VOA慢速英语2009年-EXPLORATIONS - Cliffhanger: Rock Climb

VOICE ONE:

I'm Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

Climbing in the Adirondack Mountains in New York State

And I'm Bob Doughty¹ with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Some people say the higher you climb, the harder you fall. But those people probably would not be rock climbers. The sport, science and art of rock climbing is our subject this week.

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VOICE ONE:

An estimated nine million people rock climb in the United States. Millions more take part in the activity around the world. Some do it just for personal satisfaction. Others compete. Rock climbing can be dangerous. But there are many methods and protective devices that can increase a climber's safety.

Climbing takes strength, control and good balance. Climbers have to pull themselves straight up the face of very high rocks or walls. So they have to be strong enough to carry their own weight. And climbers sometimes have to hold on to rocks by only their fingers or toes.

VOICE TWO:

There are several kinds of rock climbing. Traditional rock climbing is done outside. Climbers wear ropes and attach devices to the rocks as they climb many hundreds of meters up. They also connect their ropes to the devices. If a climber slips, a rope can stop him from falling.

Sport climbing is similar. However, in those cases the protective devices are permanently² placed in the rock. There is also indoor climbing. Rock walls made of wood or concrete have places for the climber's hands and feet.

Ice climbing is exactly as it sounds. People climb glaciers⁴ or frozen⁵ waterfalls instead of rocks. They use special equipment for the ice.

And then there is bouldering – climbing rocks between three and seven meters high. It is a quicker and more intense kind of climbing. Many climbers like bouldering because they can use less equipment. Climbers often need only special shoes and chalk. All climbers use chalk to keep their hands dry.

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VOICE ONE:

Most rocks have cracks and holes and parts that stick out. Climbers use these for footholds and handholds. Sometimes the rock curves into an overhang. Then a climber has to try to move sideways as she moves forward to try to avoid hanging completely upside down.

A climber uses a hand hold

Climbers use their legs to climb. They try not to pull themselves up with their hands or arms. Arms and hands are for position and balance. Climbers often need to lock their bodies to the rock with one small finger hold.

People almost always climb in groups of two or more. Climbing alone, or "solo⁶ climbing," is very dangerous. Expert rock climbers say only the very best in the sport should do it.

VOICE TWO:

In a group climb, the first climber is the lead climber. He has a rope attached to his harness. The harness goes around the middle of the climber's body and in between his legs. The second climber is called the belayer. The lead climber's rope goes through a belay device. It is attached to the belayer's harness. The belayer then gives more rope up to the lead climber as he moves up the rock.

The lead climber attaches his rope to devices in the rock as he climbs up. If he falls, he is protected by the rope connected to the devices and the belayer. But, the lead climber can only do this for about twenty-five meters, the length of the climbing ropes. If the lead climber were injured in a fall from any higher up, the belayer could not get him down. Later, the lead climber and the belayer change places. They meet where the first climber has stopped. Then they start to climb again.

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VOICE ONE:

Sarah Bowman is a twenty-six-year-old rock climber in Alexandria, Virginia. She started climbing a year and a half ago. Her first experience with the sport probably was not the usual kind. It was during a visit to Alaska.

SARAH BOWMAN: "So, I ran a marathon and two days later I went ice climbing on a glacier³. And, then I decided⁷ to come back home and see if there was a gym, so…"

She says she fell in love with the sport.

SARAH BOWMAN: "It's sort of like a world on its own. There's no other sport where you're really going up and down. Everything else is across the ground. In basketball you go up a little bit, but not anywhere near as cool. So I think most people love it or hate it. There's really no in between."

Miz Bowman continued her training.

SARAH BOWMAN: "So, I'm also now a wilderness⁸ EMT so it's totally a good thing to have when you're out rock climbing."

VOICE ONE:

A Sportrock member climbing

Miz Bowman works at an indoor climbing center. She says all climbers go to these centers in the winter when it is too cold to climb outdoors. At indoor centers, climbers have many different paths they can use to get to the top of the walls. The possibilities are marked by tape of different colors. If you start a path of one color you must continue to use only toe and handholds marked with that color. The different paths have different levels of difficulty. While our reporter was there, Sarah Bowman succeeded at a personal best.

VOICE TWO:

The Sportrock Climbing Center is busy even at nine-thirty on a Monday night. An equal number of young men and women crowd around several different climbing walls. Climbers stretch their bodies in ways that do not seem possible while hanging in positions that do not seem to obey the laws of physics. They try to move as silently up the wall as they can. Sarah Bowman says being quiet is considered an important climbing skill. However, fans on the ground cheer them on as they climb up the wall.

