5.Da Vinci's Hidden Music
5.达芬奇的音乐密码
In 2007, Giovanni Maria Pala, an Italian computer technician and musician, stated that he had uncovered musical notes in Da Vinci's famous painting The Last Supper. According to Pala, if one draws the five lines of the musical staff across the painting; the hands of Jesus Christ, the hands of his apostles, and the loaves of bread on the table would depict a musical note which would make sense when read from right to left.
2007年，乔万尼·玛利亚·帕拉，一位意大利计算机工程师和音乐家，声称他已找到了达芬奇那幅著名画作《最后的晚餐》的音符。据帕拉说，如果在画里画上五条乐谱，那么，耶稣的手、使徒们的手、和桌上的几片面包就能勾勒出一个从右往左读时有意义的乐谱。
Da Vinci was known to be a music enthusiast who incorporated musical riddles in his writings which must be read from right to left. Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of a dedicated Da Vinci museum in Tuscany believed Pala's proposition is "plausible." Vezzosi also stated that Da Vinci played the lyre and sketched several musical instruments."There's always a risk of seeing something that is not there, but it's certain that the spaces (in the painting) are divided harmonically," he said. "Where you have harmonic proportions, you can find music."
人们知道达芬奇是个音乐爱好者，他在作品中写入了从右往左读的音乐密码。位于托斯卡纳的达芬奇博物馆馆长韦佐西认为，帕拉的观点是"可信的"。他还谈到，达芬奇会弹里尔琴，并素描过几种乐器。"看到并不存在的东西通常是有风险的，但（画作里的）空间的确是协调分割的"，他说，"哪里有协调的比例，哪里就能发现音乐。"
4.The Golden Gate Bridge Color Crisis
4.金门大桥的颜色危机
The Golden Gate Bridge holds the record as the most photographed bridge in the world. Interestingly, the US Navy never wanted the bridge to be built because they feared that if the bridge was bombed and destroyed, it would trap their ships docked in the San Francisco Bay. The Navy later gave their consent to the construction of the bridge. However, they did not like the color that the bridge was going to be painted. They, along with the Army, wanted the bridge to be painted in black and yellow stripes so that it would be visible in the fog.
金门大桥保持着世界上最上镜的记录。有趣的是，美国海军从不愿建这座桥，因为他们担心，如果桥被炸毁，将使他们的船卡在旧金山湾的码头。后来，海军对于桥的修建意见达成了一致。然而，他们不喜欢将要给桥粉刷的颜色。他们联合军队，希望桥被粉刷成在雾中也能见的黑黄色的线条。
However, the bridge's architect, Irving Morrow, had a different plan. When the steel to be used for the bridge arrived in San Francisco, it was already painted with a base coat to prepare the steel for more paint. Back then, most bridges were coated in grey, brown, and black, but Morrow had it painted in "international orange," similar to the color of the base coat. Not only is international orange visible in fogs, it also complements and contrasts with the blues of the sky and the bay.
然而，桥的建造师欧文·莫洛另有想法。当建桥用的钢运抵旧金山时，为了进一步粉刷已经被涂了一层底漆。那时，大多桥梁都被粉刷为灰色、棕色和黑色，但莫洛将这座桥涂成了与底漆类似的"国际标准橘色"，不仅在雾中可见，它还与天空和海湾形成对比而更具魅力。
3.X夫人的丑闻
The Portrait of Madame X is a prominent painting by a young American immigrant and celebrity named John Singer Sargent of Virginie Avegno Gautreau. Sargent had hoped that Madame X would make his reputation. The portrait did make him famous, or infamous, because of its supposed indecency.
《X夫人的画像》是由年轻移民名流约翰·辛格·萨金特以维吉妮·阿维尼·高雷为模特创造的一幅名画。萨金特期待这幅画能令他名声大噪。由于被认为是下流的，这副画像的确使他名声鹊起，亦或臭名昭著。
After it was exhibited at the Salon, the portrait was highly criticized and mocked. The major reason behind the criticism was the right strap in the portrait. The strap in the early portrait can be seen falling off her right shoulder, revealing a little more of the model's skin. The scandal that followed was so intense that Sargent had to move to Britain.The Gautreau family was ashamed of the scandal and pleaded with Sargent to withdraw the painting. Sargent, in an effort to pacify the critics and public, repainted the strap into what we see in the portrait today.
