英语流利说level7-u2-p2文本

Level 7

Unit 2

Part 2

The boiling river of the Amazon

亚马逊河的沸腾河流

by André

s Ruzo

As a boy in Lima, my grandfather told me a legend of the Spanish conquest of

Peru. Atahualpa, emperor of the Inca, had been captured and killed. Pizarro

and his conquistadors had grown rich, and tales of their conquest and glory

had reached Spain and was bringing new waves of Spaniards, hungry for gold

and

glory.

They

would

go

into

towns

and

ask

the

Inca,

another

civilization we can conquer? Where's more gold?

作为一个在利马的男孩，我的祖父告诉我一个关于西班牙征服秘鲁 的传说。印

加皇帝阿塔瓦尔帕被抓获并杀害。皮萨罗和他的征服者们发财了，他们征服和

荣耀的故事已经传到了西班牙，并带来了新一波的西班牙人，渴望黄金和荣耀。

他们会进入城镇问印加人，

“

我们能征服的另一 个文明在哪里？

”

黄金在哪里？

”

And the Inca, out of vengeance, told them,

the

gold

you

want

there.

In

fact,

there

is

a

city

called

Paititi

--

El

Dorado

in

Spanish -- made entirely of gold.

印加人出于报复，对他们说：< /p>

“

去亚马逊河。

”

你会找到所有你想要的金子。事

实上，在西班牙有一个叫

Pa ititi

的城市，是用黄金打造的。

The

Spanish

set

off

into

the

jungle,

but

the

few

that

return

come

back

with

stories,

stories

of

powerful

shamans,

of

warriors

with

poisoned

arrows,

of

trees

so

tall

they

blotted

out

the

sun,

spiders

that

ate

birds,

snakes

that

swallowed men whole and a river that boiled.

西班牙人出发进入丛林，但少数回来的故 事，故事的强大的萨满，勇士与毒箭，

树高，他们遮住了太阳，蜘蛛，吃鸟，一条蛇吞了 人，一条河开了。

All

this became

a

childhood memory.

And

years passed.

I'm

working

on my

PhD at SMU, trying to understand Peru's geothermal energy potential, when I

remember

this

legend,

and

I

began

asking

that

question.

Could

the

boiling

river exist?

这一切都成了童年的记忆。几年过 去了。我在

SMU

攻读博士学位，试图了解

秘鲁的地热能潜力，当我想起这个传说时，我开始问这个问题。沸腾的河流会

存在吗 ？

I

asked

colleagues

from

universities,

the

government,

oil,

gas

and

mining

companies, and the answer was a unanimous no. And this makes sense. You

see, boiling rivers do exist in the world, but they're generally associated with

volcanoes.

You

need

a

powerful

heat

source

to

produce

such

a

large

geothermal manifestation. And as you can see from the red dots here, which

are volcanoes, we don't have volcanoes in the Amazon, nor in most of Peru.

So it follows: We should not expect to see a boiling river.

我问来自大学、政 府、石油、天然气和矿业公司的同事，答案是一致的。这是

有道理的。你看，沸腾的河流 确实存在于世界上，但它们通常与火山有关。你

需要一个强大的热源来产生这么大的地热 能。你可以从这里的红点看到，这是

火山，我们没有在亚马逊的火山，也没有在秘鲁的大 部分。因此，我们不应该

期望看到一条沸腾的河流。

Telling this same story at a family dinner, my aunt tells me,

André

s,

I've been there. I've swum in that river.

在一次家宴上讲同 样的故事，我阿姨告诉我，

“

但是，没有，安德雷，我去过那< /p>

里。我在那条河里游泳。

”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Then

my

uncle

jumps

in.

André

s,

she's

not

kidding.

You

see,

you

can

only swim in it after a very heavy rain, and it's protected by a powerful shaman.

Your aunt, she's friends with his wife.

然后我叔叔跳了进来。

“

不，安德雷，她不是在开玩笑。你看，你只能在一场大

雨之后在里面游泳，而且它被一个强大的萨满保护着。你的姨妈，她和他的妻

子是朋友 。

”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Có

mo?

Có

mo?

You know, despite all my scientific skepticism, I found myself

hiking into the

jungle,

guided

by

my

aunt,

over

700

kilometers

away

from

the

nearest

volcanic

center,

and

well,

honestly,

mentally

preparing

myself

to

behold

the

legendary

你知道，尽管我有很多科学上的怀疑，但 我还是在我姑妈的指导下，徒步穿越

了离最近的火山中心

700

多公里的丛林，而且，老实说，心里准备着去看那传

说中的

“

亚马逊河暖流

”

。

But then ... I heard something, a low surge that got louder and louder as we

came closer. It sounded like ocean waves constantly crashing, and as we got

closer, I saw smoke, vapor, coming up through the trees. And then, I saw this.

但是

……

我听到一些东西，一个低的浪涌，当我们走近时， 声音越来越大。它

听起来像海浪不断撞击，当我们走近时，我看到烟雾，蒸气，从树上冒 出来。

然后，我看到了这个。

I immediately grabbed for my thermometer, and the average temperatures in

the

river

were

86

degrees

C.

This

is not

quite

the

100-degree

C boiling

but

definitely close enough. The river flowed hot and fast. I followed it upriver and

was led by, actually, the shaman's apprentice to the most sacred site on the

river. And this is what's bizarre -- It starts off as a cold stream. And here, at

this site, is the home of the Yacumama, mother of the waters, a giant serpent

spirit who births hot and cold water. And here we find a hot spring, mixing with

cold stream water underneath her protective motherly jaws and thus bringing

their legends to life.

我立刻抓起 我的温度计，河水的平均温度是摄氏

86

度。这不是相当于

100

摄

氏度的沸腾，但绝对足够接近。河 水又热又快。我跟着它向上游走去，事实上，

萨满的学徒来到了河上最神圣的地方。奇怪 的是，它开始时是一股冷流。在这

里，在这个地点，是亚库马的家，水的母亲，一个巨大 的蛇精神谁出生热和冷

水。在这里，我们找到了一个温泉，在她保护的母亲的下颚下，混 合着冰冷的

溪水，从而将他们的传说带到了生活中。

The next morning, I woke up and --

第二天早上，我醒来，

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I asked for tea. I was handed a mug, a tea bag and, well, pointed towards the

river. To my surprise, the water was clean and had a pleasant taste, which is

a little weird for geothermal systems.

我要茶。我被递给一个杯子，一个茶包，而且，嗯，指向河。令我惊讶的是，