万花筒 2008-05-21&-05-22 丛林求生（一）

Mike’s machete is based on a Malaysian type called a parang, and it's favored by special forces like the British SAS.

 

It has three essential working parts -- The point and front area use for incising and for slicing; the middle part here where bevels out as here, have been left for your chopping and your cutting.  And then this fine curve part right here is what we use for carving¹ and whittling².

 

In the jungle, the machete is the most valuable survival tool. It is so useful Mike can survive with nothing else. No lighter³, no water canteens, nothing.

 

So far, I had all the creature comfort at home for me. It's nice, just me and her. It's getting late. And without this hammock and mosquito net, Mike need to think about a different bed for the night.

 

Unfortunately, I am still in the low lands, which isn't an ideal for a campsite. But I am running out of daylights, so I have to go ahead and make ourself a hutch. So tonight we are gonna sleep in this swamp bed. All we have is a swamp bed and a frame. A swamp bed simply has 4 little tripods of a about 2-foot-long stick slashed⁴ together and then spread out.

 

You can use jungle vines to tie your tripods together. But Mike uses his boot laces.

 

Two 6-foot-long pieces of wood for your bed frame and about 20 planks⁵ to give you the flat part, for the A-frame all you have to do is four 6-foot pieces in the shape of an A in the front and a shape of an A in the back and then one 6 to 7-foot long piece for your ceiling / structure, lashing⁶ together with a simple knot. Lay much palm ground down for your roof. And you will be ready to go. So far, I have everything that we need to survive. And even though the machete is the most important tool out here for survival in the jungle, I want to show you that you can still get by without it.

 

Everything that I am going to use to make my hutch tonight is going to be the stuff I have found foraging⁷ around on the forest floor. That's why it is called the debris⁸ hut.

 

There's still plenty of daylight, but with no tools, Mike knows he needs extra time to build a secure dry shelter to keep him safe from the jungle and its night-time dangers. This tree right here gives me very good shelter on 3 out of 4 sized. So I don't have to worry about any big creatures coming out for me in the middle of the night.

 

Mike gets close into the tree right under its canopy⁹ for add a protection from the notoriously heavy jungle rains.

 

He makes a sleeping platform from logs to get him off the ground. This should keep him dry if water gathers beneath him. 

 

First, some green stuff down from my bedding. And then just lays some sticks I've found lean about.. upper against..face the tree for kind of like a lean to ... and a big pretty much shelter for the night. It takes some work even though if you just picking stuff off the ground. That is probably why I have to stop to give you some time to make a camp. I am in my next hutch, my debris hut. And it looks pretty good from inside. Little a bit of hole right there. But most of it looks pretty watertight. So you are gonna fit pours down rain...should be pretty good. Now that is not a 5-star hotel night we got at night.

 

Everyone imagines that they know the dangers of the jungle. But Mike knows that the real killers¹⁰ out here are smaller than you might think.

 

There was a mosquito heaven out here. So I have to stay covered up. I couldn't even take my boots off. And add a slit¹¹ quite underneath¹² my scarf just build a breath if they were let fit. The bad thing about mosquitoes is the miserable¹³ itch¹⁴ feels they cause. It just all the diseases that they carry. I mean, there are Jaguar¹⁵, anaconda, Kemen, piranha. It will be a sad thing to survive all that and just to die from some disease.

 

The bottom line is a tiny mosquito is more likely to kill you than any of the creature in the rain forest.

 

1 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

2 whittling   

v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Inflation has been whittling away their savings. 通货膨胀使他们的积蓄不断减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is whittling down the branch with a knife to make a handle for his hoe. 他在用刀削树枝做一把锄头柄。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

4 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

6 lashing   

n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The speaker was lashing the crowd. 演讲人正在煽动人群。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rain was lashing the windows. 雨急打着窗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 foraging   

v.搜寻（食物），尤指动物觅（食）( forage的现在分词 )；（尤指用手）搜寻（东西）

参考例句：

• They eke out a precarious existence foraging in rubbish dumps. 他们靠在垃圾场捡垃圾维持着朝不保夕的生活。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The campers went foraging for wood to make a fire. 露营者去搜寻柴木点火。 来自辞典例句

8 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

9 canopy   

n.天篷，遮篷

参考例句：

• The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
• They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。

10 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

11 slit   

n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂

参考例句：

• The coat has been slit in two places.这件外衣有两处裂开了。
• He began to slit open each envelope.他开始裁开每个信封。

12 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

13 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

14 itch   

n.痒，渴望，疥癣；vi.发痒，渴望

参考例句：

• Shylock has an itch for money.夏洛克渴望发财。
• He had an itch on his back.他背部发痒。

15 jaguar   

n.美洲虎

参考例句：

• He was green with envy when he saw my new Jaguar car.看见我那辆美洲虎牌新车，他非常妒忌。
• Should you meet a jaguar in the jungle,just turn slowly,walk away.But slowly,never look back.你在丛林中若碰上美洲虎，就慢慢转身走开，可一定要慢，切莫回头看。