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進入《中英對照讀新聞》Are Zeppelins about to take off again-or is it just hot air? 齊柏林飛船準備再度升空…還是只是膨風？
◎ 管淑平
Public enthusiasm for airship travel rather plummeted after the Hindenburg went up in a ball of fire in New Jersey in 1937. Overnight, airships-once the height of elite luxury travel-were relegated to the status of scary-sounding historical white elephants.
1937年興登堡飛船在新澤西州上空化為一團火球後，大眾對空中飛船旅遊的熱潮也相當程度地退燒。一夜之間，一度以菁英豪華旅遊傲人的飛船，被貶為聽來嚇人的歷史大廢物。
But according to a very enthusiastic man called Gordon Taylor, this could all be set to change.
但根據對此非常熱中的戈登．泰勒說法，這一切要改變了。
’Imagine you’re planning a party with 400 of your best friends. You take an airship, say, at noon on one Thursday. There you’ll dinner-dance your way across the Atlantic at 10,000ft. Then you’ll have a good ten hours’ sleep and at two o’clock on Friday afternoon you’ll disembark in New York,’ he said, ’all for the cost of a business class air ticket.’
「想像你正籌劃一場與400個好友的派對。你們在，例如，一個週四中午，搭上飛船，在1萬英尺高空飛越大西洋的同時，盡情享受晚宴、舞會。然後，你將好好睡上10小時，週五下午2點在紐約下船」，他說，「這一切花費相當於一張商務艙機票。」
Gordon is the marketing director of a British company called Hybrid Air Vehicles which has recently won a £335 million contract to build three airships to act as the ’unblinking eyes’ of the U.S. Army above Afghanistan.
戈登是英國複合空中載具公司行銷總監，該公司最近爭取到3億3500萬英鎊合約，打造3艘太空船當做美軍在阿富汗上空的「全天候監測眼」。
He assures that, as well as being far greener, airships are much, much safer than planes. ’We are about to build the biggest aircraft in the world,’ says Gordon.
他保證，空中飛船除了更節能環保之外，也比飛機安全得多。「我們正準備打造全世界最大的飛船」，戈登說。
◎新聞辭典：
hot air：片語，沒有實際成果的空談。例句：The politicians’ promises are regarded as just hot air.（這些政客的承諾被當做只是空談。）
go up in （+smoke, flames...）：片語，化為烏有。在本文中興登堡升空後化成一團火球，一語雙關。例句：My life savings went up in smoke after the global economic crash.（經過這場全球經濟崩盤，我畢生積蓄都化為烏有。）
white elephant：片語，貴重或稀少卻無用之物。例句：This building costs the taxpayers billions dollars but is soon to be a white elephant.（這座建築物花了納稅人數十億元興建，但很快就會變成沒用的廢物。）
