历史上的信使 Messenger bird from the past

Hello I’m Callum and this is 6 Minute English. With me today is Neil, hello Neil.
大家好，我是Callum，六分钟英语又和大家见面了，今天我的搭档是Neil，你好，Neil。
Hi Callum
你好，Callum。
In today’s programme we’re going to be looking at an interesting story of war, secret messages, codes and …
今天的节目中我们将讨论一个有趣的故事，关于战争、密电、代码，还有......
And, and what?
还有什么？
Pigeons.
鸽子。
Pigeons?
鸽子？
Yes, pigeons.
对，鸽子。
Those birds that are everywhere in London?
就是那些在伦敦随处可见的鸟吗？
That’s it.
对啊。
Well, what do they have to do with war, secret messages and codes?
那他们和战争、密电还有代码有什么关系呢？
Well, we’ll find out after today’s question. A question about codes. Who is the first person recorded using written codes to keep his or her communications secret? Was it Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, English king, Harold or Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun?
嗯，通过今天的问题我们就能够找到答案了。今天的问题是关于代码。在历史记载中，谁是第一个使用代码来保证通信机密的人？是罗马帝皇Julius Caesar，英国国王Harold，还是埃及法老Tutankhamun？
I have no idea whatsoever. So I’m going to go for the English king, Harold. For no reason at all.
这我可真不知道。我就选英国国王Harold吧，纯粹是瞎猜的。
OK. We’ll find out if you’re right at the end of the programme. Now, back to the pigeons.
好的，我们会在节目最后揭晓答案，看看你是不是答对了。现在我们回到鸽子的问题上。
Yes, I am intrigued.
好的，我对这个很感兴趣。
It all started when a man was cleaning out the chimney of his house in the south of England. In the rubbish from the chimney he found a pigeon’s leg. Attached to the leg was a small container and inside the container was a message written in code.From details on the paper it was clear this was a military message from the Second World War.
这起源于英国南部，一个人在清理他房子的烟囱时，从烟囱的废墟里发现了一只鸽子腿，腿上绑着一个小容器，容器里面是一个用代码写成的信息。从纸上的具体信息来看很显然是二战时期的军事信息。
Were birds really used to carry messages during the Second World War?
二战的时候鸟真的用来传递消息吗？
Well here’s BBC security correspondent Gordon Corera answering that question and also explaining why. What reason does he give?
下面是BBC安全记者Gordon Corera的回答，以及他对该问题的解释。他给出的理由是什么呢？
There were important messages carried by pigeon. Particularly, the theory is, that this might have been an army unit, in Europe, on the move,and it was on the move and basically it was moving so fast it couldn’t put up an aerial for a wireless transmission to be sent so they would quickly release a pigeon with a quick message.
确实有用鸽子传递的重要信息。特别是在欧洲，当一个军事单位在行军过程中会用到，当军队在快速行进中无法架设天线进行无线通讯时，他们就会放一只鸽子来快速地传递信息。
So why would they use a pigeon, rather than the radio?
那他们为什么要用鸽子，而不用无线广播设备呢？
He says that when an army unit was moving fast they might not have had time to put up an aerial and it would have been quicker just to release a pigeon with a message. Of course pigeons can be trained to fly back to a particular place.
他说军队在快速行进中没有时间架设天线，而用鸽子来传递消息会更快捷。当然，鸽子能够通过训练让它飞回到特定的地点。
That’s right and in fact the military used over 250,000 pigeons to send messages during the Second World War.
确实如此，事实上在二战期间，军队使用了超过25万只鸽子传递消息。
So what was the message that the pigeon was carrying?
那鸽子传递的都是什么消息呢？
Ah, well, the truth is, they don’t know, they have no idea.
哈哈，事实是人们完全弄不清楚传递的消息是什么。
What, even with all the power of modern computers and the best minds.
什么？即使用最先进的电脑和最聪明的大脑也没有办法吗？
Yes, here’s Gordon Corera again talking about the message. What word does he use to describe the process of understanding a code?
是的，Gordon Corera再次跟我们谈论了该消息。他使用了什么单词来描述理解代码的过程呢？
They’ve been looking for a few weeks, the truth is that it was designed not to be cracked easily.
他们花费了几个星期来寻求答案，结果是这个代码并不容易破解。
What word does he use, Neil?
Neil，他用了什么词呢？
He says the code was designed not to be ‘cracked’ easily. We use the verb ‘to crack’ when talking about codes.
他说这个代码并不容易‘cracked’（破解）。当我们说到代码时，会用‘to crack ’这个动词。
So, the code is designed not be cracked easily. Let’s hear a little bit more about what kind of code it might be. Here’s more from the BBC’s Gordon Corera who mentions one of the ways this code might have been created.
