2-17

 

17.

I went on patrol. I drove with a convoy¹ of Scimitar tanks from FOB Edinburgh through MusaQala, and beyond. The road took us down through a wadi, in which we soon came upon an IED.

The first one I’d encountered.

It was my job to call in the bomb experts. One hour later the Chinook arrived. I found it asecure location for landing, threw a smoke grenade to indicate the best spot, and to show whichway the wind was blowing.

A team quickly hopped² out, approached the IED. Slow, painstaking³ work. It took themforever. Meanwhile, we were all totally exposed. We expected Taliban contact any second; aroundus we heard whizzing motorbikes. Taliban scouts⁴, no doubt. Clocking our location. When themotorbikes got too close, we fired flare⁵ guns, warning them off.

In the distance were poppy fields. I looked off, thought of the famous poem. In Flanders fieldsthe poppies blow…In Britain the poppy was a symbol of remembrance, but here it was just thecoin of the realm. All those poppies would soon be processed into heroin⁶, sales of which wouldpay for the Taliban bullets fired at us, and the IEDs left for us under roads and wadis.

Like this one.

At last the bomb experts blew up the IED. A mushroom cloud shot into the air, which was sodust-saturated you didn’t think there could be room for any more.

Then they packed up and left, and we continued north, deeper and deeper into the desert.

 

1 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

2 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

3 painstaking   

adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的

参考例句：

• She is not very clever but she is painstaking.她并不很聪明，但肯下苦功夫。
• Through years of our painstaking efforts,we have at last achieved what we have today.大家经过多少年的努力，才取得今天的成绩。

4 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

5 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。

6 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。