Leading the world in this idiocy is India, where selfie-cide is almost a daily occurrence.
而印度可以算是这种蠢事的多发之地,几乎每天都有"自拍死"的事故.
In Britain, we have got off fairly lightly thus far. But if it is going to happen anywhere, it could easily be here, on the Sussex coast.
英国到目前为止还未有太多自拍致死的案例,但现如今这类事件已遍布世界各地,谁能说萨塞克斯海岸不会是下一个案发地呢？
For this six-mile cliff-top between Newhaven and Beachy Head — a stretch of corrugated peaks and troughs known as the Seven Sisters — has become so popular with selfie-seekers that the locals are about to take pre-emptive action.
在纽黑文和比奇角之间,有一片波澜起伏的山脉,绵延长达六英里,这里的七姐妹悬崖已经成为自拍爱好者们十分青睐的景点,当地人听闻也都纷纷抢先一步前去游览.
Lately, we have seen images of jaw-dropping stupidity as daredevil walkers — mainly young men, it seems — creep to the edge of these chalk faces in considerable numbers for that must-have selfie.
近来在新闻上我们常能看见一些让人跌破眼镜的图片,这些冒失鬼——多是年轻人——成群结队来到悬崖的边缘只为了一张"这辈子一定要拍"的自拍照.
Last summer, a local photographer captured a row of irresponsible people sitting at the site, with their feet dangling over an edge which is not even there any more.
去年夏天,一个本地摄影师在该景点拍下了一张照片,一群人坐在悬崖边缘,他们的腿在空中晃来晃去,但那块崖石现在已经不知所踪了.
In another shot, a man is sitting on a chalk overhang which already has a very obvious fault line running down the side.
另一张照片中,一个男人坐在一块突出的白垩岩上,但这块岩石已经出现了明显的裂纹,很有可能会滑落.
It is purely down to luck rather than judgment that no one has been sitting on these chunks of rock when the ground has given way. For erosion is a fact of life here.
目前还未有人坐在上面刚巧遇上岩石崩塌的情况,这不是因为判断力好,纯粹是走运,因为风化侵蚀是当地十分正常的自然现象.
'Very often, you come here in the morning and see a great pile of chalk and rocks on the beach,' says Molly, a volunteer in the National Trust visitor centre. 'But with two tides a day, it gets washed away, so people don't see it for long.'
"你早上来到这儿,很有可能会在沙滩上看见一些白垩岩粉末与石块,"英国国民托管组织游客中心的志愿者莫莉说,"只不过因为每天两次涨潮,这些石块都被海水带走了,所以人们往往看不见这些痕迹."
And in recent years, for reasons which are not entirely clear, there has been a run of particularly hefty falls. Indeed, as Molly points out: 'The Seven Sisters have now become eight.'
近年来,已经有数起崖壁垮塌事件发生,原因尚不清楚.并且如莫莉所说："七姐妹悬崖现在不只是七座而是有八座悬崖了."
That's because one stretch of cliff has had such severe falls either side of a grassy promontory that it has now created an extra peak.
那是因为其中一处悬崖的石体数次坠塌落在长满草的海角周围,从而产生了一处新的陡崖.
The worst cliff-fall in living memory occurred during a storm in the winter of 2013-2014 when several yards fell into the sea at once. But these episodes are by no means restricted to extreme weather.
最严重的一次崖体坠落,发生在2013年到2014年那个暴雪肆虐的冬天,长达几英里的山崖岩石全部发生滑落,但这种小插曲绝不仅仅是极端天气导致的.
A German woman with two young children welcomes the idea of a fence but then wonders whether it would be wise to bash poles into ground that is already unstable.
一位育有两个孩子的德国妈妈认为这里应该装上护栏,但转念一想,如果这块岩石本来就不稳固,插上护栏杆又有什么意义呢？
英文来源：每日邮报