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VOICE ONE:

This past summer the rock climbing world mourned the loss of one of its greatest stars. John Bachar was fifty-two years old when he fell from Dike⁹ Wall near his home in Mammoth¹⁰ Lakes, California. He was doing what he was famous for -- free-solo climbing. This is climbing without protection and alone.

John Bachar was born in Los Angeles and became famous in Yosemite Valley in California. That area of Yosemite National Park is the traditional international center of rock climbing.

Mister Bachar started free-solo climbing in the nineteen seventies. He was a member of a group of climbers called the Stonemasters. Another climber, John Lang, suggested Bachar free-solo an area called Double Cross, in Joshua Tree National Park, California. John Bachar accepted the dare and never looked back.

By nineteen eighty-one, John Bachar proposed a dare himself. He offered ten thousand dollars to anyone willing to follow him on a one-day climb without a rope. No one accepted.

VOICE TWO:

Dean¹¹ Fidelman is a professional rock climber who was a close friend of John Bachar. We spoke¹² to Mister Fidelman as he was climbing. He said John Bachar often compared himself to a dancer who was always working on his dance. Mister Bachar was known for his slow, smooth and controlled movements while climbing.

Dean Fidelman said that he believes a climber's ego¹³ can be his worst enemy on a rock. He said rock climbing is a high risk sport in which many people overestimate¹⁴ their abilities and underestimate¹⁵ the rock.

VOICE ONE:

A recent study found an increase in climbing injuries between 1990 and 2007

A recent study shows a sharp increase in rock climbing injuries between nineteen ninety and two thousand seven. The Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio did the study. It was published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. The study found a sixty-three percent increase in the number of people treated for rock climbing injuries in American hospitals.

The study said forty thousand people were treated in emergency rooms. The most common injuries were broken bones and sprains¹⁶ in legs and feet. The ankle was the most common body part to be injured.

Climbers in the study were from ages two to seventy-four. The average age was twenty-six. Fifty-six percent of the injuries were to people twenty to thirty-nine years old. Women made up twenty-nine percent of the injured population. That is more than in past rock climbing studies.

VOICE TWO:

Like many other sports, rock climbing can be dangerous. But many people think it is worth it. John Bachar said rock climbing felt like being on another planet. Dean Fidelman says it is a continual challenge and a beautiful form of movement. And, for Sarah Bowman, she has just started her way up the rocks.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Caty Weaver¹⁷ and Marisel Salazar. Dana Demange was the producer. I'm Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty. You can download podcasts and comment on our programs at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
 

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

3 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

4 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

5 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

6 solo   

n.独奏，独唱；adj.单独的；adv.单独地；v.放单飞，单独表演

参考例句：

• Tara is currently working on a solo album.塔拉眼下正忙着制作个人专辑。
• There's wonderfully lyrical flute solo in the middle of this symphony.在交响乐中间有一段奇妙的抒情长笛独奏。

7 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。

8 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

9 dike   

n.堤，沟；v.开沟排水

参考例句：

• They dug a dike along walls of the school.他们沿校墙挖沟。
• Fortunately,the flood did not break the dike.还好，这场大水没有把堤坝冲坏。

10 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

11 Dean   

n.(大学)院长，系主任，教务长

参考例句：

• The students much like the new dean.学生们很喜欢这位新系主任。
• Who is the dean of the Foreign Languages Department?外语系主任是谁？

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 ego   

n.自我，自己，自尊

参考例句：

• He is absolute ego in all thing.在所有的事情上他都绝对自我。
• She has been on an ego trip since she sang on television.她上电视台唱过歌之后就一直自吹自擂。

14 overestimate   

v.估计过高，过高评价

参考例句：

• Don't overestimate seriousness of the problem.别把问题看重了。
• We overestimate our influence and our nuisance value.我们过高地估计了自己的影响力和破坏作用。

15 underestimate   

vt.对...估价过低，低估

参考例句：

• Don't underestimate the role of theory.不要轻视理论的作用。
• I think a lot of people still underestimate him.我觉得很多人仍然低估了他。

16 sprains   

扭伤( sprain的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Bruises, sprains, muscular pain, muscular fatigue, lumbago, stiff shoulders, backache. 跌打扭伤，肌肉疼痛，肌肉疲劳，腰痛，肩肌僵直，背痛。
• For recent injuries such as sprains and headaches, cold compresses are recommended. 对最近的一些伤病，例如扭伤和头痛，建议进行冷敷。

17 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。