现代大学英语第二版精读2-unit-4课文翻译

1、现代大学英语第二版精读2-unit-4课文翻译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?就这次灾难而言，这次灾难和其他灾难一样很严重，但并不特殊，当然也绝对不在美国有记 载的伤亡人数最多的空难之列。这次灾难的不同之处在于：一是飞机是在交通高峰时段撞上了 桥梁。另外就是事件发生的地点，在华盛顿。这个井然有序的漂亮城市，由于这突如其来的冬 天的寒风以及这金属与金属

5、的撞击声，突然变得混乱起来。从华盛顿国家机场起飞的飞机一般 都像饥饿的海鸥一样绕着华盛顿纪念馆飞行。而现在，尤以这架坠落的飞机为代表，却发生了 美感的撞击秦号称空中花园”的蓝绿色的佛罗里达航空公司的飞机，坠入黑色河水的厚厚灰冰中。固然，这些都值得关注。因为只有死亡才会让成千上万的人落泪。那么，为什么这次空难 如此令人震惊呢？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 应对得当 .也许是因为人们不仅仅把这次灾难看成是一次机械故障。也许因为在这次空难中人们看到的 不是失败，而是人类的成功。毕竟，这次 相撞存在着两种因素:天气和人性。上周三，因素之 一是这冷漠糟糕的天气将90号航班硬生生地从天空中拽到了水中。而还是在同一个下午，另外一个因素人性素摸索着，挣扎着秦终于冒着风险战胜了天气。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.此事件的四个确认英雄中，三人能够向人们讲述他们的经历。由唐纳德厄舍尔和尤金温莎组成的一个公园警察直升机小组，数次冒着生命危险降到水中打捞起幸存者。电视上，他们共同 描述着当时表现出来的勇气，如同在执彳f任务。28岁的勒尼 斯库特尼克是国会预算办公室的一名雇员。他说：我没想到我会那样做”。素指的是他跳入水中将一个受伤的妇女拖上岸。斯库

11、特尼克还说:=总得有人跳到水中去救人="，二这是每个英雄都会说的话，即使是第一万次听到这I样的话，人们也丝毫不会吝惜对它的赞美。实际上，没有人必须跳入水中。而有人这样做了， 这便成了这次特殊的悲剧让人们记住的部分原因。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，这次灾难使人们深深感动的最关键人物是最初被简单叫做水中人”的那个人。可能有50来岁的鲍尔丁是一个大胡子。有人看到他和其他五个幸存者紧抓着失事飞机的尾翼。厄舍尔 和温莎形容他表现得机警、镇定。每当他俩降下救生索和救生圈给他，他都要让给另外一个乘客。在伤亡惨重的事故中，你总能找到像他这样的英雄，”温莎说道。但是我从未见到过那

15、样有奉献精神的人。”当直升机飞来救他时，他已经沉入水中了。他的无私是人们关注这件事情的 一个原因；另一个原因则是他的未知身份，这样的身份赋予他普遍的特征。一时间，他成了每 一个普通人的代表，这样也证明了(仿佛人们需要这个证明)没有人是普通的。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，他可能从来没想到自己会有能力做出如此举动。就在品质被考验的几分钟之前，他还 坐在普通的飞机中，周围是普通的乘客。他听着空姐叫他系好安全带并劝告不要吸烟。随后他 和他将救其命的其他人一起放松下来。也许他开始了读报，或是打盹，或是为那天早晨

18、在办公 室中的严厉的话而感到后悔。然后，他突然意识到这次的旅途准将不同寻常。和航班上的每个 其他人一样，他也渴望生还，但这使得他最后的举动如此令人吃惊。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继续把救生索和救生圈让给别人的话，他将不会活下 来。他必须要清楚这一点，不管寒冷的作用有多缓慢。他感觉到自己别无选择。当直升机带走最后一个生还者时，他看见世界上的一切离他远去，而他只能任由这一切发生。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、我们的这位英雄的其他一些东西使我们关注着他，并且仍然使我们挂念着他。他当时处 于关键的典型环境中，人类生活在自然界中，此时人却被困于水中。对自然界来说，它并不在 意这五个乘客的生命。而相反，我们的英雄则非常在意。因此，古老的战争在波托马克河重演。 只要还有最后一口气，人类总会与大自然相互斗争；一方不分善与恶，行为不羁，拒绝给予生 还的希望；而另一方则完全是在明辨是非、遵守准则或许还在坚持信仰。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.由于战败的一方是这位水中人，我们应该又可以得出人类面对自然界无能为力的结论。在现 实中，我们却不相信这个，水中的这个人的举动使我们记起了我们在这次事件中真实的想法。 这并不是说我们每个人都可能会效仿水中人，或者是效仿厄舍尔、温莎或是斯库特尼克。然而，驱使这些英雄代表人类与死亡相抗争的动力并非为他们所独有。我们每个人都