第578期:英语美文-新生活从选定方向开始
New Words:
Patch n.小块土地
oasis n. 绿洲；
barren adj. 贫瘠的；
reluctant adj. 不情愿的；勉强的
academician n. 院士;大学教师
parlance n. 说法；用语；
compass n. 指南针，罗盘；
Bissel is a small village of the West Sahara. It lies next to a patch of 1. 5-square-kilometer oasis, from where three days and nights are generally required to go out of the desert. However. before Ken Levin discovered it in 1926, none of the people had walked out of the desert. Reportedly, they were not reluctant to leave this barren land, but had no way to walk out of it after they had tried many times.
比塞尔是西撒哈拉沙漠中的一个小村庄，它靠在一块15平方千米的绿洲旁，从这里走出沙漠一般需要二昼夜。可是，在肯·莱文1926年发现它之前，这里的人没有一个走出过大沙漠。据说，他们不是不愿意离开这块贫瘠的土地，而是尝试过很多次都没有走出来.
As an academician of the British Royal College of Sciences, Ken Levin, of course, did not believe this viewpoint. He asked the reason of the people here. As a result, the answer of each was the same. To whichever direction they went from here, they would eventually return to this place. To prove this parlance he did an experiment. He went north from Bissel Village and finally walked out from it in three and a half days.
作为英国皇家学院的院士，肯·莱文 当然不相信这种说法。他用手语向这里的人问其原因，结果每个人的回答都是一样的:从这里无论向哪个方向走，最后都还要转回到这个地方。为了证实这种说法，他做了次试验。从比塞尔村向北走，结果三天半就走了出来。
Why couldn't Bissel villager walk out of it? Ken Levin was very puzzled. In the end, he had to employ a Bissel villager to lead the way and wanted to find out the reason. They prepared the water that could be used for half a month and two camels while only leaning on a stick, Ken Levin put away the compass and other facilities, following the man.
比塞尔人为什么走不出来呢？肯·莱文非常纳闷。最后，他只得雇一个比塞尔人，让他带路，看看到底是怎么回事。他们准备了能用半个月的水，牵上两骆驼，肯·莱文收起指南针等设备，只栓了一根木棍在后面。
Ten days later, they walked for about 800 miles. On the 11th morning, an oasis came into their view. They really came back again to Bissel. This time, Ken Levin came to understand: the Bissel people couldn't walk out of the desert because they had no knowledge of the North Star.
十天过去了，他们走了大约800英里的路程，在11天的清晨，一块绿洲出现在眼前，他们果然又回到了比塞尔。这一次肯·莱文终于明白了，比塞尔人之所以走不出大沙漠，是因为他们根本就不认识北极星。
In the boundless desert, if a person goes forward relying on his or her sense, he or she will make lots and lots of circles of different sizes, and the final footprints will be most likely the shape of a tape. Bissel village was in the middle of the immense desert with more than one thousand square kilometers, so without a compass, it was indeed impossible to walk out of the desert.
在一望无际的沙漠里，一个人如果凭感觉往前走会走出许许多多、大小不一的圆圈，最后的足迹十有八九是一把卷尺的形状，比塞尔村处在浩瀚的沙漠中间，方圆上千公里，没有指南针，想走出沙漠，确实是不可能的。
Leaving Bissel Village, Ken Levin brought a young man called Argutel, who was the man that had cooperated with him last time. He told the young man "As long as you rest in the daytime and walk towards the brightest star at night, you would be able to walk out of the desert.” Argutel did as he was told. Three days later, he, sure enough, came to the edge of the desert.
离开比塞尔村时，肯·莱文带了一个叫阿古特尔的青年，这个青年就是上次和他合作的人。他告诉这个青年说：“只要你白天休息，夜晚朝着北面那颗最亮的星星走，就能走出沙漠。”阿古特尔照着去做，三天后果然来到了大漠边缘。
Now in the West Sahara Bissel has been a bright pearl, where tens of thousands of tourists come here. As the pioneer of Bissel, Argutel's bronze statue stands in the center of the town. On the base of the bronze statue the following line was engraved, "A new life starts from the fixed direction.”
现在比塞尔已是西撒哈拉沙漠中的一颗明珠，每年有数以万计的旅游者来到这里。阿古特尔作为比塞尔的开拓者，他的铜像竖立在小城中央，铜像底座上刻着一行字:“新生活是从选定方向开始的。”
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