Lesson 73 The record-holder 记录保持者

Children who play truant from school are unimaginative. A quiet day's fishing, or eight hours in a cinema seeing the same film over and over again, is usually as far as they get. They have all been put to shame by a boy who, while playing truant, travelled 1,600 miles. He hitchhiked to Dover and, towards evening, went into a boat to find somewhere to sleep. When he woke up next morning, he discovered that the boat had, in the meantime, travelled to Calais. No one noticed the boy as he crept off. From there, he hitchhiked to Paris in a lorry. The driver gave him a few biscuits and a cup of coffee and left him just outside the city. The next car the boy stopped did not take him into the centre of Paris as he hoped it would, but to Perpignan on the French-Spanish border. There he was picked up by a policeman and sent back to England by the local authorities. He has surely set up a record for the thousands of children who dream of evading school.

参考译文

逃学的孩子们都缺乏想像力。他们通常能够做到的，至多也就是安静地钓上一天鱼，或在电影院里坐上 8 个小时，一遍遍地看同一部电影。而有那么一个小男孩，他在逃学期间旅行了 1,600 英里，从而使上述所有逃学的孩子们都相形见绌了。他搭便车到了多佛，天快黑时钻进了一条船，想找个地方睡觉。第二天早上他醒来时，发现船在这段时间已经到了加莱 。当男孩从船里爬出来时，谁也没有发现他。从那里他又搭上卡车到了巴黎。司机给了他几块饼干和一杯咖啡，就把他丢在了城外。男孩截住的下一辆车，没有像他希望的那样把他带到巴黎市中心，而是把他带到了法国和西班牙边界上的佩皮尼昂。他在那儿被一个警察抓住了，之后被当局送回了英国。他无疑为成千上万梦想逃避上学的孩子们创造了一项纪录。

New words and expressions

• record-holder n. 记录保持者
  • set up a record
  • hold a record 保持记录
  • break a record 破纪录
• truant /ˈtruːənt/ n. 逃学的孩子
  • play truant 逃学
• unimaginative
  • imaginative a. 富有想象力的
• shame n. 羞耻
  • What a shame!多羞耻!
  • To one's shame 使某人羞愧
  • Shame on you!
  • put sb to shame 使...感到羞愧；使...相形见绌
    • His cooking puts mine to shame.
    • All the games are put into shame by roller coaster.
• hitchhike v. 搭便车
  • hitch v. 勾住，套住
  • hitch a horse to a fence
  • hitch a rope round a horse
  • hitchhiker n. 搭便车的人
• meantime n. 与此同时
  • in the meantime
  • at the same time
  • meanwhile
• lorry n. 卡车（英）
  • truck （美）
• taxi n. 出租车（英）
  • cab （美）
• border 边
  • 边境线
• evade v. 躲避
  • evade military training

注释

• over and over (again) 一而再，再而三
• as far as I can see / I know / I think
• towards + 时间
• pick up 接人；取物
• send sb to 地点