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Niagara Falls-Something Completely New
尼亞加拉瀑布-完全不同的全新景觀
Niagara Falls has become a tired old tourist sight. But if you look it over in an airplane, it becomes something completely new. You realize that it is not tired; only our way of looking at it is tired.
尼亞加拉大瀑布已成為了老掉牙的旅游景點。但是，如果你從飛機上鳥瞰的話，它就完全換了副模樣。你會意識到，老掉牙的并不是尼亞加拉，而是我們觀賞它的方法。
Most visitors go as close to the falls as possible, and watch the waters thundering down. It is fascinating, in a stupefying way. You stand there, hypnotized by the sheer force, the untiring action that goes on and on. But afterward you have a feeling - "So what, really? The water comes to the cliff and, naturally, it falls down."
大部分游客總是盡可能靠近瀑布，看著水流轟鳴而下。這讓人神魂顛倒，呆若木雞。游客站在那里，被奔騰不息的激流及其強大的力量所折服。但此后你會有這樣的感覺"那又怎么樣？水流到了懸崖邊，當然要往下淌落了。"
But at altitude you see it all at once. You see Lake Ontario on one side and Lake Erie on the other, and linking them the 34-mile Niagara River. Then, coming down lower, you see the falls themselves, along a front almost a mile wide, plunges over a 182-foot cliff and flows off through a deep, narrow gorge. And right away, with a flash of understanding, you see the main fact about the Niagara Falls. The falls are moving, the seven-mile-long gorge is merely the track the falls have made as they move along. This instantly reverses all your ideas. On the ground it seemed that the water fell because there was this low place for it to fall into the gorge. Now you see it is the other way round. The falls are the cause, and the gorge is the result. Niagara Gorge looks like the track eaten into an apple by a worm.
但在高空你會馬上看個一清二楚。你看到瀑布的一邊是安大略湖，另一邊是伊利湖，把這兩個源連接起來的是34英里長的尼亞加拉河。當飛機降低高度時，你會看到瀑布本身，沿著湖濱約有1英里寬的人行道，水從182英尺高的懸崖直沖下來，然后流入既深又窄的峽谷。你會頓悟你已看到了尼亞加拉瀑布的真面目：瀑布在運動著，而7英里長的峽谷只是瀑布在運動時沖出來的軌跡。這一事實馬上使你的想法完全改變。從地面上看，水往下沖入峽谷的原因似乎是因為下面有低地。而現在你會明白，事實正好相反：瀑布是起因，而峽谷才是結果。尼亞加拉峽谷看上去像是蟲子在蘋果上咬出來的斑痕。
Niagara differs from the waterfalls you find in mountains, where a thin stream of water comes down a mountainside, half-flying. Some of them are much higher than Niagara, and perhaps more beautiful, but they lack mass and cutting power. Niagara belongs to the heavyweights - where a whole solid river plunges bodily over a cliff.
尼亞加拉瀑布與人們在山上看到的瀑布有所不同。在山上看到的瀑布是一條飛下山腰的細流；有的高于尼亞加拉瀑布，也許比它美麗，但它們卻沒有尼亞加拉瀑布的那種氣勢和爆發力。尼亞加拉瀑布屬于重量級--一股巨流全部從懸崖上沖瀉下來。
The real sight from above is the gigantic movement of the falls themselves, digging the gorge.
從上往下看到的現實景像是瀑布自身的強烈運動在鑿峽谷。
The falls are still moving today. However, our century has tamed it a bit. A lot of water that used to plunge down now goes through the electric power stations, both American and Canadian.
今天，瀑布依然一瀉千里。不過，本世紀人們開始利用它了。過去常常向下沖擊的河流，現在都流過美國和加拿大的發電站。
