读者文摘:我不知道自己还能活多久(2)（在线收听）

The goal that Good Friday was simple enough: transfer the corn he'd just picked up from a soggy field ten miles south to the silo on his homestead,

耶稣受难节的目标很简单：把他刚从南部10英里处潮湿的田里捡来的玉米转移到他家中的筒仓里。

quiet now that he'd dispatched his help and Lori had left for Sioux City, Iowa, nearly an hour away.

他已经派出了人手，洛莉动身去了将近一小时车程的爱荷华州苏城。

He parked his truck alongside the tractor next to the silo and tilted his truck's long, corn-filled bed using the hydraulic hoist.

他把卡车停在靠近筒仓的拖拉机旁边，用液压提升机将卡车装满玉米的车箱倾斜。

Connected to the tractor was a large bin called a hopper, which Kurt wheeled beneath the truck bed to catch the corn when he opened the gate.

与拖拉机相连的是一个叫做装料斗的大箱子，库尔特打开闸门时，在卡车车箱底下旋转这个大箱子来接住玉米。

Inside the hopper, covered by a protective grate, was a giant iron corkscrew, about 30 feet long, called an auger.

在覆盖着防护栅的装料斗内部，有一个大约30英尺长的巨型铁制螺旋钻。

Its job was to rotate, slowly and constantly, to convey the corn up a long yellow chute and dump it into the top of the gleaming chrome silo.

螺旋钻的任务是缓慢而不停地旋转，把玉米运上一条长长的黄色斜槽，然后把它倾倒到闪闪发光的铬筒仓顶部。

With everything now in place, Kurt turned the auger on. Despite all that prep work, something went slightly off-kilter, as often happens in the life of a farmer.

一切就绪后，库尔特打开螺旋钻。尽管做了所有准备工作，有些事情还是有点不对劲，农民生活中经常发生这样的事。

In this case, the corn released too quickly, causing a torrent of kernels to pile up over the sides of the hopper and atop the protective grate,

这次是玉米倒出的速度过快，导致大量玉米粒堆积在装料斗侧面和防护栅顶部，

concealing the auger's rotating blades.

盖住了螺旋钻旋转的叶片。

Kurt stepped onto the corn-filled hopper to lower the truck's gate and stem the flow.

库尔特走上装满玉米的装料斗，放下卡车车门，堵住那些流动的玉米粒。

In his haste, he forgot that the grate had a rather large hole in it,

他在匆忙中忘记了防护栅上有一个大洞，

one he'd cut himself months earlier when the ground was frozen solid and he couldn't fit the auger beneath the grain bin.

几个月前，地面冻得很硬，他无法把螺旋钻装到粮仓下面时，是他割了这个大洞。

He remembered it only when his foot sank into the corn through that very hole—and into the whirring auger funnel.

只有当他的脚从那个洞里陷入玉米中，踏进旋转的螺旋钻里时，他才想起这个洞。

It snagged his foot and wrenched him forward, shredding his jeans, then his ankle.

螺旋钻钩住他的脚，向前猛拉他，撕碎了他的牛仔裤，然后是脚踝。

He fell backward onto the gravel path.

他倒在了砾石小径上。

The blades, still churning, slowly pulled him into the hopper, all the while tearing flesh from bone.

仍在搅动的叶片将他缓慢地拉入装料斗，同时把骨头上的肉撕扯下来。