国家地理 加里曼丹岛的地底洞天(12)

（单词翻译）

Sarawak Chamber¹ was so big, Mad Phil explained, that it almost certainly contained new passages—particularly in the roof, where no one had ever searched. Although it's tempting² to think of caves as similar to mine shafts—tunnels that slope relatively³ straightforwardly⁴ down—natural caves are nonlinear and ex-pand and contract according to the movement of rocks, the meandering⁵ of water, the work of chaos⁶.

疯狂菲尔解释道，砂拉越洞穴太大了，几乎可以肯定里面还有新通道--尤其是在洞顶，那里还没有人搜寻过。虽然人们很可能觉得洞穴与矿井很相似--都是斜向下的隧道--但自然洞穴是非线性的，并且是随着岩石运动、水流流淌和混乱兴起而扩张和收缩的。

Concepts of "up" and "down" assume subtler meanings underground, where directions can be utterly⁷ inverted⁸ over a few million years. If someone is exploring the down part of the cave, another caver might try looking up. And up was Mad Phil's specialty⁹.

“上”和“下”的概念是指地下的细微差别，在几百万年的时间里，地下的方向可能会完全颠倒。如果一个探险者在探索洞穴底部，那么另一个探险者就应该试着在顶部探险。而顶部探险正是疯狂菲尔的专长。

His nickname apparently¹⁰ had come from a canoeing stunt¹¹ during his university years, but Mad Phil was known for climbing cave walls that no one else would even attempt. He and Eavis planned to ascend¹² into the roof of Sarawak Chamber, searching for tunnels that ran through it like hidden passages in the ceiling of a mansion¹³.

显然，他的绰号来自他大学时代的一次皮划艇特技表演，但人们知道疯狂菲尔是因为他能够攀爬别人连试都不敢的岩壁。他和艾维斯计划爬上砂拉越洞穴的顶部，寻找贯穿其中的隧道，就像大厦天花板上隐藏的通道一样。