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 Andrés 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, "Where's 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, "Go to the Amazon. You'll find all 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：“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Paititi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, "But no, Andrés, 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，我去过那里。我在那条河里游泳。”

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Then my uncle jumps in. "No, Andrés, 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）

"¿Cómo?" ["Huh?"]

"¿Cómo?" ["Huh?"]

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 "warm stream of the Amazon."

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”。