好英语网这也许是地球上最可怕的地方，但有5G和一所很棒的学校
TAESUNG FREEDOM VILLAGE, South Korea — For decades, a village of 188 people has enjoyed perks that few others in South Korea have, with its men exempted from mandatory military service and its 46 households getting special tax cuts.
台城洞自由村，韩国——几十年来，一个有188人的村庄享受着韩国很少有人享受的福利，这里的男子免于义务兵役，46户家庭获得了特别减税。
These are the rewards for carving out a life in what has been called the scariest place on Earth.
这是在曾被称为地球上最可怕的地方生存的回报。
台城洞自由村。
Taesung Freedom Village is the only place inhabited by South Korean civilians inside the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone that separates the South from North Korea.
分隔朝鲜与韩国的非军事区由重兵把守，台城洞自由村是这里唯一有韩国平民居住的地方。
In recent weeks, villagers have been given another reward: South Korea’s main mobile phone carrier, KT Corp., has installed a fifth-generation, or 5G, ultrafast communications network, one of the first such systems installed for any South Korean town.
最近几周，村民们获得了另一个奖励：韩国主流移动电话运营商KT公司安装的第五代(5G)超快通信网络，这里是首批安装此类系统的韩国城镇之一。
“This is more useful than my own children, who all live outside,” said Go Geum-sik, 73. “Outside” is how villagers refer to the world beyond their constricted boundaries.
73岁的高金植（音）说：“这比我亲生的孩子都有用，他们都在外面生活。”村民用“外面”称呼他们狭小边境之外的世界。
With the 5G service, Ms. Go demonstrated how she can now simply push a button on a hand-held device to instantly alert the village mayor, as well as the community center, if she or her husband has a medical emergency. “There is no use calling 911,” Ms. Go said, “because they can’t come here.”
高金植演示了她或丈夫出现医疗紧急情况时，通过5G服务，只需按下手持设备上的一个按钮，就能立即通知村长和社区中心。“打911是没用的，” 高金植说，“因为他们来不了这里。”
As South Korea raced to build one of the world’s first nationwide 5G networks, Taesung emerged as an attractive candidate where the country could show off its high-tech prowess to both the world and its bellicose neighbor.
韩国在努力争取建成世界上最早的全国性5G网络之一，台城洞成了很有吸引力的候选地，韩国可以借此向世界以及它那好战的邻国展示其高科技实力。
When the Korean War was halted with an uneasy truce in 1953, the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, was created to keep the warring armies apart.
1953年，朝鲜战争因暂时休战而告终，划出了朝韩非军事区(DMZ)，以分开交战部队。
Almost all villagers were cleared from the two-and-a-half-mile-wide buffer zone, which became one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers, dotted with minefields and sealed off with barbed-wire fences, tank traps and legions of battle-ready troops on both sides.
几乎所有村民都被赶出这个两英里半的缓冲区，这里成了世界上戒备最森严的边境之一，遍布着雷区，被双方的铁丝网、坦克陷阱和大量随时准备战斗的部队封锁住。
Any attempt to defect across the border could trigger a hail of gunfire.
任何企图越境叛逃的行为都可能引发枪林弹雨。
Only two villages were allowed to stay inside: Taesung in the South Korean half of the DMZ, and a mile away across the borderline, North Korea’s Kijong “Peace Village.”
仅有两个村庄被允许留在里面：非军事区韩国半边的台城洞，以及边境线一英里外朝鲜的机井洞“平和村”。
No communication has since been allowed between the villages that had been neighbors for centuries, making it impossible for Park Pil-seon, 82, a Taesung villager, to find out whether his elder brother in Kijong is still alive.
从那以后，这两个做了几世纪邻居的村庄被禁止联络。这令82岁的台城洞村民朴必善（音）无法确定在机井洞的哥哥是否还活着。
In the postwar decades, Taesung and Kijong became pawns in a propaganda war between the two Koreas, with both sides investing in their own model village to extol the virtues of their respective political systems. Today, Kijong is mostly empty, with its once-bright pastel paint on its apartment buildings fading, according to South Korean soldiers.
