或者挖掘土地留下的历史悠久的痕迹。

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.

这样大规模的工程表明其背后必定有某种文明。

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.

借助带有特殊装备的无人飞机搜寻热带雨林，我们有可能找到这些消失很久的族群。

If we're lucky, we may yet find traces of a bygone people (or peoples) we'd somehow forgotten all about.

如果我们走运，我们或许能发现早以被遗忘的古老人群（或说种群）生活过的痕迹。