Amid all the excitement about the eagerly-awaited new addition to the royal family, you may think you know all you could ever want to about royal babies. But did you know...

　　英国王室即将喜添新丁，被热切等待的兴奋心情包围的你，也许以为自己对王室宝贝了解得已经够多了，但是下面我们要说的你可不一定知道哦。

　　A government minister used to be present at royal births, to make sure the baby was not switched 

　　英国政府大臣曾在场见证新王室成员的诞生，确保宝宝不被掉包 

　　The practice is believed to have begun in 1688, when dozens of officials watched Mary of Modena, wife of James II, give birth to a son, to scotch rumors that Mary was not really pregnant and that the baby was to be smuggled into the room in a bedpan.

　　据说此惯例开始于1688年，当时盛传詹姆斯二世的妻子——摩德纳的玛丽是假怀孕，孩子将放在便盆里偷偷送进产房，为了平息这一谣言，数十名英国官员目睹玛丽王后诞下了一个儿子。

　　The tradition continued well into the 20th century. The last royal birth to be witnessed by a government minister was that of Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, Princess Alexandra in 1936, and the practice was only officially halted shortly before the birth of Prince Charles in 1948.

　　这个传统一直延续到20世纪。上一次有英国政府大臣见证的王室宝贝诞生是在1936年，伊丽莎白女王二世的表妹亚历山德拉公主出生的时候。直到1948年查尔斯王子出生之前，此惯例才被正式终止。

　　Royal husbands have not always attended the birth of their children 

　　王室宝贝的父亲在孩子出生时不一定会在旁守候 

　　Queen Elizabeth II may not have had to contend with ministerial interference in her birth plan, but she also didn't have her husband there for support; while she gave birth to Prince Charles, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh was busy playing squash.

　　英国女王伊丽莎白二世也许没有内政大臣来干预她的生子计划，但是在她分娩的时候丈夫却不在身边支持她;在她生查尔斯王子的时候，菲利普亲王(爱丁堡公爵)正忙于打壁球。

　　Queen Victoria was the first royal to use anesthesia in childbirth 

　　维多利亚女王是第一个在分娩时使用麻醉剂的王室成员 

　　The long-reigning monarch and mother-of-nine was given chloroform for pain relief during the births of her eighth and ninth children, Prince Leopold (born in 1853) and Princess Beatrice (born in 1857).

　　作为长期执政的女王以及九个孩子的母亲，维多利亚女王在生第八个孩子利奥波德王子(出生于1853年)和第九个孩子比阿特丽丝公主(出生于1857)时使用了氯仿麻醉剂以减轻疼痛。

　　Her decision to opt for an anesthetic is credited with popularizing the use of painkillers during childbirth among the well-to-do of the time.

　　她决定采用麻醉剂对于当时英国富裕人家生孩子使用止痛药起到了普及作用。

　　John Snow, the doctor who administered the drug, is better known as one of the founding fathers of epidemiology, after he traced a deadly outbreak of cholera to a Soho water pump.

　　开出麻醉剂药方的医生约翰·斯诺是传染病学的开创者之一，他曾追踪一场大规模暴发的致命霍乱的病源，最后在伦敦苏荷区的一个抽水机里找到了。

　　Prince William was the first heir to the throne to be born in hospital 

　　威廉王子是第一位在医院出生的王位继承人 

　　William was born in the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on June 21, 1982. His brother was born at the same hospital two years later, and Kate and William's first baby, George, was born there on July 22, 2013.

　　1982年6月21日，威廉王子在帕丁顿的圣玛丽医院林都私人院区出生。两年之后他的弟弟出生在同一家医院。2013年7月22日凯特和威廉的第一个孩子乔治也在这里出生。

　　While that might seem the normal way of things, in fact it was something of a break with tradition -- until then, all heirs to the throne had been born at home.

　　尽管在医院出生貌似很正常，但事实上这是一种与传统的决裂，在那之前，所有的王位继承人都在家中出生。

　　Prince Charles was born at Buckingham Palace; Elizabeth II herself was born in the Mayfair home of her grandfather in 1926 -- though at the time she was not expected to become queen as her uncle, and not her father, was next in line to the throne.

　　查尔斯王子在白金汉宫出生，伊丽莎白二世1926年在她祖父位于伦敦的上流住宅区出生——尽管当时人们还不知道她会成为女王，因为当时她的伯父而非她的父亲，才是王位第一继承人。

　　Titled royal babies do not have surnames 

　　英国王室宝贝没有姓氏 

　　Members of the royal family are famously burdened with plenty of names -- Prince William was christened William Arthur Philip Louis, and his father is Charles Philip Arthur George -- but many (those titled His or Her Royal Highness) do not have a surname.

　　英国王室成员以背负冗长的名字而闻名——威廉王子的受洗全名是威廉·阿瑟·菲利普·路易斯，而他的父亲的全名是查尔斯·菲利普·阿瑟·乔治，不过许多王室成员(那些被尊称为“殿下”的人)没有姓氏。

　　Prince William and Prince Harry used "Wales" at school and during their military careers, but this came from their father's official title as Prince of Wales.

　　威廉王子和哈里王子在学校和军队里使用“威尔士”作为姓氏，这个姓源于他们父亲的官方头衔威尔士王子。

　　As descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, they could also use Windsor, or Mountbatten-Windsor -- both of which are relatively new inventions, adopted during World War I to disguise the family's German origins.

　　作为伊丽莎白二世和爱丁堡公爵的后裔，他们也可以使用温莎或蒙巴顿-温莎作为姓——这两个姓都是相对较新的姓氏，一战期间曾用于掩盖王室家族的德国血统。

　　When Prince George was born, William and Kate opted not to give him a surname -- officially he is Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge -- though when he and his new sibling go to school in a few years, they may use "Cambridge" as a last name.

　　乔治王子出生时，威廉王子和凯特王妃选择不给他起姓氏，乔治的官方全名是剑桥的乔治·亚历山大·路易王子。不过几年后他和他的新弟弟或妹妹上学时，他们也许会使用“剑桥”作为姓氏。

　　Vocabulary 

　　scotch: 扑灭，破除

　　smuggle: 偷带，偷放

　　anesthesia: 麻醉

　　chloroform: 氯仿(可用作麻醉剂)

　　anesthetic: 麻醉剂

　　epidemiology: 流行病学;传染病学

　　cholera: 霍乱

　　next in line to the throne: 王位第一顺位继承人