2021年经济学人 北极风云(2)

He and his crew break away from a companion ship to forge on alone, determined¹ to be first to find the elusive² passage. For weeks the 17 men fight off polar bears that rear up from nowhere, attacking until they are slaughtered³ or driven away. The ship tacks⁴ endlessly and desperately⁵ to escape floating “mountains of steel”: icebergs⁶ so impenetrable that the only way through is to drill holes and pray they will split apart. By mid-September the vessel⁷ is frozen fast, and the men resign themselves to overwintering “in great cold, poverty, misery⁸ and griefe”. Poorly clad and ravaged⁹ by scurvy¹⁰, they are “phenomenally unprepared” for the ordeal¹², Ms Pitzer observes. Yet the remains¹³ of the shelter they managed to build stood for nearly 300 years.

巴伦支和他的船员们脱离了同伴的船只独自前行，他们下定决心第一个发现难以找到的通道。几周来，这17个人一直在与神出鬼没的北极熊搏斗，直到将它们屠杀或赶走。为了逃离漂浮的“钢铁冰山”，他们乘船无止境地拼命赶路。冰山太难穿越了，唯一的办法就是钻孔并祈祷它们会裂开。到了九月中旬，船被冻得严严实实，巴伦支和他的船员们只好“在极端寒冷、匮乏、苦难和悲伤中”过冬。皮泽女士表示，他们衣衫褴褛，饱受坏血病的折磨，而且对这些严酷的考验“毫无准备”。然而，他们设法建造的避难所的遗迹保存了近300年。

Of the men themselves, 13 live through this long polar night—eight months of what the author neatly¹⁴ terms “the monotony of survival”. They dig out from continual blizzards¹⁵, scavenging for fuel and Arctic foxes whose meat contains just enough vitamin C to sustain them. Still, the journey is filled with wonders: optical phenomena¹¹ and mysteries unravelled¹⁶, such as where European songbirds go each summer. Ms Pitzer’s descriptions of the region sing. “Bits of floating ice released tiny bubbles of air, hissing¹⁷ like oil in a skillet,” she writes. “The many languages of water surrounded them day and night.”

他们这群人中有13个人活着度过了这漫长的极夜，作者巧妙地将这8个月称为“求生的单调”。他们从接连不断的暴风雪中挖掘物资，寻找燃料和北极狐（北极狐的肉中含有足够的维生素C来维持他们的生存）。尽管如此，这第三次的探险旅程还是充满了奇迹：有一些光学现象和谜团被揭开，例如，他们揭秘了欧洲鸣鸟每年夏天的去处。皮泽女士对该地区的描述令人赞叹。她写道：“漂浮的冰块会冒出微小的气泡，它们嘶嘶作响，就像是煎锅里的油。”。“他们身边日夜萦绕着各种各样的水声。”

Barents’s heroism¹⁸ helped make the Arctic explorer a mythically¹⁹ resilient figure. The fantasy that drove him, meanwhile, has nearly come to pass. Arctic ice has been shrinking for several decades, with a sharp drop-off after 2006. Human ingenuity²⁰, epitomised by expeditions like his, has in 400 years made the Dutchman’s dream a terrifying reality.

巴伦支的英雄主义使这位北极探险家成为一个具有神话般韧性的人物。与此同时，曾驱使他不断前进的幻想几乎实现了。几十年来，北极冰层在不断缩小，2006年之后急剧下降。巴伦支探险这样的历程充分展现了人类的足智多谋，并历经400年将荷兰人的梦想变成了可怕的现实。

1 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

2 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

3 slaughtered   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The invading army slaughtered a lot of people. 侵略军杀了许多人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered. 数百名无辜平民遭残杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 tacks   

大头钉( tack的名词复数 )； 平头钉； 航向； 方法

参考例句：

• Never mind the side issues, let's get down to brass tacks and thrash out a basic agreement. 别管枝节问题，让我们讨论问题的实质，以求得基本一致。
• Get down to the brass tacks,and quit talking round the subject. 谈实质问题吧，别兜圈子了。

5 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

6 icebergs   

n.冰山，流冰( iceberg的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The drift of the icebergs in the sea endangers the ships. 海上冰山的漂流危及船只的安全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The icebergs towered above them. 冰山高耸于他们上方。 来自辞典例句

7 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

8 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

9 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

10 scurvy   

adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病

参考例句：

• Vitamin C deficiency can ultimately lead to scurvy.缺乏维生素C最终能道致坏血病。
• That was a scurvy trick to play on an old lady.用那样的花招欺负一个老太太可真卑鄙。

11 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

12 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

15 blizzards   

暴风雪( blizzard的名词复数 )； 暴风雪似的一阵，大量（或大批）

参考例句：

• Even in the summertime we might be struck by blizzards. 甚至在夏天，我们也可能受到暴风雪的袭击。
• Blizzards battered Britain for the third day. 大风雪袭击英国已进入第三天。

16 unravelled   

解开，拆散，散开( unravel的过去式和过去分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚

参考例句：

• I unravelled the string and wound it into a ball. 我把绳子解开并绕成一个球。
• The legal tangle was never really unravelled. 这起法律纠葛从来没有真正解决。

17 hissing   

n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The steam escaped with a loud hissing noise. 蒸汽大声地嘶嘶冒了出来。
• His ears were still hissing with the rustle of the leaves. 他耳朵里还听得萨萨萨的声音和屑索屑索的怪声。 来自汉英文学 - 春蚕

18 heroism   

n.大无畏精神，英勇

参考例句：

• He received a medal for his heroism.他由于英勇而获得一枚奖章。
• Stories of his heroism resounded through the country.他的英雄故事传遍全国。

19 mythically   

adv.想像地，虚构地

参考例句：

20 ingenuity   

n.别出心裁；善于发明创造

参考例句：

• The boy showed ingenuity in making toys.那个小男孩做玩具很有创造力。
• I admire your ingenuity and perseverance.我钦佩你的别出心裁和毅力。