世界之谜

On February 28, 1904, there was a sighting by three crew members on the USS Supply 300 miles west of San Francisco, reported by Lt. Frank Schofield, later to become Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Battle Fleet. Schofield wrote of three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying in echelon formation that approached beneath the cloud layer, then changed course and “soared” above the clouds, departing directly away from the earth after 2 to 3 minutes. The largest had an apparent size of about six suns.

Built 4,000 years ago, the three great pyramids at Giza, in the Egyptian desert remain the most colossal1 buildings ever constructed.

The pyramids were built by Egyptians under the orders of the Egyptian leader, whose title was Pharaoh2. There was a sequence of Pharaohs culminating3 around 2615 B.C., with the Pharaoh Cheops who built the biggest thing ever built, the Great Pyramid, also known as Khufu. Cheops built a pyramid 770 feet on one side and 481 feet tall. How ancient builders managed to build these massive structures has never been fully answered but the effort clearly required brains and brawn4.

Was there engineering genius involved? Yes, there was. For example, when you're putting the block right at the top, how are you going to lug5 a block of stone that weighs several tons 480 feet up a structure? How are you going to do it, and how are you going to do it without leaving scratches6 on all the rest of the structure? And how many people does it take to drag a block weighing several tons 480 feet up into the sky? Approximately, 2.3 million blocks of stone were cut, transported and assembled to create the Great Pyramid.

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The Pharaohs may have set out to build magnificent tombs for themselves, but in the end they created monuments to human potential. There's a universal message in the pyramids. The pyramids belong to Egypt, but the pyramids also belong to the world. That's why we can all identify the pyramids as an early monument of human greatness.

For being a manmade wonder that has survived the sands of time1, the pyramids rise to the number two spot.

矗立在埃及沙漠中吉萨的三座大金字塔建于4000年前，它们一直都是有史以来最宏大的建筑。 金字塔是埃及人在他们的领袖——名为法老——的命令下建造的。在公元前2615年左右，几任法老相继统治埃及，基奥普斯法老建造了有史以来最大的金字塔——大金字塔，也被称为胡夫金字塔。胡夫金字塔每边长770英尺，高481英尺。古代的建筑者是如何建造这些庞然大物的，这一直是个未解之谜，但很明显它需要付出大量的脑力和体力。

有工程天才的参与吗？是的，有。比如，当你要把一个石块放在顶端时，你该如何把一个几吨重的石块提升到480英尺的高度呢？应该怎样做？怎么做才不至于在塔身留下刮痕？把几吨重的石块提举到480英尺的高处又需要多少人力呢？为了建造大金字塔，人们切割、运输、垒砌了大约230万块石头。

法老们的初衷是为自己建造豪华的陵墓，而最终他们创建的却是昭示人类潜能的纪念碑。金字塔蕴含着一种共同的信息，金字塔属于埃及，但它也属于世界。因此我们完全可以把金字塔作为展示人类伟大文明的早期纪念物。

由于历经岁月的沧桑，金字塔位列十大人工奇观排行榜第2名。

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The Earth is a mysterious place. There is much going on around us every day that goes unexplained. For all our advanced technology and scientific understanding, there are ten perplexing events for which we have no answers.

地球是个神秘莫测的所在，周遭日常的许多事物至今仍然没有解释。我们有那么多先进技术和科学知识，却还是不能为以下十件让人困惑的事情找到答案：

10. The Body/Mind Connection 身心关联

Medical science is only beginning to understand the ways in which the mind influences the body. The placebo effect, for example, demonstrates that people can at times cause a relief in medical symptoms or suffering by believing the cures to be effective--whether they actually are or not. Using processes only poorly understood, the body's ability to heal itself is far more amazing than anything modern medicine could create.

对于心灵影响身体的各种方式，我们的医学只是刚刚有所了解。比如说，安慰剂效应表明人有时候能通过相信治疗有效来减轻症状和痛苦--不论治疗是否真的有效。我们的身体能通过一系列我们至今知之甚少的过程来自我疗救，其治愈能力远比现代医学所能创造的一切更加令人惊叹。

9. Psychic powers and ESP 灵力与超感知觉

Psychic powers and extra-sensory perception （ESP） rank among the top ten unexplained phenomena if for no other reason than that belief in them is so widespread. Many people believe that intuition is a form of psychic power, a way of accessing arcane or special knowledge about the world or the future. Researchers have tested people who claim to have psychic powers, though the results under controlled scientific conditions have so far been

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negative or ambiguous. Some have argued that psychic powers cannot be tested, or for some reason diminish in the presence of skeptics or scientists. If this is true, science will never be able to prove or disprove the existence of psychic powers.

