DEEP DIVES

Today, Minecraft is made by a team of brilliant people in several places around the globe, but the game was born in Sweden and its Nordic roots have had a profound influence on its look and feel. You can see that influence in Minecraft’s pine forests, mushroom soup,snowy tundra, and most of all in today’s featured biome – the birch forest.
目前，Minecraft 开发团队的优秀成员们来自于世界各地，但是，我们不能忘记这款游戏的诞生地 —— 瑞典。瑞典的北欧诺尔曼风格给这款游戏打下了深深的烙印，由表及里地影响着这款游戏给人的印象。细言之，不妨看看 Minecraft 中的这些元素：云杉林，蘑菇汤，积雪冻原，还有今日要介绍的生物群系 —— 桦木森林。

Minecraft's birch trees were added to the game in January 2011 in version Beta 1.2, at the same time as sugar cane, squid, and lapis lazuli. But it wasn’t until The Update That Changed The World that birch got a biome to call home. Today, in fact, there are four birch biomes in Minecraft.
白桦木 是在 2011 年的 1 月，Beta 1.2 版本时加入游戏中的。和它同时添加的游戏元素还有甘蔗，鱿鱼，以及青金石。但是，直到改变世界的更新（1.7） 时，白桦木才真正有了属于自己的生物群系。事实上，目前 Minecraft 有四种桦木生物群系。

The standard “birch forest” biome is the most common. Its terrain is hilly and – you guessed it – covered in birch trees, with their distinctive silvery bark. There’s also a “birch forest hills” variant, with hillier terrain. But if you want to live somewhere a bit more special, then hunt out a “tall birch forest” or “tall birch hills” biome, which are rarer but include old birch trees that reach much higher into the sky.
最普通，自然也是最常见的，是“桦木森林”生物群系。这种生物群系地形多有起伏，而且 —— 没错，你猜对了 —— 地表植被以树皮“光滑而有银色的晕圈”的白桦为主。还有一种名为“桦木森林丘陵”的变种，这种生物群系地势的起伏更加明显。但要是想寻猎一些更加特殊的住处，那么“高大桦木森林”和“高大桦木丘陵”这两种生物群系便不得不提了。这两种生物群系十分稀有，而其中的白桦树，树龄已足够的大，高大到足以直入云霄，荫天蔽日。

All of these biomes are home to the same flora and fauna. There are lots of birch trees (obviously), which make for good building material, and those who like to decorate their homes can harvest rose bushes, lilacs, dandelions, lilies of the valley poppies, and peonies. It’s home to sheep, pigs, chickens, and cows, as well as beehives – so you’ll always have some friendly company when you need it.
这些生物群系所养育的动植物近乎完全一致。在这些生物群系中，你能找到优秀的建筑材料——白桦木（这不是显然嘛）。如果你想装饰房屋，你也能寻觅到玫瑰丛，丁香花，蒲公英，铃兰花，以及牡丹花。这里生活着羊、猪、鸡、牛等等动物，当然也会随机刷新蜂巢 —— 所以，需要时，你能在身旁找到很多“伙伴”！

At night, though, you’ll want to watch out – the dense forest creates lots of places where spiders, zombies, skeletons, and creepers can spawn – as well as the occasional slime, witch, and enderman. Smart players will cut a well-lit clearing around their home before bedding down for the night, so they can spot any intruders when the morning comes.
但是，要是到了晚上，你最好就得提防一点了 —— 茂密的树林可是蜘蛛、僵尸、骷髅和苦力怕刷新的好场所。有时，你甚至能看到史莱姆、女巫以及末影人。会玩的玩家，会在晚上睡觉前，把家周围的地形整平坦，然后插满火把。这样，当白天降临时，一些可能的“入侵者”就一览无余了。

Scandinavia is well-known in the real world for its lowland birch forests, which can happily tolerate the colder temperatures. Birch-scented soaps, shampoos, and even drinks are very popular in the northernmost parts of Europe and Siberia. But offer some sympathy to allergy sufferers – birch pollen is probably the most common cause of tree pollen allergies, making life rubbish for about one in five hayfever sufferers every year.
现实世界中，斯堪的纳维亚半岛便因其低地桦木林而闻名。这些树木的冷耐受性十分强悍。而桦木味的香皂，洗发水，甚至是饮料，都在北欧和西伯利亚地区十分流行。但是，让我们对于那些过敏体质的人们致以最诚挚的同情吧 —— 对桦木的花粉过敏，可能是花粉过敏最常见的原因之一了。桦木的花粉，会让五分之一具有花粉过敏症的人每年都感受到来自世界的恶意！

It grows in the rest of the world too – all over Earth's northern hemisphere, from the shores of Greenland to southern Japan. And there are between 30 and 60 different species, from tiny dwarf birch bushes to the large silver and white birch trees. They’re particularly popular among butterflies and moths, which make their home among its bark and branches.
当然，桦木也在世界的其他地方生长 —— 甚至地球的北半球均有分布 —— 从格陵兰岛，到日本南岸，我们均能看到桦木的踪迹。而且，这种树有 30 到 60 种不同的亚种，有的矮小丛生，也有的“银装素裹”，遮天蔽日。蝴蝶与飞蛾总是喜欢环绕在桦木的周围，因为桦木的树皮和枝干，是它们安家的好去处。

While Minecraft’s birch forests don’t feature any special structures or mobs, the plentiful building materials, subtle landscapes, and diverse wildlife make them an excellent place to set up home.
虽说 Minecraft 的桦木森林生物群系不会生成什么特殊的结构，也不会刷新什么奇特的生物，但这里丰富的建筑材料，精致的地形景观，还有多样的自然生物，都让这里成为建造冒险小屋的好地方。

【c7w 译自官网 2021 年 02 月 11 日发布的 Around the Block: Birch Forest；原作者 Duncan Geere】
【本文排版借助了：SPX】