Down into the Deep

            Using high tech to explore the Titanic

                   深入海底-----采用高科技探索泰坦尼克号沉落之谜

①After resting on the ocean floor, split asunder and rusting, for nearly three-quarters of a century, a great ship seemed to come alive again. 

在沉寂海底将近75年之后，支离破碎，锈迹斑斑的泰坦尼克号似乎将要重见天日。( “a great ship” : 直接译成“泰坦尼克号”）

②The saga of the White Star liner Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912, carrying more than 1,500 passengers to their deaths, has been celebrated in print and on film, in poetry and song. 

1912年白星巨轮公司的泰坦尼克号游轮在首航途中撞上了冰山。船上1500多名乘客全部遇难。人们用文字，电影，诗歌，歌曲等不同的形式来纪念这个故事。” (将句子进行拆分，拆译成几个完整的短句，以便更好的理解。“maiden voyage”应该理解为“首航”)

③But last week what had been legendary suddenly became real. As they viewed videotapes and photographs of the sunken leviathan, millions of people around the world could sense her mass, her eerie quiet and the ruined splendor of a lost age.

但是，上周这个传说突然间变成了现实。当全世界数百万人在观看这艘沉没的巨轮的影片和照片时，他们能够感受到她庞大的身躯，体会到她散发地可怕的沉寂，看到了一个辉煌时代被摧毁后的情形。（采用了拟人的修辞手法。“the ruined splendor of a lost age.”感觉翻译的不通顺。）

④Watching on television, they vicariously joined the undersea craft Alvin and Jason Jr. (“J.J.”) as they toured the wreckage of the luxury liner, wandering across the decks past corroded bollards, peering into the offices’ quarters and through rust-curtained portholes. 

电视观众仿佛身临其境，跟随着阿尔文号和机器人探测器一起进入了这艘豪华巨轮的残骸，漫步在甲板，穿过被腐蚀的系船柱，透过满是铁锈的舷窗，凝视官员的住处。（采用排比的修辞手法，加强语言的气势。“Watching on television ”可直接译成“电视观众”，显得更简洁一点。）

⑤Views of the railings where doomed passengers and crewmembers stood evoked images of the moonless night 74 years ago when the great ship slipped beneath the waves.

那些栏杆唤起了人们74年前的记忆，月黑之夜，那些注定与巨轮葬身海底的乘客和船员也曾站在栏杆旁。（觉得理解的有点偏差。）

⑥The two-minute videotape and nine photographs, all in color and shot 
12500ft. under the North Atlantic, were a tiny sample of the 60 hours of video and 60000 stills garnered during the twelve-day exploration. 

在北大西洋12500英尺深处拍到的两分钟的录像和九张照片都是彩色的。它们只是十二天探测期间所拍摄的60个小时录像，60000张图片中的小范本。

⑦They were released at a Washington press conference conducted by Marine Geologist Robert Ballard, 44, who led the teams from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution that found the Titanic last September and revisited it this July.

这些录像和照片是44岁的海洋地质学家罗伯特巴拉德在华盛顿一次记者招待会公布的。巴拉德带领伍兹霍尔海洋研究所探测队在去年九月发现泰坦尼克号，并于今年7月重访了该船。

⑧Recounting the highlights of what has already become the most celebrated feat of underwater exploration, Ballard revealed some startling new information. 

在谈到这次著名的海底探险的精彩之处时，巴拉德透露了一些新的惊人的信息。

⑨His deep-diving craft failed to find the 300-ft. gash that, according to legend, was torn in the Titanic’s hull when the ship plowed into the iceberg. Instead, he suggested, the collision had buckled the ship’s plates, allowing water to pour in.

据传，泰坦尼克号撞上冰山时在船壳上划开了一条裂缝。但是巴拉德的潜水船没有找到这条300英尺长的裂缝。相反地，他认为是与冰山的碰撞造成了船的弯曲，才使得水流进来的。(将据传的内容提前，符合一般的逻辑思维。)

⑩He also brought back evidence that the ship broke apart not when she hit bottom, as he had thought when viewing the first Titanic images last September, but as she sank: the stern, which settled on the bottom almost 1,800ft., from the bow, had swiveled 180°on its way down.

去年九月，当他第一次看见泰坦尼克号的照片时，他以为船是因为撞到海底才断裂的。但是，他这次带回来的证据还表明船不是在撞到海底时，而是在下沉的过程中断裂的，船尾在下沉时旋转了180度，躺在了海底，距离船头几乎有1800英尺远。