名人励志英语演讲 第131期:失败是一个选项 但畏惧不是(2)

 　　And an interesting thing happened. The Jacques Cousteau shows actually got me very excited about the fact that there was an alien world right here on Earth. I might not really go to an alien world on a spaceship someday. That seemed pretty dark and unlikely. But I could... that was a world I could really go to, right here on Earth, than was as rich and exotic as anything that I had imagined from reading these books.

　　有趣的事情发生了，雅克·库斯托的节目让我兴奋地确定了地球上真的有我们不了解的世界。我并不一定真的要在某一天坐飞船去找外星人。那看起来相当渺茫，可能性不大。但是……这是一个我真能去的地方，就在地球之上，那里和我读书时想象的一样丰富多彩，引人入胜。

　　So, I decided¹ I was going to become a scuba² diver at the age of 15. And the only problem with that was that I lived in a little village in Canada, 600 miles from the nearest ocean. But I didn't let that daunt³ me. I pestered⁴ my father until he finally found a scuba class in Buffalo⁵, New York, right across the border from where we live. And I actually got certified⁶ in a pool in a YMCA in the dead of winter in Buffalo, New York. And I didn't see the ocean, a real ocean, for another two years, until we moved to California.

　　所以在我15岁时，我决定成为一名潜水员。唯一的问题是我住在加拿大的一个小山村，离最近的海有600英里远。但是我并没有因为这个气馁。我一直缠着父亲，直到他在边境对岸的美国纽约州的布法罗找到了一个潜水培训班。在那里，隆冬季节，我在基督教青年会的一个游泳池里获得了证书。在接下来的两年我还是没有看到大海，真正的大海，直到我们搬到了加利福尼亚州。

　　And since then, you know, in the intervening 40 years, I've spent about 3,000 hours underwater and 500 hours of that was in submersibles. And I've learned that deep ocean environment, and even the shallow oceans are so rich with amazing life that really is beyond our imagination. Nature's imagination is so boundless⁷ compared to our own meager⁸ human imagination. I still, to this day, stand in absolute awe⁹ of what I see when I make these dives. And my love affair with the ocean is ongoing¹⁰, and just as strong as it ever was.

　　从那以后，你知道，这以后的40年里，我在水下待了3000个小时，其中有500个小时呆在潜水艇里。我了解到深海环境甚至是浅海环境都是那么丰富多彩，那里生活着许多超过我们想象的神奇生物。比起我们的想象力，自然的想象力完全没有边界。直到今天，当我潜水的时候我仍然对我看到的景象心存敬畏。我对于大海的爱仍然继续着，就像曾经一样强烈。

　　重点讲解：

　　1. in the dead of winter/in the dead of night

　　在隆冬/在夜晚万籁俱寂之时；

　　eg. Early one Thursday morning in the dead of winter I awoke to a blizzard¹¹.

　　隆冬时节的一个星期四，一大早醒来我就发现外面刮起了暴风雪。

　　eg. We buried it in the garden at dead of night.

　　我们在夜深人静的时候把它埋到了花园里。

　　2. stand in awe of

　　对…无比崇敬；对…敬畏；

　　eg. Caroline hardly dared talk in Alex's presence, she was so in awe of him.

　　卡罗琳在亚历克斯面前几乎不敢说话，她对他很是敬畏。

　　eg. We stand in the awe of the view.

　　我们对此景象肃然起敬。

　　3. someone's love affair with something

　　极大的喜爱；强烈的的兴趣；

　　eg. Tom's love affair with France and most things French knew no bounds.

　　汤姆对法国和大多数法国东西都无比热爱。

　　eg. A longer-term worry is that the Great Recession seems to have put a crimp in Americans' long-standing love affair with the automobile¹².

　　更长期的担忧是大萧条似乎已经令美国人对汽车的长期喜爱之情发生了改变。

　　名人简介：

　　詹姆斯·弗朗西斯·卡梅隆，（James Francis Cameron，1954年8月16日－），加拿大籍著名电影导演、编剧和电影制作人，好莱坞十大导演之一，擅长拍摄动作片以及科幻电影，他导演的这些电影经常超出预定计划以及预算，不过都很卖座，是当之无愧的电影票房“世界之王”。1984年推出的自编自导的科幻片《终结者》使他一夜成名。多才多艺的他除导演之外，还是编剧、制片人，他的电影主题往往试图探讨人和技术之间的关系。1997年上映的《泰坦尼克号》将卡梅隆的事业推向巅峰，更创造了全球18亿美元的票房神话，并保持了12年的影史“票房之最”。《阿凡达》更是堪称世界电影之最，全球票房达到26亿美金，目前是全球票房收入最高、也是历史之上最成功的电影之一。被英国杂志《Empire》评为“世界最伟大的20位导演”，曾获美国制片人工会奖和美国视觉效果工会奖颁发的终身成就奖，。第22届美国制片人工会奖上，授予卡梅隆一项最高荣誉——2011年“里程碑奖”（2011 Milestone¹³ Award）。

1 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。

2 scuba   

n.水中呼吸器

参考例句：

• I first got hooked on scuba diving when I was twelve.12岁时我开始迷上了带水中呼吸器潜水。
• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。

3 daunt   

vt.使胆怯，使气馁

参考例句：

• Danger did not daunt the hero.危险并没有吓倒这位英雄。
• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us.再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。

4 pestered   

使烦恼，纠缠( pester的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Journalists pestered neighbours for information. 记者缠着邻居打听消息。
• The little girl pestered the travellers for money. 那个小女孩缠着游客要钱。

5 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

6 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。

7 boundless   

adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的

参考例句：

• The boundless woods were sleeping in the deep repose of nature.无边无际的森林在大自然静寂的怀抱中酣睡着。
• His gratitude and devotion to the Party was boundless.他对党无限感激、无限忠诚。

8 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

9 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

10 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

11 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

12 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

13 milestone   

n.里程碑；划时代的事件

参考例句：

• The film proved to be a milestone in the history of cinema.事实证明这部影片是电影史上的一个里程碑。
• I think this is a very important milestone in the relations between our two countries.我认为这是我们两国关系中一个十分重要的里程碑。