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By the subsequent generation, however— the grandchildren of the flood's survivors—
但到后一代—洪水幸存者的孫子輩—
they started creeping downhill again, closer to the river, and encroaching on the zone of flood risk.
他們開始再次往下移居，更臨近河流并慢慢侵占洪水風險區域。
Sites close to watercourses have always been prized, and in calculating where to build their homes,
接近河道的地址一直被視為重地，且在考慮建房區域時，
people have necessarily weighed the risks of flood damage against the advantages of being close to a river.
人們必會權衡洪水災害的風險和臨近河流的優勢。
That memories of disaster weigh more heavily in this calculation immediately after the flood is not surprising, says Dr Fanta.
洪水發生后，在考量住址時，關于這段災害的即刻記憶更加重要，這一點并不稀奇，Fanta博士說到。
But that the memory is so short-lived is. He had expected people to heed history's warning for a century at least.
但是這段記憶卻是如此短暫。他希望人們至少能夠留心歷史警告一個世紀之久。
This collective forgetfulness is even more puzzling in light of a central preoccupation of ancient chroniclers, the communication of risk.
鑒于古代記錄者的主要關注點是傳達風險，這種集體健忘甚至更加令人費解。
Writing to preserve their eras for posterity, they recounted harrowing tales of extreme climatic events, fires, famines and plagues.
為了給后代保留他們的時代，他們敘述并記錄下了關于極端氣候事件、火災、饑荒和瘟疫的悲慘故事。
Likewise, there is no shortage of written accounts of Hurricane Betsy or of historical floods in Prague—
同樣也不乏關于颶風貝齊或布拉格歷史性洪災的書面記錄—
the maximum heights of many of which are marked along the Vltava's banks.
很多最高水量都是沿著伏爾塔瓦河河岸標記的。
Such distant secondhand accounts are not enough, Dr Fanta concludes. To be deterred from placing themselves back in danger,
這種悠久的二手記錄是不夠的，Fanta博士總結到。為了阻止他們將自己再次置于危險之地，
people have to hear disaster tales from eye witnesses who can convey the visceral emotion of having lived through them.
人們需要傾聽目擊者的災難故事，他們的故事中傳達出了親歷者的真實情感。
The group's findings thus suggest that one way of teaching history more effectively might be to bring eye witnesses into the classroom.
因此該團隊的發現表明教授歷史的一種更加有效的方法或許是將目擊者請到課堂上。
That approach will not work for ever, of course. Over time, witnesses' own memories fade, and then the witnesses themselves expire.
這種方法不會永遠有效。隨時間流逝，目擊者的記憶消散，接著他們自己也會逝去。
The forgetting that Dr Fanta sees with respect to historical floods might also explain the recent rise of vaccine hesitancy and right-wing extremism,
Fanta博士認為對歷史性洪災的忘卻或許也能解釋為什么近期越來越多人對疫苗持觀望態度以及右翼極端主義的增長，
he suggests, as the survivors of now-preventable infectious diseases and Hitler, respectively, die of old age.
因為如今可預防傳染性疾病和希特勒時代的幸存者都病老歸西。
Having not experienced those realities, or heard about them first-hand, many people alive today have quite simply forgotten the horror.
由于沒有經歷過這些事件或是親耳聽他們述說這些事情，如今很多人都已遺忘了這種恐懼。
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