Talk 1
We admire people who face challenges and overcome them. Welike the idea of the determination of the human spirit. But what happens when awhole community culture is faced with a challenge which is regular andseasonal?
As the days get darker and colder in the NorthernHemisphere, people in northern Norway are faced with several months ofdarkness, because for three months or more, the sun never climbs above thehorizon. It's freezing cold and there's wind, snow, hailand every other kind of bad weather. And it's not just thephysical challenge, but the psychological one too. How do you stay cheerfulwhen everything else around you is miserable?
But in northern Norway, people see winter as something to beenjoyed, not something to be suffered. These communities are very close, andsocial connections are tight. They celebrate things they can only do in winter,such as skiing, and every other kind of outdoor winter activity.
There's also a sense of cosiness, of creating an atmosphereof warmth, comfort and happiness. People light candles and fires, drink warmdrinks and sit under warm blankets. What's more, they do this as a community.They don't just watch television; they invite friends to share their cosyfeelings, or participate in festivals and community events.
Finally, it seems that people love the sheer beauty ofwinter. They don't share the common assumption that summer is the best season,the one that everyone likes. In northern Norway, where the sun doesn't risevery high, it means that the day is an endless sunrise or sunset, and becauseof the snow, the colours are wonderful.
Of course, the further north you go, there's the added bonus of seeing the NorthernLights [越能看到北极光], the extraordinary green, dancing lights which swirl aroundthe sky, something which fills the mind with natural glory. But the opportunityto do this isn't restricted to the winter.
So it's a matter of attitude. Go for a walk, listen to the crunch [嘎吱声]of snow under your feet and turn round to see yourfootprints. Make a snowman. Find some children and a large tray, go to thenearest slope, sit on the tray and slide down. Look for a warm, friendly bar orpub with low lighting and a log fire, and have a drink with friends.
And remember, it may not be your favourite time of year, butyou're not on your own.
Passage 1
There have always been tales of miraculous survival at seaand the latest news story is one of the best survival stories you'll ever hear.A 62-year-old American citizen called Richard Van Pham, an immigrant fromVietnam, set out in his small eight-metre sailboat from Southern California onemorning last May. He intended to sail to an island 35 kilometres away. The tripto the island normally takes a day but there was a bad storm and the high windsbroke the boat's mast so the sail fell down and it broke the rudder so therewas no means of directing the boat. As if that wasn't bad enough, the radiostopped working and so did the boat's motor. With no way of sailing, the boatjust floated with no direction, day after day, and it wasn't until four monthslater – four months, imagine that! – that an American plane spotted the boat almost480 kilometres off the coast of Costa Rica. The plane radioed an American ship nearby and it rescuedpoor Richard Van Pham. Pham was delighted to be rescued of course, butastonishingly, he didn't want to be taken back home. Instead, he wanted thesailors to help him repair his boat so that he could sail to Hawaii. Yes, Phamthought he was near Hawaii, an island in the other direction. Veryunderstandable, considering the length of time he'd been at sea.
Pham had lost 18 kilograms but apart from that he was insurprisingly good health. He'd survived by catching fish and drinkingrainwater. There were old newspapers onboard and he'd read them. There was alsoa little solar generator[太阳能发电机] aboard so he'd been able to watch videos on a smalltelevision. Sounds OK, doesn't it?
The reason why no one had reported him missing was becausehe had no family. He'd come to America in 1976 and had become a successfulbusinessman. But ten years ago he had a bad car accident which left him unableto work. Most recently he had been living in his boat.
Where's Pham now? Well, the ship's sailors liked Pham somuch that they gave him $800 to fly back to San Francisco in America. Andfinally, what did Pham have to say about his experience? "If you travel atsea, you take what youfind. If you are scared you will die." What a man!
Passage 2
Woman: You remember Craig Clarkson?
Man: He's a friend of yours.
Woman: Yes, well, I saw him recently – he's just aboutto go on a three-week sailing trip across the Atlantic and he makes it soundlike walking to the other side of town. What makes a man with a family sailacross the Atlantic?
Man: A need to be alone with nature? Something likethat.
Woman: I'm sure that's part of it, but there's a lotmore to it than that, I think.
Man: A need to prove yourself, get recognition fromother people?
Woman: Yes, but then there's that comedian, the man whoswam across the English Channel.
Man: Um, comedian – yes, I know who you mean.
Woman: He's hugely successful, he has no need forrecognition, so why did he do it? Or the other day I read about an 11-year-oldboy, who'd climbed Qomolangma, the highest mountain in the world.Extraordinary!
Man: Well, I think humans are built to need goals andchallenges to feel alive. It's in our genes, it's why we're not living incaves, why we have an advanced industrial civilization. We have this need toconquer nature. It's what that mountaineer said, "Why do I want to climbthe mountain? Because it's there."
Woman: But what I can't understand is that people gothrough such hardship, I mean, look at Ranulph Fiennes, for example.
Man: The explorer?
Woman: Yes, the explorer. Now, that man has been toboth the North and the South Poles, and he was the first man to completelycross Antarctica on foot.
Man: I think there are certain types of people who arecompletely fearless and they just need adventure.
Woman: I wonder if perhaps they'd been brought up differently they'd have ended up ascriminals, in prison [如果他们的成长环境不同，他们可能会成罪犯，进监狱].
Man: Well, we'll never know, will we? But I seem toremember reading in an interview that Feinnes was always getting into troubleat school. Maybe that explains it.
Woman: Do you think it's genetic, you're just born thatway? I mean Richard Branson – a multimillionaire industrialist – he crossed thePacific in a balloon.
Man: I don't think that proves it's genetic. It mightbe his upbringing. Anyway, talking of explorers, there's a programme on aboutJames Bruce tonight.
Woman: He was the man who discovered the source of theBlue Nile in Ethiopia?
Man: Yeah. Do you want to watch it?