对灵力和超感知觉（简称ESP）的信仰流布甚广，就凭这一点，这两样东西也应该进入十大未解之谜的行列。许多人相信，直觉就是灵力的一种表现形式、一种获取有关世界或未来的特异知识的方法。研究人员已经对一些自称拥有灵力的人进行了测试，但是迄今为止，他们在受控实验室条件下得到的都还是否定或含糊的结果。有些人辩称灵力不可测试，因为它会因怀疑论者或科学家的在场而莫名其妙地减弱。如果这是真的，科学就永远无法证明或驳斥灵力的存在。

8. Near-Death Experiences and Life After Death 濒死体验与死后生活

People who were once near death have sometimes reported various mystical experiences （such as going into a tunnel and emerging in a light, being reunited with loved ones, a sense of peace, etc.） that may suggest an existence beyond the grave. While such experiences are profound, no one has returned with proof or verifiable information from \grave.\hallucinations of a traumatized brain, yet there is no way to know with certainty what causes near-death experiences, or if they truly are visions of \

曾经濒临死亡的人有时会宣称自己有各式各样的神奇体验（比如进入一条隧道、出现在光之中、与亲爱的人重聚、获得一种平静感，如此等等）,这样的体验也许暗示着人死后有知。但是，尽管这些体验让人刻骨铭心，但却没有人从\坟墓那边\带回过什么证据或是可资验证的信息。怀疑论者的

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看法是，濒死体验可以解释，但是是受损大脑可以预期的自然幻觉。然而，我们还是不能确切知道濒临体验的来由，也无法知道它们是否真的是\那边\的景象。

7. UFOs 不明飞行物

There is no doubt that UFOs （Unidentified Flying Objects） exist - many people see things in the skies that they cannot identify, ranging from aircraft to meteors. Whether or not any of those objects and lights are alien spacecraft is another matter entirely; given the fantastic distances and effort involved in just getting to Earth from across the universe, such a scenario seems unlikely. Still, while careful investigation has revealed known causes for most sighting reports, some UFO incidents will always remain unexplained.

UFO（不明飞行物）的存在是毫无疑问的，因为有许多人在天上看到过自己无法识别的东西，从飞行器到流星应有尽有。至于说这些物体和光影当中有没有外星人的宇宙飞船就完全是另外一回事了--但是想想穿越宇宙空间来到地球的遥远距离与巨大困难，你就会觉得这样的事情不太可能。但是，尽管大多数目击报告已经借由认真的调查得到了平平无奇的解释，有些不明飞行物事件还是会一直神秘下去。

6. Deja vu 幻觉记忆

Deja vu is a French phrase meaning 'already seen,' referring to the distinct, puzzling, and mysterious feeling of having experienced a specific set of circumstances before. A woman might walk into a building, for example, in a foreign country she'd never visited, and sense that the setting is eerily and intimately familiar. Some attribute deja vu to psychic experiences or unbidden glimpses of previous lives. As with intuition, research into ,human

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psychology can offer more naturalistic explanations, but ultimately the cause and nature of the phenomenon itself remains a mystery.

Deja vu（幻觉记忆）是一句法文短语，意为\似曾相识\指的是一种令人不解的特殊神秘体验，就是你觉得自已以前经历过某个特定的场景。举例来说，一个女人可能会走进她初次拜访的异国的一座建筑，但却觉得眼前的景象似曾相识，感觉怪异又亲切。有些人认为幻觉记忆是通灵体验的产物，或是因为人在不经意间瞥见了前世的光景。跟直觉一样，人类心理学研究也可以为这种现象提供更为自然主义的解释，但这种现象本身的来由和性质始终还是个谜。

5. Ghosts 鬼魂

From the Shakespeare play \to the NBC show \spirits of the dead have long made an appearance in our culture and folklore. Many people have reported seeing apparitions of both shadowy strangers and departed loved ones. Though definitive proof for the existence of ghosts remains elusive, sincere eyewitnesses continue to report seeing, photographing, and even communicating with ghosts. Ghost investigators hope to one day prove that the dead can contact the living, providing a final answer to the mystery.

