Medieval siege 中世纪攻城战-7

Renaud was left with no alternative but to hope that a couple of planks¹ will be strong enough to splint the weakened throwing arm.

Finally work starts on raising the great trestles. With each passing day, the situation at castle Urquhart more and more resembles the siege of old. With two trebuchets to finish, there is a nagging² feeling that Renaud's machine may not get done before the timber framers must return home.

Over at Wayne's trebuchet work on attaching the lead weights is finally finished. All that remains³ is to cut the arm. Even with the help of pulleys, this requires 40 people. With a 13,000-pound counterweight, it is a much bigger job than anyone imagined, and it will have to be repeated for each fling.

The trigger mechanism⁴ is not strong enough, and buckles⁵ alarmingly as it takes the full weight of the throwing arm.

It's bending as we're releasing the arm, and we're wondering whether it can hold the weight right now.

To avoid an accidental firing, they reinforce it with a link of chain.

We've got lots of engineers on this, and maybe they've got it right, but it's got difficult to get it right.

It's chaos⁶, the sun is going down, I don't have a clue whether or not we'll finish even one of these machines on time.

Well, we're under the gun now. It's kinda touch and go whether we're gonna get the things put together and actually fling both machines but finally, this crew who come from Hallow Highwater will gonna make these things fling and go as you like.

The next morning, a 250-pound sandstone ball is quickly positioned in the sling⁷ for the first throw.
I'd rather have it blow this sling.
It's got about 50% of chance going in the right direction. It could go in the lake by mistake, because these adjustments are not well-known to us.

You're ready? This is it.
One, two, three, fire in the hole.
No.

words to remember:

splint: (v.) To support or restrict with or as if with a splint. 扶植
trestle: (n.) A horizontal beam or bar held up by two pairs of divergent legs and used as a support. 支架
nagging: (a.) 恼人的
touch and go: (n.) 快速的行动, 一触及发的形势

1 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

2 nagging   

adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• Stop nagging—I'll do it as soon as I can. 别唠叨了—我会尽快做的。
• I've got a nagging pain in my lower back. 我后背下方老是疼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

5 buckles   

搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She gazed proudly at the shiny buckles on her shoes. 她骄傲地注视着鞋上闪亮的扣环。
• When the plate becomes unstable, it buckles laterally. 当板失去稳定时，就发生横向屈曲。

6 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

7 sling   

vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓

参考例句：

• The boy discharged a stone from a sling.这个男孩用弹弓射石头。
• By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。