英语听力—环球英语 1272 Extreme Survival

 Voice 1

 

　　Welcome to Spotlight¹. I’m Liz Waid.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　And I’m Mike Procter. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand - no matter where in the world they live.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　A young man is trapped² on a mountain. He is alone. A young woman is lost in a forest. She is also alone. Both face death. And both work hard to survive. Today’s Spotlight is on these two young people and how they survived extreme³ accidents.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　In April 2003 Aron Ralston was 27. He lived in Utah, in the United⁴ States. He loved to hike⁵, to take long walks in nature. On April the 26, he went alone. He climbed into a deep, narrow valley. But then he had an accident. A huge rock fell down the mountain. The rock landed on his hand, crushing⁶ it. Ralston was trapped.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Ralston had not told anyone where he was going to walk. So he knew that no one would be searching for him. People did not usually hike in the area. He knew that he would die if he could not free his hand.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　He tried to move the rock. He wanted to release⁷ his hand. He tried very hard. But he could not move the rock. Finally, on the second day, he considered cutting off his arm. But he only had a small knife. It would not cut through the bones in his arm.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　He struggled to escape for five days. By then he had no more water to drink. He was very weak. And he could not think clearly. He thought he was going to die. So he wrote his name on the side of the mountain. And he recorded a final message for his family. Then he went to sleep.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　The next morning he was still alive! He was very surprised. Suddenly he had new energy. He had a new idea. He decided⁸ to use his own body weight to break the bones in his arm. Then he cut off his hand with his small knife. It took him a long time to cut his hand off. And it was very painful. But at last he was free.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　But Ralston was still not safe. He was almost thirteen kilometres from his car. And he had no telephone. So he had to go and find help. He climbed down a nineteen metre  mountain wall. Then he started to walk out of the valley. The sun was hot. And he had no water to drink. He was also losing a lot of blood.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　But then he found a group of people. It was a family who were on holiday. They helped him. They gave him water to drink. Finally, he was rescued. It was only six hours after cutting off his arm.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Later doctors fitted a false hand to his arm. It includes special climbing tools. So Ralston can still go climbing. He has climbed many mountains since the accident. But now he always tells people where he is going.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　In December 1971 Juliane Koepcke was 17. She and her mother were flying home for Christmas. The airplane was over Peru⁹. But the airplane flew into a very bad storm. The airplane went up and down. Then lightning hit it. The engines stopped, and the airplane began to fall towards the ground. When it was three kilometres above the earth, it broke into pieces.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Koepcke was still tied into her seat. She fell through the air alone. All she heard was the noise of the wind going past her ears. Then she hit the ground very hard. The seat saved her from being killed. But she suffered a broken bone in her chest¹⁰. She had deep cuts on her body. And she could not open her right eye.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Koepcke had landed in the Amazon rain forest. She looked for her mother. But she could not find her. She heard rescue airplanes above the trees. But the forest was very thick. So she could not see the airplanes, and rescuers could not see her.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　But Koepcke knew how to survive in the forest environment. Her parents were scientists. They studied birds and animals that lived in the rain forest. And Koepcke had lived in the rain forest with her parents.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　She found a very small river. And she began to walk in it. She followed the direction the river flowed. She knew it would bring her to people. It also provided¹¹ her with clean water to drink. However, Koepcke had no food. She only had a few sweet candy treats.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　She avoided snakes by walking in the water. But she could not avoid insects. They bit her a lot. And the bites became infected. It was very hot and wet in the day. And it was very cold at night.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　By the tenth day, Koepcke was very weak, and very lonely. She began walking near a larger river. Then Koepcke saw a big boat. She thought she was dreaming. She went to touch the boat. It was real! Near the boat was a shelter¹². This discovery gave her new hope. She knew there must be people in the area.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Several hours later some men returned to the shelter. They worked in the forest, cutting trees. They cared for her injuries. And they gave her food. The next day they took her down the river to find help. The boat trip took seven hours.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Koepcke’s father was waiting for her. They held each other. They still did not know if Koepcke’s mother was alive. There had been 92 passengers and crew¹³ on the airplane. Later they discovered that Koepcke was the only survivor¹⁴ of the crash.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　More than 40 years later, Koepcke spoke¹⁵ to reporter Tom Littlewood. She told him,

 

　　Voice 3

 

　　‘I had bad dreams for many years. The sadness about my mother’s death and that of the other people came back again and again. The thought ‘Why was I the only survivor?’ never leaves me. It never will.’

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Koepcke now lives in Germany. She returns to Peru every year. She loves the rain forest. And she works¹⁶ to protect it.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Ralston and Koepcke both had advantages in these situations. They were both young and strong. They both had experience being in wild places. But they had something else in common too. They both had a strong desire to survive. Do you think that you could survive in situations like these?

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　The writer of this programme was Joy Smith. The producer was Nick Mangeolles. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes¹⁷ were adapted for this programme and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this programme again, and read it, on the internet at www.radioenglish.net. This program is called ‘Extreme Survival¹⁸’.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　To hear another program about extreme survival, visit our website. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight programme. Goodbye.

 

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 trapped   

adj. 捕获的，被困的，截留的 动词trap的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• Two passengers are still trapped in the wreck. 有两名乘客仍被困在失事的车辆里。
• The thief was trapped by the police in an old house. 小偷被警察困在一所旧房子里。

3 extreme   

adj.末端的，尽头的；极度的，极端的；n.极度，最大程度

参考例句：

• She lived on the extreme edge of the forest.她住在森林的最边缘。
• His views are rather extreme.他的见解相当偏激。

4 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

5 hike   

n.徒步旅行，远足，涨价；v.健行，徒步旅行，使...高涨

参考例句：

• I don't care to go on a hike.我不喜欢徒步旅行。
• The children are choosing a hike in the country park.孩子们在选郊外公园的远足路线。

6 crushing   

adj. 打破得支离破碎的, 使不能在站起来, 压倒的 v. 动词crush的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• a crushing defeat in the election 在选举中的惨败
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity. 偷袭珍珠港（对美军来说）是一场毁灭性的灾难。

7 release   

vt.发布，发表，发行；释放，放开

参考例句：

• After my examination I had a feeling of release.考完试后我有如释重负之感。
• This medicine will give you release from pain.这药吃后会解除你的疼痛。

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 Peru   

n.秘鲁(南美洲国家)

参考例句：

• Lima is the capital of peru.利马是秘鲁的首都。
• China and peru are friendly countries.中国和秘鲁是友好国家。

10 chest   

n.胸，大箱子，金库，资金，一箱，密封室，衣橱

参考例句：

• The bear's chest is hairy.那只熊的胸部毛茸茸的。
• Mother has a pain in her chest.母亲胸口疼.。

11 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

12 shelter   

n.掩蔽，掩蔽处，避身处；庇护所，避难所，庇护；vt.庇护，保护，隐匿；vi.躲避

参考例句：

• We took shelter from the rain in a cave.我们在一个山洞里避雨。
• Trees are a shelter from the sun.树木可以遮挡阳光。

13 crew   

n.全体船员，全体乘务员；vi.一起工作

参考例句：

• A captain controls his ship and its crew.船长管理他的船和船上的船员。
• The captain kept his crew at a distance.船长与他的船员总保持一段距离。

14 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

15 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

16 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

17 quotes   

v.引用，援引( quote的第三人称单数 )；报价；引述；为（股票、黄金或外汇）报价

参考例句：

• He quotes a few verses from Tennyson in his paper. 他在论文中引用了英国诗人丁尼生的几行诗句。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He quotes (from) the Bible to support his beliefs. 他引用圣经来支持自己的信念。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。