梁小明

If your pilot calls “Mayday” on the communications system， youre in big trouble.

如果你們的飛行員在通訊系統(tǒng)上呼叫“Mayday”，那意味著你們有大麻煩了。

“Mayday” is an international distress call used by airplane pilots， boat captains and so on. The signal arose2 just after World War I， as air traffic between Britain and mainland Europe increased. All nearby nations needed an internationally understood signal that would alert people to urgent3 aircraft problems.

“Mayday”是一種由飛行員、船長等人員使用的國際求救信號。這一信號是在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)后，隨著英國和歐洲大陸之間的空中交通增加而產(chǎn)生的。所有鄰近國家都需要一個國際通用的信號，提醒人們注意緊急的飛機問題。

Why not just use the standard “SOS” call that navy4 captains used when they were in trouble？ Well， ships communicated through telegraph5 using Morse code6， and this technology made “SOS” （three dots， three dashes， three dots） unmistakable. Differently， aircraft pilots used radio calls， and “SOS” could be misheard as other letters， like “F”.

為什么遇到麻煩時不直接使用海軍使用的標準“SOS”求救信號呢？好吧，船只通過電報用摩爾斯電碼通信，這項技術(shù)使“SOS”信號（三點，三長，三點）不易弄錯。不同的是，飛行員使用無線電呼叫，而“SOS”可能會被誤聽為其他字母，如“F”。

Frederick Stanley Mockford， a senior radio officer in London， was put in charge of finding an appropriate7 code word. He reasoned that because so much of the air traffic flew between Croydon and Le Bourget Airport in Paris， it might make sense to use a French word.

弗雷德里克·斯坦利·莫克福德是倫敦的一名高級無線電通訊員，他負責(zé)尋找合適的密碼詞。他推斷，由于有太多的空中交通往來于克羅伊登（英國東南部的城市）和巴黎的勒布爾杰機場之間，所以使用一個法語詞可能行得通。

He came up with “Mayday”， the pronunciation of which is similar to the Freanch words which mean “come help me”. The U.S. formally8 made “Mayday” as a distress signal in 1927.

他提出了“Mayday”，它的發(fā)音與法語中意思是“幫幫我”的詞語相似。1927年，美國正式采用“Mayday”作為求救信號。

Due to radio interference9 and loud noise， pilots are told to repeat the word three times. Although these can be panic-filled situations， the pilots are encouraged to offer information in the right order so that people know exactly what theyre dealing with.

由于無線電干擾和巨大的噪音，飛行員被要求重復(fù)三次這個詞。盡管這些是可能會引起恐慌的情況，但仍舊鼓勵飛行員按正確的順序提供信息，以便人們確切地知道他們在處理什么情況。

Given its importance， most people respect this signal and use it only when necessary.

鑒于求救信號的重要性，大多數(shù)人都尊重這個求救信號，只有在必要時才使用它。

“Mayday” signals that theres an urgent and life-threatening situation in progress. However， people can also fall back on “pan-pan”， which means you have an urgent situation thats not immediately putting lives at risk—for instance， your boat ran out of fuel10 and you need help.

“Mayday”標志著有一個緊急和危及生命的情況正在發(fā)生。不過，人們也可以轉(zhuǎn)而使用“pan-pan”，這意味著你有一個緊急情況，不會立即危及生命安全，例如，你的船沒油了，你需要幫助。

（英語原文選自：science.howstuffworks.com）

【Notes】

1. distress? ?n. 危難，不幸 2. arise? ?v. 出現(xiàn)

3. urgent? ?adj. 緊急的;急迫的 4. navy? ?n. 海軍

5. telegraph? ?n. 電報 6. Morse code 摩爾斯電碼

7. appropriate? ?adj. 適當?shù)?恰當?shù)?8. formally? ?adv. 正式地

9. interference? ?n. 干擾，沖突 10. fuel? ?n. 燃料