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Lesson32 John Henry
第32課約翰·亨利
John Henry is one of the famous heroes of American folklore. He worked on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad toward the end of the nineteenth century.
約翰·亨利是美國(guó)民間傳說中一位著名的英雄人物。他于19世紀(jì)末在切薩皮克和俄亥俄鐵路上工作。
John Henry was very strong. He made his mark in history because he could work harder and faster than any other man on the railroad. Curious people came from far and wide to see him hammer steel spikes through the hard earth.
約翰·亨利非常強(qiáng)壯。他之所以名垂史冊(cè)是因?yàn)樗辱F路上的任何其他人工作更努力更快。好奇的人們從四面八方趕來看他用錘子把鐵釬打入堅(jiān)硬的土地。
When the Big Bend Tunnel was started, trouble began. The mountain seemed impossible to get through. The men who were building the railroad bought a new invention, a drilling machine, to try to speed up the tunneling. The other railroad workers welcomed the machine, but not John Henry. He stubbornly insisted he could work harder and faster than any machine. "I'll die with a hammer in my hand, before I let a machine make a fool out of me," he said.
大本德隧道開始修建的時(shí)候遇到了困難。看起來沒有可能打通大山了。開發(fā)商將新發(fā)明的鉆機(jī)買了回來，以加快開鑿隧道的速度。其他的鐵路工人都很歡迎這種機(jī)器，但是亨利不喜歡。他固執(zhí)地認(rèn)為自己工作起來比任何機(jī)器更努力更快。“我寧可手拿錘子死去，也不愿受機(jī)器的愚弄。”他說。
And so a competition was planned. It would last for 45 minutes, or until one of the competitions gave up. The winner would be the man or machine who had drilled fartherest into the rock. Hundreds of people went to Big Bend to watch this great attraction.
于是，人們策劃了一場(chǎng)比賽。比賽將持續(xù)45分鐘，或者到比賽的一方放棄為止。勝者將是在巖石上開鑿距離最遠(yuǎn)的機(jī)器或人。成百上千的人來到大本德觀看這場(chǎng)引人注目的比賽。
After 30 minutes, the machine broke down, but John Henry kept right on working for 45 minutes. The machine had drilled only nine feet. John Henry, 15 feet. He had won a great victory, but the effort had been too much. As the song goes, "He died with the hammer in his hand, Lord, Lord ... died with the hammer in his hand."
30分鐘后，機(jī)器因故障停了下來，但約翰·亨利沒有停，他一直工作了45分鐘。機(jī)器僅開鑿了9英尺，而約翰·亨利開鑿了15英尺。他大獲全勝。然而這個(gè)努力的代價(jià)太大了，正如歌中所唱，“他手拿錘子死去了，主呀，主呀，他手拿錘子死去了。”
