VOA慢速英语2020 荷兰学生因疫情被迫横穿大西洋（在线收听）

A group of Dutch high school students with little sailing experience completed a five-week trip across the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. The group said they returned home by boat instead of by airplane because of coronavirus travel restrictions.

上周日，一群没有航海经验的荷兰高中生完成了为期五周的横渡大西洋之旅。这群学生表示，由于冠状病毒的旅行限制，他们无法坐飞机只能乘船回家。

The students, ages 14 to 17, were joined by 12 experienced crew members and three teachers. They had been taking part in an educational cruise of the Caribbean when the coronavirus outbreak forced them to greatly change the way they returned home.

这群学生年龄在14岁到17岁之间，同行的还有12名经验丰富的船员和3名教师。当时他们正在参加加勒比海的一次航海学习项目，疫情突然爆发导致他们不得不改变回家的方式。

The change in plans taught 17-year-old Floor Hurkmans an important life lesson.

这一计划的变动给17岁的斯洛·赫克曼斯上了人生重要的一课。

"Being flexible, because everything is changing all the time," she said. "The arrival time changed like 100 times. Being flexible is really important."

“要随机应变，因为万物都在不断变化，”她说。“抵达的时间一直在更改。灵活变通真的很重要。”

Instead of flying back home from Cuba as they had planned, the crew members and students gathered supplies and warm clothes. Then, they set sail for the Dutch port city of Harlingen, 7,000 kilometers away. Their boat, the Wylde Swan, arrived at Harlingen late Sunday morning. Observers gathered at a sea wall to watch the arrival.

船员和学生没有按计划从古巴乘飞机回家，而是补给了必需品和保暖衣物。然后，他们起航前往7000公里外的荷兰港口城市哈林根。他们的帆船“怀尔德天鹅”号周日上午晚些时候抵达哈林根。观察员们聚集在海堤旁等待学生们靠岸。

As they arrived, the students hung up a self-made sign on the boat that read "Bucket List." It showed they had completed activities that included crossing the Atlantic Ocean, mid-ocean swimming and surviving the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle is an area in the Atlantic where some people claim ships and planes have mysteriously disappeared.

当他们到达时，学生们在船上挂了一个自制的牌子，上面写着“愿望清单”。看来，他们成功横渡大西洋、在大洋中游泳和在百慕大三角中求生。据称，百慕大三角是大西洋上一处区域，经常有船只和飞机在这里神秘失踪。

The students' family members were waiting for them at the port. Parents drove their cars next to the boat one by one to follow social distancing rules.

学生的家人在港口等待着。家长们挨个儿把车开到帆船边，以遵守社交距离规定。

On the ship, it was impossible to follow any kind of social distancing, Hurkmans noted.

赫克曼斯指出，在船上是不可能保持任何社交距离的。

"Here you have to be social all the time to everyone because you're sleeping with them, you're eating with them you're just doing everything with them so you can't really just relax," she said.

她说:“在船上，你必须一直和所有人接触，因为你和大家一起睡觉，一起吃饭，一起做所有的事情，所以丝毫不能放松。”

Her mother, Renee Scholtemeijer, said she expects her daughter to miss life on the open sea once she understands the coronavirus containment measures in the Netherlands.

她的母亲Renee Scholtemeijer称，一旦女儿经历了荷兰的新冠肺炎疫情防控措施，她会很想念在公海上那段生活。

"I think that after two days she'll want to go back on the boat, because life is very boring back at home," the mother said. "There's nothing to do, she can't visit friends, so it's very boring."

这位母亲说，“我想两天后她就想回到船上生活，因为回到家里的生活很无聊”。“无事可做，她不能出门拜访朋友，所以生活很无聊。”

Masterskip, the company that organized the boat trip, runs five educational cruises for about 150 students each year. Crossing the Atlantic is nothing new for the Wylde Swan, which has made the trip about 20 times.

组织这次出海旅行的Masterskip公司每年为大约150名学生举办五次航海学习活动。跨越大西洋对“怀尔德天鹅”号来说并不是什么新鲜事，它已经进行了大约20次这样的旅行。

The company's director, Christophe Meijer, said the students were examined for signs of the coronavirus in March to make sure nobody was infected.

该公司董事克里斯托夫·梅杰(Christophe Meijer)表示，3月份对学生进行了冠状病毒检查，以确保没有人被感染。

He said he was pleased the students had adapted to life on the boat and had kept up their education on the long trip.

他说，很高兴学生们已经适应了船上的生活，并在长途航行中继续他们的学业。

"They are actually far ahead now of their Dutch school colleagues," Meijer said. "They have made us very proud."

梅杰说：“实际上，孩子们在旅程学到的远远超过在学校所学。”“他们让我们非常自豪。”

I'm Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

cruise –n. a trip for pleasure by boat

flexible –adj. willing to change and try different things

bucket list –n. a list of things that a person has not done before but wants to try at least once in their life

relax –v. to become less tense, to ease tension

boring –adj. not interesting

adapted –v. to change behavior to make it easier to live under a new set of conditions

colleague –n. a fellow worker