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Fresh Air Will Kill You
新鮮空氣會讓你送命
Smog, which was once the big attraction of Los Angeles, can now be found all over the country from Butte, Montana, to New York City, and people are getting so used to polluted air that it's very difficult for them to breathe anything else.
煙霧曾是洛杉磯的一大景觀，如今卻在全國各地——從蒙大拿州的比尤特到紐約市——隨處可見；人們越來越習慣于受污染的空氣，現在要他們呼吸點別的什么玩意兒，反倒十分困難了。
I was lecturing recently, and one of my stops was Flagstaff, Arizona, which is about 7,000 miles above sea level.
前些日子我在做巡回演講，其中有一站是亞利桑那州的弗拉格斯塔夫，該城地處海拔7000英里以上。
As soon as I got out of the plane, I smelled something peculiar.
我一下飛機就聞到某種特別的怪味。
"What's that smell?" I asked the man who met me at the plane.
“那是股什么味兒?”我問那個來機場接我的人。
"I don't smell anything," he replied.
“我可沒聞到什么啊，”他說。
"There's a definite odor that I'm not familiar with," I said.
“肯定有股我不熟悉的怪味兒，”我說。
"Oh, you must be talking about the fresh air. A lot of people come out here who have never smelled fresh air before."
“哦，你準是在說新鮮空氣吧。不少來這兒的人以前從沒呼吸過新鮮空氣。”
"What's it supposed to do?" I asked suspiciously.
“那玩意兒用來干嘛的？”我狐疑地問。
"Nothing. You just breathe it like any other kind of air. It's supposed to be good for your lungs."
“不干嘛。你就像呼吸任何別的空氣那樣呼吸好了。據說對肺有好處。”
"I've heard that story before," I said. "How come if it's air, my eyes aren't watering?"
“這說法我從沒聽說過，”我說。“如果這也算是空氣，那我的眼睛怎么沒在淌眼淚呢?”
"Your eyes don't water with fresh air. That's the advantage of it. Saves you a lot in paper tissues."
“新鮮空氣不會讓你眼睛流眼淚的，它的好處就在于此。可以省掉你不少面巾紙。”
I looked around and everything appeared crystal clear. It was a strange sensation and made me feel very uncomfortable.
我環顧四周，一切都顯得水晶般地清澈。這倒給人一種怪異的感覺，讓我覺得渾身不自在。
My host, sensing this, tried to be reassuring. "Please don't worry about it. Tests have proved that you can breathe fresh air day and night without its doing any harm to the body."
我的東道主覺察出了這點，便設法拿話來寬慰我。“請不要為此擔心。試驗業已證明，你盡可日夜呼吸新鮮空氣，而不會對身體造成任何傷害。”
"You're just saying that because you don't want me to leave," I said. "Nobody who has lived in a major city can stand fresh air for a very long time. He has no tolerance for it."
“你說這話無非是不想讓我離開罷了，”我說。“住慣了大城市的人，要他們長時間呼吸新鮮空氣，誰都受不了的。這玩意消受不了。”