从莎士比亚的剧作《麦克佩斯》到美国国家广播公司的电视节目《灵媒缉凶》，亡者的魂灵一直在我们的文化和传说中萦绕不去。许多人都声称自己曾目睹鬼魂现身，其中既有面目模糊的陌生人，也有业已故去的亲朋好友。鬼魂存在的可靠证据至今还是无从取得，虔信不疑的目击者们却依然在继续报告自己看到鬼魂、拍到鬼魂乃至与鬼魂交流的经历。致力调查鬼魂的人们希望有一天能证明死者可以和生者接触，由此为这个谜题找出最终的答案。

4. Mysterious Disappearances 神秘消失

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People disappear for various reasons. Most are runaways, some succumb to accident, a few are abducted or killed, but most are eventually found. Not so with the truly mysterious disappearances. From the crew of the Marie Celeste to Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart, and Natalee Holloway, some people seem to have vanished without a trace. When missing persons are found, it is always through police work, confession, or accident never by 'psychic detectives'）. But when the evidence is lacking and leads are lost, even police and forensic science can't always solve the crime.

人们会因为各种各样的理由消失不见，大多数是自行逃遁，有一些是碰上了事故，还有少数则是遭人绑架或杀害。但是，其中的大多数最终都会被人找到。真正神秘的消失就不是这样了。从\玛丽·塞莱斯特号\船员、吉米·霍法、艾米莉·亚艾尔哈特到娜塔莉·霍洛威，有些人似乎消失得无影无踪了。失踪人口被人找到不外乎警方破案、相关人员等自供以及偶然发现等几种原因，绝没有借助\通灵侦探\的情形。但是，在证据不足、线索中断的情况下，即便是警方和鉴证科学也并不总能解决罪案。

3. Intuition 直觉

Whether we call it gut feelings, a \experienced intuition at one time or another. Of course, gut feelings are often wrong （how many times during aircraft turbulence have you been sure your plane was going down?）, but they do seem to be right much of the time. Psychologists note that people subconsciously pick up information about the world around us, leading us to seemingly sense or know information without knowing exactly how or why we know it. But cases of intuition are difficult to prove or study, and psychology may only be part of the answer.

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说是\心底的感觉\也好，\第六感\也好，别的什么东西也好，我们或多或少都有过直觉的体验。当然，心底的感觉经常会错（有多少次，坐飞机颠簸的时候你觉得它肯定会掉下去呢？）,可也有很多时候似乎是正确的。心理学家们已经发现，人们会下意识地收集周遭世界的信息，由此便似乎能在不自知如何或为何的情况下感知或了解信息。但是，直觉的案例很难证明，也很难分析，而心理学家也可能只是答案的一部分而已。

2. Bigfoot 大脚

For decades, large, hairy, manlike beasts called Bigfoot have occasionally been reported by eyewitnesses across America. Despite the thousands of Bigfoot that must exist for a breeding population, not a single body has been found. Not one has been killed by a hunter, struck dead by a speeding car, or even died of natural causes. In the absence of hard evidence like teeth or bones, support comes down to eyewitness sightings and ambiguous photos and films. Since it is logically impossible to prove a universal negative, science will never be able to prove that creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster do not exist, and it is possible that these mysterious beasts lurk far from prying eyes.

几十年当中，美国各地都不时有目击者声称自己看到了人称\大脚\的巨型多毛人形野兽。尽管目击者口中的\大脚\数以千计、足以构成一个繁殖种群，人们却连一具尸体也未曾找到。没有一个\大脚\被猎人杀死或是被超速的汽车撞死，连自然死亡的都没有。没有牙齿骨骼之类的实在证物，\大脚\存在的依据只是证人目击以及模糊不清的照片和录像。要证明一个全称否定判断从逻辑上说是不可能的，因此科学将永远不能证明\大脚\和尼斯湖怪兽之类的东西不存在。也有可能，这些神秘莫测的生物的确潜藏在人们好奇视线之外的远处。

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1. The Taos Hum 陶斯之声

Some residents and visitors in the small city of Taos, New Mexico, have for years been annoyed and puzzled by a mysterious and faint low-frequency hum in the desert air. Oddly, only about 2 percent of Taos residents report hearing the sound. Some believe it is caused by unusual acoustics; others suspect mass hysteria or some secret, sinister purpose. Whether described as a whir, hum, or buzz and whether psychological, natural, or supernatural no one has yet been able to locate the sound's origin.

多年以来，美国新墨西哥州小城市陶斯的部分居民和访客一直被沙漠空气中一种微弱的低频噪声所困扰。奇怪的是，只有大约2%的陶斯居民说自己听见了这种声音。有些人认为它产生于特殊的声学作用，也有些人怀疑这是集体幻觉或是某种神秘邪恶行为的产物。不管人们形容这种声响还是呼呼声、嗡嗡声还是咝咝声，也不管它究竟是心理作用、自然产物还是超自然产物，至今还没人能找到它的来源。

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