黑龍江直角跑道 領導您滿意了嗎？

Sports officials in northeast China have claimed the gold medal for incompetence after authorising the construction of a running track with right-angled corners.
中國東北地區的體育官員竟批准修建了一條直角跑道，真可謂是最不稱職的領導！

The track was completed recently as part of a major refurbishment of a 100,000 sq ft stadium in Heilongjiang province’s Tonghe County.
這條跑道作爲黑龍江省通河縣一座佔地10萬平方英尺的體育館的主要翻新工程的一部分，已於近期竣工。

The stadium itself appears to have been impressively built and features an immaculately laid artificial grass football pitch at its centre.
體育場十分壯觀，中央的足球場鋪着人工草坪，看上去完美無瑕。

But the running track’s designers got their angles badly wrong – painting 90-degree corners onto the track rather than the usual curves.
但跑道的設計則完全不對路，平常的彎道竟然被90度的直角所代替。

“It all looks jolly good - apart from the track which doesn’t really look up to standard,” a bemused local told Newsnight, a regional television programme.
一名當地居民感到很困惑，接受當地電視節目《新聞夜航》採訪時說道，“它的其他部分都很完美，不過跑道看上去不大標準。”

Stadium officials had another explanation. They claimed their original track had once featured curves but said its rubber surface had become severely worn down from overuse.
體育館工作人員給出了他們的解釋。他們稱，本來的跑道也是有彎道的，但由於使用過多，塑膠表面已被嚴重磨損。

When senior Communist Party leaders recently announced plans for a last-minute visit to the stadium, a quick makeover suddenly became necessary. Painting right angles was faster than painting curves, one official admitted.
高層領導最近突然宣佈要來體育館視察，於是他們必須儘快整修。一名官員承認，鋪設成直角要比彎道更快。

“In order to get it ready for the leaders, we painted it like that,” he confessed. “We think it is ugly too but if the leaders don’t ask us to change it, what are we supposed to do?”
“爲了迎接領導，我們就這樣鋪了”他坦白道，“我們也覺得寒磣，但如果領導不要求改，我們能做什麼呢？”

The botched attempt to please visiting Communist Party dignitaries has turned the Heilongjiang stadium into an online laughing stock.
本是爲了取悅視察領導，沒想卻給搞砸了，這座黑龍江的體育館已然淪爲網友的笑料。

“Does the designer have a square brain?” wondered a user of Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media network.
新浪微博的一名網友疑惑道，“難道設計者的腦子也是方的嗎？”