3-2

 

2.

After texting half the night, into the wee hours, I groaned¹ when that alarm rang at dawn. Time toget on Sir Keith’s boat. But I also felt grateful. A sailing race was the only way I’d be able to putdown my phone.

And I needed to put it down, just for a spell, to collect my wits.

To pace myself.

Sir Keith’s boat was called Invictus. Homage² to the games, God love him. That day it had acrew of eleven, including one or two athletes who’d actually competed in the games. The five-hour race took us around the Needles, and into the teeth of a gale³. The wind was so fierce, manyother boats dropped out of the race.

I’d sailed before, many times—I recalled one golden holiday, with Henners, trying to capsizeour little Laser boat for laughs—but never like this, on open sea, in conditions so squally. Thewaves were towering. I’d never feared death before, and now I found myself thinking: Pleasedon’t let me drown before my big date. Then another fear took hold. The fear of no onboard loo. Iheld it in for as long as I possibly could, until I had no choice. I swung my body over the side, intothe tossing sea…and still couldn’t pee, mainly thanks to stage fright. The whole crew looking.

Finally I went back to my post, sheepishly hung from the ropes, and peed my pants.

Wow, I thought, if Ms. Markle could see me now.

Our boat won our class, came in second overall. Hooray, I said, barely pausing to celebratewith Sir Keith and the crew. My only concern was jumping into that water, washing the pee off mytrousers, then racing⁴ back to London, where the bigger race, the ultimate race, was about to begin.

 

1 groaned   

v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦

参考例句：

• He groaned in anguish. 他痛苦地呻吟。
• The cart groaned under the weight of the piano. 大车在钢琴的重压下嘎吱作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 homage   

n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬

参考例句：

• We pay homage to the genius of Shakespeare.我们对莎士比亚的天才表示敬仰。
• The soldiers swore to pay their homage to the Queen.士兵们宣誓效忠于女王陛下。

3 gale   

n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等）

参考例句：

• We got our roof blown off in the gale last night.昨夜的大风把我们的房顶给掀掉了。
• According to the weather forecast,there will be a gale tomorrow.据气象台预报，明天有大风。

4 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。