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Mono Mania
偏執狂
By Jody Rosen
文/喬迪·羅森
The desert of southeastern Utah is a wilderness of flat-topped mesas, jutting buttes and plunging canyons.
猶他州東南部的沙漠是一片由平頂的臺地、突出的孤峰和低洼的峽谷組成的荒野。
It is a fantastical landscape, the kind of scenery that pulls your thoughts toward things not quite of this earth.
這是一幅夢幻般的風景，那種把你的思想拉向不完全屬于這個地球的風景。
Indigenous people from the region have told stories of deities who formed the mountains by sweeping rocks through a hole in the heavens, and of warrior gods who stomped the topography into existence with their mighty footfalls.
當地土著居民講述了神靈們通過在天上的一個洞里掃石頭而形成山脈的故事，以及武士神靈們用他們沉重的腳步踏成如今地形的故事。
Other local legends hold that the desert is haunted by screaming ghosts or stalked by a phantom wolf.
其他當地傳說認為，沙漠一直回蕩著鬼魂尖叫聲，還能尋到幽靈狼的蹤跡。
The area is known for U.F.O. sightings, and its arid terrain, dotted with crimson sandstone outcroppings, has often been likened to Mars.
該地區已觀測到不明飛行物而聞名，這片不毛之地上點綴著深紅色的砂巖，常常被比作火星。
Since 2001, a group advocating the human settlement of Mars has maintained a research center outside a small town called Hanksville, where crews live for weekslong stretches to simulate habitation on the red planet.
自2001年以來，一個倡導人類在火星定居的組織在一個叫漢克斯維爾的小鎮外建立了一個研究中心，工作人員在那里居住了數周，模擬火星上的居住環境。
The desert is, literally, home to would-be Martians.
實際上，沙漠是未來火星人的家園。
Recently, an alien presence of another kind brought this place into the news.
最近，這里發現了另一種外星人，這令該地區再次登上新聞。
On Nov. 18, a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter crew, flying over public land in San Juan County with a team of biologists to conduct an aerial count of bighorn sheep, spotted an object that, clearly, was not a sheep.
11月18日，猶他州公共安全局的直升機機組人員與一組生物學家在圣胡安縣的公共用地上空飛行，對大角羊進行空中計數，發現了一個明顯不是羊的物體。
The crew landed and went to investigate on foot.
機組人員著陸后步行前往調查。
What followed is documented in brief cellphone videos.
手機短視頻記錄了接下來發生的事情。
One clip shows workers in green jumpsuits descending a rock formation while a voice chuckles off-camera: "OK, the intrepid explorers go down to investigate the alien life form."
一段視頻顯示，穿著綠色連身衣的工人們正從巖層上下來，這時一個聲音在鏡頭外咯咯地笑著：“好吧，勇敢的探險家們下去調查外星人的生命形式。”
A second video focuses in on the "life form": a triangular pillar, nearly 10 feet tall, sheathed in metal and held together with rivets.
第二個視頻聚焦于“生命形式”：一個用金屬包裹、用鉚釘固定在一起的、將近10英尺高的三角形柱子。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
