Mystery as Big Ben Falls Silent for an Hour
摘要：
伦敦著名的大本钟（Big Ben）在5月27日晚间突然停止了摆动，这种寂静持续了一个多小时的时间，但到目前为止，人们尚不清楚造成这一情况的具体原因是什么。
The chimes of Big Ben were silenced for over an hour on
Friday night but the cause remains a mystery, an engineer said today.
伦敦著名的大本钟（Big Ben）在5月27日晚间突然停止了摆动，这种寂静持续了一个多小时的时间，但到目前为止，人们尚不清楚造成这一情况的具体原因是什么。
据英国《每日邮报》网站5月28日报道，这座位于伦敦威斯敏斯特议会大厦的大钟具有147年的历史，一向被人们认为是世界上最可靠的钟表之一。但是，它在5月27日晚上10点07分突然停摆了。大钟的分针曾一度开始缓慢移动，但是在10点20分的时候，它又再次停了下来。这种情况持续了90分钟后，大钟的各个指针才重新起动。
虽然有人认为酷热的天气是造成这一现象的真正原因（27日伦敦的最高温度达到了摄氏31.8度，这是1953年以来5月份中最热的一天），但是一位工程师却表示此事的具体原因尚不明了。他说：“我们被告知大钟出了个小故障，但后来它自己又突然走了起来。”
报道说，大本钟因其走时准确而名扬四海。二战期间，它经受住了来自德国纳粹空军的10余次狂轰滥炸，依然继续报时且与标准时间的误差不超过1.5秒。当然，大本钟偶尔也会出现“晚点”的情况。在1962年，由于雪花不断堆积，使得新年钟声比正常时间晚响了10分钟。而在1976年，因为一个机械部件断裂，大本钟干脆不“走”了。
（张咏）
The chimes of Big Ben were silenced for
over an hour on Friday night but the cause remains a mystery, an engineer said
today.
The Palace of Westminster's
147-year-old clock, considered to be one of the most reliable in the world,
stopped at 10.07pm.
The minute hand started to move again
slowly but stalled a second time at 10.20pm where it is reported to have
remained for 90 minutes before the hands were reset.
It was thought the hot weather may have
been to blame. Temperatures in London reached a high of 31.8C (90F) yesterday
and forecasters declared it the hottest May day since 1953.
But an engineer at the palace said the
cause was unclear. He said: "We've been told there was a minor glitch but
then it was started up again."
The clock is renowned for its accuracy
and even survived a dozen attacks by Luftwaffe bombers during the Second World
War, continuing to mark the time within one and a half seconds of GMT.
It has, however been late on occasion.
In 1962 snow accumulation caused the clock to ring in the new year ten minutes
late and in 1976 the clock stopped when a piece of its machinery broke.
It also ground to a halt on April 30,
1997, just 24 hours before the general election and once more three weeks later.
Big Ben is the name of the clock's
13-tonne bell, which was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the British Commissioner
of Works at the time of the clock's construction. The official name for the
Gothic tower in which Big Ben nestles is St Stephen's Tower. Standing 100 metres
(315ft) tall it was completed in 1858, after an 1834 fire destroyed most of the
Palace of Westminster.
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