現(xiàn)代大學英語第二版精讀2-unit-4課文翻譯

1、現(xiàn)代大學英語第二版精讀2-unit-4課文翻譯As disasters go , this one was terrible, but not unique, certainly not among the worst U.S. air crasheson record. There was the unusual element of the bridge, of course, andthe fact that the planeclipped it at a moment of high traffic, one routinethusintersecting another and d

2、isrupting both. Then, too, there was the location of the event. Washington, the city of form and regulations, turned chaotic, deregulated, by a blast of real winter and a single slap of metal on metal. The jets from Washington National Airport that normally swoop around the presidential monuments li

3、ke famished gulls are, for the moment, emblemized by the one that fell; so there is that detail. And there was the aesthetic clash as well blue-and-green Air Florida, the name a flying garden, sunk down among gray chunks in a black river. All that was worth noticing, to be sure. Still, there was not

4、hing very special in any of it, except death, which, while always special, does not necessarily bring millions to tears or to attention. Why, then, the shock here?就這次災難而言，這次災難和其他災難一樣很嚴重，但并不特殊，當然也絕對不在美國有記 載的傷亡人數(shù)最多的空難之列。這次災難的不同之處在于：一是飛機是在交通高峰時段撞上了 橋梁。另外就是事件發(fā)生的地點，在華盛頓。這個井然有序的漂亮城市，由于這突如其來的冬 天的寒風以及這金屬與金屬

5、的撞擊聲，突然變得混亂起來。從華盛頓國家機場起飛的飛機一般 都像饑餓的海鷗一樣繞著華盛頓紀念館飛行。而現(xiàn)在，尤以這架墜落的飛機為代表，卻發(fā)生了 美感的撞擊秦號稱空中花園”的藍綠色的佛羅里達航空公司的飛機，墜入黑色河水的厚厚灰冰中。固然，這些都值得關(guān)注。因為只有死亡才會讓成千上萬的人落淚。那么，為什么這次空難 如此令人震驚呢？Perhaps because the nation saw in this disaster something more than a mechanical failure. Perhaps because people saw in it no failure at

6、all, but rather something successful about their makeup. Here, after all, were two forms of naturein collision : theelements and human character. Last Wednesday, the elements, indifferent as ever, brought down Flight 90. And on that same afternoon, human nature groping and flailing in mysteries of i

7、ts own rose to the occasion 應對得當 .也許是因為人們不僅僅把這次災難看成是一次機械故障。也許因為在這次空難中人們看到的 不是失敗，而是人類的成功。畢竟，這次 相撞存在著兩種因素:天氣和人性。上周三，因素之 一是這冷漠糟糕的天氣將90號航班硬生生地從天空中拽到了水中。而還是在同一個下午，另外一個因素人性素摸索著，掙扎著秦終于冒著風險戰(zhàn)勝了天氣。Of the four acknowledged heroes of the event, three are able to account for their behavior. Donald Usher and Euge

8、ne Windsor, a park police helicopter team, risked their lives every time they dipped the skids into the water to pick up survivors. On television, side by side in bright blue jumpsuits, they described their courage as allin the line ofduty. Lenny Skutnik, a 28-year-old employee of the Congressional

9、Budget Office, said: "It's something I never thought I would do"referring to his jumping into the water todrag an injured woman to shore. Skutnik added that "somebody had to go in the water," delivering every hero's line that is no less admirable for its repetitions. In f

10、act, nobody had to go into the water. That somebody actually did so is part of the reason this particular tragedy sticks in the mind.此事件的四個確認英雄中，三人能夠向人們講述他們的經(jīng)歷。由唐納德厄舍爾和尤金溫莎組成的一個公園警察直升機小組，數(shù)次冒著生命危險降到水中打撈起幸存者。電視上，他們共同 描述著當時表現(xiàn)出來的勇氣，如同在執(zhí)彳f任務。28歲的勒尼 斯庫特尼克是國會預算辦公室的一名雇員。他說：我沒想到我會那樣做”。素指的是他跳入水中將一個受傷的婦女拖上岸。斯庫

11、特尼克還說:=總得有人跳到水中去救人="，二這是每個英雄都會說的話，即使是第一萬次聽到這I樣的話，人們也絲毫不會吝惜對它的贊美。實際上，沒有人必須跳入水中。而有人這樣做了， 這便成了這次特殊的悲劇讓人們記住的部分原因。But the person most responsible for the emotional impact of the disaster is the oneknown at first simply as "the man in the water." (Balding, probably in his 50s, an extravagan

12、t mustache.) He was seen clinging with five other survivors to the tail sectionof the airplane. This man was described by Usher and Windsor as appearing alert andincontrol. Every time they lowered a lifeline and flotation ring to him, he passed it on toi another of the passengers. In a mass casualty

13、, you'll find people like him," said Windsor."But I've never seen one with that commitment." When the helicopter came back for him, ithe man had gone under. His selflessness was one reason the story held national attention; his anonymity another. The fact that he went unidenti

