As a Tower Sinks, a Dispute Deepens
摩天豪宅下沉 舊金山挫咧等
By Thomas Fuller

The developers of the luxurious Millennium Tower laid out the risks and potential defects of the 58-story building in minute detail when its apartments went on sale seven years ago.
豪宅千禧塔的開發商於七年前推出這些公寓，當時就已詳細列出這棟58層大樓的風險及潛在缺陷。

But the 21-page disclosure document left out what owners of units in the buildings now say was a crucial detail: that the building had already sunk more than 8 inches into the soft soil by the time it was completed in 2009, much more than engineers had anticipated.
然而，這棟大樓內公寓的所有人如今卻認為，當時列出這些問題的那份21頁的文件，遺漏了一個極為重要的細節：2009年完工時，這棟大樓已沉進軟土內超過8英寸，遠遠超出工程師的預期。

“If they had disclosed the defect, I would have never bought here,” said Jerry Dodson, the owner of a two-bedroom apartment on the 42nd floor that he bought with his wife for $2.1 million. “Never was there a hint that the building was sinking beyond design.”
傑瑞．多德森跟太太花210萬美元在42樓購置了一戶兩房公寓，他說：「如果他們明說有這項缺陷，我就不會買在這兒了。他們從未暗示下沉程度超過原始設計。」

The Millennium Tower, which its developers say is the largest reinforced concrete building in the western United States, has now sunk about 16 inches and is leaning 6 inches toward a neighboring skyscraper. The building’s tilt has become a public scandal, a dispute that has produced a wide-eyed examination of whether San Francisco’s frenetic skyscraper-building spree was properly monitored by city authorities.
千禧塔的開發商稱它為美國西部最大的鋼筋混凝土建築，大樓目前約已下陷16英寸，並朝鄰近的一棟摩天樓傾斜了6英寸。大樓的傾斜已成為公開的醜聞，這件糾紛並已讓外界睜大眼睛檢視，舊金山瘋狂興建摩天大樓的熱潮有否受到市政當局適當監督。

In a city bracketed by two major earthquake fault lines, the possibility of engineering flaws generates particular unease.
在一個被兩條主要斷層包夾的城市裡，可能存在的工程瑕疵特別令人不安。

“This is the first sentinel telling us maybe we should be a little more careful,” said Nicholas Sitar, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in how buildings respond to earthquakes. “Any time you have a tall structure leaning, you have to start looking very carefully.”
柏克萊加州大學土木工程教授尼可拉斯．西塔是建築物抗震問題專家，他說：「這是告訴我們也許應該更小心一些的第一個哨兵。只要有高大結構體傾斜問題發生，你就得開始十分注意。」

As the scandal has unfolded in recent weeks, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a former mayor of San Francisco, wrote to the current mayor, Edwin M. Lee, expressing concern about the number of buildings like Millennium Tower that are not anchored in bedrock.
隨著上述醜聞在最近幾周曝光，曾任舊金山市長的民主黨籍加州聯邦參議員范士丹寫信給現任市長李孟賢，對於像千禧塔這樣未固定於岩盤上的建築的數量表達憂慮。

“For a long time you didn’t see very tall structures in San Francisco,” Sitar said. With advances in engineering and by studying responses of buildings in earthquake zones, he said, engineers have grown more confident. “Is that confidence warranted? To some extent it is. At that the same time, there has to be an abundance of caution.”
西塔說：「舊金山曾經有很長一段時間沒有見到非常高大的建築物。」他表示，工程學的進步加上研究地震帶建築物反應所得知識，已使工程師變得更為自信。「這信心站得住腳嗎？某種程度上說來是的。而在那同時，也必須要非常謹慎。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/us/san-francisco-millennium-tower-dispute.html

2016-10-02．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．陳韋廷譯

說文解字看新聞 陳韋廷

美國舊金山近年來掀起摩天大樓的興建熱潮，為當地城市天際線帶來巨大變化，但開發商在興建這些超高樓時，似乎低估地層下陷問題。事實上，不只是舊金山，整個加州地層下陷問題已有數十年，而且情況正加速惡化，加上當地位處地震帶，問題變得更嚴重。由於地層下陷只能事前防範，難以事後補救，當局必須及早防治。

skyscraper意指「摩天大樓」，由sky（天空）和scraper（刮擦器）組成，原意為最高的桅杆，為一水手間使用之俚語。同義詞有high-rise、tower等字，由這些建築物在天空中所畫出的輪廓線則為skyline（天際線）。

