英语听力：自然百科 滑雪巡逻队

 In the predawn hours from high in the Wasatch Mountains, Salt Lake City looks like dancing fireflies. You're climbing to an elevation¹ of 11,000 feet, just to make a morning meeting.

 

 

 

Forecast is for increasing clouds, one to three today, four to five tonight.

 

 

 

This room is packed with experience. Even with seven years on the job, you're still a rookie.

 

 

 

"26 years is a long time to be doing anything, especially a job that's, can't be,  as demanding as this one."

 

 

 

It's 17 degree. The winds scrape across your face, and you take it all and strive.

 

 

 

"Action is what we've been interested, gets your adrenaline / going, makes you want to get out of bed in the morning and come to work."

 

 

 

Bean Katinow and his colleagues speed to keep people save. They are the Ski Patrol at the Snowbirds Ski resort. Their work space stretches 25 hundred acres.

 

"Ski to work, ski to home, there is nothing other I do."

 

It is an office that's constantly demanding, sun up, sun down, everyday.

 

You got some I can do?

 

Anything if you wanna do. You wanna hand me on for P. Gultch or Gad² Valley?

 

Uh, I will go P. Gultch? 

 

Okay. Kelly, I got a back fort on five. 

 

Mr. Holly³. You will now... go and look at the snow guns on Wilburn Ridge⁴.

 

Copy that.

 

For a handful of Ski Patrolers, training goes beyond emergency medical procedures.

 

Clear. pins out.

 

It takes additional specialized⁵ instruction to handle ammunition⁶ and operate a military artillery⁷ to trigger avalanches⁹

 

to literally¹⁰ blow them off the mountain. When an avalanche⁸ forecast calls reaction, ski areas are closed while the guns fire. They are trying to control the nature before it can harm on-speccing skiers. 

 

"I am heading and going in."

 

At least once a week, Snowbird Ski Patrol practices what it calls hasty rescues. This is the time when practice has to be perfect. Buried alive in snow, help has got to come within minutes.

Hey Luan, give me a radio check.

 

Hey Fay.

 

Got ya.

 

In the late 1980s, on a patrol out, I was swept away and buried by an avalanche, my head was 6 feet down and within eight minutes they had located me and I was blue and not breathing.

 

Things can quickly turn serious when you need help on a mountain, but you'll improve your chances by wearing an avalanche homing device or by having computer chips sewn in your cloth, both send out signals for help.

 

"Here I got a signal, can I get a shoveller?"

 

"A lot of times the public doesn't see exactly what we do, because what we do in close to you is behind lines."

 

What the public does see are men and women who work on the mountain for the love of ski.

 

"I wake up everyday in a beautiful place, in the natural environment, every snow flake¹¹ that falls. It’s the whole world -- different and new."

 

Doing a job they wouldn't trade with incomparable view.

1 elevation   

n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高

参考例句：

• The house is at an elevation of 2,000 metres.那幢房子位于海拔两千米的高处。
• His elevation to the position of General Manager was announced yesterday.昨天宣布他晋升总经理职位。

2 gad   

n.闲逛；v.闲逛

参考例句：

• He is always on the gad.他老是闲荡作乐。
• Let it go back into the gloaming and gad with a lot of longing.就让它回到暮色中，满怀憧憬地游荡吧。

3 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。

4 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

5 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

6 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

7 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

8 avalanche   

n.雪崩，大量涌来

参考例句：

• They were killed by an avalanche in the Swiss Alps.他们在瑞士阿尔卑斯山的一次雪崩中罹难。
• Higher still the snow was ready to avalanche.在更高处积雪随时都会崩塌。

9 avalanches   

n.雪崩( avalanche的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The greatest dangers of pyroclastic avalanches are probably heat and suffocation. 火成碎屑崩落的最大危害可能是炽热和窒息作用。 来自辞典例句
• Avalanches poured down on the tracks and rails were spread. 雪崩压满了轨道，铁轨被弄得四分五裂。 来自辞典例句

10 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。

11 flake   

v.使成薄片；雪片般落下；n.薄片

参考例句：

• Drain the salmon,discard the skin,crush the bones and flake the salmon with a fork.将鲑鱼沥干，去表皮，粉碎鱼骨并用餐叉子将鱼肉切成小薄片状。
• The paint's beginning to flake.油漆开始剥落了。