《中英對照讀新聞》Alarm clock stuck in Pittsburgh man’s wall has been going off for nearly 13 years-卡在匹茲堡男子家牆內的鬧鐘持續響了近13年
◎張沛元
Walls may not be able to talk, but they do ring for a Pittsburgh man who got an alarm clock stuck inside his wall during a DIY project gone wrong nearly 13 years ago.
牆也許不會說話,但卻為1名在近13年前自行裝修住家時出差錯把鬧鐘卡在牆內的(美國賓州)匹茲堡男子,發出聲響。
Back in September 2004, Ross Township resident Jerry Lynn was attempting to pass a TV wire through his living room wall and came up with a trick to help him pinpoint exactly where to knock a hole in the wall. He set an alarm clock to go off in 10 minutes, tied it to a string, and put it down an air vent.
時間回到2004年9月,羅斯鎮居民傑瑞.林恩在企圖把電視纜線穿過客廳牆壁時,想到一個讓自己能在牆上準確鑽洞的招數。他把鬧鐘綁在繩子上設定10分鐘後響,然後從通風口把鬧鐘放入牆內。
"As I was laying it down, all of a sudden I heard it go ’thunk!’ as it came loose," he told KDKA. "I thought, well, that’s not a real problem. You know, it’s still going to go off. And it did."
「當我把鬧鐘放下去,突然就聽到『咚』的一聲,它鬆脫了,」他告訴KDKA電視台。「我想,這也沒什麼大不了的。你知道,它還是會響。它的確響了。」
Now, in June 2017, that alarm clock is still ringing - not continuously, but daily, Lynn says.
如今,2017年6月,這個鬧鐘還在響—不是連續一直響,但每天響,林恩說。
He told KDKA he thought the problem would solve itself over time: "Maybe three, four months it’ll run out of battery. That was in September of 2004. It is still going off every day."
他告訴KDKA電視台,他本以為假以時日,問題就會自己解決:「也許3、4個月電池就沒電了。當時是2004年9月,它現在還是每天響。」
《新聞辭典》
go off:慣用語,(警報器等)發出聲響。例句:The alarm clock went off at 4:30.(鬧鐘凌晨4點半響了。)
go wrong:慣用語,出錯,出包。例句:Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.(可能會出錯的事就一定會出錯。)
run out of:慣用語,用罄。