撲朔迷離的“麥田怪圈”

所謂“麥田怪圈”，是指在長滿麥子等作物的地里一夜之間出現有些作物彎曲倒伏從而呈現有規律的圓形圖案的現象。關于該現象的首次報道可以追溯到1647年，發生地在英國。此后，美國、澳大利亞、歐洲、南美洲、亞洲等地也頻頻發現這種“怪圈”，但其中絕大部分仍在英國。

英國威爾特郡自古以來就是“麥田怪圈”的高發地，每年從4月至9月，頻繁出現的神秘怪圈能為當地帶來數百萬英鎊的旅游收入。2009年6月2日，一個長約183米的巨型水母狀怪圈在英國牛津郡的一處麥田里被發現。數量曾一度呈減少趨勢的“麥田怪圈”再次變得引人注目起來。

現在，全世界每年大約會出現250個“麥田怪圈”，其圖案也已不再局限于嚴格意義上的圓圈。蜜蜂、長方形等復雜圖案都曾出現過，甚至還有三維立體圖形。不過，令人遺憾的是，對于“麥田怪圈”的成因，科學界至今仍存在爭議。

Adrian Potts， 2)landlord of the Barge Inn in 3)Wiltshire， was pretty cheerful recently. The pub is the center of the British crop circle industry and each year， starting in early May and 4)running for about four months， circle fans (and circle-makers) turn up from round the world. The backroom of the pub has circles on the ceiling， news of the latest formations is posted， and the chat 5)revolves around the images that have been appearing for more than 20 years in the fields of southern England.

The 2009 season began in April with an unprecedented six formations. The first was a series of simple circles in a field of 6)rape; then came a 350ft yin-yang symbol in a 7)barley field near 8)Devizes. Three ambitious formations were reported over the last 9)bank holiday and on June 2nd a giant 600ft 10)jellyfish was found in a barley field in 11)Oxfordshire.

As of yesterday(June 4th)， there have been more than 20 major formations spotted. Potts， who could claim to be something of an expert on the subject， has a 12)hunch that this will be a good summer for circles: “The crops are not true enough yet. Weather permitting， I’d say the best ones will start now. In the next two weeks there should be a burst of activity.”

Francine Blake， who founded the Wiltshire crop circle study group in 1995， shares Potts’s optimism. She and other 13)self-appointed investigators identify， measure， photograph， and report on all formations. They go circle-spotting at night in 14)likely places， send crop 15)stalks for chemical analysis in university laboratories (yes， really)， and have more than 6，000 crop circles on their database.

She was excited by the jellyfish: “It’s fantastic. When we look at it， it’s got seven small circles， or moon shapes. It’s describing the 16)magnetic field of Earth，” she says. She too is optimistic about the summer ahead: “This year started much earlier. There’s one every day now. It is very intense already. I have never seen such complex designs in rape in all my years of studying this subject. Usually， the season starts with a nice little pattern， a tri-petal flower or such like， one or maybe two in rape if we are lucky. But this year they are big， complex and numerous right from the start.”

“What does this mean?” Blake asks on her blog. “It means that we have to take note that something extraordinary is happening. Crop circles are not normal occurrences; they do not fit in too well with our usual beliefs. This of course is not 17)to everyone’s liking—it is not easy to face the unknown.”

From this you may gather that Blake 18)eschews more 19)prosaic explanations for the circles. In fact the professional circle world divides neatly. One 20)hemisphere is occupied by21)questors， 22)spiritualists and 23)paranormalists， such as Blake; the other by makers， tricksters and artists.

The first group can tell from 24)post-holes， foot tracks， and other clear signs that the majority are made by humans. But they argue that many crop circles—perhaps 20%—defy rational explanation. Their research suggests that “true circles” are created in a very few minutes by a blast of energy. According to some， the crop cells become swollen and are bent down at the 25)nodes. Others say the26)cellular structure of the plants is affected and that the composition of the soil is altered. A few circles， they say， display a27)phenomenal level of complexity and would be difficult to draw on paper， let alone in a field after dark. When they cannot explain what they see， they turn to UFOs， aliens， symbols， 28)alchemy， ancient wisdom， sacred geometry， whirlwinds， and other unknown “29)entities” to explain what they say are messages from 30)extraterrestrials or signs and 31)portents of the times.

The second group is made up of artists and 32)pranksters. What began in the late 1970s with two Wiltshire watercolor artists， Doug Bower and Dave Chorley， going into the fields for a 33)laugh to create simple circles to tease those who believe in UFOs， was 34)picked up by London-based artists and sculptors in the mid-1990s.One group， now calling themselves the Circlemakers， includes 35)situationist artists Rod Dickinson， the sculptor Gavin Turk， Rob Irving and others. They say on their website that they 36)latched on to the circle believers， created images from reading the same books that the believers read， and that they now team up with other teams of circle-makers to create ambitious formations. Together they say they have made crop circles an essential part of our popular culture， part of the myth of the English countryside.

For a long time the Circlemakers kept their identities secret but they now openly claim to have made many hundreds of circles. However， they play the game that there is some 37)inexplicable force out there by not claiming to have made them all， and never revealing which particular ones they created.

最近，英格蘭威爾特郡“駁船”酒館的老板艾德里安·波茨特別高興。這家酒吧是英國“麥田怪圈”界的聚集中心。每年，從5月初開始，在持續約四個月的時間里，來自世界各地的“麥田怪圈”迷們(以及怪圈制造者們)會聚集于此。酒館內后屋的天花板上有怪圈圖案，墻上貼著關于最新發現的怪圈的消息，人們談論著20多年前便已開始在英格蘭南部麥田里出現的怪圈圖案。

2009年“麥田怪圈季”從4月開始，且前所未有地出現了6個怪圈。第一個怪圈是在一片油菜田里，由一系列簡單的圓圈組成;接著是在迪威齊斯鎮附近的大麥田里出現了一個長達350英尺(約107米)的陰陽標志怪圈。……