国家地理 加里曼丹岛的地底洞天(9)

During their time belowground in 1979, Eavis and his fellow cavers explored some 30 miles of passages—an unprecedented¹ feat². Nearly 40 years later, wearing black tights in the hot syrup³ of morning, Eavis smiled at the memory.

1979年，艾维斯和它的洞穴探险队员在地下发现了长达30多英里的通道，这种长度史无前例。近40年后的一个酷热清晨，身着黑色紧身衣的艾维斯追忆起往事，脸上露出了笑容。

"There's no expedition that's ever explored that much at one time," he said. "We did most of it standing⁴ up, you see."

“没有哪只探险队一次能有这么大的发现，”他说。“你看，其中大部分都有据可依。”

Eavis paused, stared down at his tights, and bent⁵ at the waist. He picked a leech⁶ from his bootlace and flicked⁷ it into the jungle.

艾维斯停住了脚步，低头看着紧身衣，弯下腰，从鞋带上捡起一条水蛭，轻轻地把它弹到丛林里。

"Up to that point we were all just simple English cavers," he said. "Mulu transformed us."

“在发现姆鲁之前，我们不过是英国的一群洞穴探险者。”他说，“姆鲁彻底改变了我们。”

The 1979 adventure set the stage for exploration in Borneo. Several caving teams have since made the long journey to Mulu, and Eavis himself has led many of them. For his 13th trip, in 2017, he organized a team of 30 cavers, including his son Robert and many Mulu veterans. In late March I reached him by phone in Kuching, a city on Borneo's west coast, as he traveled north to meet them.

1979年的那次探险拉开了婆罗洲探险的序幕。从那时起，几支洞穴探险队跋山涉水来到姆鲁，艾维斯就多次担任其中多支队伍的领队。2017年，在他第13次探险中，他组织了一支30人的探险队，队里有他的儿子罗伯特，还有对姆鲁十分熟悉的常客。三月底，艾维斯正在北上，我在位于婆罗洲西海岸的古晋给他打了电话，去与他汇合。

"We will probably find somewhere near 30 miles of new cave passage," he said confidently. "And nobody ever does that. Except for me, I suppose."

“我们可能会发现近30英里长的新洞穴通道。”他自信满满地说道，“我认为除了我以外，没有人发现过这么长的洞穴通道。”

1 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

2 feat   

n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的

参考例句：

• Man's first landing on the moon was a feat of great daring.人类首次登月是一个勇敢的壮举。
• He received a medal for his heroic feat.他因其英雄业绩而获得一枚勋章。

3 syrup   

n.糖浆，糖水

参考例句：

• I skimmed the foam from the boiling syrup.我撇去了煮沸糖浆上的泡沫。
• Tinned fruit usually has a lot of syrup with it.罐头水果通常都有许多糖浆。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

6 leech   

n.水蛭，吸血鬼，榨取他人利益的人；vt.以水蛭吸血；vi.依附于别人

参考例句：

• A leech is a small blood-sucking worm and usually lives in water.水蛭是一种小型吸血虫，通常生活在水中。
• One-side love like a greedy leech absorbed my time and my mirth.单相思如同一只贪婪的水蛭，吸走了我的时间和欢笑。

7 flicked   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• She flicked the dust off her collar. 她轻轻弹掉了衣领上的灰尘。
• I idly picked up a magazine and flicked through it. 我漫不经心地拿起一本杂志翻看着。