TED演讲 第58期:极点往返-我生命中最艰苦的105天(3)

 They have an airstrip, they have a canteen,  那儿有停机坪 厨房，

they have hot showers,  热水浴。

they have a post office, a tourist shop,  有邮局，游轮，

a basketball court that doubles as a movie theater.  以及两倍于一个电影院的篮球场。

So it's a bit different these days,  所以，这些天略有不同,

and there are also acres of junk.  也有成堆的垃圾。

I think it's a marvelous thing that humans can exist 365 days of the year with hamburgers and hot showers and movie theaters, 我觉得人类一年365天只靠汉堡，热水和影院就能生活简直不可思议。

but it does seem to produce a lot of empty cardboard boxes.  但这似乎确实产生了许多空纸板盒。

You can see on the left of this photograph,  你可以看到在这张照片的左面，

several square acres of junk waiting to be flown out from the South Pole.  有好几平方的垃圾等着从南极点拖走。

But there is also a pole at the South Pole,  但南极也有个极点，

and we got there on foot, unassisted,  我们没有技术支持,

unsupported, by the hardest route,  走最困难的路线,

900 miles in record time,dragging more weight than anyone in history.   共计900英里而且负重超过史上任何一位考察队员。

And if we'd stopped there and flown home,  而如果我们止步于此，折返离开，

which would have been the eminently¹ sensible thing to do,  去做更有意义的事,

then my talk would end here and it would end something like this.  那我的演讲也就到此为止了。也就不足为奇。

If you have the right team around you, the right tools, the right technology,  但如果你有优秀的团队，适宜的工具 险情的科技,

and if you have enough self-belief and enough determination,then anything is possible.  而且，自信满满,意志坚定那一切险阻当不在话下。

But then we turned around,  但那时，我们四周晃了会儿，

and this is where things get interesting.  然后一切变得有趣起来了。

High on the Antarctic plateau,  在亚特兰地高地，

over 10,000 feet, it's very windy, very cold, very dry, we were exhausted².  超过10000英尺的地方，寒风凛冽 天寒地燥，我们精疲力竭。

We'd covered 35 marathons,  我们翻阅了35座冰川,

we were only halfway,  但这只是路途一半。

and we had a safety net, of course,  但我们肯定有安全措施，

of ski planes and satellite phones and live, 24-hour tracking beacons³ that didn't exist for Scott,  我们有雪上飞机和卫星电话。以及24小时时刻待命的后援团， 斯科特可没有这些安全措施。

but in hindsight,  但从制高点来看，

rather than making our lives easier,  安全措施并未使我们的生活更好,

the safety net actually allowed us to cut things very fine indeed,  它确实际上使东西四分五裂。

to sail very close to our absolute limits as human beings.  让我们无限接近人类极限。

And it is an exquisite⁴ form of torture to exhaust yourself to the point of starvation day after day while dragging a sledge⁵ full of food.  并且，它是一种细致的折磨方式日复一日，将你拖到饥饿的零界点，使你精疲力竭。而且你是拉着一雪橇满满的食物。

For years, I'd been writing glib⁶ lines in sponsorship proposals about pushing the limits of human endurance, 数年来，我一直以资助顾问的身份撰写关于推动人类极限的油腔滑调的文章。

but in reality, that was a very frightening place to be indeed.  实际上，它确实是个令人畏惧的领域。

We had, before we'd got to the Pole,  在去南极前，我们,

two weeks of almost permanent headwind, which slowed us down.  给头顶吹了2周的风，让我们反应迟钝。

As a result, we'd had several days of eating half rations⁷.  结果，好几天我们食欲减半。

We had a finite amount of food in the sledges⁸ to make this journey,  我们为这次行程在雪橇中准备了足量食物,

so we were trying to string that out by reducing our intake⁹ to half the calories we should have been eating.  所以我们通过减少我们的卡路里摄入量至一半 来节省食物。

As a result, we both became increasingly hypoglycemic,we had low blood sugar levels day after day.  结果，我们 身体机能出现问题,我们日复一日，血糖指数不断降低。

and increasingly susceptible¹⁰ to the extreme cold.  但对严寒的适应程度却越发的好了。

Tarka took this photo of me one evening after I'd nearly passed out with hypothermia. 在一个晚上，Tarka拍了这张我的照片就在我近乎因为低温昏过去时。

