Before 1945, hardly anyone outside of New Mexico had ever heard of Alamogordo. In 1960 its population numbered 21,723. Ever since 1898, when the town had been built by the Southern Pacific Railroad, Alamogordo had been a lonely town. The land around it was largely desert, and largely empty.
在1945年之前，除了新墨西哥州，几乎没有人听说过阿拉莫戈多。1960年，其人口为21723人。自从1898年修建南太平洋铁路成立该镇以来，阿拉莫戈多一直是一个孤独的小镇。它周围的土地大部分是沙漠，大部分地区荒无人烟。
Because it was isolated and because the weather was almost always clear and peaceful, a spot of desert near Alamogordo was chosen as the last site for the first atomic bomb ever exploded. The secret name of the test was Zeo.
由于这里与世隔绝，天气几乎总是晴朗宁静，阿拉莫戈多附近的一片沙漠被选为有史以来第一颗原子弹爆炸的最后地点。试验的秘密名称是Zeo。
At dawn on July 16, 1945, the atomic bomb was set off. Observers agreed that they had witnessed something unlike anything ever seen by men before, a huge, colorful fireball, more brilliant than the sun flashing as it rose for miles into the air. Never before had men released so much power at one time, nor had any nation ever possessed weapon as terrible and destructive as the atomic bomb.
1945年7月16日黎明，原子弹被引爆。观察者一致认为，他们看到了一个前所未有的东西，一个巨大的、五颜六色的火球，比太阳升到空中数英里时闪烁的还要明亮。人类从未在同一时间释放过如此大的力量，也从未有任何国家拥有过像原子弹那样可怕和具有破坏性的武器。
For several weeks, the test was kept secret. When an atomic bomb was dropped from an American plane on Hiroshima, Japan, newspapers and radio stations all over America told of the test of the bomb in New Mexico. Almost everybody was amazed to learn where the bomb had been made and tested; the deserts of the Southwest had hidden the secret well.
几个星期以来，试验一直是保密的。当美国飞机在日本广岛投下原子弹时，美国各地的报纸和广播电台都报道了在新墨西哥州进行的原子弹试验。几乎所有人都惊讶地得知原子弹的制造和试验地点；西南部的沙漠隐藏了这口秘密之井。
When news of the atomic bomb and its destructiveness was announced, people all over the world wondered what other new weapons were being prepared in the New Mexico desert. Some people doubted that the secret of making atomic bombs could be kept from other countries. Some even doubted the wisdom of using so powerful a weapon. But no one doubted that a new kind of war—and a new kind of world—had begun at Alamogordo, one summer morning in 1945.
当原子弹及其破坏性的消息公布时，全世界的人们都在想，新墨西哥沙漠里还准备了什么新武器。有些人怀疑制造原子弹的秘密是否可以瞒着其他国家。有些人甚至怀疑使用如此强大的武器是否明智。但没有人怀疑，1945年夏天的一个早晨，一场新的战争——一个新的世界——已经在阿拉莫戈多开始了。
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