书城外语英语PARTY——时尚速递
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第16章 Fashion Sports时尚运动(5)

Concentration stretched to the limit, they edge their way into crevices crevice n.(墙壁, 岩石等的)裂缝as much as one thousand feet deep. Once they reach their destination and lower their ropes, there,s no turning back. The towering vertical walls make an emergency exit impossible. If someone gets hurt they are likely to die. Even a minor injury can be lifethreatening.

On their journey into this unforgiving world, they have to cross pools of near freezing water and dying from hypothermia is a very real threat. How do they keep the water out and the warmth in? by wearing specially designed immersionimmersion n.沉浸 suits, or dry suits, that insulateinsulate vt.使绝缘, 隔离 their body against the frigidfrigid adj.寒冷的, 冷淡的, water. So how do they escape these desolate canyons? With careful planning. Before beginning the journey, they determined the exact location where they would exit the canyon. They dropped ropes from above so they could climb out 2 days later. If they havn,t placed the ropes more than 16 miles to reach the end of canyon,using ascenders that clamp onto the rope, they slowly pull themselves up.

Canyoneer 3:

There,s this balance between use and preservation. Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? Are we okay just knowing they exist or do we go into them and enjoy them? In this spirit of other explorers, the answer seems obvious. These adventures will be climbing walls for years to come.

勇者的游戏——攀岩

大峡谷裂缝在西南部沙漠上蜿蜒迂回,犹如蛇朝它的猎物悄悄地潜行着一般。这种史前的地质奇观经过数世纪的雨袭和侵蚀而成。宽度只有窄窄的三英尺,深达千尺,只有很少人有勇气深入到这个神秘的世界里去一探究竟。

攀岩者1:攀岩结合了攀爬、凿洞、荒野远足以及攀绳下滑。这种结合是极度特别的,因为对于攀岩者来说,后果是很严重的。

哪怕在最好的准备条件下,攀岩依然十分危险。其中最大的一险是大自然母亲会宣泄她的无常喜怒。在1997年,一场突发的洪水将原本平静的峡谷化为白浪滔滔的狂流。十一人被卷入洪流中丧生。

攀岩者2:攀岩的危险有坠石、索具出现问题、泛洪以及冰冻的水和空气、攀岩者体温过低,获救的机会几乎为零。

精力的集中达到极限,攀岩者紧贴着峡缝爬下一千尺的深处。到目的地后放下绳索,就再也不能回头了。岩壁高耸陡峭,根本无路可逃。如果受伤,就有可能丧命。即使轻伤也会对生命构成威胁。

他们在这个无情世界的探索过程中,要涉过水温接近冰点的水潭,体温太低致死成为巨大的威胁。如何防水并保持体温呢?他们穿上特制的保温罩衫与冰冻的水隔绝开。那么他们又怎样逃出这荒凉的峡谷呢?凭精心的安排策划。在开始冒险前,他们就定下离开峡谷的确切位置,放下绳索,两日后从那里爬出来。如果没有预放足够长的绳索,他们就只能慢慢地把自己拉上去。

攀岩者3:在使用与保存之间要讲求平衡。是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存?仅仅知道它们的存在就行了呢还是进去一饱眼福?在其余探险者的脸上,答案似乎很明显。探险家们在未来几年中将会继续他们的冒险。

Yoga:Women,s Favorite

Feeling tired? Under too much stress? No time to exercise?

Well, you may want to try yoga. It,s what more and more people have been turning to to ease the troubles of modern life. Practically unheard unheard adj.未听到的, 未被倾听的, 未知的of in the West until 50 years ago, yoga has become one of the most popular health trends around.

Yoga has become so popular in recent years; it,s easy to overlook the fact that it is actually one of humankind,s oldest activities. Scholars think that yoga grew out of the methods used by shamansshaman n.萨满教的道士, 僧人或巫师 of the Indus Valley, more than 5,000 years ago.

