Hot Snake

旁白 neutral

At last firemen have put out a big forest fire in California.

消防队员终于扑灭了加利福尼亚州的一场森林大火。

旁白 neutral

Since then, they have been trying to find out how the fire began.

从那时起，他们一直在努力查明火灾是如何开始的。

旁白 neutral

Forest fires are often caused by broken glass or by cigarette ends which people carelessly throw away.

森林火灾通常是由碎玻璃或人们随意丢弃的烟头引起的。

旁白 neutral

Yesterday the firemen examined the ground carefully,

昨天消防队员仔细检查了地面，

旁白 neutral

but were not able to find any broken glass.

但没能找到任何碎玻璃。

旁白 neutral

They were also quite sure that a cigarette end did not start the fire.

他们也相当确定不是烟头引起的火灾。

旁白 neutral

This morning, however, a firemen accidentally discovered the cause.

然而，今天早上，一名消防队员偶然发现了起火原因。

旁白 neutral

He noticed the remains of a snake which was wound round the electric wires of a 16,000-volt power line.

他发现了一条缠绕在16000伏高压电线上的蛇的残骸。

旁白 neutral

In this way, he was able to solve the mystery.

就这样，他解开了这个谜团。

旁白 neutral

The explanation was simple but very unusual.

解释很简单，但非常不同寻常。

旁白 neutral

A bird had snatched up the snake from the ground and then dropped it on to the wires.

一只鸟从地上抓起这条蛇，然后把它掉到了电线上。

旁白 neutral

The snake then wound itself round the wires.

然后蛇缠绕在电线上。

旁白 neutral

When it did so, it sent sparks down to the ground and these immediately started a fire.

当它这样做时，它向地面发出了火花，这些火花立刻引发了一场火灾。