“

登山是一类比较常见的健身活动，此次端午佳节，想来这也是很多人的假期活动之一。

但是对于有些人，它却不只是闲暇时光的选择，而是一生的追求。他们的生命，是一场无止境的攀登……

”

Highest, fastest

最高，最快

［1］Ueli Steck, speed-soloingalpinist, died on April 30th, aged 40.

solo：徒手攀登，什么都不佩戴，任何保护措施都不要的

alpinist：登山家，阿尔卑斯登山家

尤里·斯特克，速度徒手登山家，4月30日逝世，年仅40岁。

［2］THE most terrifying thing that happened to Ueli Steck was not the moment anavalanchecaught him onAnnapurna, the tenth-highest mountain in the world, and almost knocked him off. Nor was it the time when—perhaps because, on the same mountain, a rock hit hishelmet—he found himself in an instant 300 metres below,concussedandbruisedall over. Each event caused him towonderwhether he liked risky climbing too much. But as one of the best alpinists of hisgeneration, and often the fastest, he did not wonder long.

avalanche：雪崩；崩塌

Annapurna：安纳布尔那山

helmet：头盔; 钢盔; 盔形物，盔状物

[例句]He donned work clothes and a wicker helmet.

他穿上工作服，戴上柳条帽。

concuss：使震荡，脑震荡

bruised：[医] 青肿的，瘀紫的

[例句]I had only bruised my knee.

我只是把膝盖给碰伤了。

wonder：感到疑惑;纳闷儿;想弄明白

generation：一代人，时代

发生在尤里·斯特克身上的最可怕的事情，既不是世界第十高峰安纳布尔纳峰雪崩击中他并且差点把他击倒。也不是在同样的山上，岩石砸中他的头盔后，他跌落了300米，造成了脑部震荡和浑身错多处擦伤。每每发生这样的危险事情，就会导致他开始想自己是不是过于热爱危险的攀登了，但作为那一代的徒手攀登最强者也常常是最快者，他没有踟蹰太久。

［3］No, the mostfrighteningepisodeoccurred in April 2013, when he found himself under attack by a crowd of rock-throwingsherpasat Base Camp II onEverest. That was the moment he thought he might die, a thought he had not had before. The sherpas were angry because, as they fixed the safety ropes above the camp, he andtwo others had ignored the rule to keep the mountain clear of climbers and had come up past them. He had no wish to bedisrespectful. But since he made no use of safety ropes, why shouldn’t he go up?

frightening：吓人; 令人恐惧的; 引起突然惊恐的

[例句]It was a very frightening experience and they were very courageous.

那是一次让人胆战心惊的经历，而他们表现得非常勇敢。

episode：插曲; 一集; 片段; 一段经历;

[例句]This episode is bound to be a deep embarrassment for Washington

这一事件肯定会让华盛顿非常难堪。

Sherpas：夏尔巴人（西藏的一个种族）( Sherpa的名词复数 )

[例句]This time the party took porters from Hunza instead of Sherpas from Nepal.

这次探险队没有从尼泊尔雇佣夏尔巴人做挑夫，而是雇佣了罕萨人。

Everest：珠穆朗玛峰

disrespectful：无礼的，不尊重的

以上都不是最恐怖的，最恐怖的事发生在2013年4月，珠穆朗玛峰的二号基地上，他发现一群扔石头的夏尔巴人要攻击他，那时他第一次想到自己可能会死，而这种想法以前从未出现。夏尔巴人很生气是因为，他们在固定帐篷的安全绳索的时候，斯特克和他的另外两个同伴忽略了应该留出上方空地的规定，直接越过了那些固定绳索的夏尔巴人。斯特克并没打算无礼，只是认为他既然不需要安全绳索，为什么不能上去呢？

［4］Hehad a problem withpeople on mountains. Off the slopes he could begregariousand funny; on them, he became sointenselyfocused that he could not bear distraction. He climbed light, with just fourcarabiners, anice-pick,cramponson his boots, acoiledrope forrappellingon descents, and his own-brandtitaniumSwissArmy knife with a large file andbolt headwrench. To rely on any moregearwas onlyhalf-doingthe climb. He went up cleanly, leaving only his footprints.Supplementaryoxygen hescornedas “false air” and “bottled doping”; he never used it.

have a problem with sth：不同意，反对，在某方面有困难或问题

gregarious：群居; 爱交际的，合群的;

[例句]She is such a gregarious and outgoing person.

