自考英语综合二上册课文 lesson 4

　　[00:00.00]Lesson Four Text

[00:04.60]"Take Over, Bos'n!"Oscar Schisgall

[00:11.26]Hour after hour I kept the gun pointed 1 at the other nine men.

[00:17.82]From the lifeboat's stern, where I'd sat most of the twenty days of our drifting,

[00:24.16]I could'keep them all covered.

[00:28.24]If I had to shoot at such close quarters,I wouldn't miss.

[00:34.40]They realized that.

[00:37.36]Nobody jumped at me.

[00:40.59]But in the way they all glared I could see how they'd come to hate my guts 2.

[00:47.75]Especially Barrett, who'd been bos'n's mate;

[00:53.03]Barrett said in his harsh,cracked voice, "You're a fool, Snyder.

[00:59.79]You can't hold out forever!You're half asleep now!"

[01:06.04]I didn't answer.He was right.How long can a man stay awake?

[01:13.20]I hadn't dared to shut my eyes in maybe seventy two hours.

[01:19.44]Very soon now I'd doze 4 off,

[01:23.49]and the instant that happened they'd jump on the little water that was left.

[01:29.86]The last canteen lay under my legs. There wasn't much in it twenty days.

[01:37.52]Maybe a pint 5.Enough to give each of them a few drops.

[01:43.58]Yet I could see in their bloodshot eyes

[01:48.15]that they'd gladly kill me for those few drops.

[01:52.59]As a man I didn't count any more.

[01:57.16]I was no longer third officer of the wrecked 6 Montala.

[02:02.20]I was just a gun that kept them away from the water they craved 7.

[02:07.76]And with their tongue swollen 8 and their cheeks sunken, they were half crazy.

[02:15.21]The way I judged it, we must be some two hundred miles east of Ascension.

[02:21.79]Now that the storms were over,the Atlantic swells 9 were long and easy,

[02:28.92]and the morning sun was hot so hot it scorched 10 your skin.

[02:35.48]My own tongue was thick enough to stop my throat.

[02:41.12]I'd have given the rest of my life for a single gulp 11 of water.

[02:47.37]But I was the man with the gun the only authority in the boat and I knew this:

[02:56.12]once the water was gone we'd have nothing to look forward to but death.

[03:02.60]As long as we could look forward to getting a drink later,

[03:07.35]there was something to live for.

[03:11.19]We had to make it last as long as possible.

[03:15.63]If I'd given in to the curses, we'd have emptied the last canteen days ago.

[03:23.68]By now we'd all be dead.

[03:28.12]The men weren't pulling on the oars 12.

[03:32.27]They'd stopped that long ago, too weak to go on.

[03:37.31]The nine of them facing me were a pack of bearded, ragged 13, half-naked animals,

[03:45.38]and I probably looked as bad as the rest.

[03:49.51]Some sprawled 14 over the gunwales, dozing 15.

[03:54.24]The rest watched me as Barrett did, ready to spring the instant I relaxed.

[04:02.18]When they weren't looking at my face they looked at the canteen under my legs.

[04:08.22]Jeff Barrett was the nearest one.A constant threat.

[04:13.65]The bos's mate was a heavy man, bald, with a scarred and brutal 16 face.

[04:21.38]He'd been in a hundred fights, and they'd left their marks on him.

[04:27.55]Barrett had been able to sleep in fact, he'd slept through most of the night

[04:34.91]and I envied him that.

[04:38.57]His eyes wouldn't close.

[04:42.12]They kept watching me, narrow and dangerous.

[04:47.45]Every now and then he jeered 17 at me in that hoarse 18,broken voice:

[04:53.64]"Why don't you quit? You can't hold out!"

[04:59.10]"Tonight," I said."We'll ration 19 the rest of the water tonight."

[05:05.55]"By tonight some of us'll be dead!We want it now!"

[05:10.73]"Tonight," I said.

[05:13.57]Couldn't he understandthat if we waited until night

[05:18.12]the few drops wouldn't be sweated out of us so fast

[05:23.27]But Barrett was beyond all reasoning.

[05:27.81]His mind had already cracked with thirst.

[05:33.17]I saw him begin to rise, a calculating look in his eyes.

[05:39.51]I aimed the gun at his chest and he sat down again.

[05:45.39]I'd grabbed my gun on instinct, twenty days ago,

[05:50.54]just before running for the lifeboat.

[05:54.77]Nothing else would have kept Barrett and the rest away from the water.

[06:01.40]These fools couldn't they see I wanted a drink as badly as any of them?

　　[06:08.46]But I was in command here that was the difference.

[06:13.81]I was the man with the gun, the man who had to think.

[06:19.56]Each of the others could afford to think only of himself;

[06:24.39]I had to think of them all.

[06:28.94]Barrett's eyes kept watching me, waiting. I hated him.

[06:35.18]I hated him all the more because he'd slept.

[06:39.75]As the boat rose and fell on the long swells,

[06:45.32]I could feel sleep creeping over me like paralysis 20.

[06:50.59]I bent 21 my head.It filled my brain like a cloud.I was going, going...

[06:58.93]Barrett stood over me,and I couldn't even lift the gun.

[07:04.86]In a vague way I could guess what would happen.

[07:09.71]He'd grab the water first and take his drop.

[07:14.08]By that time the others would be screaming and tearing at him,

[07:19.04]and he'd have to yield the canteen.

[07:22.80]Well, there was nothing more I could do about it.

[07:27.35]I whispered, "Takeover, bos'n. "

[07:31.32]Then I fell face down in the bottom of the boat.

[07:36.28]I was asleep be fore 3 I stopped moving. . .

[07:40.23]When a hand shook my shoulder,I could hardly raise my head. .

[07:45.97]Jeff Barrett's hoarse voice said, "Here! Take your share o' the water!"

[07:52.14]Somehow I propped 22 myself up on my arms, dizzy and weak.

[07:58.01]I looked at the men, and I thought my eyes were going.

[08:02.98]Their figures were dim shadowy; but then I realized it wasn't because of my eyes.

[08:11.13]It was night. The sea was black; there were stars overhead.

[08:17.16]I'd slept the day away.

[08:20.79]So we were in our twenty first night adrift

[08:26.36]the night in which the tramp Croton finally picked us up

[08:31.69]but now as I turned my head to Barrett there was no sign of any ship.

[08:39.13]He knelt beside me, holding out the canteen,

[08:44.17]his other hand with the gun steady on the men.

[08:49.14]I stared at the canteen as if it were amirage.

[08:54.31]Hadn't they finished that pint of water this morning?

[08:58.46]When I looked up at Barrett's ugly face, it was grim.

[09:03.19]He must have guessed my thoughts.

[09:06.64]"You said, 'Takeover, bos'n,' didn't you?" he growled 23.

[09:11.68]"I've been holding off these apes all day." He lifted the gun in his hand.

[09:18.81]"When you're boss-man," he added,

[09:22.47]"in command "and responsible for the rest you ,

[09:27.75]you sure get to see things different, don't you?"