英语听书《海底两万里》第341期 第23章 珊瑚王国(38)

 　　Finally, at noon, we were plowing¹ the waves of the Red Sea. 到了中午，我们就走在红海里面了。

　　The Red Sea: that great lake so famous in biblical traditions, seldom replenished² by rains, fed by no important rivers, continually drained by a high rate of evaporation³, its water level dropping a meter and a half every year!  红海是《圣经》传说中的名湖，下雨也不凉爽，又没有一条大河流入，过度的蒸发使水量不断消失，平均每年有一米半厚的水面损失呢！

　　If it were fully⁴ landlocked like a lake, this odd gulf⁵ might dry up completely; on this score it's inferior to its neighbors, the Caspian Sea and the Dead Sea, whose levels lower only to the point where their evaporation exactly equals the amounts of water they take to their hearts. 真是奇怪的海湾，四面封闭，要是照一般湖沼的情况来说，应当早就完全干涸了。

　　I would not even attempt to understand the whim⁶ that induced Captain Nemo to take us into this gulf.  我甚至于不想了解尼摩船长的意思，他为什么决定把我们带到这海湾中来。

　　But I wholeheartedly approved of the Nautilus's entering it.  我完全赞同诺第留斯号进入红海。

　　It adopted a medium pace, sometimes staying on the surface, sometimes diving to avoid some ship, and so I could observe both the inside and topside of this highly unusual sea. 它以中常速度行驶，有时浮出水面，有时潜入水底，躲避往来的船只，这样，我可以从水里面和水面上来观察这浪新奇的海。

　　On February 8, as early as the first hours of daylight, Mocha appeared before us:  2月8日，这一天的早晨，摩卡港出现在我们面前。

　　a town now in ruins, whose walls would collapse⁷ at the mere⁸ sound of a cannon⁹, and which shelters a few leafy date trees here and there.  随后，诺第留斯号走近非洲海岸，这一带的海就深得多了。

　　This once-important city used to contain six public marketplaces plus twenty-six mosques¹⁰, and its walls, protected by fourteen forts, fashioned a three-kilometer girdle around it. 这里，在水晶一般清澈的海水中间，从打开的嵌板，我可以细细看那色彩鲜明的珊瑚的奇妙丛林，那披上海带和黑角莱的华美青绿毛皮的一片片宽大岩石。

1 plowing   

v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• "There are things more important now than plowing, Sugar. "如今有比耕种更重要的事情要做呀，宝贝儿。 来自飘（部分）
• Since his wife's death, he has been plowing a lonely furrow. 从他妻子死后，他一直过着孤独的生活。 来自辞典例句

2 replenished   

补充( replenish的过去式和过去分词 )； 重新装满

参考例句：

• She replenished her wardrobe. 她添置了衣服。
• She has replenished a leather [fur] coat recently. 她最近添置了一件皮袄。

3 evaporation   

n.蒸发，消失

参考例句：

• Be careful not to lose too much liquid by evaporation.小心不要因蒸发失去太多水分。
• Our bodies can sweat,thereby losing heat by evaporation.我们的身体能出汗，由此可以蒸发散热。

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 whim   

n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想

参考例句：

• I bought the encyclopedia on a whim.我凭一时的兴致买了这本百科全书。
• He had a sudden whim to go sailing today.今天他突然想要去航海。

7 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

8 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

9 cannon   

n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮

参考例句：

• The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
• The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。

10 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。