大学英语精读听力第一册 unit2

[00:00.00]Unit Two　　Text
[00:21.34]At sixty-five Francis Chichester set out to sail single-handed round the world.
[00:28.21]This is the story of that adventure.
[00:27.21]SAILING ROUND THE WORLD
[00:30.16]Before he sailed round the world single-handed,
[00:34.45]Francis Chichester had already surprised his friends several times.
[00:34.55]He had tried to fly round the world but failed.
[00:38.42]That was in 1931.
[00:41.58]The years passed.
[00:44.37]He gave up flying and began sailing.
[00:46.46]He enjoyed it greatly.
[00:49.31]Chichester was already 58 years old
[00:52.39]when he won the first solo transatlantic sailing race.
[00:56.57]His old dream of going round the world came back,
[01:00.91]but this time he would sail.
[01:00.96]His friends and doctors did not think he could do it,
[01:05.32]as he had lung cancer.
[01:07.52]But Chichester was determined to carry out his plan.
[01:11.85]In August,1966,at the age of nearly sixty-five,
[01:18.72]an age when many men retire,
[01:21.18]he began the greatest voyage of his life.
[01:24.97]Soon,he was away in his new 16-meter boat,Gipsy Moth.
[01:31.00]Chichester followed the route of the great nineteenth century clipper ships.
[01:37.56]But the clippers had had plenty of crew.
[01:40.93]Chichester did it all by himself,
[01:46.26]even after the main steering device had been damaged by gales.
[01:51.11]Chichester covered 14,100 miles before stopping in Sydney, Australia.
[01:58.95]This was more than twice the distance anyone had previously sailed alone.
[02:04.65]He arrived in Australia on 12 December,
[02:09.32]just 107 days out from England.
[02:12.77]He received a warm welcome from the Australians and from his
[02:12.84]family who had flown there to meet him.
[02:15.38]On shore,Chichester could not walk without help.
[02:20.55]Everybody said the same thing:he had done enough;
[02:24.62]he must not go any further.But he did not listen.
[02:29.40]After resting in Sydney for a few weeks,
[02:33.35]Chichester set off once more
[02:35.70]in spite of his friends' attempts to dissuade him.
[02:39.28]The second half of his voyage was by far the more dangerous part,
[02:39.42]during which he sailed round the treacherous Cape Horn.
[02:43.45]On 29 January he left Australia.
[02:48.28]The next night, the blackest he had ever known,
[02:52.17]the sea became so rough that the boat almost turned over.
[02:56.53]Food,clothes,and broken glass were all mixed together.
[03:01.47]Fortunately,the damage to the boat was not too serious.
[03:06.35]Chichester calmly got into bed and went to sleep.
[03:06.82]When he woke up,the sea had become calm again.
[03:10.71]Still,he could not help thinking that if anything should happen,
[03:15.62]the nearest person he could contact by radio,
[03:18.99]unless there was a ship nearby,
[03:21.13]would be on an island 885 miles away.
[03:25.70]After succeeding in sailing round Cape Horn,
[03:30.09]Chichester sent the following radio message to London:
[03:33.65]"I feel as if I had wakened from a nightmare.
[03:37.88]Wild horses could not drag me down
[03:40.86]to Cape Horn and that sinister Southern Ocean again."
[03:44.93]Just before 9 o'clock on Sunday evening 28 May,1967,
[03:52.09]he arrived back in England,
[03:54.28]where a quarter of a million people were waiting to welcome him.
[03:58.41]Queen Elizabeth II knighted him with the very sword
[04:03.06]that Queen Elizabeth I had used
[04:05.31]almost 400 years earlier to knight Sir Francis Drake
[04:09.98]after he had sailed round the world for the first time.
[04:13.53]The whole voyage from England and back had covered 28,500 miles.
[04:21.08]It had taken him nine months,
[04:23.64]of which the sailing time was 226 days.
[04:27.95]He had done what he wanted to accomplish.
[04:31.53]Like many other adventurers,
[04:38.22]Chichester had experienced fear and conquered it.
[04:41.88]In doing so,he had undoubtedly learnt something about himself.
[04:47.96]Moreover,in the modern age when human beings depend so much on machines,
[04:54.42]he had given men throughout the world new pride.