在战后的几十年中，台城洞和机井洞成了朝韩战争宣传战的棋子，双方都投资建设自己的模范村庄，以彰显各自政治制度的优点。据韩国士兵说，如今的机井洞几乎没有人，公寓楼上曾经鲜艳的淡色油漆逐渐褪色。
But South Korea’s determination to keep Taesung populated comes with challenges; villagers are expected to forgo much of the freedom and services other South Koreans take for granted.
然而，韩国保持台城洞人口不流失的决心伴随着挑战。村民们要放弃许多其他韩国人视为理所当然的自由和服务。
Whenever villagers venture to their rice paddies near the borderline just 1,300 feet away, they are shadowed by South Korean soldiers. They also live with a midnight-to-sunrise curfew and a door-to-door roll call every night.
当村民冒着危险去到离边境仅1300英尺的稻田时，他们身边会有韩国士兵跟随。每天午夜到黎明都有宵禁，晚上会有挨家挨户的点名。
When they invite friends from outside the DMZ to visit, villagers have to apply for approval two weeks in advance. Once a car enters the DMZ, its navigation map goes blank. Soldiers must escort all visitors.
村民如果邀请非军事区外的朋友前来，必须提前两周申请批准。一旦汽车进入非军事区，导航地图就会变成空白。士兵必须护送所有的来访者。
Taesung has no gym, no hospital, no supermarket, no restaurant. If a villager orders Chinese takeout, the last military checkpoint outside the DMZ is as far as the delivery vehicle can come. The dish must be left there for the villager to pick up.
台城洞没有健身房、没有医院、没有超市、没有餐厅。如果村民想叫中餐外卖，送餐车只能到达非军事区外的最后一个军事检察点。外卖得留在那里，村民必须自己去取。
A bus comes to the village four times a day.
村里每天来四趟公交车。
“Transportation is the biggest headache, especially if you, like me, don’t drive,” Ms. Go said.
“交通运输是最头疼的，尤其是像我这样不开车的人，”高金植说。
The new 5G services are intended to ease some of the burdens.
新的5G服务旨在减轻一些这样的负担。
Before 5G arrived, rice farmers had to ask for a military escort to go to a reservoir a mile away to use a water pump. Now, they can do it from their homes through an app on their smartphones. With the same app, they can also control the sprinklers in their bean patches.
在5G到来之前，稻农去一英里外的水库使用水泵也必须要求军事护送。现在，他们可以通过智能手机上的应用程序在家完成这项工作。同一应用程序还能用来控制豆田里的洒水器。
For years, women wanted to take yoga classes but no instructors would come. Now, yoga lessons are streamed onto large screens at the community center.
多年来，这里的女人想上瑜伽课，但没有教练来。如今，可以通过流媒体在社区中心的大屏幕上播放瑜伽课程。
At the village’s only school, Taesung Elementary, students can now play interactive online games. On a recent visit, they could be seen having fun hurling actual balls at virtual targets streaming down a wall.
在村里唯一的学校台城洞小学，学生们现在可以玩互动网络游戏。在最近的一次访问中，可以看到他们开心地向着沿墙而下的虚拟目标投掷真实的球。
Such amenities are important for the survival of the school. Like other rural villages in South Korea, Taesung has lost many of its young couples to big cities in recent decades. Today, only seven of the school’s 35 students are Taesung natives. The rest are bused in daily from Munsan, the nearest town outside the DMZ.
这些设施对学校的生存很重要。和韩国其他乡村一样，近几十年来，台城洞也有很多年轻夫妇搬到大城市。如今，该校35名学生中只有7名是台城洞本地人。其余的每天从非军事区外最近的城镇汶山坐公共汽车赶来。
At the school, students benefit from personalized attention, with as many as 21 teachers and staff members for the 35 pupils. This and other incentives at the school make it popular among Munsan parents. For one opening in the first-grade class this year, 16 Munsan children applied.
在这所学校，学生们享有个性化的关注，35名学生配备了多达21名教师和工作人员。这个优点和其他激励措施使该校受到汶山家长的欢迎。今年，16名汶山儿童提交申请，争取一年级的一个入学名额。
“Here, you get a lot that you don’t get in outside schools,” said Heo Ye-rin, a sixth grader who commutes daily from Munsan. “When we go on an extracurricular trip outside, we pay none of the expenses because the government takes care of them.”
