It can sometimes be difficult to realize you're living in truly historic times when you're right in the middle of it. Thankfully, we have Twitter, a kind of real-time pulse tracking the events of our world as they happen, and 2015 was packed with epic, historic moments.
有時你身處在重大歷史時刻，卻難以意識到。幸好，我們有推特，它能時刻把握我們這個時代的脈搏。2015年就充滿了史詩般的歷史瞬間。

We got our hands on this year's activity data from Twitter and, no matter what lens you view 2015 through, these moments reveal the true face of the past year, from its dramatic highs to its somber lows.
我們從推特拿到了今年的活動數據，無論你以什么眼光去看待2015，這些瞬間都是即將過去的這一年的真實模樣，有激動人心的頂峰，也有悲沮嚴峻的低谷。

Top Retweets
轉發最多的推文

Despite the current tensions around events like mass shootings, terrorism and civil protests, it turns out that the soothing balm of entertainment ruled Twitter in 2015, with tweets about music group One Direction ranking as the top three retweets of the year. The very top tweet, Harry Styles wishing his departing bandmate Zayn Malik goodbye, embodied the positive nature of the social network when it's at its best.
雖然當下充滿了大規模槍擊案、恐怖襲擊和群眾抗議活動，但是在2015年娛樂圈依舊統治了推特。轉發次數排名前三的都是跟單向樂隊（One Direction）有關。排名第一的是哈里·斯泰爾斯對樂隊成員澤恩·馬利克說再見的推文，呈現了社交網絡正能量的本質。

All the love as always. H
永遠愛你。

— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) March 26, 2015
——哈里·斯泰爾斯（@哈里·斯泰爾斯）2015年3月26日

Trailing right behind that, President Barack Obama's tweet approving of the Supreme Court's ruling to legalize same-sex marriage in the US was a huge hit. For many, the president's opinion on the topic, which has been a divisive issue in some states over the past few years, signaled a beginning of the end to the debate about same-sex marriage rights.
轉發量緊隨其后的，是奧巴馬總統發推贊同最高法院裁定同性婚姻合法。對許多人來說，總統在這個問題上的觀點終結了過去幾年來在各個州關于同性婚姻權益的爭論。

Today is a big step in our march toward equality. Gay and lesbian couples now have the right to marry, just like anyone else. #LoveWins
今天是我們邁向平等的一大步。男同和女同們現在跟其他人一樣有結婚的權利了。＃真愛無敵

— President Obama (@POTUS) June 26, 2015
——奧巴馬總統（@美國總統）2015年6月26日

One particularly popular retweet was the final message from actor Leonard Nimoy. "A life is like a garden," Nimoy wrote, just before passing away on February 27. "Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory." The message served as a kind of reminder that your last tweet may, unexpectedly, become the last important message you send to the world.
還有一個特別熱門的轉發是演員倫納德·尼莫伊的最后一條推文?！吧拖褚粋€花園，”尼莫伊在2月27日臨終前寫道，“完美的時刻可以品嘗，卻無法保存，除了在記憶之中。”這條推文提醒人們，你的最后一條推文可能會意外成為你留給這個世界的最后一條重要的信息。

Hashtags
話題標簽

Like the top retweets, the top hashtags on Twitter were focused on positive messages. As protests over police brutality disproportionately targeting black people in the US grew, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter continued to carry over from the previous year. Controversial to some as a politically complicated issue, the hashtag nevertheless became the go-to phrase on Twitter when looking to draw attention to the issue of race and law enforcement in the US.
同最熱轉發一樣，推特上的最熱話題也集中在正能量上。隨著人們抗議美國警察針對黑人暴行的情緒高漲，＃黑人的生命也重要 這一話題從去年一直延續到今年。這一話題標簽成為了美國種族和執法問題在推特上吸引注意力的指示性標語，雖然對有些人而言這是個復雜的政治問題。

Of course, no one will soon forget the hashtags #JeSuisParis (a callback to #JeSuisCharlie) and #PrayForParis, both of which took over Twitter in the wake of the terrorist attacks in November in Paris. The outpouring of support from heads of state, including President Barack Obama, as well as a wide array of celebrities, let the people of Paris know that the world was behind them.
當然，沒有人會很快忘記＃我在巴黎 和#為巴黎祈福。在11月巴黎恐怖襲擊之后，整個推特都是這些話題。各國元首們，包括奧巴馬總統，以及許多名人通過它們向巴黎市民傳遞全世界的支持。

On the much lighter side of things, hashtags like #PlutoFlyBy and #TheDress both played to the Internet's fascination with the exploration of space and the more mundane, yet no less mysterious, debates over the color of a now famous dress.
也有一些不那么沉重的話題，如#飛越冥王星 和#裙子顏色，各自代表了互聯網對宇宙空間探索和同樣神秘的草根話題的興趣，比如那條著名裙子的顏色。

Vocabulary

somber: 憂郁的；嚴峻的
mundane: 世俗的，平凡的

英文來源：mashable.com
譯者：張卉
審校&編輯：丹妮