她很外向，喜欢交朋结友。

intensely：强烈地，极度，剧烈地

carabiner：竖钩

ice-pick：冰锥

crampons：鞋底钉，铁钩，攀登用鞋底钉( crampon的名词复数 )

[例句]Using "evolved" techniques for crampons and tools.

使用冰爪和技术冰镐“发展后的”技术。

coil：盘绕; 卷成一圈;绕成盘状; 卷绕成圈

[例句]Tod shook his head angrily and slung the coil of rope over his shoulder

托德气愤地摇了摇头，然后把那卷绳子往肩上一搭。

rappel：绕绳下降；坐式下降法；用绳索下降;

[例句]They learned to rappel down a cliff.

他们学会了绕绳从绝壁上滑下。

titanium：<化>钛;

[例句]The company produces titanium alloy.

该公司生产钛合金。

bolt head：螺栓头

[例句]A wrench with a hook that fits over a nut or bolt head.

有一个钩子套在螺母或螺栓头的扳手。

wrench：扳手; 扭伤; 突然的悲痛

[例句]He felt two men wrench the suitcase from his hand

他感觉有两个人在使劲拽他手里的手提箱。

gear：服装、设备

half-doing：事倍功半

supplementary：增补的，追加的;补充者; 增补物

[例句]Provide them with additional background or with supplementary information.

给他们提供额外的背景资料或补充信息。

scorn：蔑视; 轻视; 看不起; 不屑做;嘲笑; 表示轻蔑; 表示鄙视;

[例句]Researchers greeted the proposal with scorn

研究员们对这个建议嗤之以鼻。

他不喜欢山上有人。山下他可以是合群的，但在山上他必须全神贯注。他一向轻装简行，只带四个竖钩、一个冰锥、靴子上的鞋底钉、一卷下降用的绳子，和他自己品牌的钛瑞士军刀（带有一个大的锉刀和螺栓扳手），而登山中再带其他设备只是事倍功半。他来时身无长物，离开时也只留下足迹。备用的氧气被他称为“废气”和“装在瓶子里的毒品”，他从来不用。

［5］Naturally, he preferred to climb alone.Troddentracksdeterredhim, and he would wait until fresh snowobscureda route in order to work out his own. After his marriage, he promised his wife he would not do solo climbs; but somehow the right partner did not appear, or gave up, and he had to go on by himself. On his firstexpedition, at 12 above his home inEmmentalwith an oldmountaineer, he was given the lead from the start; consequently, hefrettedto see anyone ahead of him.

trodden：踏出; 踩，踏( tread的过去分词 ); 踩成; 步行于

[例句]The cattle had trodden a path to the pond.

牛群踏出了一条通往池塘的小径。

deter：阻止，制止

obscure：遮掩；遮蔽；使模糊不清

expedition：考察，远航

Emmental：埃默河谷

mountaineer：登山者，登山运动员

fretted：苦恼，烦恼，发愁

自然地，他更喜欢一个人攀登。如果前人踏出的痕迹阻止了他，他会等待新雪覆盖所有的印记，这样他就能开拓自己的路线了。他结婚后，向妻子保证说不会再进行徒手攀登。但有时合适的伙伴没有出现或者放弃了，那他就不得不自己继续。12岁那年在他家前的埃默河谷，和一位老登山家一起，开始他领队，结果他不能忍受任何人在自己前面。

［6］Nor did he want help. On his firstascentof Everest in 2012 he insisted that his guide, Tenji Sherpa, was a partner, not an assistant. He wanted to be called “Dai”, brother, not “Sir”. He made the breakfast tea and they ate together,cornflakesorbarley tsampa, as the sun came up. This was both acourtesyand a statement of self-reliance. Pretty soon, as usual, hepeeled offand made for thesummitalone.

