美国国家公共电台 NPR Winter Joy: Breaking Trail In 15 Degrees

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

The extreme cold weather has exhausted¹ much of the country. It has also been tough for people who love getting outdoors this time of year. But we can always count on North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann to send us an audio postcard - this time, from a snowy Alpine² trek³ in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE⁴: The day starts great with a snowshoe trail someone else has opened through waist-deep snow.

EMILY RUSSELL: There is a little bit of snow falling right now but also a little bit of blue skies peeking⁵ through.

MANN: Emily Russell's a good friend, fellow journalist and frequent climbing partner. Soon, we're crossing the Hudson River on a shaky little cable bridge.

Wow. This is crazy. It's a little high-wire act feel.

This far north, the Hudson is a muscular mountain stream, half covered in ice. On the other side, we snowshoe across a frozen lake.

RUSSELL: Great view of the mountains around us. But it's just so still and quiet. And we're so deep into the wilderness⁶.

(SOUNDBITE OF BIRD CHIRPING)

MANN: It's so cold out you can hear the trees crack. We hike on, and here's where the day gets tricky⁷. We're climbing a summit called Mount Adams. And Emily and I reach a point where no one's broken trail for us. So we trade off going first, plowing⁸ step by step through deep, crusty snow. It's like climbing stairs made of sand up a 150-story building.

RUSSELL: It's as mentally tough as it is physically⁹ tough to take a step and slide back down.

MANN: It's not graceful¹⁰. At one point, I tumble into a mountain stream hidden under the snow. On one of the steep sections, Emily loses her balance.

RUSSELL: I fell completely on my back.

MANN: You just - it was like a turtle.

RUSSELL: Yeah.

MANN: You slowly...

RUSSELL: (Laughter).

MANN: ...Toppled over.

We keep going. And it's worth it.

RUSSELL: We're above the tree line now. Everything is just covered in white, really snowy, cold.

MANN: The sun sweeps across icy peaks all around us. The view is mythical¹¹. It's like we've left New York state and stumbled into a version of winter straight out of Narnia. Brian Mann, NPR News in New York's Adirondack Mountains.

1 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

2 alpine   

adj.高山的；n.高山植物

参考例句：

• Alpine flowers are abundant there.那里有很多高山地带的花。
• Its main attractions are alpine lakes and waterfalls .它以高山湖泊和瀑布群为主要特色。

3 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 peeking   

v.很快地看( peek的现在分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出

参考例句：

• I couldn't resist peeking in the drawer. 我不由得偷看了一下抽屉里面。
• They caught him peeking in through the keyhole. 他们发现他从钥匙孔里向里窥视。 来自辞典例句

6 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

7 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

8 plowing   

v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• "There are things more important now than plowing, Sugar. "如今有比耕种更重要的事情要做呀，宝贝儿。 来自飘（部分）
• Since his wife's death, he has been plowing a lonely furrow. 从他妻子死后，他一直过着孤独的生活。 来自辞典例句

9 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

10 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。

11 mythical   

adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的

参考例句：

• Undeniably,he is a man of mythical status.不可否认，他是一个神话般的人物。
• Their wealth is merely mythical.他们的财富完全是虚构的。