此外，fault意指「斷層」，並非指一般我們所知道的「錯誤」的意思，為岩層斷裂的地方，而文中所提到的fault line即「斷層線」，指的是斷層面（fault plane）跟地面的交線。例句：A major earthquake on one fault line can trigger large aftershocks on separate faults, according to a new study.（根據一項新研究，在一個斷層線上發生的大地震能引起不同斷層上的大餘震。）

Rome Mayor’s Troubled First 3 Months Raise Doubts on Her Five Star Movement
執政一團亂 羅馬女市長落漆
By Gaia Pianigiani

When Virginia Raggi, Rome’s first female mayor, was elected in June, she represented the anti-establishment Five Star Movement’s highest aspiration – to show Italy how nonprofessional politicians could turn things around.
維吉尼亞．拉吉今年6月當選羅馬第一位女市長時，她代表的是反建制五星運動黨的鴻圖壯志，要向義大利展示素人政治人物也能扭轉乾坤。

Yet three months later, the Five Star Movement’s shining moment has become a mess, and Raggi, 38, a lawyer with almost no political experience who ran as a clean-hands reformer, appears to be foundering.
但時隔3個月，五星運動的光輝時刻已變成一團亂，而從政經驗幾乎是零，以清白改革者形象參選的38歲律師拉吉，似乎還在向下沉淪。

Garbage piled up in the streets through the summer. Five important officials have resigned, some tainted by investigations for malfeasance. By this month, things were so bad that the comedian Beppe Grillo, a founder of the movement, reversed a vow to stay out of politics and stepped in to shore up Raggi amid speculation of an early resignation.
整個夏季，街道上垃圾堆積如山。5名重要官員相繼辭職，有些是因瀆職接受調查。本月，情況更形惡化，以致五星運動的創始人之一、喜劇演員畢普．葛里洛只好違背與政治劃清界線的誓言，在拉吉可能提前請辭下台的揣測聲中，介入政治以力挺拉吉。

On Monday, one of Italy’s leading newspapers, La Repubblica, published excerpts from a letter to Raggi, signed by about 70 City Hall managers in Rome, that lamented administrative paralysis and a lack of guidance. Residents, too, seem to be at the end of their ropes.
義大利大報「共和報」周一披露一封致拉吉信的部分內容，這封信由約70名羅馬市政府主管聯名，大嘆行政癱瘓和群龍無首。居民也似乎快忍無可忍。

“Of course I voted for her – the rest of the politicians here are crooks,” said Isabella Vardelli, a market vendor in Rome. “But I am getting impatient. Maybe she is naive, maybe she is incompetent. Is it possible that they can’t start working?”
羅馬的市場攤販伊莎貝拉．瓦德里說：「我當然是投票給她，這裡的其他政客全是壞蛋。但我的耐性也快沒了。她可能很天真，她可能無法勝任。但是不是可能他們無法開始做事？」

“I also wonder whether she really is as honest as she said she was,” Vardelli added.
瓦德里又說：「我還懷疑她是否真如她說的那般誠實。」

Rome has never been an easy city to govern, and it has proved the undoing of any number of parties and politicians who have tried.
羅馬從來不是能夠輕鬆治理的城市，事實也證明，嘗試過的眾多政黨和政治人物都嘗了敗績。

But Raggi’s early struggles have left analysts wondering whether the victory here, rather than helping the capital find some political stability, will reveal that the movement is riddled with many of the same flaws as the establishment it has railed against.
但拉吉的初期困境已讓分析家懷疑，她在羅馬勝選，不僅無助於首都找回部分的政治穩定，還暴露出，五星運動和他們痛批的建制一樣，充斥著相同的缺點。

The troubles in Rome have become an open wound for the movement, rippling out from the capital and tarnishing its image on the national stage.
羅馬的問題已成五星運動一道裂開的傷口，從羅馬如漣漪般外擴 ，重創它的全國形象。

“Rome is an example of the limits of the Five Star Movement, and of the city of Rome per se,” said Sergio Fabbrini, the director of the school of government at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome.
羅馬國際社會科學自由大學政府學院院長塞吉歐．法布里尼說：「羅馬是五星運動能力有限，羅馬本身也有其限制的例子。」

“Winning the elections in Rome, paradoxically, was a defeat for the movement,” he said. “It’s showing how disorganized and divided they are.”
他說：「在羅馬贏得選舉，矛盾地，成為五星運動的挫敗。它說明他們是如何雜亂無章和分崩離析。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/world/europe/virginia-raggi-rome-five-star-movement.html

2016-10-02．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．王麗娟譯