【英语语言学习】绝境求生

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

 

On the night of October 19th, 1984, Erik Vogel was uneasy about flying. But the young pilot was behind schedule and he felt like his job was on the line. So he took off, as he did most days, shuttling between remote communities dotting the Canadian wilderness¹.

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

 

It was snowing, the de-icer didn't work, the autopilot didn't work, and his co-pilot had been bumped to fit one more passenger on his 10-seater plane.

 

CAROL SHABEN: And in the middle of that, he's hearing these chunks² of ice coming off the props³ and banging like rocks against the fuselage. And he made a calculation error. He thought he was past the high point, but there was another rise of land, 2500 feet, and he hit that top of that rise. So it was a miracle that anyone got out of that plane alive.

 

INSKEEP: Carol Shaben is the author of a book about that crash, a book called "Into the Abyss." Six people were killed. Shaben's own father, a politician named Larry Shaben, survived along with three others: the pilot Erik Vogel, a prisoner named Paul Archambault, and the police officer escorting him.

 

GREENE: Scott Deschamps was that Canadian Mountie. The moment before impact sticks with him all these years later.

 

SCOTT DESCHAMPS: If you're driving down the road in a car and you run off into the rough for a second, you hear that rrrghgh(ph). And you pull back onto the road. And that's what I heard, just for a second, something rough. And I remember thinking the plane is not supposed to do that.

 

And before I could even finish that thought, maybe a few seconds later, I just remember everything breaking apart. And that's the last I remember of the crash.

 

INSKEEP: OK, we now know the plane crashed through a bank of trees and then, as the fuselage plowed⁴ into the ground, upside down, broken bits of plane sheared⁵ off the roof - peeled open like a sardine⁶ can. But when Scott Deschamps opened is eyes, he only knew that he was trapped, partly buried in the ground.

 

DESCHAMPS: Then I felt someone tugging⁷ on my foot. And it was Paul. And he had found me. He had come back to the plane to find me. There was great agony, with him pulling off chunks of plane before he even got to the dirt that encased me. And I was completely disoriented and I didn't know where I was or what had happened.

 

And it took me probably 10 minutes before I realized the plane had crashed. And I can remember sitting in the plane. I remember looking out the open, broken fuselage at the snow falling, and in the far distance I could see the glow of a fire. And we got by the fire and that's where we sat most of the night.

 

INSKEEP: So, Paul managed to start a fire. It's extremely cold and you're in the wilderness. And as I'm reading this I begin thinking about Jack⁸ London's "To Build a Fire." A guy who's desperate to build a fire and if he fails, he's going to die. And then as I reading your account, well, the fire goes out, you run out of fuel. What was going through your mind then?

 

DESCHAMPS: There's a forest of trees - trees, trees everywhere, but not a branch to burn. And that's the truth. You have no axe⁹, you have no way of gathering¹⁰ wood, you can't find fallen wood because there's three and a half feet of snow. And we sent Paul on a constant vigilance for anything that would burn.

 

Fire was life, Steve. Fire was life. And at different times during the night we had no fire. And I've been on many search and rescue situations as a Mountie where you'd go into these camps looking for lost hunters or motor vehicle accidents in the back bush, and you find the people, eventually, but you find them as frozen corpses¹¹. And I figured that's how we'd be found.

 

INSKEEP: Of course, you were found in the end, just in time. And the four of you survived.

 

And, Carol Shaben, I'd like to know how people's lives changed after that incident.

 

SHABEN: Well, Steve, each of the survivors¹² was completely transfigured by what had happened that night, and all of their lives took sharp turns, if you will. Paul Archambault, who had a long prison record; who, you know, was an accused criminal, a drifter who had been drifting across the country since he was 15 or 16 - he went back. He got on a plane two days later and faced charges, faced a judge in court. And the judge said, you are to be commended for your actions and I exonerate¹³ you of all charges.

 

So this ne'er-do-well vagabond who'd had nothing but hard luck was all the sudden hailed as a hero. So took a dramatic turn that way.

 

INSKEEP: What about your father?

 

SHABEN: My dad was changed. He was a changed man. He began to look at his life and judge his worth as a man, from that point forward, by what he accomplished¹⁴ in the years - the extra years he felt he got that others on that plane did not. And he felt like the political life that he had been living, it wasn't enough; he needed to do more. And he floundered for a long time, trying to figure out what that was.

 

And after 9/11, he became very, very strident about trying to build bridges across cultures, trying to increase understanding and tolerance¹⁵. And my dad created this incredible philanthropic life and this incredible legacy¹⁶ that I think was a greater tribute than his 16 years of political career.

 

INSKEEP: Scott Deschamps, how did this event change you?

 

DESCHAMPS: Well, Steve, I made a bucket list before bucket lists were made. I had a very profound list of things I wanted to do if I was ever going to get off that mountain. And, you know, there were 10 things, and it took - I just finished them. It took me 25 years to finally finish the last one.

 

INSKEEP: What were some of the things on the list?

 

DESCHAMPS: One of the things that was most profound, and I voiced it at the time, was the fact that I was going to die on that stupid mountain and I never had a family. So I went forward very specifically to be a great parent. And I am; I have two wonderful children.

 

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I'd never been to university, so when I left the Mounted Police, I did a bachelor's degree and I went on and I did a master's degree. And I had a whole bunch of other things. Now, I live in peace and life is good.

 

INSKEEP: Carol Shaben is the author of "Into the Abyss," the story of four plane crash survivors. Scott Deschamps was one of those survivors. Thanks to you both.

 

SHABEN: Thank you.

 

DESCHAMPS: Thank you, Steve.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

 

INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

 

GREENE: And I'm David Greene.

1 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。

2 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

3 props   

小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The government props up the prices of farm products to support farmers' incomes. 政府保持农产品价格不变以保障农民们的收入。

4 plowed   

v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• They plowed nearly 100,000 acres of virgin moorland. 他们犁了将近10万英亩未开垦的高沼地。 来自辞典例句
• He plowed the land and then sowed the seeds. 他先翻土，然后播种。 来自辞典例句

5 sheared   

v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切

参考例句：

• A jet plane sheared the blue sky. 一架喷气式飞机划破蓝空。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The pedal had sheared off at the pivot. 踏板在枢轴处断裂了。 来自辞典例句

6 sardine   

n.[C]沙丁鱼

参考例句：

• Every bus arrives and leaves packed as fully as a sardine tin.每辆开来和开走的公共汽车都塞得像沙丁鱼罐头一样拥挤。
• As we chatted,a brightly painted sardine boat dropped anchor.我们正在聊着，只见一条颜色鲜艳的捕捞沙丁鱼的船抛了锚。

7 tugging   

n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Tom was tugging at a button-hole and looking sheepish. 汤姆捏住一个钮扣眼使劲地拉，样子显得很害羞。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• She kicked him, tugging his thick hair. 她一边踢他，一边扯着他那浓密的头发。 来自辞典例句

8 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

9 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

12 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

13 exonerate   

v.免除责任，确定无罪

参考例句：

• Nothing can exonerate her from that.任何解释都难辞其咎。
• There is no reason to exonerate him from the ordinary duties of a citizen.没有理由免除他做公民应尽的义务。

14 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

15 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

16 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。