002 深海之下

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" Stop that!" Will tried to protect his goldfish from Tish, the family cat

“住手！”威尔试图保护他的金鱼，不让家里的猫蒂什靠近。

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" Silly cat! Those fish aren't a snack, and I have to study!"

“傻猫！这些鱼不是零食，我还得学习呢！”

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He turned back to his science textbook and yawned

他转过身，继续对着科学课本，打了个哈欠。

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" This is boring," he murmured, pushing away his homework

“这太无聊了。”他嘟囔着，把作业推到一边。

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" Isn't the ocean just water anyway? I'm so tired..."

“海洋不就是水吗？我好累啊……”

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Will glanced at the time on his phone, set an alarm for ten minutes later, and crawled into bed

威尔瞥了一眼手机上的时间，设了个十分钟后的闹钟，然后爬上了床。

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He immediately fell asleep and started to dream

他立刻就睡着了，开始做起梦来。

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Will found himself inside a submarine, floating in the middle of nowhere

威尔发现自己在一艘潜水艇里，漂浮在茫茫大海中央。

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" Wow! Where am I, QT?" he said, picking up his phone

“哇！我在哪儿，QT？”他拿起手机说道。

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" My GPS indicates that we're floating in the western Pacific Ocean," QT responded." See?"

“我的GPS显示，我们正漂浮在西太平洋。”QT回应道，“瞧？”

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" Wow. That's a lot of water," Will commented

“哇，好多的水啊，”威尔感叹道。

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" Almost three quarters of Earth is covered by water: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern oceans

“地球将近四分之三被水覆盖：太平洋、大西洋、印度洋、北冰洋和南大洋。

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But they're connected into one world ocean because water moves all around," QT explained

但它们因水四处流动而连成了一个世界大洋。”QT解释道。

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Will peered at the map on QT's screen." The continents seem so small."

威尔凝视着QT屏幕上的地图。“大陆看起来好小啊。”

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" They're bigger than they look," QT said." Wait a second, and I'll take control of the ship."

“它们比看起来要大，”QT说，“等一下，我来操控这艘船。”

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A beam of light shot from QT to the submarine's controls, and the ship began moving

一束光从QT射向潜水艇的控制台，船便动了起来。

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" You can do that? Wow!" Will exclaimed

“你还能这样？哇！”威尔惊呼道。

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" I sure can. Right now we're over a strip around the continents called the continental shelf

“当然可以。现在我们正在大陆周围的一片区域上方，叫大陆架。

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It can extend four hundred kilometers from the coast

它能从海岸延伸四百公里。

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But it's not steep, so the water is usually 140 meters at its deepest."

但它并不陡峭，所以水通常最深只有140米。”

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" Colorful tropical reefs and lots of animals live in this area," Will said, remembering something he had read in his textbook

“这里生活着色彩缤纷的热带珊瑚礁和许多动物。”威尔想起课本里看到的内容，这样说道。

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" That's right," QT said." Then the ground gets steeper. We call this section of the continents the continental slope

“没错，”QT说，“然后海底会变得更陡峭。我们把大陆的这部分叫做大陆坡。”

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It goes all the way to the ocean floor." The submarine descended quickly, startling Will

它一直延伸到洋底。”潜水艇迅速下潜，吓了威尔一跳。

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" Where are we going?"

“我们这是要去哪儿？”

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" Down!" QT answered." But I've got to turn on the lights

“往下！”QT回答，“但我得打开灯了。”

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Sunlight doesn't penetrate very far into the water

阳光无法穿透到很深的水下。

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The top layer of the ocean, the Sunlight Zone, is only two hundred meters deep

海洋的最上层，也就是阳光区，深度只有两百米。

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In this zone there's enough light for plants to survive

在这个区域，光线足够植物生存。

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The fish and mammals that live here feed on the plants and — "

生活在这里的鱼类和哺乳动物以这些植物为食，还有——”

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" Each other?" Will guessed

“互相捕食？”威尔猜道。

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" Right. As you go deeper, into the Twilight Zone, it grows dimmer and dimmer — not enough light for plants

“没错。当你下潜得更深，进入弱光区时，光线会变得越来越暗——植物已没有足够的光线。

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So the creatures that live here usually have huge eyes to help them see

所以住在这里的生物通常长着巨大的眼睛来帮助它们看清东西。

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And they tend to come up to the Sunlight Zone to feed at night, when predators can't see them," QT explained

而且它们往往会在夜间上浮到阳光区觅食，那时捕食者看不见它们。”QT解释道。

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" That's where we are now, right? It's pretty dark here."

“我们现在就是在那里，对吧？这里可真暗。”

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Then Will noticed something enormous in the distance." What's that? It's getting closer fast!"

这时威尔注意到远处有个巨大的东西。“那是什么？它正快速逼近！”

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" Uh-oh... That's a giant squid. They live here, feeding on fish and smaller squid. It probably thinks we're lunch!"

“呃哦……那是一只巨型乌贼。它们住在这里，以鱼类和小型乌贼为食。它大概以为我们是午餐！”

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Just as the giant squid was about to wrap its tentacles around the submarine, QT turned the boat sharply, and they sped away

就在巨型乌贼要用触手缠住潜水艇时，QT猛地转向，他们便快速驶离了。

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" Whew!" said Will

“呼！”威尔说。

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" As I was saying," QT continued," by one thousand meters deep, there's no light. That's the start of the Midnight Zone."