“在这里，你可以学到很多外面的学校学不到的东西，”每天从汶山通勤的六年级学生许芮霖（Heo Ye-rin，音）说。“我们去外面参加课外旅行时，一分钱都不用付，因为政府会负担这笔费用。”
A United States military officer, part of the American-led United Nations Command, which fought in the Korean War and stayed to enforce the armistice, gives a free English class twice a week.
美国主导的联合国军司令部(United Nations Command)参加过朝鲜战争，并留下来执行停战协定，司令部的一名美国军官每周免费来学校上两节英语课。
“We hope that when the children grow up, they will have some good memories of U.N.C. soldiers,” said United States Army Lt. Col. Sean Morrow.
“我们希望孩子们长大后，能对联合国军司令部的战士有一些美好的回忆，”美国陆军中校肖恩·莫罗(Sean Morrow)说。
The troops Colonel Morrow commands are responsible for guarding the Joint Security Area within the DMZ, which includes Taesung and nearby Panmunjom, a village now uninhabited by civilians that straddles the border. It’s where the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, met with President Moon Jae-in of South Korea in April last year, and with President Trump in June this year.
莫罗中校指挥的部队负责守卫非军事区内的联合安全区(Joint Security Area)。非军事区包括台城洞和附近的板门店，后者现在已经没有跨越边境的平民居住。去年4月，朝鲜领导人金正恩在这里会见了韩国总统文在寅，今年6月，他又在这里会见了美国总统特朗普。
Such high-level diplomacy has helped ease tensions along the border. Today, Taesung looks like any other rural village in South Korea, with its golden rice paddies sparkling under the autumn sun.
这样的高层外交有助于缓解边境地区的紧张局势。如今，台城洞看上去和韩国其他乡村没什么两样，金色的稻田在秋日的阳光下闪闪发光。
But “don’t let appearances fool you,” said Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean Army general, noting that North Korean soldiers watch every move of outside visitors. “It’s not your average place. It’s a place where all the peace is secured by dedicated soldiers.”
但“不要被外表骗住了”，韩国退役将军全仁钒(Chun In-bum)说，他指出，朝鲜士兵密切注视着外面游客的一举一动。“这可不是一般的地方。这里所有的和平都由充满奉献精神的士兵来捍卫。”
Villagers here often find themselves front-seat witnesses to the ebb and flow of inter-Korean tensions.
这里的村民经常亲眼目睹朝韩紧张局势的起起伏伏。
Decades ago, villagers stepped on stray mines from the war and even were abducted by North Korean soldiers. When the tensions were high, they were frequently evacuated from their fields into underground shelters, said Kim Dong-gu, 50, the mayor.
几十年前，有村民踩到战争遗留的地雷，甚至遭到朝鲜士兵绑架。现年50岁的村长金东久（Kim Dong-gu，音）说，当局势高度紧张时，他们经常从农田里被疏散到防空洞。
Despite the recent thaw, villagers still conduct an evacuation drill twice a year. North Korea’s propaganda broadcasts, once a daily nuisance here, finally faded last year when both Koreas agreed to switch off their loudspeakers on the border.
尽管最近解冻，村民们仍然每年进行两次疏散演习。朝鲜的宣传广播曾是这里每天的麻烦事，去年朝韩两国同意关闭边境上的喇叭后，这种宣传广播终于消失了。
“Despite political leaders talking about easing tensions, we still live with them as the militaries face off with each other,” said Kim Yong-sung, 49, a village bean farmer.
“尽管政治领袖们在谈论缓解紧张局势，但随着两国军队彼此对峙，我们仍然生活在紧张局势中，”村里的豆农、49岁的金永成（Kim Yong-sung，音）说。
When the two Korean leaders met at Panmunjom, two Taesung Elementary students greeted Mr. Kim with flowers.
当两位韩国领导人在板门店会面时，台东的两名小学生用鲜花迎接了金正恩。
”I was scared but also curious about the North Korean dictator,” said Sin Jae-hyeok, one of the students. “After meeting him, I think his image in my mind has improved just a bit.”
“我很害怕，但也对朝鲜的独裁者感到好奇，”其中一名学生申宰赫（Sin Jae-hyeok，音）说。“见过他之后，我觉得他在我心目中的形象有了一点改善。”