One little girl was clutching her favourite toy while her younger sister was sucking her thumb – and both looked utterly lost and forlorn.
一名小女孩抓著她最心愛(ài)的玩具，她的妹妹在一旁舔著拇指，倆姐妹看起來(lái)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，路過(guò)的大人也許會(huì)停下來(lái)問(wèn)問(wèn)她們的媽媽去哪兒了。但是在英國(guó)，行人們誰(shuí)也沒(méi)有停下的意思，這是對(duì)英國(guó)社會(huì)的控訴。

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，女孩們?cè)诜比A的商業(yè)街站了整整一個(gè)小時(shí)，尋求路人的幫助。其實(shí)這是英國(guó)某電視臺(tái)進(jìn)行的一次社會(huì)實(shí)驗(yàn)。

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.
令人震驚的是，一個(gè)小時(shí)里，只有一位老奶奶看出了不對(duì)勁。616名路過(guò)的人直接忽略了女孩們。

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.
女孩們的媽媽在不遠(yuǎn)處注視著這一幕，心中酸澀。兩個(gè)女孩一個(gè)叫瑪雅，一個(gè)叫烏瑪。并肩行走的兩個(gè)人遇到她們時(shí)會(huì)直接繞開(kāi)。拖著拉桿箱的路人對(duì)她們避之不及。沒(méi)有人關(guān)心女孩們是不是需要幫助。

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.
昨天英國(guó)反虐待兒童協(xié)會(huì)表示實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果令人唏噓。他們呼吁大眾積極幫助走失的兒童。

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.
實(shí)驗(yàn)經(jīng)過(guò)了兩個(gè)小女孩的同意，她們的母親一路陪伴著她們，在附近的拱柱旁靜靜觀察。烏瑪先出現(xiàn)在路邊，一個(gè)人站在聚集的人群中間，抱著她的粉色娃娃，臉上是害怕受傷的表情。

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個(gè)隱藏的攝像頭記錄下的是匆匆避過(guò)的顧客和游客。一位推著嬰兒車的母親繞過(guò)了烏瑪，接著是一群冷眼旁觀的女性拖著箱子離開(kāi)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分鐘過(guò)去了，盡管一些路人確實(shí)看到了烏瑪，當(dāng)中沒(méi)有一個(gè)停下來(lái)詢問(wèn)7歲的烏瑪?shù)那闆r。

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.
接著，是5歲的瑪雅。她吸著手指，甚至試圖跪下來(lái)，眼睛盯著經(jīng)過(guò)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.
終于，一位老人給她投去了關(guān)心的目光。這位老人70來(lái)歲，一開(kāi)始，她也直接走了過(guò)去，但很快就轉(zhuǎn)身去詢問(wèn)瑪雅是否在等人。

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.”
老人后來(lái)透露：“她一個(gè)人站了很久，沒(méi)有父母或朋友過(guò)去照顧她。一開(kāi)始我有些猶豫，所以走了過(guò)去，但是我覺(jué)得自己必須回頭幫助她，萬(wàn)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.'
“我認(rèn)為老一輩的人會(huì)停下來(lái)的，但是會(huì)很小心，就像我一樣。我不了解年輕人，他們路過(guò)之后就直接走了，一點(diǎn)也不關(guān)心?！?/div>

Mrs Rumsey said she was gobsmacked by seeing her daughters ignored by more than 600 members of the public.
女孩的母親說(shuō)，看到女兒被600多個(gè)行人忽視的時(shí)候，震驚極了。

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.
專家們表示行人不愿意停下的原因可能是因?yàn)樘^(guò)繁忙。也可能是出于擔(dān)憂，尤其是男性，給孩子們提供幫助可能會(huì)引起誤會(huì)。

But the NSPCC said a child's welfare was more important than worrying about being labelled a 'stranger danger'.
但是英國(guó)反虐待兒童協(xié)會(huì)稱孩子們的健康比被誤解為“不懷好意的陌生人”要重要的多。