1.2 Digging a way out 挖一条出路

There’s a man who has been by himself in a prison cell with a dirt floor, crude¹ stone walls, and there’s two windows one of which looks out towards the ocean. All of the sudden, he hears a scratching noise, and he looks down at the ground that is furthest away from the window facing the ocean. He sees the ground moving, and he starts to think he’s losing his mind. But soon the ground breaks, and up pops a head with long hair and a beard… it’s a prisoner.

And the prisoner says “Sssh. Listen. A group of us have been tunneling for about six years, and we’ve finally reached your cell. We have ways to cover up my entrance into this, but now it’s all on your shoulders, man. All you have to do,” he said while pointing out the window towards the ocean, “you just start digging here and go down about six feet and about 75 feet in that direction and there is freedom, and we’re out of here!” “Oh, I love that! That’s great; I want to be free!” “Okay, I’ll check back with you in a few weeks.”

Two weeks later, the pops back in to check on his friend’s progress, and his friend nods back with great affirmation. “Yeah, I’ve done it.” So the man who was providing the instructions pops down the hole, and two seconds later pops right back up and says, “What have you done?!?!?” “Huh?” “I told you to dig in the direction towards the OCEAN! This tunnel that you dug goes back under the wall and into the prison yard.” “Well, the digging was easier in the other direction…”

一个人独自关在一间牢房里，牢房的地面脏兮兮的，石头墙壁很粗糙，有两扇窗户，其中一扇面向着大海。这个人听到了噼噼啪啪的声音，他望过去，发现远处对着那扇朝海的窗户的地面竟然在动，他开始认为自己疯了。但是不久之后地面裂开了，突然冒出来一个脑袋，带着长长的头发和胡子……是一个囚犯。这个囚犯说：“嘘！听着，我们一群人一直在挖这个地道，差不多六年了，终于挖到了你的牢房。我们自有办法掩盖通往这里的入口，但是现在看你的了，老兄。你所要做的是，”他指着面朝大海的窗户说，“你只要开始从这里挖然后向下六英尺，朝那个方向大约75英尺，那里就是自由，我们就会从这里出去了！”“哦，我喜欢！那太棒了，我要自由！”“好的，几周之后我会过来看看。”两周之后，这个囚犯回来检查他这位朋友的进程，他的朋友很肯定地向他点头：“耶，我完成了。”于是，提供指示的这个人突然跳进洞里，两秒后又突然伸出了脑袋：“你都干了什么？”“嗯？”“我告诉你朝着大海的方向挖！你挖的这条地道从墙下穿过又回到了监狱的院子里。”“哦，朝着其它的方向挖起来比较容易……”

思考：或许你正囚禁于不自由的牢笼，挖一条出路，一定要朝着自由的方向。

1 crude   

adj.粗鲁的，简陋的，天然的，未加工的；n.原油

参考例句：

• The cottage wears a very crude appearance.那幢农舍外观颇为简陋。
• Gasoline is distilled from crude oil.汽油是从原油中提炼出来的。