You've had that bottle of water in the back of your pantry for some time now. It's your "doomsday stash¹" - you may not have bread, blankets, or a flashlight in your house. But whether there's a spontaneous power outage, water shortage, or natural disaster, you're going to be hydrated AF.

食品储存室里的那瓶水已经放了一段时间了。它是你的"末日藏品"--也许你房子里没有面包、毯子或电筒，但你还有水。但不管是突然停电、缺水还是自然灾害，你都有可能缺水。

Or so you thought. What happens once that water has been sitting back there for years on end? If a hurricane really does hit two years later and you dip into your ancient water bottle reservoir, can you really crack open one of those bottles and expect to guzzle² it down risk-free?

或者这只是你的想法。如果水一放就是好几年，那又会发生什么呢？如果两年后真的有飓风来袭，而你准备动用古老的水瓶库，你真的觉得自己可以打开水瓶、大口大口喝下去并且一点风险都没有吗？

Answer: Maybe.

答案是：也许吧。

Water bottles all have expiration³ dates. You've probably seen them - little black dotted numbers marking when you should toss your water because it's "gone bad." Wait… Here's where we get confused. How can water go bad?

瓶装水都会过期。也许你看到过--小小的黑色数字，这时候你应该扔掉这瓶水，因为它已经"变质"了。等一等，我们都会感到疑惑：水怎么会变质呢？

It can't. Water, like oxygen or steel or any other naturally occurring substance, is simply a chemical compound; it's ageless. However, humans have taken to storing natural-occurring water in plastic, artificial, flimsy containers, and the bottles can go bad. The plastic compounds can break down over time and leak into your water - and there are a few other things you didn't know about bottled water.

当然不会，水和氧气、钢或其它任何天然存在的物质一样，只是一种化合物；水是永恒的。然而，人类已经将天然存在的水存储到人造薄塑料瓶中，而瓶子是会变质的。随着时间的推移，塑料复合物会自行分解、渗透到水中--关于瓶装水，还有一些事是你不知道的。

Plus, plastic isn't impermeable⁴. Algae⁵ or bacteria -not the good kind - seep⁶ in and grow inside your bottled water if you leave it for too long. This can still happen even if the bottle is closed. So if you've waited long enough, once you finally open up that "purified" water you're also likely opening up a bacteria-ridden breeding ground for harmful organisms.

另外，塑料是不渗透的。如果放的时间久了，藻类或细菌--坏的那种--会在瓶装水中渗入、生长。即使瓶盖盖的很紧，这种事情仍会发生。所以如果你等了很长时间，一旦你最终打开了"纯净"水，你也很有可能打开了一个细菌滋生的有害生物繁殖地。

But to be honest with you all, there are ways to get around this. Firstly, you can boil your water before drinking it. This will effectually kill anything that's living inside. Secondly, the plastic compounds that can leak in might make your water taste funny, but they aren't usually inherently harmful for you to ingest.

但说实话，这个问题是有办法解决的。首先，喝水的时候先煮沸。这会有效地杀死任何活在瓶中的生物。其次，能够渗透的塑料复合物也许会使水尝起来怪怪的，但它们通常不会对您造成伤害。

Still, it's best to replace those bottles you have hidden away at least once every two years. If it really ever is doomsday, you'd much rather be safe than sorry.

但是，最好还是每两年（至少）换一次你贮藏的这些瓶装水。如果真的到了世界末日，也会有备无患。