画作在展出之后，遭到了严厉的批判和嘲讽。批评的主要原因是画像上右边的肩带。最初的画像上，肩带从模特的右肩滑落，香肩半露。随之而来的流言蜚语不得不令萨金特移居到英国。高雷家族因这一丑闻而倍感羞愧，并请求萨金特收回画作。萨金特为努力平息批评和抚慰公众，把肩带修改在今天我们所看到的位置上。
2.Mount Rushmore Time Capsule
2.拉什莫尔山的时间胶囊
While it is well-known that Mount Rushmore is incomplete, few people know about its time capsule. While building Rushmore, its chief architect Gutzon Borglum wanted to create a large hall which would serve as a grand room where all of the important documents in American history would be kept. He thought adding important documents and charters like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would make the already outstanding monument more significant. Unfortunately, he was hindered by a lack of money and space until he died in 1941, leaving the work incomplete.
拉什莫尔山的不完整众所周知，但极少人知道它的时间胶囊。在建造拉什莫尔时，它的总建造师博格勒姆想要盖一座大礼堂作为一个大会客厅，用来放置所有美国历史上重要的文件。他认为，如果放置一些重要的文件和宪章，如《独立宣言》和《宪法》，能够使本已解除的纪念碑变得更加意义非凡。不幸的是，资金缺乏和空间有限阻止了他的想法，直到1941年他去世，留下了这未完成的作品。
In 1998, the Constitution, 16 porcelain enamel panels containing the text from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights along with a memoir of Borglum, and the stories about the presidents sculpted into the mountain were placed in a titanium vault and sealed inside the unfinished hall. These documents are to be left sealed and untouched for thousands of years.
1998年，《宪法》、包含着《独立宣言》、《人权法案》内容的16块搪瓷板，连同博格勒姆的回忆录和山上有雕像的那四位总统们的轶事，都被放入一个钛保险库里，封入为其建好的大礼堂中。这些文件将被原封不动地封存数千年。
1.Michelangelo's Last Judgment
1.米开朗基罗的《最后的审判》
Not long before he died, Pope Clement VII contracted Michelangelo to create a painting of the Last Judgment on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. The drawing is supposed to represent the last day, also called the "Judgment Day," when Jesus Christ would return to the world. The artwork, however, generated some controversy after Michelangelo drew several of the characters naked, showing their private parts, including that of Jesus Christ and his mother Mary.
教皇克莱蒙特七世在去世前不久曾与米开朗基罗订立合约，让他在西斯廷教堂的墙壁上创作一幅画《最后的审判》。这幅画要表现最后一天，也叫做"审判日"，即耶稣重返世界的日子。然而，当米开朗基罗令包括耶稣及其母亲玛丽在内的几个人物以裸体呈现，展露出他们的私处后，该作品带来了一些争议。
This didn't go down well with a cardinal who began the "Fig Leaf Campaign" with the aim of having the drawing totally removed or heavily censored. The Pope's Master of Ceremony, Biagio da Cesena, also joined in, calling for the censoring or total removal of the drawing, which according to him, was better suited to be displayed in a public bath or bar instead of a church. This angered Michelangelo who then used Cesena's face for the face of Minos—the god of the underworld. He also added the ears of a donkey to it to denote Cesena's "foolishness."The nude images remained in the church till A.D. 1564 when the Council of Trent decided that they should be covered by braghes (literally meaning "pants"), such as fig leaves or draped fabrics. During restoration works in 1993, about half of the braghes put over the characters' private parts were removed and it was seen that Michelangelo had actually painted Minos with a snake coiled round his waist biting him in the groin.
这幅作品在一位发起"无花果叶运动"的红衣主教那里并不受欢迎，他的目的是将画作进行去除或删减。教廷大司仪切塞纳也加入其中，呼吁对画作进行删除或完全去除。他认为这幅画更适合展示在公共浴室或酒吧里，而不是教堂。这激怒了米开朗基罗，他用切塞纳的脸替换了冥王米诺斯，并且在切塞纳的头上画了一幅驴的耳朵，以示他的"愚蠢"。直到公元1564年特伦特会议召开前，画作上的裸体一直存在。特伦特决定，裸体应被braghes（即"裤子"）盖上，如无花果叶或布料。在1993年修复过程中，约有一半覆盖人物私处的braghes被移除，可以看得出，米开朗基罗实际上是画了一条蛇盘踞在米诺斯的腰上并咬他的大腿根儿。
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