英语听力精选进阶版 13585

Record blow for teenage sailor

Summary

5 May 2010

A 16-year-old Australian girl is nearly home after sailing around the world. But she may not have sailed far enough to get the record as the youngest person to make the journey.

Reporter:

Nick Bryant

Report

After more than six months at sea Jessica Watson is in the final stretch of her epic¹ voyage around the globe. She's hoping to reach Sydney Harbour later this month a couple of days shy of her seventeenth birthday.

But although there's no question that she's circumnavigated the globe, sailing experts say she hasn't gone far enough to claim the record of being the youngest person to sail solo non-stop and unassisted around the world.

The influential² Sail World website has praised her heroic achievement but is a stickler³ for the rules of what it calls "true circumnavigation". To have achieved that, it says, the teenager should have sailed much farther north into the Atlantic to a point in line with France, rather than simply crossing the Equator and then returning south.

"We don't want to take away from what the kid's done," said the editor of the website "but it's one thing to be a hero and another to be a record holder⁴. Had she sailed three thousand seven hundred kilometres further she could have made that boast."

Nick Bryant, BBC News, Sydney

1 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

2 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

3 stickler   

n.坚持细节之人

参考例句：

• She's a real stickler for etiquette,so you'd better ask her advice.她非常讲求礼节，所以你最好问她的意见。
• You will find Mrs. Carboy a stickler about trifles.您会发现卡博太太是个拘泥小节的人。

4 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。