2021年4月

雅典卫城的帕特农神庙，希腊 The Parthenon temple in the Acropolis of Athens, Greece (© Lucky-photographer/Shutterstock)

On the rebirth of the Olympic Games

Today marks the 125th anniversary of the first modern Olympic games, held in Athens in 1896—1,500 years after they were banned by the Roman Emperor. (The original games were held at least as far back as 776 BCE and probably earlier.) The 1896 games were held in the Panathenaic Stadium, in the shadow of the Acropolis of Athens, shown here. Those newly revived games of 1896 included athletes from 14 countries, with the largest delegations from Greece, Germany, France, and Great Britain. The 43 events included a marathon, tennis, cycling, fencing, shooting, Greco-Roman wrestling, and swimming. And while some things haven't changed over the years, some were pretty different back then. Swimmers were taken out to sea by boat for the longer races and had to swim back to shore. Winners were given a silver medal (copper for second place), as well as an olive branch and a diploma.

This is a unique time for the Olympics. We can look forward to the postponed 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo (now scheduled to start in July 2021) as well as the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. The Beijing games will feature a mascot panda named Bing Dwen Dwen. 'Bing' means ice and symbolizes purity and strength, and 'Dwen Dwen' represents children. After the postponement of 2020, we can't wait to hear, 'Let the games begin!'

论奥运会的重生

今天是第一届现代奥林匹克运动会125周年纪念日，1896-1500年雅典奥运会被罗马皇帝禁止举办。（最初的奥运会至少在公元前776年举行，可能更早）1896年的奥运会在雅典卫城阴影下的泛雅典体育场举行，如图所示。新恢复的1896年奥运会包括14个国家的运动员，其中最大的代表团来自希腊、德国、法国和英国。这43个项目包括马拉松、网球、自行车、击剑、射击、古典式摔跤和游泳。虽然有些事情多年来没有改变，但有些事情在那时候却大不相同。游泳者被划船带出海参加更长时间的比赛，不得不游回岸边。获胜者获得银牌（铜牌获得第二名），以及橄榄枝和文凭。

这是一个独特的时间为奥运会。我们可以期待推迟的2020年东京奥运会和残奥会（现在计划于2021年7月开始）以及2022年北京冬奥会。北京奥运会将有一只名叫宾·德温的吉祥物熊猫“冰”的意思是冰，象征纯洁和力量，“德文德文”代表儿童。在2020年推迟之后，我们迫不及待地想听到，‘让奥运会开始吧！’

Areuse峡谷的Saut du Brot石桥，瑞士纳沙泰尔 Saut du Brot stone bridge in the Areuse Gorge, Neuchâtel, Switzerland (© Andreas Gerth/eStock Photo)

Once upon a time there was a bridge…

Although this stone bridge, known as Saut de Brot, looks right out of a fairy tale, it serves a very practical purpose. It connects walking trails on each side of the Areuse Gorge, offering safe passage to hikers exploring the lush Brot-Dessous area in eastern Switzerland, a predominantly French-speaking region of this multilingual country. It's not known when the bridge was built exactly, though it's thought to be a recent construction. But if that's true, how do we not know who built it? All this mystery leads us to suspect it's the work of helpful gnomes and fairies living deep in the Swiss woods.

从前有一座桥…

尽管这座被称为索特德布罗特（Saut de Brot）的石桥看起来就像童话故事，但它有着非常实际的用途。它连接阿瑞斯峡谷两侧的步行道，为徒步旅行者探索瑞士东部郁郁葱葱的布罗特-德索斯地区提供安全通道，这是一个多语种国家的主要法语地区。虽然这座桥被认为是最近才建造的，但不知道它到底是什么时候建造的。但如果这是真的，我们怎么不知道是谁建的呢？所有这些谜团让我们怀疑这是生活在瑞士森林深处的有益的侏儒和仙女的作品。

【今日清明】（ © yangphoto ）

阿尼瓦角的灯塔，俄罗斯萨哈林岛 Lighthouse at Cape Aniva, Sakhalin Island, Russia (© Amazing Aerial Agency/Offset by Shutterstock)

A light at the edge of the world

Seemingly against all odds, the Aniva Lighthouse stands atop this rocky outcrop where it once lit the way for vessels navigating the fierce currents, hidden rocks, and frequent fogs of Cape Aniva on the island of Sakhalin. Russia's largest island, Sakhalin lies off the mainland's Far East coast, due north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The island was hotly contested by both Russia and Japan in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the late 1930s, when the Aniva Lighthouse was built, Russia controlled the northern half of Sakhalin while...

世界边缘的一盏灯

阿尼瓦灯塔似乎与所有的可能性背道而驰，它矗立在这块岩石露头之上，曾经为船只在萨哈林岛上的阿尼瓦角激流、暗礁和频繁的浓雾中航行照亮了道路。萨哈林岛是俄罗斯最大的岛屿，位于大陆远东海岸，日本北海道岛正北。在19世纪和20世纪初，这个岛屿受到俄罗斯和日本的激烈争夺。上世纪30年代末，阿尼瓦灯塔建成后，俄罗斯控制了萨哈林岛的北半部，而。。。

White dunes, blue lagoons

From the air, the mesmerizing tapestry of sandy dunes and lagoons you see here gives Lençóis Maranhenses National Park an otherworldly, desert-like appearance. Located in the sparsely populated Northeast corner of Brazil, this park gets far too much annual rainfall—nearly 50 inches—to be considered a desert. In fact, heavy rain is part of what makes this place unique: Nearly 70% of its annual rainfall comes between January and May, filling the park's nearly 40,000 lagoons to the brim with fresh rainwater. Why doesn't the water sink into the sand? A layer of impermeable bedrock beneath the dunes prevents that from happening.

Despite its remote location, the park, established in 1981, has become a popular destination for ecotourists. They come partly to see the many kinds of animals and plants that manage to thrive here, including several endangered species. One of the park's most famous inhabitants is the predatory Atlantic wolffish, which lies dormant during the dry season by burying itself into the layers of wet mud in the lagoons, only to reemerge to snack on unsuspecting prey as the pools refill with the rains.

白色沙丘，蓝色泻湖

从空中看，这里迷人的沙丘和泻湖挂毯给了伦索斯马兰森斯国家公园一个超凡脱俗的沙漠般的外观。这个公园位于巴西人口稀少的东北角，年降雨量高达近50英寸，不算沙漠。事实上，暴雨是这个地方独特之处的一部分：每年近70%的降雨量来自1月至5月，公园近4万个泻湖被新鲜雨水填满。为什么水不沉进沙子里？沙丘下面的一层不透水的基岩阻止了这种情况的发生。

尽管地理位置偏远，但这座建于1981年的公园已成为生态旅游者的热门目的地。他们来这里的部分原因是看到许多种类的动植物在这里繁衍生息，包括一些濒临灭绝的物种。该公园最著名的居民之一是捕食性的大西洋狼鱼，它在旱季蛰伏在泻湖的湿泥层中，结果又重新出现，在雨水不断涌入的池塘中捕食毫无防备的猎物。

星空迷