Next Time That You Think You're Having a Bad Day...（在线收听）

Next Time That You Think You're Having a Bad Day...

当你觉得自己倒霉时，看看这……

1. The average cost of ¹⁾rehabilitating one seal after the (Exxon) Valdez oil ²⁾spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively-saved animals were released back into the wild ³⁾amid cheers and ⁴⁾applause from ⁵⁾onlookers. A minute later a ⁶⁾killer whale ate them both.

阿拉斯加瓦尔迪兹发生过石油泄漏后，救援每只海豹的平均花费高达八万美元。在一个特别仪式上，有两只花巨款拯救回来的海豹在旁观者的欢呼与掌声中被放回大自然。但一分钟后，它们双双被一头杀人鲸吞进肚中。

2. In 1992, Frank Perkins of Los Angeles made an attempt on the world flagpole-sitting record. Suffering from the flu, he came down eight hours short of the 400-day record; his ⁷⁾sponsor had ⁸⁾gone bust, his girlfriend had left him and his phone and electricity had been ⁹⁾cut off.

1992年，洛杉矶的弗兰克·柏金斯决心打破坐旗杆的世界记录。由于染上感冒，他在还差8小时就破400天纪录时下来；随后发现他的赞助人已经破产，女朋友早拂袖而去，而且他的电话和电都被停了。

3. A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking ¹⁰⁾frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric ¹¹⁾kettle. Intending to ¹²⁾jolt him away from the ¹³⁾deadly ¹⁴⁾current, she ¹⁵⁾whacked him with a ¹⁶⁾handy ¹⁷⁾plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Until that moment, he had been happily listening to his walkman.

一名妇女回到家中，看到丈夫在厨房里疯狂乱晃着身体，似乎腰间有根电线直连电热壶。为了救他于危难之中，她就近从后门边上抄起一块厚木板照他劈去，把他的胳膊劈成两段。其实此前他一直快乐地听着随身听。

4.Two animal rights protesters were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a ¹⁸⁾slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and ¹⁹⁾stampeded, ²⁰⁾trampling the two hapless protesters to death.

波恩的两名动物权利保护者正在抗议送猪到屠宰场是残忍行径时，两千头猪突然从破篱笆中受惊跑出，踩死了这两名倒霉的保护者。

5. Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.

伊拉克一名叫凯·拉纳加的恐怖主义分子在寄邮件炸弹时没有付足邮资。邮件被盖上“退返寄信人”的印戳退回。而他忘了那是炸弹，于是开信，被炸成碎片。

注释：

1) rehabilitate [7ri:hE5biliteit] v. 使身体康复

2) spill [spil] n. 溢出

3) amid [E5mid] prep. 在……中

4) applause [E5plC:z] n. 鼓掌声

5) onlooker [5RnlJkE(r)] n. 旁观人

6) killer whale 老虎鲸，杀人鲸

7) sponsor [5spCnsE] n. 赞助人

8) go bust 破产

9) cut off 切断，使停止

10) frantically [5frAntikEli] adv. 疯狂似地

11) kettle [5ketl] n. 壶，罐

12) jolt [dVEult] v. 震摇

13) deadly [5dedli] a. 致命的

14) current [5kQrEnt] n. 电流

15) whack [wAk] v. 重击

16) handy [5hAndi] a. 手边的，就近的

17) plank [plank] n. 板条，厚板

18) slaughterhouse [5slC:tEhaJs] n. 屠宰场

19) stampede [stAm5pi:d] v. 惊跑

20) trample [5trAmpl] v. 践踏