第39课

旁白 neutral

The rough road across the plain soon became so bad that we tried to get Bruce to drive back to the village we had come from.

穿过平原的崎岖道路很快变得非常糟糕，以至于我们试图让布鲁斯开车回到我们来时的村庄。

旁白 neutral

Even though the road was littered with boulders and pitted with holes, Bruce was not in the least perturbed.

尽管路面上布满了巨石和坑洞，布鲁斯却丝毫没有感到不安。

旁白 neutral

Glancing at his map, he informed us that the next village was a mere twenty miles away.

他扫了一眼地图，告诉我们下一个村庄只有区区二十英里远。

旁白 neutral

It was not that Bruce always underestimated difficulties.

并不是布鲁斯总是低估困难。

旁白 neutral

He simply had no sense of danger at all.

他根本就没有危险意识。

旁白 neutral

No matter what the conditions were, he believed that a car should be driven as fast as it could possibly go.

无论条件如何，他都认为汽车应该尽可能快地行驶。

旁白 neutral

As we bumped over the dusty track, we swerved to avoid large boulders.

当我们在尘土飞扬的小路上颠簸时，我们猛打方向盘以避开大块巨石。

旁白 neutral

The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car.

车轮卷起石子，在车底下发出不祥的敲击声。

旁白 neutral

We felt sure that sooner or later a stone would rip a hole in our petrol tank or damage the engine.

我们确信迟早会有石子把我们的油箱撕开一个洞或者损坏发动机。

旁白 neutral

Because of this, we kept looking back, wondering if we were leaving a trail of oil and petrol behind us.

因此，我们不停地回头看，想知道我们是否在身后留下了一串油迹和汽油。

旁白 neutral

What a relief it was when the boulders suddenly disappeared,

当巨石突然消失时，我们松了一口气，

旁白 neutral

giving way to a stretch of plain where the only obstacles were clumps bushes.

取而代之的是一片平坦的开阔地，那里唯一的障碍物是灌木丛。

旁白 neutral

But there was worse to come. Just ahead of us there was a huge fissure.

但更糟糕的还在后面。就在我们前方，有一道巨大的裂缝。

旁白 neutral

In response to renewed pleadings, Bruce stopped.

布鲁斯响应我们再次的恳求，停了下来。

旁白 neutral

Though we all got out to examine the fissure, he remained in the car.

尽管我们都下车检查裂缝，他却仍然待在车里。

旁白 neutral

We informed him that the fissure extended for fifty yards and was two feet wide and four feet deep.

我们告诉他，那道裂缝绵延五十码，宽两英尺，深四英尺。

旁白 neutral

Even this had no effect.

即使这样也毫无作用。

旁白 neutral

Bruce went into a low gear and drove at a terrifying speed,

布鲁斯挂入低档，以惊人的速度行驶，

旁白 neutral

keeping the front wheels astride the crack as he followed its zigzag course.

让前轮跨过裂缝，沿着它之字形的路线前进。

旁白 neutral

Before we had time to worry about what might happen, we were back on the plain again.

还没等我们有时间担心会发生什么，我们又回到了平原上。

旁白 neutral

Bruce consulted the map once more and told us that the village was now only fifteen miles away.

布鲁斯又一次查阅了地图，告诉我们村庄现在只剩下十五英里远了。

旁白 neutral

Our next obstacle was a shallow pool of water about half a mile across.

我们的下一个障碍是一个大约半英里宽的浅水池。

旁白 neutral

Bruce charged at it, but in the middle, the car came to a grinding halt.

布鲁斯冲了过去，但在水池中央，汽车嘎然而止。

旁白 neutral

A yellow light on the dashboard flashed angrily and Bruce cheerfully announced that there was no oil in the engine!

仪表盘上一个黄灯愤怒地闪烁着，布鲁斯却高兴地宣布发动机里没油了！