One little girl was clutching her favourite toy while her younger sister was sucking her thumb – and both looked utterly lost and forlorn.

一名小女孩抓着她最心爱的玩具，她的妹妹在一旁舔着拇指，俩姐妹看起来孤零零的，似乎迷路了。

 

In a bygone era, a concerned adult might have stopped to ask them where their mother was. But in a damning indictment of modern Britain, hundreds of busy people simply walked on by.

以前，路过的大人也许会停下来问问她们的妈妈去哪儿了。但是在英国，行人们谁也没有停下的意思，这是对英国社会的控诉。

 

The girls stood for an hour on a Saturday morning in a busy shopping arcade looking for 'help', as part of a social experiment for television.

周六早晨，女孩们在繁华的商业街站了整整一个小时，寻求路人的帮助。其实这是英国某电视台进行的一次社会实验。

 

Astonishingly, over the whole hour only one person, a grandmother, took a moment to find out if there was a problem. All of the 616 other passers-by completely ignored the girls.

令人震惊的是，一个小时里，只有一位老奶奶看出了不对劲。616名路过的人直接忽略了女孩们。

 

Heartbreakingly for the mother of the sisters – who was watching from a hiding place nearby – passing couples even split apart to walk around either side of the 'lost' girls and people wheeling suitcases took evasive action to avoid Maya and Uma, not thinking to check if they needed help.

女孩们的妈妈在不远处注视着这一幕，心中酸涩。两个女孩一个叫玛雅，一个叫乌玛。并肩行走的两个人遇到她们时会直接绕开。拖着拉杆箱的路人对她们避之不及。没有人关心女孩们是不是需要帮助。

 

Yesterday the NSPCC said the results of the experiment were shocking and called on members of the public to step in if they saw a youngster looking lost.

昨天英国反虐待儿童协会表示实验结果令人唏嘘。他们呼吁大众积极帮助走失的儿童。

 

Maya and Uma agreed to help and were brought along by their mother Reshma Rumsey, who watched from behind a nearby pillar with a presenter. Uma went first, standing alone in the middle of the concourse, holding her pink doll and putting on a good act of being scared and vulnerable.

实验经过了两个小女孩的同意，她们的母亲一路陪伴着她们，在附近的拱柱旁静静观察。乌玛先出现在路边，一个人站在聚集的人群中间，抱着她的粉色娃娃，脸上是害怕受伤的表情。

 

Under the gaze of the hidden cameras 25 yards away, dozens of shoppers and travellers bustled past. A mother with a pram manoeuvred around her, then a group of women pulling suitcases turned a blind eye.

25个隐藏的摄像头记录下的是匆匆避过的顾客和游客。一位推着婴儿车的母亲绕过了乌玛，接着是一群冷眼旁观的女性拖着箱子离开了。

 

After 20 minutes, not a single person had stopped to ask the seven-year-old if she was all right, even though some of them had plainly seen her.

20分钟过去了，尽管一些路人确实看到了乌玛，当中没有一个停下来询问7岁的乌玛的情况。

 

Next, it was her five-year-old sister's turn. Maya stood sucking her thumb, and then tried kneeling down, gazing up forlornly at passing shoppers, but she too seemed to be invisible.

接着，是5岁的玛雅。她吸着手指，甚至试图跪下来，眼睛盯着经过的路人。但是她就像是透明的。

 

Eventually, a pensioner gave her a concerned look. At first, Pearl Pitcher, of Kent, who is in her seventies, carried on walking, but she soon turned around and came back to ask Maya if she was waiting for somebody.

终于，一位老人给她投去了关心的目光。这位老人70来岁，一开始，她也直接走了过去，但很快就转身去询问玛雅是否在等人。

 

Mrs Pitcher said later: 'She had stood too long by herself and no parent or friend came up to see her. I was very hesitant to come and ask her, and I walked past but I thought I must come back – just in case.”

老人后来透露：“她一个人站了很久，没有父母或朋友过去照顾她。一开始我有些犹豫，所以走了过去，但是我觉得自己必须回头帮助她，万一她走失了呢。”

 

'I think the older generation would stop, but very cautiously, a bit like I was. I don't know about the younger generation. A lot of people walked by and didn't take any notice at all.'

“我认为老一辈的人会停下来的，但是会很小心，就像我一样。我不了解年轻人，他们路过之后就直接走了，一点也不关心。”

 

Mrs Rumsey said she was gobsmacked by seeing her daughters ignored by more than 600 members of the public.

女孩的母亲说，看到女儿被600多个行人忽视的时候，震惊极了。

 

Experts said the reluctance of the passers-by was partly explained by people being busy, and partly a fear – especially among men – of any help they offer a child being misinterpreted.

导师们表示行人不愿意停下的原因可能是因为太过繁忙。也可能是出于担忧，尤其是男性，给孩子们提供帮助可能会引起误会。

 

But the NSPCC said a child's welfare was more important than worrying about being labelled a 'stranger danger'.

但是英国反虐待儿童协会称孩子们的健康比被误解为“不怀好意的陌生人”要重要的多。