听播客学英语 122 游泳通道

 　　This week we meet the verb “to swim”; and we also meet a famous swimmer, called Captain Webb. The verb “to swim” is one of a very small group of English verbs where there are three different vowel¹ sounds in three different tenses, like this:

　　I swim

　　I swam

　　I have swum

　　The other common verb which is like this is “to sing” (I sing, I sang, I have sung).

　　A few weeks ago, I watched a television programme. A woman who was on the programme said that, when she was younger, she had swum the Channel. What does that mean?

　　“The Channel” is the sea which lies between England and France. Its proper name is “The English Channel” but normally² in English we talk about “The Channel”. We talk about “crossing the Channel”, which means that we are going to visit France or Belgium or another country on the mainland³ of Europe. The Channel is about 22 miles or 36 kilometres wide at its narrowest point, between Dover in England and Calais in France. There are regular ferries across the Channel, and a huge number of ships pass through the Channel on their way to ports in Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. And some people swim across the Channel.

　　Speaking personally, I do not enjoy swimming very much and I think that people who swim the Channel must be either very brave or very foolish. The English Channel is cold. It is also not very clean, and there are lots of ships which might hit someone swimming. But the distance across the Channel is about as far as it is possible for someone to swim in the sea. So it is a bit like Mount⁴ Everest – it is the big challenge, the final goal, for people who are keen⁵ on long-distance swimming.

　　The first person to swim across the Channel was Captain Matthew Webb. He was 29 years old when he swam from England to France in August 1875. The crossing took him rather under 22 hours. His swim across the Channel made Captain Webb famous. There is a picture of him on the website, and – I hope – on your iPod screens. The Victorians liked their heroes to be tall, upright⁶ and handsome, and to wear a moustache; and you will see that Captain Webb is indeed tall, upright and handsome, and that he has a moustache. I think incidentally⁷ that the photographer who took the photo was working in a studio, and that the waves and the sea behind Captain Webb are painted and not real.

　　Fifty years after Captain Webb’s great swim, only about 10 other people had managed to swim the Channel. It is interesting that nearly always they swam from England to France, and not the other way. Why? I have no idea! Since the 1920s many more people – about 1000 altogether – have made the great swim, including some who have swum from England to France and then back again. Modern swimmers swim much faster than Captain Webb – the fastest swim, by Petar Stoychev in August last year, took under 7 hours, only a third of Captain Webb’s time. A woman called Alison Streeter has swum the Channel a record 43 times; in fact, in 1992 alone she swam the Channel 7 times.

　　And what happened to Captain Webb? Did he live to an old age, so that he could tell his grandchildren all about his great swim to France? I am afraid not. He became a professional swimmer, and wrote a book about – can you guess? – How to Swim. A brand of matches was named after him – there is a picture of a box of Captain Webb matches on the website. He did stunts⁸ like floating in a tank of water for 128 hours. And in 1883, 8 years after his Channel swim, he decided⁹ to swim across the Niagara River, between Canada and the USA, just below the Niagara Falls where the water is dangerous and fast flowing. Within a few minutes he had disappeared; his body was found four days later. It was a sad end for a very remarkable¹⁰ man.

　　It is a long time since we had any music on this podcast. So here is a song by Amy Kohn called “1977 Swimming Lessons”. She is I think remembering swimming lessons in a swimming pool when she was a child. I hope you enjoy it.

1 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

2 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

3 mainland   

n.大陆，本土

参考例句：

• The new bridge will link the island to the mainland.新的桥梁将把该岛与大陆连接在一起。
• Hong Kong's prosperity relies heavily on mainland.香港的繁荣在很大程度上依赖于大陆。

4 mount   

n.山峰，乘用马，框，衬纸；vi.增长，骑上（马）；vt.提升，爬上，装备

参考例句：

• Their debts continued to mount up.他们的债务不断增加。
• She is the first woman who steps on the top of Mount Jolmo Lungma.她是第一个登上珠穆朗玛峰的女人。

5 keen   

adj.热心的；敏锐的；激烈的；锋利的

参考例句：

• There is keen competition between the two motorcar firms.两家汽车公司之间存在着激烈的竞争。
• The children are mad keen to go to the zoo.孩子们非常想去动物园。

6 upright   

adj.直立的；正直的；adv.挺直着，竖立着

参考例句：

• He stood himself upright.他笔直地站着。
• An upright man is respectable.正直的人是值得尊敬的。

7 incidentally   

adv.附带地，顺便提及

参考例句：

• Incidentally,I think you still owe me some money.顺便说一句，我想你还欠我一些钱。
• Incidentally,here's a good piece of news.附带告诉你一个好消息。

8 stunts   

n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He did all his own stunts. 所有特技都是他自己演的。
• The plane did a few stunts before landing. 飞机着陆前做了一些特技。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 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。

10 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。