We both had repeated bouts¹¹ of hypothermia, something I hadn't experienced before,  我们身体都反复经历低温， 这之前从未有过。

and it was very humbling¹² indeed.  这让人颤抖。

As much as you might like to think, as I do,  就像你们可能会想，我也这么想过，

that you're the kind of person who doesn't quit,  你是不会退缩的人，

that you'll go down swinging, 你会继续探索，

hypothermia doesn't leave you much choice.  低温并不会改变你选择。

You become utterly¹³ incapacitated.  你变得行为无法自主，

It's like being a drunk toddler.  像醉汉一样。

You become pathetic.  你变得又笨又可怜。

I remember just wanting to lie down and quit.  我记得，我当时只想 躺下来。然后退出。

It was a peculiar¹⁴, peculiar feeling,  这是极为真切的感受。

and a real surprise to me to be debilitated¹⁵ to that degree.  认输的想法 真的令我震惊不已。

And then we ran out of food completely,  然后我们食物消耗殆尽，

46 miles short of the first of the depots¹⁶ that we'd laid on our outward journey.  离我们倚赖的第一仓库还有46英里远。

We'd laid 10 depots of food,  我们拿出10样食物，

literally¹⁷ burying food and fuel, for our return journey the fuel was for a cooker so you could melt snow to get water.  烧食物与汽油,准备返程,燃油是为炊具准备的 这样你可以把雪变成水。

and I was forced to make the decision to call for a resupply flight,  我不得不呼叫供应飞机，

a ski plane carrying eight days of food to tide us over that gap.  这是带着可以助我们越过那道坎的 8天食物的雪上飞机。

They took 12 hours to reach us from the other side of Antarctica.  他们用了12小时 从亚特兰地的另一头飞到我们这边。

Calling for that plane was one of the toughest decisions of my life.  呼叫那趟飞机 是我人生中最艰难的决定之一。

1 eminently   

adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地

参考例句：

• She seems eminently suitable for the job. 她看来非常适合这个工作。
• It was an eminently respectable boarding school. 这是所非常好的寄宿学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

3 beacons   

灯塔( beacon的名词复数 )； 烽火； 指路明灯； 无线电台或发射台

参考例句：

• A chain of beacons was lit across the region. 整个地区点起了一系列灯塔。
• Lighthouse and beacons flash at night. 晚上灯塔与信号台闪着光。

4 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。

5 sledge   

n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往

参考例句：

• The sledge gained momentum as it ran down the hill.雪橇从山上下冲时的动力越来越大。
• The sledge slid across the snow as lightly as a boat on the water.雪橇在雪原上轻巧地滑行，就象船在水上行驶一样。

6 glib   

adj.圆滑的，油嘴滑舌的

参考例句：

• His glib talk sounds as sweet as a song.他说的比唱的还好听。
• The fellow has a very glib tongue.这家伙嘴油得很。

7 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

8 sledges   

n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载

参考例句：

• Sledges run well over frozen snow. 雪橇在冻硬了的雪上顺利滑行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They used picks and sledges to break the rocks. 他们用[镐和撬]来打碎这些岩石。 来自互联网

9 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。

10 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

11 bouts   

n.拳击（或摔跤）比赛( bout的名词复数 )；一段（工作）；（尤指坏事的）一通；（疾病的）发作

参考例句：

• For much of his life he suffered from recurrent bouts of depression. 他的大半辈子反复发作抑郁症。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was one of fistiana's most famous championship bouts. 这是拳击界最有名的冠军赛之一。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 humbling   

adj.令人羞辱的v.使谦恭( humble的现在分词 )；轻松打败（尤指强大的对手）；低声下气

参考例句：

• A certain humbling from time to time is good. 不时受点儿屈辱是有好处的。 来自辞典例句
• It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-buildingexperience. 据说天文学是一种令人产生自卑、塑造人格的科学。 来自互联网

13 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

14 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

15 debilitated   

adj.疲惫不堪的，操劳过度的v.使（人或人的身体）非常虚弱( debilitate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Prolonged strike action debilitated the industry. 长时间的罢工削弱了这个行业的活力。
• This is especially important when dealing with the geriatric or debilitated patient. 这对老年和虚弱病人尤其重要。 来自互联网

16 depots   

仓库( depot的名词复数 )； 火车站； 车库； 军需库

参考例句：

• Public transportation termini and depots are important infrastructures for a city. 公交场站设施是城市重要的基础设施。
• In the coastal cities are equipped with after-sales service and depots. 在各沿海城市均设有服务部及售后维修站。

17 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。