Horsepower马力十足
It had been an annual tradition of the farming community to hold a festival for their draught horses.But as each farmer replaced his work horses with a tractor, or “mechanical horses” as they were called, the practice had died away. Some thought it was a tragedy, particularly the old men, who liked to trail behind their horses as they created a trail in the soil with their plough. Occasionally, an old retired farmer could be seen trailling along behind a mechanical horse, trying to relive the experience of his working days as he tried to talk to this replacement for his horse. But eventually, his voice would trail off to a whisper as he realized he could not transform this mechanical horse into a real one. Although, the transfer to mechanical horses had been relatively quick, it took a lot longer to transfer all of the real horses to other duties and this did not usually occur until the horses were too old to work. Once this occurred, the horses might be used as transportation by the old men so they wouldnt get tired walking around their farm. The community decided to review the annual festival for both real and mechanical horses by having an annual contest between them—20 horses to one mechanical horse. The old men were happy because it was found that 20 horses could transport heavier loads, transmit more power than the transmission of a mechanical horse, and could also provide more comfortable transport. It was then transparent to all that the change to mechanical farming should not mean the end of the annual festival. The old men even began dreaming of advertising the festival through translation into many languages.

为役马举办一次节日活动是这个农业社区一年一度的传统。但是随着每个农夫都把役马换成了拖拉机，或者所谓的“机器马”，这项活动慢慢就消失了。有人认为这是一个悲剧，尤其是上了岁数的人，当马拉着犁在地里犁出一条痕迹时他们喜欢跟在马后面。偶尔人们还会见到一个退了休的农夫没精打采地跟在机器马的后面走，他试着和这个马的替身说话，以此重温以前工作时的情景。可是到他的声音会逐渐减弱成说悄悄话，因为他意识到他无法把机器马转换成一匹真马。虽然从真马到机器马的转变相对来说很迅速，但把马转移到其他事情上去却花了很长的时间，而且一般情况下要等到马老得干不动活的时候这种事情才有可能发生。一旦到了这个时候，马就可能被老人们用作运输工具，这样他们在农场里转悠时才不会累着。社区决定为真马和机器马重开年会，让它们一年举行一次比赛——20匹真马对一台机器马。老人们都很高兴，因为他们发现20匹马可以运输更重的货物，传送的能量也比机器马传送的多，而且作为运输工具也更舒适。很明显，大家觉得向机械化农业的转化不应该意味着一年一度的盛会也告终结。老人们还打算为这种活动做广告并把它翻译成许多种语言。

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