剑桥雅思13Test4阅读passage1真题翻译(1)

剑桥雅思13Test4阅读passage1真题翻译(1) 关于这个问题下面小编就来为各个考生解答下。

剑桥雅思13Test4阅读passage1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

Cutty Sark: the fastest sailing ship of all time“

卡蒂萨克”号:史上最快的帆船

The nineteenth century was a period of great technological development in Britain, and for shipping the major changes were from wind to steam power, and from wood to iron and steel

19世纪英国经历了重大的科技发展,就航运而言,最主要的改变是从依靠风力到依靠蒸汽驱动,以前用木材造船,而现在用钢铁。

The fastest commercial sailing vessels of all time were clippers, three-masted ships built to transport goods around the world, although some also took passengers. From the 1840s until 1869, when the Suez Canal opened and steam propulsion was replacing sail, clippers dominated world trade. Although many were built, only one has survived more or less intact: Cutty Sark, now on display in Greenwich, southeast London.

历史上最快的商业帆船曾经是快速帆船,这是一种三桅帆船,用于世界各地的货物运输,当然也有部分用于客运。从19世纪40年代开始,快速帆船一直在世界贸易中占据主导地位,直至1869年苏伊士运河开通,蒸汽开始取代风帆作为动力。尽管当时制造出许多帆船,但是只有一艘被完整保存下来――那就是“卡蒂萨克”号,它目前陈列在位于伦敦东南部的格林尼治。

Cutty Sark's unusual name comes from the poem Tam O ’Shanter by the Scottish poet Robert Bums. Tam, a farmer, is chased by a witch called Nannie, who is wearing a 'cutty sark’ - an old Scottish name for a short nightdress. The witch is depicted in Cutty Sark’s figurehead - the carving of a woman typically at the front of old sailing ships. In legend, and in Bums，s poem, witches cannot cross water, so this was a rather strange choice of name for a ship.

“卡蒂萨克”号这个不同寻常的名字来源于苏格兰诗人 Robert Burns的作品Tam O'shanter。一个叫Tam的农民被女巫南妮 Nannie追赶,她穿着一件 Cutty Sark(苏格兰语意为短衫)“卡蒂萨克”号船头的雕像正是女巫 Nannie--传统帆船的前面通常装饰看个女人的雕像。在 Burns歌描述的传说中,女巫无法穿越河流,因此帆船采用这个名字非常奇怪。

Cutty Sark was built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1869, for a shipping company owned by John Willis. To carry out construction, Willis chose a new shipbuilding firm, Scott & Linton, and ensured that the contract with them put him in a very strong position. In the end, the firm was forced out of business, and the ship was finished by a competitor.

“卡蒂萨克”号于1869年在苏格兰的登巴顿建成,服役于 John willis拥有的船运公司为了进行造船, Willis选择了一家新的造船厂,即 Scott& Linton造船厂,并与他们签订合同以确保自己的有利地位。最终,该公司被迫停业,因此这艘船由它的对手完工。

Willis’s company was active in the tea trade between China and Britain, where speed could bring shipowners both profits and prestige, so Cutty Sark was designed to make the journey more quickly than any other ship. On her maiden voyage, in 1870, she set sail from London, carrying large amounts of goods to China. She returned laden with tea, making the journey back to London in four months. However, Cutty Sark never lived up to the high expectations of her owner, as a result of bad winds and various misfortunes. On one occasion, in 1872，the ship and a rival clipper, Thermopylae, left port in China on the same day. Crossing the Indian Ocean, Cutty Sark gained a lead of over 400 miles, but then her rudder was severely damaged in stormy seas, making her impossible to steer. The ship’s crew had the daunting task of repairing the rudder at sea, and only succeeded at the second attempt. Cutty Sark reached London a week after Thermopylae.

Wili的公司在中英之间的茶贸易活动中十分活跃,那时船只的速度可为航运商带来利益和声望,因此“卡蒂萨克”号的设计速度要比其他帆船快很多。1870年,“卡蒂萨克号首航从伦敦出发,运载了大批货物驶往中国。返航时,船上蒌满了荼叶,耗时四个月抵达伦敦。然而,由于暴风雨的袭击和各种厄运,“卡蒂萨克”号始终没能达成主人的期望、1872年,有一次“卡蒂萨克”号和劲敌“塞莫皮莱”号( Thermopylae)同一天离开中国港口。在印度洋上,“卡蒂萨克”号领先了400英里,但在一场特大风暴的衮击中,它的船舵严重受损,船只无法继续前行。船员在海上修航的任务十分艰巨,在第二次修舵时才成功“卡蒂萨克”号抵达英国时比“塞葜皮郝”号晚了一个星期。

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