第42课

旁白 neutral

Cave exploration, or pot-holing, as it has come to be known, is a relatively new sport.

洞穴探险，即人们所知的“探洞”，是一项比较新的运动。

旁白 neutral

Perhaps it is the desire for solitude or the chance of making an unexpected discovery that lures people down to the depths of the earth.

也许是出于对孤独的渴望，或是想作一次意想不到的发现，把人们引到地下去的。

旁白 neutral

It is impossible to give a satisfactory explanation for a pot-holer's motives.

想对探洞者的动机作出满意的解释是不可能的。

旁白 neutral

For him, caves have the same peculiar fascination which high mountains have for the climber.

对于他来说，洞穴有着与高山对于登山者一样的奇异魅力。

旁白 neutral

They arouse instincts which can only be dimly understood.

它们唤起人们只能模模糊糊感知到的本能。

旁白 neutral

Exploring really deep caves is not a task for the Sunday afternoon rambler.

勘探真正深的洞穴并非是周日下午散步者所能胜任的。

旁白 neutral

Such undertakings require the precise planning and foresight of military operations.

这种活动需要像军事行动一样精确的计划和预见性。

旁白 neutral

It can take as long as eight days to rig up rope ladders and to establish supply bases before a descent can be made into a very deep cave.

在下到一个很深的洞穴之前，光是架设绳梯和建立补给站就可能需要长达8天的时间。

旁白 neutral

Precautions of this sort are necessary, for it is impossible to foretell the exact nature of the difficulties which will confront the pot-holer.

这种预防是必要的，因为无法预知探洞者将会遇到的困难究竟是什么性质。

旁白 neutral

The deepest known cave in the world is the Gouffre Berger near Grenoble.

世界上已知最深的洞穴是格勒诺布尔附近的贝杰深洞。

旁白 neutral

It extends to a depth of 3,723 feet.

它深达3723英尺。

旁白 neutral

This immense chasm has been formed by an underground stream which has tunnelled a course through a flaw in the rocks.

这个巨大的深渊是由一条地下河形成的，这条河在岩石的裂缝中开凿出一条通道。

旁白 neutral

The entrance to the cave is on a plateau in the Dauphine Alps.

洞口位于多芬阿尔卑斯山脉的一个高原上。

旁白 neutral

As it is only six feet across, it is barely noticeable.

由于洞口只有6英尺宽，所以几乎难以察觉。

旁白 neutral

The cave might never have been discovered had not the entrance been spotted by the distinguished French pot-holer, Berger.

如果不是杰出的法国探洞者贝杰发现了洞口，这个洞穴可能永远也不会被发现。

旁白 neutral

Since its discovery, it has become a sort of pot-holers' Everest.

自从被发现以来，它已成为探洞者们的一种“珠穆朗玛峰”。

旁白 neutral

Though a number of descents have been made, much of it still remains to be explored.

尽管已经进行过多次下降探险，但其中大部分仍有待勘探。

旁白 neutral

A team of pot-holers recently went down the Gouffre Berger.

一队探洞者最近下到了贝杰深洞。

旁白 neutral

After entering the narrow gap on the plateau,

他们进入高原上的那个狭窄的缝隙后，

旁白 neutral

they climbed down the steep sides of the cave until they came to a narrow corridor.

沿着洞穴陡峭的侧壁向下攀爬，直到来到一条狭窄的通道。

旁白 neutral

They had to edge their way along this,

他们不得不侧身沿着这条通道前行，

旁白 neutral

sometimes wading across shallow streams, or swimming across deep pools.

有时涉过浅浅的小溪，有时游过深深的水潭。

旁白 neutral

Suddenly they came to a waterfall which dropped into an underground lake at the bottom of the cave.

突然，他们来到一个瀑布，瀑布落入洞穴底部的一个地下湖中。

旁白 neutral

They plunged into the lake, and after loading their gear on an inflatable rubber dinghy, let the current carry them to the other side.

他们跳入湖中，把装备装到一艘充气橡皮艇上，然后让水流把他们带到对岸。

旁白 neutral

To protect themselves from the icy water, they had to wear special rubber suits.

为了保护自己不受冰冷湖水的侵袭，他们不得不穿上特制的橡胶衣。

旁白 neutral

At the far end of the lake, they came to huge piles of rubble which had been washed up by the water.

在湖的远端，他们遇到了被水冲刷而成的巨大碎石堆。

旁白 neutral

In this part of the cave, they could hear an insistent booming sound

在洞穴的这部分，他们能听到一种持续不断的轰鸣声，

旁白 neutral

which they found was caused by a small waterspout shooting down into a pool from the roof of the cave.

他们发现这是由一股小小的水柱从洞顶射入水潭所引起的。

旁白 neutral

Squeezing through a cleft in the rocks, the pot-holers arrived at an enormous cavern, the size of a huge concert hall.

探洞者们挤过岩石中的一道裂缝，来到一个巨大的洞穴，其大小相当于一个巨大的音乐厅。

旁白 neutral

After switching on powerful arc lights,

打开强光弧光灯后，

旁白 neutral

they saw great stalagmites--some of them over forty feet high--rising up like tree-trunks to meet the stalactites suspended from the roof.

他们看到了巨大的石笋——其中一些高达40多英尺——像树干一样向上生长，与悬挂在洞顶的钟乳石相接。

旁白 neutral

Round about, piles of limestone glistened in all the colours of the rainbow.

四周，一堆堆的石灰石闪耀着彩虹般的光芒。

旁白 neutral

In the eerie silence of the cavern, the only sound that could be heard was made by water which dripped continuously from the high dome above them.

在洞穴诡异的寂静中，唯一能听到的声音是头顶高高的拱顶不断滴落的水声。