14、fied invested him with a universal character. For a while he was Everyman, and thus proof (as if one needed it) that no man is ordinary.但是，這次災難使人們深深感動的最關(guān)鍵人物是最初被簡單叫做水中人”的那個人。可能有50來歲的鮑爾丁是一個大胡子。有人看到他和其他五個幸存者緊抓著失事飛機的尾翼。厄舍爾 和溫莎形容他表現(xiàn)得機警、鎮(zhèn)定。每當他倆降下救生索和救生圈給他，他都要讓給另外一個乘客。在傷亡慘重的事故中，你總能找到像他這樣的英雄，”溫莎說道。但是我從未見到過那

15、樣有奉獻精神的人。”當直升機飛來救他時，他已經(jīng)沉入水中了。他的無私是人們關(guān)注這件事情的 一個原因；另一個原因則是他的未知身份，這樣的身份賦予他普遍的特征。一時間，他成了每 一個普通人的代表，這樣也證明了(仿佛人們需要這個證明)沒有人是普通的。Still, he could never have imagined such a capacity in himself. Only minutes before his character was tested, he was sitting in the ordinary plane among the ordinary passengers, d

16、utifully listening to the stewardess telling him to fasten his seat belt and saying something about the "no smoking sign." So our man relaxed with the others, some of whom would owe their lives to him. Perhaps he started to read, or to doze, or to regret some harsh remark made in the offic

17、e that morning. Then suddenly he knew that the trip would not be ordinary. Like every other person on that flight, he was desperate to live, which makes his final act so stunning.然而，他可能從來沒想到自己會有能力做出如此舉動。就在品質(zhì)被考驗的幾分鐘之前，他還 坐在普通的飛機中，周圍是普通的乘客。他聽著空姐叫他系好安全帶并勸告不要吸煙。隨后他 和他將救其命的其他人一起放松下來。也許他開始了讀報，或是打盹，或是為那天早晨

18、在辦公 室中的嚴厲的話而感到后悔。然后，他突然意識到這次的旅途準將不同尋常。和航班上的每個 其他人一樣，他也渴望生還，但這使得他最后的舉動如此令人吃驚。For at some moment in the water he must have realized that he would not live if he continued to hand over the rope and ring to_ others. He had to know it, no matter how gradual the effect of the cold. In his judgment he had

19、no choice.When the helicoptertook off with what was to be the last survivor, he watched everything in the world move away from him, and he deliberately let it happen.在水中的某一刻，他肯定想到了如果他繼續(xù)把救生索和救生圈讓給別人的話，他將不會活下 來。他必須要清楚這一點，不管寒冷的作用有多緩慢。他感覺到自己別無選擇。當直升機帶走最后一個生還者時，他看見世界上的一切離他遠去，而他只能任由這一切發(fā)生。Yet there was som

20、ething else about the man that kept our thoughts on him, andwhich keeps our thoughts on him still. He was there, in the essential, classic circumstance. Man in nature. The man in the water. For its part, nature cared nothing about the five passengers. Our man, on the other hand, cared totally. So th

21、e timeless battle commenced in the Potomac. For as long as that man could last, theywent at eachother , nature and man; the one making no distinctions of good and evil, acting on no principles, offering no lifelines; the other acting wholly on distinctions, principles and, one supposes, on faith.然而，

22、我們的這位英雄的其他一些東西使我們關(guān)注著他，并且仍然使我們掛念著他。他當時處 于關(guān)鍵的典型環(huán)境中，人類生活在自然界中，此時人卻被困于水中。對自然界來說，它并不在 意這五個乘客的生命。而相反，我們的英雄則非常在意。因此，古老的戰(zhàn)爭在波托馬克河重演。 只要還有最后一口氣，人類總會與大自然相互斗爭；一方不分善與惡，行為不羈，拒絕給予生 還的希望；而另一方則完全是在明辨是非、遵守準則或許還在堅持信仰。Since it was he who lost the fight, we ought to come again to the conclusionthatpeople are powerless i

23、n the world. In reality, we believe the reverse, and it takes the act of the man in the water to remind us of our true feelings in this matter. It is not to say that everyone would have acted as he did, or as Usher, Windsor and Skutnik. Yet whatever moved these men to challenge death on behalf of th

24、eir fellows is not peculiar to them. Everyone feels the possibility in himself.That is the abiding wonder of thestory. That is why we would not let go of it.If the man in the water gave a lifeline to theIpeople gasping for survival, he was likewise giving a lifeline to those who observed him.由于戰(zhàn)敗的一方是這位水中人，我們應該又可以得出人類面對自然界無能為力的結(jié)論。在現(xiàn) 實中，我們卻不相信這個，水中的這個人的舉動使我們記起了我們在這次事件中真實的想法。 這并不是說我們每個人都可能會效仿水中人，或者是效仿厄舍爾、溫莎或是斯庫特尼克。然而，驅(qū)使這些英雄代表人類與死亡相抗爭的動力并非為他們所獨有。我們每個人都