所以这个代码不容易破解，那我们再来深入了解一下这个代码吧。BBC记者Gordon Corera提到了创建这一代码的一种方法，我们一起听听关于这种方法的详细消息。
One is using something called a one-time pad which is a technique where you apply a random key to a code and if you keep that secure and it’s truly random, it is basically unbreakable.
一种方法叫做单次密本，这种技术就是你随机创建一种破解代码的解法，如果你将这种解法保密，那就真的变成随机的了，而且基本上是不可破解的。
What kind of code is he talking about here?
他所说的是哪一种代码呢？
A code created with what’s called a ‘one-time pad’. As I understand it, if you think of a code like a lock, what do you need to open a lock?
是一种被叫做‘单词密本’的代码。按我的理解是，如果你把一个代码想象成一把锁，那么你需要什么来开锁呢？
Well you need a key to open a lock.
需要钥匙来开锁啊。
That’s right, and if you don’t have the key and there is no record of what the key was like or who made it or where it was kept, you’re going to have a problem.
对啊，如果你没有钥匙，而且也不知道任何关于钥匙的信息，不知道谁制作的，也不知道它存放在哪，那就麻烦了。
You won’t be able to open the lock.
那你就打不开锁了。
Exactly. With a code created with a one-time pad there is only one key and it’s only used once. After that, it’s destroyed. Without the key you can’t crack the code – it’s an uncrackable or unbreakable code.
完全正确，一个通过单次密本创建的代码，只有一把钥匙，而且这把钥匙只能用一次。用过之后，钥匙就作废了。没有钥匙你就无法破解代码--这个代码就成了不可破解的代码了。
Gordon said that key should be random.
Gordon说破解代码的方法是随机的。
That’s right. If something is ‘random’, it means there is no pattern to it. It’s not predictable or repeatable.And, if the key is truly random they’ll never be able to crack the code.
对的，如果某样东西是‘随机的’，那就意味着它无规律可循。也无法预测或复制。所以，如果破解方法真的是随机的，那这个代码就真的无法破解了。
Unless they find the key! And that’s what they are hoping. Gordon Corera again. What information are they hoping to find to help them?
除非找到破解方法！这也是他们所希望的。再来听听Gordon Corera发回的信息，看看他们希望找到怎样的信息来帮助破解密码。
What they are saying is without more contextual information, basically who the sender was who the recipient was, when it was sent and exactly the identity of the pigeon it may be impossible to crack it.
他们所说的并没有太多的上下文信息，基本上是说发信人是谁，收信人是谁，什么时候发送的，以及这只鸽子的确切身份，这些基本上都无法破解。
So what extra information are they looking for?
那么他们还在寻找什么其他的信息呢？
They really need to find out who sent the pigeon, to whom it was sent and even the identity of the pigeon itself. That information might help them locate the key.
他们需要找出是谁放飞了这只鸽子，是放给谁的，甚至确定出这只鸽子的身份。这些信息能够帮助他们找到破解方法。
So I guess for the time being, the pigeon message will remain a mystery.
所以我想，短期内信鸽的消息仍是一个谜。
Well, perhaps not.
嗯，那也不一定。
What do you mean?
怎么说呢？
Well a man in Canada heard this story and he thinks he’s got the code book to crack the message and he says it a much simpler code than has been thought.
一位加拿大人听到了这个故事，他认为他找到了破解这个消息的代码书，并表示这个代码比人们想象中的要简单的多。
Really?
真的吗？
But unfortunately, we don’t have time to go into that now, but there is a link to the story on our webpage.
但，遗憾的是，我们没时间深入探讨这个问题了，但在我们的网站上会有相关链接。
Time now for the answer to the question. Who is the first person recorded using written codes to keep his or her communications secret? Neil, you said:
现在是揭晓答案的时候了。谁是第一个使用代码来保证通信机密的人？Neil,你的答案是：
I said King Harold in England.
我说的是英国国王Harold。
And the correct answer is actually Emperor Julius Caesar. And there’s in fact a Caesar Cipher, which is a kind of code which is attributed to Julius Caesar. It’s a very simple one actually, that each letter is just moved three places along. So, instead of writing ‘A’, he wrote ‘D’. And instead of writing ‘B’ it would have been ‘E’. So perhaps not a particularly difficult code to crack.These days, anyway. Well, that’s all from us today. Thank you very much Neil, goodbye.
其实正确答案是罗马帝皇Julius Caesar.事实上有一种凯瑟密码，这种解码是Julius Caesar发明的。实际上这是一种非常简单的代码，每一个字母都依次向后延续了3个字母的位置。也就是， ‘A’用‘D’代替，‘B’要用‘E’代替。所以或许这并不是一个多难破解的代码。不管怎样，今天我们的节目要告一段落了。感谢Neil的来参加今天的节目。我们下次见。
Goodbye.
再见。