Where can you look if you want to know how tall the tallest person in the world is, or who the oldest person in the world is?
如果你想知道世界上最高的人有多高，或者最老的人是谁，你应该去哪找答案呢？
There is only one place where you'll find all these information, and that's in the Guinness Book of Records.
你只能在一个地方找到所有的这些信息，那就是《吉尼斯世界纪录大全》。
This morning we have someone from the Guinness Company that produced that famous book, Thomas Manning.
今天上午我们邀请到了来自这本着作的出版公司的托马斯·曼宁先生。
Welcome to the program, Thomas!
欢迎您做客我们节目，托马斯先生！
Thanks, Sue. It's a pleasure to be here.
谢谢你，苏。我也很高兴来到这里。
Perhaps you could start by telling us where the idea for the book came from.
或许你可以先跟我们谈谈创作这本书的灵感来自哪里？
Well, it was first suggested in the early 1950s.
嗯，我们的想法最初是在20世纪50年代提出的。
Sir Hugh Beaver, the managing director of Guinness, was out shooting birds with some friends.
有一次，吉尼斯公司的总经理休·比弗先生外出与朋友猎鸟。
A bird flew away so quickly that no one was able to shoot it.
有一只鸟飞得极快，没有人能射中它。
Sir Hugh wondered whether this bird was the fastest bird in Europe, and if it wasn't the fastest, he wondered what was.
休先生就想，这是不是欧洲飞得最快的鸟呢？如果这只不是飞得最快的，那么哪一只鸟会是欧洲飞得最快的呢？
So I suppose he went to the nearest library to look for the information and he couldn't find it?
我想他一定去了离他最近的图书馆查阅资料，然后他没有找到答案，对吧？
Yes, that's exactly what happened.
是的，事情就是这样。
And this made Sir Hugh think there must be other people in the same situation who wanted this kind of information.
所以休先生就想世界上一定有其他人和他处境相同，同样想找寻这样的信息。
He thought that, like himself, people would be interested in finding facts of all the records to satisfy the curiosity.
他相信人们也会像他一样，对找到各种世界纪录感兴趣，以此来满足好奇心。
So the idea for a book of records was born.
所以要制作一本世界纪录大全的念头就这样产生了。
And when did the first book come out?
那么第一本世界纪录大全是什么时候出版的呢？
A few years later, in 1955.
几年以后，就在1955年。
So, to answer your first question: the tallest person in the world is 231.7 cm tall.
所以，让我来回答你的第一个问题，世界上最高的人身高237.1厘米。
And the oldest person is Jeanne. L. Calment, who was born in February, 1875.
世界上年纪最大的人是出生于1875年2月的詹妮·路易·卡门。
There are also some rather strange records, aren't there, Thomas?
托马斯，大全里还有很多更奇特的纪录，对吧？
Yes ,that's right.
是的，没错。
Did you know, Sue, that the shortest time it is taken…
你知道吗，苏，时间花得最短的……