“正如我刚才所说，”QT继续说道，“到一千米深时，就没有光线了。那就是午夜区的开始。”

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Will nodded." This must be it." Then he spied something surprising." Lights!"

威尔点点头。“这一定就是了。”接着他看到了令人惊讶的东西。“光！”

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" Many species have adapted to life without sunlight

“很多物种已经适应了没有阳光的生活。

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Some create their own light, to attract mates or prey or confuse predators."

有些会自己发光，用来吸引配偶、猎物，或迷惑捕食者。”

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QT turned off the lights, and a fish with huge teeth swam by

QT 关上了灯，一条长着巨大牙齿的鱼游了过去。

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It had what looked like a fishing pole coming out of its head, with a light on the top

它的头上伸出一个像钓竿一样的东西，顶上还亮着光。

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" That's weird! What is it?" Will asked

“真奇怪！那是什么？”威尔问道。

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" An anglerfish. It attracts food with that light."

“是鮟鱇鱼。它用那光来吸引食物。”

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After the fish swam away, QT flashed the submarine's lights. Thousands of lights flashed back

鱼游走后，QT 闪了闪潜水艇的灯。成千上万的光点立刻闪烁回应。

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Will was amazed." Wow! That's a lot of anglerfish!"

威尔很惊讶。“哇！好多鮟鱇鱼啊！”

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" And some squid, some shrimplike species, and other creatures. We're approaching the ocean floor now

“还有一些鱿鱼、像虾的物种，和其他生物。我们现在正在接近海底。

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The ocean floor starts about four thousand meters below the surface, but it can go as deep as six thousand meters."

海底从海面下大约四千米的地方开始，但有些地方能深达六千米。”

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QT turned the lights back on, and a vast plain appeared before them. It was dotted with mountains

QT重新打开灯，一片广阔的平原出现在他们面前，平原上点缀着群山。

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" It looks a lot like the land above water; most of it is flat, but there are also mountains and valleys

“这看起来很像水上的陆地；大部分是平坦的，但也有山脉和山谷。

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Those little mountains are called seamounts. If they become big enough to reach the surface, their name changes to islands."

那些小山叫做海山。如果它们变得足够大，露出海面，名字就变成了岛屿。”

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" Cool!" Will exclaimed. Then he noticed something else

“太酷了！”威尔惊叹道。接着他注意到了别的东西。

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" What are those tubes, with the black stuff erupting out of them?"

“那些管子是什么？黑色的东西正从里面喷出来？”

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" They're called black smokers," QT said." They release toxic gases and hot water from underground

“它们叫做黑烟囱，”QT说，“它们从地下释放出有毒气体和热水。

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For a long time, people thought nothing could live down here, but they were wrong."

很长一段时间，人们以为这里不可能有生命，但他们错了。”

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QT shined a bright light near one of the smokers, and they saw fish and crabs swimming among long, white tubes with red tips

QT用强光照向其中一个烟囱附近，他们看到鱼和螃蟹在长长的、顶端红色的白色管子间游动。

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" Those are tubeworms. They actually get their energy from those toxic substances. But let's look behind us too."

“那些是管状蠕虫。它们实际上是从那些有毒物质中获取能量的。不过，我们也看看后面吧。”

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As the submarine turned, the ocean floor dropped away

潜艇转向时，海底陡然下陷。

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QT said," That's the Mariana Trench, a huge valley

QT说：“那是马里亚纳海沟，一个巨大的峡谷。

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Its deepest part is the Challenger Deep, at 11,000 meters under the surface. But life exists even there. Let's go see."

它最深的地方是挑战者深渊，位于海面下11,000米处。但即使在那里也有生命存在。我们去看看吧。”

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As they floated over the edge, they heard a creak. Worried, Will asked," What was that?"

当他们飘过边缘时，听到了嘎吱一声响。威尔担心地问：“那是什么声音？”

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QT ran a safety check of the submarine, and " DANGER!" appeared on the phone's screen

QT对潜艇进行了一次安全检查，电话屏幕上出现了“危险！”字样。

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But QT sounded calm." Our submarine made that noise

但QT听起来很平静。“是我们的潜艇发出的声音。

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We are under extreme pressure down here, and the weight of all the water above us is pressing on the boat

我们在这里承受着极大的压力，我们上方所有水的重量都压在船上。

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We shouldn't go much deeper. We don't want to get squished and — "

我们不应该再往深处走了。我们可不想被挤扁，然后——”

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But before QT could finish, the submarine window cracked!

但QT还没说完，潜艇的窗户就裂了！

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A stream of water shot inside, splashing Will

一股水流射了进来，溅了威尔一身。

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He woke with a start and saw the cat jump away from the fishbowl, shaking its wet paw." Tish! Stay away from that fishbowl!"

他猛地惊醒，看到猫从鱼缸旁跳开，抖着湿漉漉的爪子。“蒂什！离那个鱼缸远点！”

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Will went to his desk." Oceans aren't boring. They're awesome!" he thought, quickly filling in a worksheet

威尔走到书桌前。“海洋一点也不无聊。它们太了不起了！”他想着，飞快地填写着一张作业单。

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Before long, he crawled back into bed — this time, for the night

没过多久，他又爬回了床上——这次，是准备过夜了。