Ted 演讲-the boiling river (中英对照).doc

HYPERLINK /talks/andres_ruzo_the_mythical_boiling_river_of_the_amazon The boiling river of the Amazon As a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me a legend?of the Spanish conquest of Peru. Atahualpa, emperor of the Inca, had been captured and killed. Pizarro and his conquistadors had grown rich, and tales of their conquest and glory had reached Spain and were bringing new waves of Spaniards, hungry for gold and glory. They would go into towns and ask the Inca, Wheres another civilization we can conquer? Wheres more gold? 小时候，我住在利马；爷爷给我讲了一个关于-?西班牙征服秘鲁的传奇故事。印加帝国的末代皇帝阿塔瓦尔帕，被抓住并处死。皮萨罗和征服者们变得富有起来，他们攻克秘鲁的传说和赞颂传到了西班牙，吸引了一批西班牙人来此淘金。他们去到镇子里，问印加人：“还有哪个文明没被攻克？还有哪里有黄金？” And the Inca, out of vengeance, told them, Go to the Amazon. Youll find all the gold you want there. In fact, there is a city called Paititi -- El Dorado in Spanish -- made entirely of gold. 而出于报复，印加人就告诉他们：“去亚马逊，?那里有挖不完的黄金”。事实上，那里有一个叫做‘帕依提提’ ——西班牙语叫El Dorado的城市是由黄金建成的”。 The Spanish set off into the jungle,?but the few that return come back with stories, stories of powerful shamans, of warriors with poisoned arrows, of trees so tall that they blotted out the sun, spiders that ate birds, snakes that swallowed men whole and a river that boiled. 于是这些西班牙人动身前往那片丛林，结果只有少数人带着故事回来了，他们带回了关于强大的萨满巫师的故事，关于拿着毒箭的武士的故事，关于那里的树太高以至遮住了阳光的故事，关于吃鸟的蜘蛛、能够吞下一整个人的大蛇，以及一条沸腾的河流的故事。 All this became a childhood memory. And years passed. Im working on my PhD at SMU, trying to understand Perus geothermal energy potential, when I remember this legend, and I began asking that question. Could the boiling river exist? 所有这些都成为了我的童年记忆。多年过去了，我到了南方为理公会大学（SMU）攻读博士学位，当我试着了解秘鲁的地热能源潜力时，我想到了这个传说，于是想到了一个问题。传说中的那条沸腾的河流真的存在吗？ I asked colleagues from universities, the government, oil, gas and mining companies, and the answer was a unanimous no. And this makes sense. You see, boiling rivers do exist in the world, but theyre generally associated with volcanoes. You need a powerful heat source to produce such a large geothermal manifestation. And as you can see fro