阶梯和老故事

走近一看，台阶比刚才看起来还糟。它们往下很陡，几乎像梯子一样。这其实算不上真正的楼梯，而是在岩石上凿出的一条窄槽，波莉能看到下面很远的地方是绿色的大海。她往下跳了几级。每一级都比上一级高一点或者低一点。

Up close the steps look worse than before. They go down very steeply, almost like a ladder. It is not really a staircase. It is a narrow line cut into the rock, and far below Polly can see the green sea. She hops down the first few. Every step is a little higher or lower than the last one.

关于这个地方有一个老故事，大家都会讲。一四二〇年，一支军队来攻打这座小城。人们说，士兵们在一个晚上偷偷在悬崖上凿出了整道阶梯，这样他们就能爬上去，突然袭击上面的小城。

There is an old story about this place, and everybody tells it. In the year fourteen twenty, an army came to attack the town. People say the soldiers cut this whole staircase into the cliff in one night, in secret, so they could climb up and surprise the town above.

这是个好故事，但很可能不是真的。一百年前，有一位研究者研究过这件事。他说了两点。一个晚上不可能在坚硬的岩石上凿出两百级台阶。而且这里有瞭望塔，没有人能整夜干活却不被看见。

It is a good story. But it is probably not true. A researcher studied it a hundred years ago. He said two things. You cannot cut two hundred steps into hard rock in one night. And there were guard towers here, so nobody could work all night without being seen.

波莉在一级台阶上坐下。一只大海鸟从她下面飞过，飞得很低，翅膀几乎碰到海面。它的翅膀一动也不动。真正的答案还在更下面。

Polly sits down on a step. Below her a big seabird flies past, so low that its wing almost touches the sea. It does not move its wings at all. The real answer is somewhere further down.