英语听书《海底两万里》第7期 第1章 飞走的暗礁(7)

 　　Without the high quality of its hull¹,

　　毫无疑问，如果不是船身质地优良，特别坚固，

　　the Moravian would surely have split open from this collision and gone down together with those 237 passengers it was bringing back from Canada.

　　摩拉维安号被撞以后，一定要把它从加拿大载来的二百三十六名乘客一齐带到海底去。

　　This accident happened around five o'clock in the morning, just as day was beginning to break.

　　事故发生在早晨五点左右天刚破晓的时候。

　　The officers on watch rushed to the craft's stern. They examined the ocean with the most scrupulous² care.

　　船上值班的海员们立即跑到船的后部；他们十分细心地观察海面。

　　They saw nothing except a strong eddy³ breaking three cable lengths out, as if those sheets of water had been violently churned.

　　除了有个六百多米宽的大漩涡—好像水面受过猛烈的冲击—以外，他们什么也没有看见，只把事故发生的地点确切地记了下来。

　　The site's exact bearings were taken, and the Moravian continued on course apparently⁴ undamaged.

　　摩拉维安号继续航行，似乎并没有受到什么损伤。

　　Had it run afoul of an underwater rock or the wreckage⁵ of some enormous derelict ship? They were unable to say.

　　它是撞上了暗礁呢，还是撞上了一只沉没的破船？

　　But when they examined its undersides in the service yard, they discovered that part of its keel had been smashed.

　　当时没有法子知道。后来到船坞检查了船底，才发现一部分龙骨折断了。

　　This occurrence, extremely serious in itself, might perhaps have been forgotten like so many others,

　　这事实本身是十分严重的，

　　if three weeks later it hadn't been reenacted under identical conditions.

　　可是，如果不是过了三个星期后，在相同的情况下又发生了相同的事件，

　　Only, thanks to the nationality of the ship victimized by this new ramming⁶, and thanks to the reputation of the company to which this ship belonged,

　　它很可能跟许多其他的事件一样很快被人忘掉了。接着又发生的那一次撞船的事件，单单由于受害船的国籍和它所属公司的声望，

　　the event caused an immense uproar⁷.

　　就足以引起十分广泛的反响。

1 hull   

n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳

参考例句：

• The outer surface of ship's hull is very hard.船体的外表面非常坚硬。
• The boat's hull has been staved in by the tremendous seas.小船壳让巨浪打穿了。

2 scrupulous   

adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的

参考例句：

• She is scrupulous to a degree.她非常谨慎。
• Poets are not so scrupulous as you are.诗人并不像你那样顾虑多。

3 eddy   

n.漩涡，涡流

参考例句：

• The motor car disappeared in eddy of dust.汽车在一片扬尘的涡流中不见了。
• In Taylor's picture,the eddy is the basic element of turbulence.在泰勒的描述里，旋涡是湍流的基本要素。

4 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

5 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

6 ramming   

n.打结炉底v.夯实（土等）( ram的现在分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输

参考例句：

• They are ramming earth down. 他们在夯实泥土。 来自辞典例句
• Father keeps ramming it down my throat that I should become a doctor. 父亲一直逼我当医生。 来自辞典例句

7 uproar   

n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸

参考例句：

• She could hear the uproar in the room.她能听见房间里的吵闹声。
• His remarks threw the audience into an uproar.他的讲话使听众沸腾起来。