第二冊第15篇：到太平洋底的旅行
L.G. Alexander L.G.亞歷山大
The journey two naval officers made some time ago to the very deepest point on the earth makes us realize how much of the world still remains to be explored. The two men went down seven miles to the bottoms of the Pacific Ocean inside a small steel ball called a 'bathyscaphe'(1) to find out if there are any ocean currents(2) or signs of life. Above the ball there was a special tank full of petrol which was slowly emptied(3) into the water to make the bathyscaphe heavy enough to complete its journey.
不久前，兩位海軍軍官到地球表面上最深處所作的旅行，使我們意識到世界上還有多么多的地方依然有待于探索。這兩個(gè)人在一只叫做"深海潛水器"的小鋼球內(nèi)，下沉七英里到達(dá)太平洋底部，為了探明那里是否有洋流和生命跡象。球的上端有一只特制的裝滿汽油的箱子。汽油被慢慢地注入水中，使深海潛水器能夠有足夠的重量下沉以完成它的海底旅行。
It was necessary to set out early, so that the bathyscaphe would come to the surface in daylight, and so be easily found by the mother ship(4) which would be waiting for it. The divers began preparations at dawn and soon afterwards, when all was ready, the steel ball disappeared under the surface of the water.
出發(fā)必須很早，以便潛水器在天還亮著時(shí)能回到海面，這樣就容易為等候在水面的母艦發(fā)現(xiàn)。天剛破曉，潛水員們就開始準(zhǔn)備，不久，一切準(zhǔn)備就緒，鋼球就在水面上消失了。
The divers felt as if they were going down steps as they passed through warm and cold layers of water(5). In time(6), the temperature dropped to freezing-point and the men shivered inside the ball. They kept in touch with the mother ship by telephone describing how they felt. Then, at a depth of 3,000 feet, the telephone stopped working and they were quite cut off from the outside world. All went well until some four hours later at 30,000 feet, the men were startled by a loud, cracking noise: even the smallest hole in the ball would have meant instant death. Luckily, though, it was only one of the outer windows that had broken. Soon afterwards, the bathyscaphe touched the soft ocean floor raising a big cloud of 'dust' made up of small, dead sea-creatures. Here, powerful lights lit up the dark water and the men were surprised to see fish swimming just above them quite untroubled by the enormous water-pressure. But they did not dare to leave the lights on for long, as the heat from them made the water boil. Quite unexpectedly, the telephone began working again and the faint but clear voices of the officers were heard on the mother ship seven miles away. After a stay of thirty minutes the men began their journey up, arriving three hours later, cold and wet through, but none the worse(7) for theirexperience.
潛水員們在穿過暖水層和冷水層的時(shí)候，感到仿佛是在下梯級。后來水溫降到了冰點(diǎn)，這兩人在球內(nèi)冷得發(fā)抖。他們通過電話與母艦保持聯(lián)系，隨時(shí)詳細(xì)報(bào)告他們的感覺。接著，在三千英尺深處，電話突然中斷，他們與外界完全失去了聯(lián)系。一切都很順利，直到四個(gè)鐘頭以后，在三萬英尺水下，潛水員們被一聲很響的爆裂聲嚇了一跳：球上那怕出現(xiàn)極小的洞都意味著立即死亡。不過還算幸運(yùn)，只是外層的一扇窗碎了。不久，深海潛水器觸到松軟的海底，頓時(shí)揚(yáng)起了一大團(tuán)由小小的海生動(dòng)物遺骸組成的"塵埃"。這時(shí)，強(qiáng)烈的燈光把黑沉沉的海水照亮了，他們驚訝地看到魚兒在他們上面游動(dòng)，完全不受巨大的水壓的干擾?？墒撬麄儾桓野褵糸_得太久，因?yàn)闊艄獾臒崃渴购Ｋ序v。完全出乎意料地電話又通了，七英里外的母艦上又能聽到這兩個(gè)軍官的輕微然而清晰的聲音了。在海底逗留三十分鐘以后，他們開始返回，三小時(shí)后到達(dá)水面，冷得要命，渾身濕透，可是這次經(jīng)歷并沒有使他們受到絲毫損傷。
英文注釋：
(1) bathyscaphe: 深海潛水器。
(2) ocean currents: 洋流，海流。
(3)was slowly emptied：慢慢地倒光。
(4)the mother ship：(海軍)母艦。
(5)warm and cold layers of water;暖冷水層。
(6)in time：終于，最后。
(7)none the worse;并不因此而稍差。
