纽约英语口语网新版
美语咖啡屋
第 10 课: scuba diving 潜水

Y: 各位听众好,我是杨晨,欢迎您到美语咖啡屋。

J: Hello I'm Jody and welcome to American Cafe. Hey, Yang Chen, guess what this sound is.

(Enter breathing sounds)

Y: 噢,听不大出来,好象是有人打电话恶作剧,是不是?

J: No, no, no! It's not an obscene phone call. It's is the sound of scuba diving.

Y: Scuba diving? 潜水,那一定很好玩吧。哎, Jody, 我一直想学潜水,但是我很怕水。

J: Well, if you want to study scuba diving you better get over that.

Y: 说到scuba diving,我就想到要全副武装,背着那个很重潜水设备。太难了吧。

J: Well, the next time the Scuba Tour comes around you should try it!

Y: Scuba Tour是什么呢?潜水不是要到那种热带或者是靠近海洋的旅游胜地吗?

J: Oh, that's the special thing about the Scuba Tour ... it comes to you! When I went to a Health and Fitness Exposition at the DC convention center. There, they had a Scuba Tour. But, let's hear from Scott Evans who was a member of the Scuba Tour to find out what it is.

Scott Evans: My name is Scott Evans. We're at the D.C. Convention Center doing the Scuba Tour, which is an experience for non-divers to discover Scuba, basically.

Y: Scuba Tour就是到不同的地方举办活动,教那些初学者体验潜水的乐趣。这到真是个好主意。

J: Oh, it's a brilliant especially if you're in the Scuba business. The Scuba Tour brings it to people who may not have the chance to try it! Here's another diver named John talking about why the Scuba Tour is important.

John: My name is John, I'm from the Dive Shop in Fairfax, Virginia. There's always people who have always wanted to try it and that's one of the nicest things about an event like this is that they have a chance to try it in a non-threatening environment.

Y: 嗯,太棒了。通过这样的活动能让大多数人不出远门就能学习潜水。

J: Exactly! And I think when John mentioned non-threatening that is really important. The Scuba Tour brought the pool, the equipment, but not the sharks.

Y: 没错。虽然Jody刚才提到有鲨鱼是有点吓唬人,不过第一次学潜水就到海里的确是很惊险,游泳池当然让人觉得安全多了。你那天去的时候人很多吗?

J: Oh, there were many people waiting in line to try out scuba diving.

Y: 哎,说了半天我们是不是先给大家解释Scuba这个词是怎么来的?

J: Well, first we should that Scuba is an acronym. S-C-U-B-A. And it stands for something. Here's John Harmon to give us an explanation.

John Harmon: Okay, my name is John Harmon and SCUBA stands for self-contained, underwater, breathing apparatus.

Y: Scuba这个词在中文里就是水肺,是一种帮助人在水下呼吸的设备。

J: The self-contained, underwater, breathing apparatus or scuba equipment, allows you to stay underwater, like a fish.

Y: 那我们来形容一下它的样子好吗?

J: Let's have John explain the specific equipment used for scuba diving.

John Harmon: And basically what that consists of is some equipment, which is a tank which contains air; a regulator, which actually is the apparatus that we breathe...to deliver air from the tank to our mouths and a vest which actually allows us to sink under water or float to the surface.

Y: 听他这么一说,这种潜水设备挺吓人的,又是氧气罐,又是呼吸器,还得穿上潜水背心。

J: Oh, exactly. Well think about it. You're going underwater. You need good equipment. There's the air tank, the regulator, that delivers the air from the tank, and the vest for floating or sinking and, Yang Chen, don't forget about the wetsuit. Trusting the equipment for breathing is the hardest thing for a scuba student to learn.

Y: 没错,我觉得对我来说,最难做到的大概就是对你的设备感到放心,特别是在深水里,万一出现意外情况该怎么办呢?

J: Exactly! Your life depends on it. So, let's hear what George had to stay.

George:You gotta learn to trust the equipment and that's probably the biggest thing for students is to trust the equipment. The equipment is high performance. This is life support equipment.

Y: 我完全同意George的话。

J: I know. Even though he says it's high-performance, life support equipment, I would still be nervous.

Y: 哎,等一等,你说你也会nervous。那说了半天,你自己也不敢下水啊?

J: Well, see the line was really long, Yang Chen. And I wanted to try it... but you know...

Y: 好了,好了,你不用解释了,反正我知道你没敢下水就是了。