China clean-up stopped over too many cigarette butts

捡50个烟蒂，就可以换1包纸巾。这本是嵊州市政府为提升市民环卫意识发起的活动。但是随着时间的推移，事情的发展脱离了策划者的初衷。兑换纸巾的市民越来越多，兑换现场排起了“长龙”，场面一度失控。

The authorities in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, were encouraging people to collect discarded cigarettes from the streets and hand them in, the Sohu news website reports. For every 50 that were collected, the city was offering a pack of tissues in return. But the apparently meagre reward had people turning out in droves. 
据搜狐新闻网报道，浙江省嵊州市政府鼓励人们收集街道上丢弃的香烟，交给政府。每收集50个烟蒂，政府就给兑换一包纸巾。这看似小小的奖励却引得人们蜂拥而至。

The sanitation task force was soon flooded with cigarette butts, receiving almost five million of them in three weeks, and costing them 100,000 packets of tissues. One elderly woman turned up with more than 9,000 butts, Sohu says. People were counting out their used cigarettes in little piles outside the office, the Zhejiang Radio and TV Group reports. 
该市环卫处很快就堆满了烟蒂，这里在3周内收到了近500万个烟蒂，兑换出10万包纸巾。搜狐称，有位老妇人送来9000多个烟蒂。据浙江广播电视集团报道，人们在办公室外一小堆一小堆的数着烟蒂。

Officials soon felt that something was amiss, suspecting that those taking part had either been sent cigarettes by people beyond Shengzhou, or had travelled in from elsewhere. That prompted them to cancel the campaign. 
当地官员很快就发现事情不太对劲，他们怀疑要么有外地人给参与活动的人送来烟蒂，要么就是外地人来参与兑换。活动因此被取消了。

"Many of the cigarette butts we received were fairly clean - they were not soiled or soaked in any way, and they didn't look like they were picked up from the ground," an unnamed official tells The Paper. "We couldn't be sure where the butts were collected, so we had no choice but to accept them all." 
一位不具名的官员告诉澎湃新闻，“我们收到许多相当干净的烟蒂——上面完全没有沾染泥土、水渍，看起来不像是从地面上捡的。我们不能确定这些烟蒂是从哪里收集来的，所以不得不全部收下。”

Many social media users feel the government can only blame itself for how things turned out. "It is just that the authorities haven't prepared it well enough," one says on the Sina Weibo microblogging site. While some are unimpressed that people tried to cheat the system, others point out a potentially unintended consequence: the scheme could simply encourage smokers to light up more often. "It's no different from welfare for smokers," one person writes. "Save your cigarette butts, we'll give you tissues in exchange." 
许多社交媒体用户认为，事情演变成这样政府只能怪自己。一位新浪微博网友表示,“这只能说明政府没有做好充分的准备。”虽然一些人对于人们试图欺诈的行为不以为然，但也有人指出政府此举可能带来意想不到的后果：这一方案可能只会鼓励吸烟者吸更多烟。有网友写道，“这和给吸烟者发福利没什么区别，留下烟蒂，我们就给你兑换纸巾。”

Vocabulary

meager: 数量很少的
in droves: 成群结队
amiss: 不对，不正常

英文来源：英国广播公司
翻译：董静
编审：丹妮

——选自：昆明翻译公司

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