Shamans were the holy men of early human civilization. Their role in society was to communicate with the spirit world to find solutions to problems facing their people. Over time, these shamans developed a system of mental and physical exercises to expand their consciousness, and therebythereby adv.因此, 从而, 在那方面, 在那附近 give a new perspective on the problems of daily life. These exercises formed the foundationfoundation n.基础, 根本, 建立, 创立, 地基, 基金, 基金会 of modern yoga.

For thousands of years yoga was practiced mainly in India. The exercises of yoga were incorporatedincorporated adj.组成公司的,合成一体的 into three of the Indian religions: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Technically, yoga is not a religion; it is a method that can be used by anyone to pursue their own religious (or nonreligious) goals. Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, practiced yogic meditationmeditation n.沉思, 冥想, and meditation is still a central part of Buddhism today.

Yoga was practically unknown to the West until the 1960s, when popular culture began to show an interest in Eastern religions. Pop culture icons, such as the Beatles, helped popularize yoga by showing interest in yogic meditation. People began to look at yoga as a way to find peace of mind in a world that was anything but peaceful.

Since the 1960s yoga,s popularity has grown steadilysteadily adv.稳定地, 有规则地. Nowadays, Westerners practice all kinds of yoga. There is Bikram, or “hot Yoga,” done in rooms heated to over 40 degrees Centigrade. There is baby yoga in which infants copy the stretching poses of their mothers. There are even yoga classes for people in their 70s!

In fact, there are so many people who want to learn yoga that yoga schools across the United States are having difficulty keeping up with the demand. Judging by its popularity, yoga is as useful for solving the problems of today as it was for solving the problems 5,000 years ago.

女士们的最爱——瑜珈

累了吗?压力太大吗?没空运动?那么,你也许想试试瑜珈。已经有越来越多的人求助瑜珈来舒缓现代生活的烦恼。五十年前在西方几乎还没有人听说过瑜珈,可是现在它已经成为世界各地最流行的健康风潮之一。

近年来瑜珈如此受欢迎,很容易让人忽略一个事实:瑜珈其实是人类最古老的活动之一。学者认为瑜珈发源自五千多年前印度河谷里巫师所采用的做法。

巫师是早期人类文明中的圣者。他们在社会上的角色就是要跟神灵世界沟通,为人们面临的困难寻求解决之道。随着时间的更迭,这些巫师发展出一套心理与生理的运动系统来拓展他们的知觉,因而能从新的角度看待日常生活中的问题。这些运动成为现代瑜珈的基础。

几千年来,瑜珈主要在印度盛行。瑜珈运动被整合到印度三大宗教中:印度教、耆那教以及佛教。严格说来瑜珈并不是宗教。它是任何人都可以使用的方法,用来追求个人的宗教(或非宗教)目标。佛教创始者悉达多(释迦牟尼的本名),就做过瑜珈打坐,而打坐直到现在依然是佛教的重要部分。

西方世界对瑜珈几乎是一无所知,直到20世纪60年代才改变,当时的流行文化开始对东方宗教产生兴趣。流行文化偶像例如披头士对瑜珈打坐表现出兴趣,这有助于瑜珈的推广。人们开始将瑜珈看作一种在这个绝对不平静的世界里寻求内心平静的方式。

20世纪60年代以来,瑜伽受欢迎的程度一直在稳定增长。现在,西方人做各种各样的瑜珈。有彼克兰瑜珈,又称“热瑜珈”,要在加热到摄氏四十度以上的房间里做。也有婴儿瑜珈,小宝宝模仿母亲做伸展运动。甚至还有专为七十多岁银发族开设的瑜珈课程!

事实上,美国有太多人想学瑜珈,以至于整个美国各地的瑜珈学校供不应求。从瑜珈风行的程度来看,无论是拿来解决现代人的问题或是解决五千年以前的问题,瑜珈一样管用。