VOA慢速英语--像风一样的冰船比赛

AS IT IS 2016-01-31 Ice Boats Race Like the Wind 像风一样的冰船比赛

Who says you have to stay inside your home when it is cold outside?

There’s an unusual sport practiced in the northern United States, and the season only starts when winds start blowing and the temperature drops below zero degrees Celsius¹.

The sport is called ice boating.

Clement² Chua, who comes from a much warmer climate, is learning all about ice boating. He is an exchange student from Singapore and attends the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Chua signed up for an ice boating class because he wanted to do something he could not do at home. “Ice boating is a most unique class,” he says.

One experienced ice boater calls the sport “ephemeral.” In other words, the conditions for ice boating do not happen very often. And when the conditions are right, they are not right for very long.

“You can go weeks in the winter when you can’t go ice boating,” says 81-year-old Lloyd Roberts.

Roberts has been ice boating for 40 years. He says dedicated³ ice boaters make the sport a major event in their lives, just after funerals and weddings.

The capital of ice boating in the United States is now the northeastern state of Maine. It once was New Jersey⁴. But the capital moved north because Maine has warmer winters than before, and New Jersey’s winters are sometimes too warm for good ice to form.

Maine gets cold enough in the winter that lakes and ponds will freeze, but it is no longer so cold that the ponds are covered with snow.

Chua says he does a lot of windsurfing back home in Singapore, a place where water sports are popular. The sport of ice boating also uses wind to power a small vessel⁵. But that is where the similarities end.

Ice boats are like small sailboats, but they have sharp blades designed for skimming over the ice. The boats catch the wind and move fast on clear, smooth ice.

Roberts says there are only about six good ice boating days each winter.

Jim Thieler is a serious ice boater.

He says there is always a concern about getting wet, because sometimes the ice is not strong enough to support the weight of both the boat and the boater.

“They say there’s two kinds of ice boaters: those that have gone swimming, and those who are going to. Me, personally, yeah, I’ve gotten wet up to my thighs⁶ before.”

That is why ice boaters always go out in groups, and wear special equipment.

You need to wear shoes with metal cleats to avoid slipping on the ice. You also need warm clothing, because sometimes the wind will stop blowing, and boaters can stay in the cold for long periods before they make it back to land. They also carry ice picks, so they can pull themselves out of the water in case the ice breaks.

The ice boaters say it is easy to get started in the sport. But the costs for new gear⁷ and new boats add up fast.

The cost may just be the price people have to pay when faced with the other option: spending the long winter indoors.

Words in This Story

dedicated – adj. having very strong support for or loyalty⁸ to a person, group, cause, etc.

cleat – n. a piece of rubber, wood, or metal that is fastened to the bottom of a shoe or boot to prevent slipping — usually plural⁹

ephemeral – adj.  lasting a very short time

gear – n. supplies, tools, or clothes needed for a special purpose

pond – n. an area of water that is surrounded by land and that is smaller than a lake

practice – v. to do (something) regularly or constantly as an ordinary part of your life

skim – v.  to move quickly or lightly along, above, or near the surface of something

windsurf – v. to ride along the surface of the water while standing¹⁰ on a long, narrow board that has a sail attached

blade – n. the sharp metal piece on the bottom of an ice skate

option – n. a choice of possibility

1 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

2 clement   

adj.仁慈的；温和的

参考例句：

• A clement judge reduced his sentence.一位仁慈的法官为他减了刑。
• The planet's history contains many less stable and clement eras than the holocene.地球的历史包含着许多不如全新世稳定与温和的地质时期。

3 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

4 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

5 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

6 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 gear   

n.齿轮，传动装置，设备，衣服；vt.使适应

参考例句：

• We have to gear our lives to the new changes.我们必须使自己的生活适应新的变化。
• The teeth of the wheel gear into each other.齿轮互相啮合。

8 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

9 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。