第578期:英語(yǔ)美文-新生活從選定方向開始

還有不到一周的時(shí)間，我們就要和2018年說再見了。2018年，像每一個(gè)平凡的一年一樣，在分秒的時(shí)鐘中就這樣的流走了。這一年，我相信對(duì)每一個(gè)人的意義都是不同的，或許它只是你人生中波瀾不驚的一個(gè)篇章，又或它對(duì)你的生活中意義重大。不管這一年發(fā)生了什么，不管是好是壞，是喜是樂，一切終將過去。而新的2019年，即將等待你的開啟，你準(zhǔn)備好了嗎？

 

New Words:

Patch n.小塊土地

oasis n. 綠洲；

barren adj. 貧瘠的；

reluctant adj. 不情愿的；勉強(qiáng)的

academician n. 院士;大學(xué)教師

parlance n. 說法；用語(yǔ)；

compass n. 指南針，羅盤；

Bissel is a small village of the West Sahara. It lies next to a patch of 1. 5-square-kilometer oasis, from where three days and nights are generally required to go out of the desert. However. before Ken Levin discovered it in 1926, none of the people had walked out of the desert. Reportedly, they were not reluctant to leave this barren land, but had no way to walk out of it after they had tried many times.
比塞爾是西撒哈拉沙漠中的一個(gè)小村莊，它靠在一塊15平方千米的綠洲旁，從這里走出沙漠一般需要二晝夜?？墒?，在肯·萊文1926年發(fā)現(xiàn)它之前，這里的人沒有一個(gè)走出過大沙漠。據(jù)說，他們不是不愿意離開這塊貧瘠的土地，而是嘗試過很多次都沒有走出來.

As an academician of the British Royal College of Sciences, Ken Levin, of course, did not believe this viewpoint. He asked the reason of the people here. As a result, the answer of each was the same. To whichever direction they went from here, they would eventually return to this place. To prove this parlance he did an experiment. He went north from Bissel Village and finally walked out from it in three and a half days.
作為英國(guó)皇家學(xué)院的院士，肯·萊文 當(dāng)然不相信這種說法。他用手語(yǔ)向這里的人問其原因，結(jié)果每個(gè)人的回答都是一樣的:從這里無論向哪個(gè)方向走，最后都還要轉(zhuǎn)回到這個(gè)地方。為了證實(shí)這種說法，他做了次試驗(yàn)。從比塞爾村向北走，結(jié)果三天半就走了出來。

Why couldn't Bissel villager walk out of it? Ken Levin was very puzzled. In the end, he had to employ a Bissel villager to lead the way and wanted to find out the reason. They prepared the water that could be used for half a month and two camels while only leaning on a stick, Ken Levin put away the compass and other facilities, following the man.
比塞爾人為什么走不出來呢？肯·萊文非常納悶。最后，他只得雇一個(gè)比塞爾人，讓他帶路，看看到底是怎么回事。他們準(zhǔn)備了能用半個(gè)月的水，牽上兩駱駝，肯·萊文收起指南針等設(shè)備，只栓了一根木棍在后面。

Ten days later, they walked for about 800 miles. On the 11th morning, an oasis came into their view. They really came back again to Bissel. This time, Ken Levin came to understand: the Bissel people couldn't walk out of the desert because they had no knowledge of the North Star.
十天過去了，他們走了大約800英里的路程，在11天的清晨，一塊綠洲出現(xiàn)在眼前，他們果然又回到了比塞爾。這一次肯·萊文終于明白了，比塞爾人之所以走不出大沙漠，是因?yàn)樗麄兏揪筒徽J(rèn)識(shí)北極星。

In the boundless desert, if a person goes forward relying on his or her sense, he or she will make lots and lots of circles of different sizes, and the final footprints will be most likely the shape of a tape. Bissel village was in the middle of the immense desert with more than one thousand square kilometers, so without a compass, it was indeed impossible to walk out of the desert.
在一望無際的沙漠里，一個(gè)人如果憑感覺往前走會(huì)走出許許多多、大小不一的圓圈，最后的足跡十有八九是一把卷尺的形狀，比塞爾村處在浩瀚的沙漠中間，方圓上千公里，沒有指南針，想走出沙漠，確實(shí)是不可能的。

Leaving Bissel Village, Ken Levin brought a young man called Argutel, who was the man that had cooperated with him last time. He told the young man "As long as you rest in the daytime and walk towards the brightest star at night, you would be able to walk out of the desert.” Argutel did as he was told. Three days later, he, sure enough, came to the edge of the desert.
離開比塞爾村時(shí)，肯·萊文帶了一個(gè)叫阿古特爾的青年，這個(gè)青年就是上次和他合作的人。他告訴這個(gè)青年說：“只要你白天休息，夜晚朝著北面那顆最亮的星星走，就能走出沙漠。”阿古特爾照著去做，三天后果然來到了大漠邊緣。

Now in the West Sahara Bissel has been a bright pearl, where tens of thousands of tourists come here. As the pioneer of Bissel, Argutel's bronze statue stands in the center of the town. On the base of the bronze statue the following line was engraved, "A new life starts from the fixed direction.”
現(xiàn)在比塞爾已是西撒哈拉沙漠中的一顆明珠，每年有數(shù)以萬(wàn)計(jì)的旅游者來到這里。阿古特爾作為比塞爾的開拓者，他的銅像豎立在小城中央，銅像底座上刻著一行字:“新生活是從選定方向開始的。”

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