Lesson 86 Out of control
失控
First listen and then answer the question.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
What was the danger?
As the man tried to swing the speedboat round,
the steering wheel came away in his hands.
He waved desperately to his companion,
who had been water
skiing for the last fifteen minutes.
Both men had hardly had time to
realize what was happening
when they were thrown violently into the sea.
The speedboat had struck a buoy,
but it continued to move very
quickly across the water.
Both men had just begun to
swim towards the shore,
when they noticed with dismay
that the speedboat was moving in a circle.
It now came straight towards
them at tremendous speed.
In less than a minute,
it roared past them only a few feet away.
After it had passed, they swam on as quickly as
they could because they knew
that the boat would soon return.
They had just had enough time
to swim out of danger
when the boat again completed a circle.
On this occasion, however,
it had slowed down considerably.
The petrol had nearly all been used up.
Before long, the noise dropped completely
and the boat began to drift gently across the water.
生词和短语
swing v. 转向
speedboat n. 快艇
desperately adv. 绝望地
companion n. 同伙，伙伴
water ski （由快艇牵引水橇）滑水
buoy n. 浮标
dismay n. 沮丧
tremendous adj. 巨大的
petrol n. 汽油
drift v. 漂动，漂流
gently adv. 缓慢地，轻轻地
课文注释
1 came away，脱落，离开。
2 Both men had hardly had time to realize what was happening when they were thrown violently into the sea.他们两个还没有来得及意识到究竟发生了什么事情，就被猛地抛入海里。hardly when表示“刚……就……”。
3 on this occasion，这一次。
4 use up，耗尽，用光。
参考译文
当那人试图让快艇转弯时，方向盘脱手了。他绝望地向他的伙伴挥手，他的伙伴在过去的15分钟里一直在滑水。他们两个还没来得及意识到究竟发生了什么事情，就被猛地抛入了海里。快艇撞上了一个浮标，但它仍在水面上快速行驶着。两个人刚开始向岸边游去，就突然惊愕地发现快艇正在转着圈行驶，它现在正以惊人的速度直冲他们驶来。不到1分钟的工夫，它从离他们只有几英尺远的地方呼啸着驶了过去。快艇过去之后，他们以最快的速度向前游去，因为他们知道快艇马上就要转回来。他们刚刚来得及游出危险区，快艇就又转完了一圈。然而这一次它的速度慢多了。汽油几乎已经用光。没过多久，噪音便彻底消失，快艇开始在水面上慢悠悠地漂流。