【精英翻譯】的部落格

Japanese train barks like a dog to prevent accidents 預防事故日本火車發出狗吠聲

精英翻譯社轉自: http://iservice.ltn.com.tw/Service/english/english.php?engno=1189682&day=2018-04-04

◎魏國金

Researchers in Japan have fitted a train with a speaker that barks like a dog and snorts like a deer in order to prevent collisions on the railway.

日本研究人員在一列列車上裝置像狗吠叫、像鹿噴鼻息的擴音器，以防止鐵道上的撞擊事件。

Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports that the combination of sounds is designed to scare deer away from the tracks in a bid to reduce the number of animal deaths on the railway.

「朝日新聞」報導，相關聲音的結合是設計來嚇跑鐵軌上的鹿，以降低鐵道的鹿隻死亡數。

Officials from the Railway Technical Research Institute （RTRI）say that a three-second blast of the sound of a deer snorting attracts the animals’ attention, and 20 seconds of dog barking is enough to make them take flight.

鐵道綜合技術研究所（RTRI）官員說，3秒的鹿鼻息聲可吸引該動物注意，而為時20秒的狗吠聲足以讓牠們逃之夭夭。

Deer are attracted to railway lines because of a need for iron in their diets. They lick the rails to pick up iron filings caused by the action of wheels against tracks.

鹿被吸引到鐵路沿線，係因牠們需要攝取鐵。牠們舔鐵軌以獲取輪子與軌道摩擦產生的鐵屑。

This dietary need has led to a battle to keep the deer separate from the railway, and previous plans which involved the spraying of lion faeces on the track were abandoned after rain washed away the dung almost immediately.

這種攝食需求導致一場讓鹿離開鐵道的奮戰，而此前將獅糞噴灑鐵軌的計畫，在雨水幾乎立即沖走糞便後被放棄。

Another plan, which earned a railway employee Japan’s Good Design Award in December, is for deer crossings policed by ultrasonic waves, which allow animals access to the tracks at times when trains aren’t running.

另一個讓一名鐵道從業人員在去年12月贏得日本優良設計獎的計畫，是以超音波監控鹿穿越鐵路，這讓該動物在列車沒有通過之際仍可不時來到鐵軌旁。