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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
“These were the thoughts in my head as I climbed that monstrous1, inclined plane with the wind sometimes beating in my face and sometimes whistling behind my ears, while the cloud-land beneath me fell away to such a distance that the folds and hummocks2 of silver had all smoothed out into one flat, shining plain. But suddenly I had a horrible and unprecedented3 experience. I have known before what it is to be in what our neighbours have called a tourbillon, but never on such a scale as this. That huge, sweeping4 river of wind of which I have spoken had, as it appears, whirlpools within it which were as monstrous as itself. Without a moment’s warning I was dragged suddenly into the heart of one. I spun5 round for a minute or two with such velocity6 that I almost lost my senses, and then fell suddenly, left wing foremost, down the vacuum funnel7 in the centre. I dropped like a stone, and lost nearly a thousand feet. It was only my belt that kept me in my seat, and the shock and breathlessness left me hanging half- insensible over the side of the fuselage. But I am always capable of a supreme8 effort—it is my one great merit as an aviator9. I was conscious that the descent was slower. The whirlpool was a cone10 rather than a funnel, and I had come to the apex11. With a terrific wrench12, throwing my weight all to one side, I levelled my planes and brought her head away from the wind. In an instant I had shot out of the eddies13 and was skimming down the sky. Then, shaken but victorious14, I turned her nose up and began once more my steady grind on the upward spiral. I took a large sweep to avoid the danger-spot of the whirlpool, and soon I was safely above it. Just after one o’clock I was twenty-one thousand feet above the sea-level. To my great joy I had topped the gale15, and with every hundred feet of ascent16 the air grew stiller. On the other hand, it was very cold, and I was conscious of that peculiar17 nausea18 which goes with rarefaction of the air. For the first time I unscrewed the mouth of my oxygen bag and took an occasional whiff of the glorious gas. I could feel it running like a cordial through my veins19, and I was exhilarated almost to the point of drunkenness. I shouted and sang as I soared upwards20 into the cold, still outer world.
“It is very clear to me that the insensibility which came upon Glaisher, and in a lesser21 degree upon Coxwell, when, in 1862, they ascended22 in a balloon to the height of thirty thousand feet, was due to the extreme speed with which a perpendicular23 ascent is made. Doing it at an easy gradient and accustoming24 oneself to the lessened25 barometric26 pressure by slow degrees, there are no such dreadful symptoms. At the same great height I found that even without my oxygen inhaler I could breathe without undue27 distress28. It was bitterly cold, however, and my thermometer was at zero, Fahrenheit29. At one-thirty I was nearly seven miles above the surface of the earth, and still ascending30 steadily31. I found, however, that the rarefied air was giving markedly less support to my planes, and that my angle of ascent had to be considerably32 lowered in consequence. It was already clear that even with my light weight and strong engine-power there was a point in front of me where I should be held. To make matters worse, one of my sparking-plugs was in trouble again and there was intermittent33 misfiring in the engine. My heart was heavy with the fear of failure.
1 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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2 hummocks | |
n.小丘,岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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3 unprecedented | |
adj.无前例的,新奇的 | |
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4 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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5 spun | |
v.纺,杜撰,急转身 | |
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6 velocity | |
n.速度,速率 | |
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7 funnel | |
n.漏斗;烟囱;v.汇集 | |
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8 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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9 aviator | |
n.飞行家,飞行员 | |
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10 cone | |
n.圆锥体,圆锥形东西,球果 | |
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11 apex | |
n.顶点,最高点 | |
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12 wrench | |
v.猛拧;挣脱;使扭伤;n.扳手;痛苦,难受 | |
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13 eddies | |
(水、烟等的)漩涡,涡流( eddy的名词复数 ) | |
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14 victorious | |
adj.胜利的,得胜的 | |
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15 gale | |
n.大风,强风,一阵闹声(尤指笑声等) | |
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16 ascent | |
n.(声望或地位)提高;上升,升高;登高 | |
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17 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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18 nausea | |
n.作呕,恶心;极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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19 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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20 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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21 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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22 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23 perpendicular | |
adj.垂直的,直立的;n.垂直线,垂直的位置 | |
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24 accustoming | |
v.(使)习惯于( accustom的现在分词 ) | |
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25 lessened | |
减少的,减弱的 | |
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26 barometric | |
大气压力 | |
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27 undue | |
adj.过分的;不适当的;未到期的 | |
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28 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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29 Fahrenheit | |
n./adj.华氏温度;华氏温度计(的) | |
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30 ascending | |
adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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31 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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32 considerably | |
adv.极大地;相当大地;在很大程度上 | |
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33 intermittent | |
adj.间歇的,断断续续的 | |
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