Big Ben's silence baffles engineers	倫敦大本鐘熱得走不動了
Big Ben, the world-famous clock tower at the Houses of Parliament in London, seen here in February 2005, stopped late Friday night, and nobody is quite sure why, officials said.(AFP) Big Ben, the landmark London clock renowned for its accuracy and chimes, stopped ticking for 90 minutes, an engineer said Saturday. Officials do not know why the 147-year-old clock on the banks of the River Thames stopped at 10:07 p.m. Friday. It resumed keeping time, but stalled again at 10:20 p.m. and remained still for about 90 minutes before starting up again, a spokeswoman for the House of Commons said on condition of anonymity. There has been speculation a recent spell of hot weather may have been to blame. Temperatures in London reached 90 Saturday, and forecasters called it England's hottest day in May since 1953. Big Ben, which is operated by the Palace of Westminster, survived attacks by German Luftwaffe bombers during World War II, continuing to mark the time to within 1 1/2 seconds of Greenwich Mean Time. However, the clock has experienced occasional problems. In 1962, snow caused the clock to ring in the New Year 10 minutes late. In 1976, the clock stopped when a piece of its machinery broke. Big Ben also stopped on April 30, 1997, and once more three weeks later. Big Ben is actually the clock's 13-ton bell, which was named after Sir Benjamin Hall, the British commissioner of works at the time the clock was built. The official name for the Gothic tower holding Big Ben is St. Stephen's Tower. Standing 315 feet tall, it was completed in 1858 after an 1834 fire destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster. (Agencies)	倫敦地標大本鐘一向以報時精準、鐘聲悠揚而聞名于世，但一名工程師上周六表示，它居然出人意料地停擺了90分鐘。 這座矗立在倫敦泰晤士河畔的大鐘已有147歲高齡了，官員們很納悶，不知道上周五晚10時07分它為什么突然罷工了。 停了一會它的指針又重新開始移動，但到了10時20分再次停了下來，這一停就是90分鐘，英國國會下議院的一位不愿意透露姓名的發言人這樣說。 有種推測認為，倫敦最近酷熱的天氣是罪魁禍首。上周六倫敦的氣溫高達90華氏度（攝氏32度左右），天氣預報員稱之為自1953年以來倫敦五月份氣溫最高的一天。 在威斯敏斯特宮內運轉的大本鐘曾在二戰期間經受過德國空軍的炮火襲擊，但它仍然勤勉報時，和格林威治標準時間之間的誤差從未超過1.5秒。 然而，這只“大笨鐘”偶爾也會犯錯。 1962年，由于指針上的積雪，大本鐘晚了10分鐘才敲響新年鐘聲；1976年，由于一小片零件出了故障，大本鐘也一度停擺。1997年4月30日大本鐘再次罷工，而且三周后又停了一次。 大本鐘實際上是這口大鐘13噸重的“鈴鐺”部分，是以本杰明·霍爾爵士的名字命名的，他是當年鑄造這口鐘時監督工程的英國專員。 大本鐘所在的哥特塔式建筑的正式名字叫作圣·斯蒂芬塔，該塔高315英尺，于1858年全部完工，之前1834年的一場火災將威斯敏斯特宮燒毀大半。 （中國日報網站譯）