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.
有时你身处在重大历史时刻，却难以意识到。幸好，我们有推特，它能时刻把握我们这个时代的脉搏。2015年就充满了史诗般的历史瞬间。
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.
我们从推特拿到了今年的活动数据，无论你以什么眼光去看待2015，这些瞬间都是即将过去的这一年的真实模样，有激动人心的顶峰，也有悲沮严峻的低谷。
Top Retweets
转发最多的推文
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.
虽然当下充满了大规模枪击案、恐怖袭击和群众抗议活动，但是在2015年娱乐圈依旧统治了推特。转发次数排名前三的都是跟单向乐队（One Direction）有关。排名第一的是哈里·斯泰尔斯对乐队成员泽恩·马利克说再见的推文，呈现了社交网络正能量的本质。
All the love as always. H
永远爱你。
— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) March 26, 2015
——哈里·斯泰尔斯（@哈里·斯泰尔斯）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.
转发量紧随其后的，是奥巴马总统发推赞同最高法院裁定同性婚姻合法。对许多人来说，总统在这个问题上的观点终结了过去几年来在各个州关于同性婚姻权益的争论。
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
今天是我们迈向平等的一大步。男同和女同们现在跟其他人一样有结婚的权利了。＃真爱无敌
— President Obama (@POTUS) June 26, 2015
——奥巴马总统（@美国总统）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.
还有一个特别热门的转发是演员伦纳德·尼莫伊的最后一条推文。“生命就像一个花园，”尼莫伊在2月27日临终前写道，“完美的时刻可以品尝，却无法保存，除了在记忆之中。”这条推文提醒人们，你的最后一条推文可能会意外成为你留给这个世界的最后一条重要的信息。
Hashtags
话题标签
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.
同最热转发一样，推特上的最热话题也集中在正能量上。随着人们抗议美国警察针对黑人暴行的情绪高涨，＃黑人的生命也重要 这一话题从去年一直延续到今年。这一话题标签成为了美国种族和执法问题在推特上吸引注意力的指示性标语，虽然对有些人而言这是个复杂的政治问题。
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.
当然，没有人会很快忘记＃我在巴黎 和#为巴黎祈福。在11月巴黎恐怖袭击之后，整个推特都是这些话题。各国元首们，包括奥巴马总统，以及许多名人通过它们向巴黎市民传递全世界的支持。
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话题，如#飞越冥王星 和#裙子颜色，各自代表了互联网对宇宙空间探索和同样神秘的草根话题的兴趣，比如那条著名裙子的颜色。
Vocabulary
somber: 忧郁的；严峻的
mundane: 世俗的，平凡的