ascent：登高

Dai：表示兄弟，

cornflakes：脆玉米片

barley tsampa：大麦糌粑，糌粑是一种藏民常吃的一种食物。

courtesy：礼貌，谦恭

peel off：peel是皮，peel off就是剥皮，有剥离的含义，引申为离队。

summit：山顶，顶峰

他也不想要帮助。在他2012年第一次登珠峰的时候，他坚持要导游滕吉——一个夏尔巴人——作为同伴而非助手。他想被称作“兄弟”而不是“先生”。太阳初升的时候，他会做早茶，两个人一起享用脆玉米片和大麦糌粑。他这样做一是礼貌另外也是自力更生的体现。很快，像平常一样，他离开队伍自己前往顶峰。

［7］The worst aspect of other climbers was that theyheld him back. Not for him “the brotherhood of the rope”. Speed wasof theessence. In his ownAlpshe hadshatteredrecords: the north face of theEiger, a 1,800- metre ice-wall, climbed in 3:54 hours, the 2:47; the north face of theGrandes Jorasses, 1,200 metres, never climbed by him before, in 2:21; the north face of theMatterhornin 1:56. He would set twostopwatchesand race off, running when he could, or hurling in his ice-pick andhaulinghimself up after. Thesefeatsearned him thenickname“the Swiss machine”, which he hated. He was not a robot, more a cat or a spider, moving easily and with absolute long-armedprecisionon the sheerest, iciest rocks.

hold back：阻挡，阻止

of the essence：十分重要的

Alps：阿尔卑斯山

shatter：粉碎，碎裂

Eiger：艾格尔峰

Grandes Jorasses：[地名] [法国·意大利] 大若拉斯山

Matterhorn：[地名] [美国、南极洲] 马特峰

stopwatches：（赛跑等记时用的）秒表，跑表

haul：拖，拉，运送

feat：伟业，壮举，卓绝的手艺

nickname：绰号

precision：精确度

其他登山者最糟糕的地方就是他们会拖后腿。绳索上的兄弟情不适合他。对他来说，速度是不可或缺的。在阿尔卑斯山他打破了记录：艾格尔峰北面，一道1800米的冰墙，他只用了三小时54分钟登上去，后来又提升到两个小时47分钟；大若拉斯山，他之前从未爬过，在两个小时21分钟时间内完成。马特峰北壁在一个小时56分钟内完成。攀登的时候，他会带着两个计时器，以竞赛的速度，能跑的时候就跑，之后猛摔自己的冰锥，把自己拖拽上来。这些令人难以置信的攀登技巧，让他获得了瑞士机器的称号，他很不喜欢这个名字。他不是机器人，更像是猫或者蜘蛛，能够极其精准的清楚峭壁上冰岩石的位置。

［8］He argued that it was simply safer to climb fast, not tolingeron high mountains where the cold or the weather might kill you. But he also came to enjoy speed climbing forits own sake. His training regime bordered on craziness: 1,200workoutsa year, his routine run three laps up 2,000 vertical metres. Focus, focus, all the time. He had to make sure that every muscle was pulling; that way, he would know how long he couldclingto an ice-nub, or work anoverhang. On that first Everest climb he hadseethedbecause, without extra oxygen, he was overtaken by alpinists who had it. His slowness was unbearable. He didn’t just need to be better than other people, but better than himself.

linger：逗留，徘徊; 缓慢消失

[例句]The scent of her perfume lingered on in the room

她的香水味道在房间里久久不散。

its own sake：其自身的缘故

workout：体育锻炼；体育训练

cling：坚持;附着于，紧贴;抓紧或抱住

overhang：垂悬物；凸出物

seethe：生闷气; 翻滚; 强压怒火; 充满

[例句]She took it calmly at first but under the surface was seething.

她起初平静地接受了，但内心却气呼呼的。

他争论说，仅仅是爬得快点会更安全，在高山上逗留寒冷或天气可能会害死你。但是他自身也开始享受速度。他的生存法则近乎疯狂：一年健身1200次体育锻炼，一天三次还包括两千米垂直跑。全程要专注再专注，那样他才能确保每一条肌肉都在拉伸用力。他想知道他能在一个冰块或垂悬物上挂多久。在第一次珠穆朗玛峰攀登中，他很恼火，因为其他带多余的氧气的登山者超过了他。他无法忍受慢。他不是仅仅要比别人强，而是要超越自己。

［9］Speed proved harder in theHimalayasthan in the Alps. His best time, though the avalanche wrecked his attempt to record it, was onAnnapurna’ssouth face in 2013:7,219 metres up and down alone in 28 hours (the next party took the usual eightdays). He returned this April to plan another ascent of Everest with atraversetoLhotse, the world’s fourth-highest peak, by a route not tried before. He fell to his death while climbing Nuptse first; he was going to go with Tenji Sherpa but, again, was alone. He felt “super-ready”; why wait?

Himalayas：喜马拉雅山脉

[例句]Few Europeans who had ventured beyond the Himalayas had returned to tell the tale.

少数几个冒险翻越了喜马拉雅山的欧洲人回来后讲述了这个故事。

Annapurna：安娜普尔那峰

traverse：横穿，横贯

Lhotse：洛子峰

比起阿尔卑斯山，在喜马拉雅山上想保持速度更加艰难。尽管当时发生雪崩使得他自己没能记录时间，他的最佳成绩就是2013年在28小时之内往返攀爬海拔7219米的安娜普尔那峰南壁，接下来的登山团队仍然是花费了8天的时间完成往返。今年四月，他返回珠穆拉玛峰，准备攀登洛子峰——世界第四高峰，通过一条没人试过的路线。开始攀登洛子峰时，他就身亡了。他本来要和登山伙伴滕吉一起去，但最后再一次一个人。他觉得自己完全准备好了，为什么要等呢？

The endless challenge

永无止境的挑战

［10］In his speed anddaring, he was unusual among climbers. In his attitude to high mountains, he was not. There was norhapsodizing. At the top of Everest it was his success that was “beautiful”, not the view, which he found “familiar”. Mountains

challenged him, so he took up the challenge, again and again, to prove himself.

daring：胆量;勇气;冒险精神

rhapsodize：狂热地说，写作狂想诗文

[例句]The critics rhapsodized over her performance in 'Autumn Sonata'.

评论家对于她在电影《秋日奏鸣曲》中的表演大加赞赏。

他的速度和勇气与其他登山者都不同。在对于高山的态度上，却是一样的。没有狂热的赞美。站在珠穆朗玛峰顶，美好的是他成功了，而不是风景，风景都是相似的。一座座高山挑战着他，他一次又一次接受挑战来证明自己。

［11］So too did Min Bahadur Sherchan, aNepalesewho, on May 6th, died at the Everest base camp. He was 85, and planned to become the oldest person to reach the summit. He had set the record in 2008, at 76; a Japanese had broken it five years later. This was his fourth attempt toregainit. Mr Sherchan had several aims in mind, including promoting peace and inspiring the old. But he had no ambition to break anyone else’s record, he said; just his own. This was between the mountain, and him. It might have been Ueli Steck speaking.

Nepalese：尼泊尔的;尼泊尔人

[例句]The Nepalese side expressed sincere appreciation for the kind gesture and understanding.

尼方对中方的善意和理解表示衷心感谢。

regain：重返

米恩·巴哈多尔·谢尔陈，以为尼泊尔人，也是这样。他在5月6日攀登珠穆朗玛峰的路上不幸身亡。他已经85岁了，计划成为达到顶点年龄最大的人。2008年，76岁的他创下记录，五年后被一个日本人打破。这是他的第四次尝试重返珠峰。谢尔陈先生有几个目的，包括促进和平和鼓励老年人。但是他说并不想打破任何人的记录，只是突破自己。这时山和他之间的事。也许这也是尤里·斯特克想说的。

对于尤里·斯特克这样的登山者，也许除了死亡，没有什么能阻止他们前行的脚步。然而即使是死亡，也不能打倒人类不断探索的精神，因为每一个倒下的登山者后面，都有一个斗志昂扬刚刚开始的新人。

每个人的生命都是一场无止境的攀登，只是每个人心中的“珠穆朗玛峰”各不相同。“会当凌绝顶，一览众山小”，古往今来的仁人志士无不是不断追求挑战，努力超越自己，而希望我们都能勇于为了自己的理想而奋斗，不畏艰险，有登临绝顶的那一天。

英文原文：

http://www.economist.com/news

讲解：霞姐 / Tiassa / Angel

编排 / 校对：Angel

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