节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-10-17
难易度:Low
关键字:big deal, attempt, gym, achievement, rock face, free soloing, straight-A
Hi, everybody.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to study English with us.
We appreciate it.
My name is Steve.
Well, since the dawn of time, there have been explorers, scientists,
entrepreneurs and athletes who have pushed the limits of what we humans are
capable of.
They do it for honor, for fortune, for the sake of knowledge or just for the
pure thrill.
One such person is Alex Honnold.
He's a man who climbs rocks higher than the New York Empire State Building.
He does it without anything except his courage.
Like the superhero Spider Man, Honnold can stick to the side of a rock wall and
defy gravity.
But he's no comic book character, he's the real deal.
Let's open our magazines to page 36 and learn about rock climber Alex Honnold.
Alex Honnold - Rock Climber.
This man climbs thousands of feet above the ground without a rope.
Why would someone climb straight up a steep rock face without a rope or safety
equipment?
According to Alex Honnold, who is known internationally for free soloing, it's
no big deal!
But many in the climbing community disagree.
In fact, free soloing is so dangerous that less than 1 percent of climbers ever
attempt it.
Hello, friends.
Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio.
My name is Kaylah.
My name is Ryan.
Friends, we are now looking at our PROFILE article this month.
And we're looking at someone who has a bit of an adventurous spirit.
A bit?
I think this man has a huge adventurous spirit.
Now this man climbs rocks thousands of feet above the ground without a rope.
Ooh, man. His name is Alex Honnold, and he is a rock climber.
That is what he does as a hobby.
OK. Rock climbing, you might have done this before.
If you go to the mountains or you can actually do it inside now.
So when you go... when you climb, just straight up a rock for fun, for exercise.
You can get beautiful views when you're doing it outside.
It's a fun and very strength-demanding activity.
Well, Kaylah, that kind of answers the first question that we start this article
off with, which says:
Why would someone climb straight up a steep rock face?
Hmm. I think the important part of that is without a rope... or safety
equipment.
So let's look first at what this climbing situation is like, then we'll talk
about the safety equipment.
OK. Well, you can see here on page 36, he's climbing a rock face.
A "rock face" is an area of a vertical surface - it goes up and down - with a
large rock or mountain.
That's right.
If you look at the side of a mountain and it's just a solid piece of rock all
the way up, that is a rock face.
Now usually when you rock climb, you wear safety equipment.
That would be a harness around your waist that has clips in it that connect you
to ropes.
You wear... you wear a helmet, you wear special shoes.
You have special things for your hands.
So this is all the safety equipment that protects you while you do rock
climbing.
But he does this without this.
Exactly. Take a look at that picture again and you'll see him standing with his
back up against the mountain.
To me, it looks like he's about to fall.
There is nothing safe about this at all.
Absolutely not.
Now friends, we're going to tell you a lot about Alex Honnold, but we ask you to
please not do what he does.
Be impressed by what he can do, but don't try to do it on your own.
It takes a lot of training and a lot of skill.
OK. Well, all it takes is one look at a picture of Alex to know that he is known
internationally, and he's known because of his free soloing.
Now "free soloing" is a climber who doesn't use ropes and has to use great
amounts of strength and incredible ability and lots of practice to rock climb.
OK. And he's known internationally all around the world, and he says it's no big
deal.
Now that's a phrase you can use, friends: Oh, it's no big deal!
Now "big deal" is a phrase that we say when you don't think it's very important,
where it's not a huge problem; it's very easy, you don't think it's big.
Yeah. If someone says: Wow! you are so good at playing the piano. I just love
your music.
You can say: It's no big deal. It's really easy. I don't really play that well.
Or if someone thanks you for running an errand for them, you can say: Oh, it was
no big deal.
It's not a problem to you.
It was easy for you to do.
It's a very casual way of talking.
Exactly.
Now he thinks it's no big deal, it's easy, it's fine.
But many in the climbing community would disagree with him.
That's right.
Now the climbing community would refer to people who do professional rock
climbing.
So it's not just something they do for hobby; it's where they make their living.
OK. And we use the word "community" to talk about the group of people that,
well, in this case, enjoy climbing.
You can also use this word to describe any other number of activities.
OK, so they disagree.
They think that this is a big deal.
In fact, free soloing is so dangerous that less than 1 percent of climbers ever
attempt it.
OK. So friends, make no mistake, this is extremely dangerous.
And only one percent of climbers will ever actually attempt, or try it.
So out of 100 climbers, professional, experienced climbers, only one of them
will try free soloing.
And that's, once again, climbing without any safety equipment or any ropes.
And only 1 percent would ever attempt this.
Right. And like we've been saying the word "try" instead of attempt,
if you "attempt" something, that means that you try to do it, but usually it's
something that is difficult to do.
So you're going to try to do it, and maybe you'll be successful, or maybe you
won't.
Now rock climbers in general, Ryan, even the ones that do use equipment, are
very exciting and very daring people.
They're willing to take on challenges, and they're not easily scared or afraid.
So if only 1 percent of them are willing to do this, that must mean this free
soloing activity is very, very, very dangerous.
Yeah. I don't think I would ever want to try doing this.
And like we've said, friends, we don't recommend that you ever attempt this.
That's right.
Now there is such a thing called bouldering.
And that is when you climb to just a certain height and go horizontal, you go
sideways.
And you can do that without ropes.
But this is free soloing - this is going to high, high heights.
So friend, we're going to talk about what free soloing is and exactly what Alex
Honnold did to get involved in this after we watch today's skit.
Well, here we are.
We made it to the top.
(Background Noise).
I think I'm going to faint.
Hey, this is fun.
We came straight up without a rope or safety equipment.
We're lucky to be alive.
Climbing like this is too risky.
Oh, free soloing is no big deal.
This climb was easy.
It was easy for you.
You've been climbing since you were ten!
Yeah.
I grew up in a climbing environment.
I'm used to... to climbing for hours a day.
This is so scary.
I can't understand why you do free soloing.
I love it.
It's my favorite style.
I've done thousands of climbs.
But... but it's... it's dangerous and difficult.
No. No, no, no.
All you need is strong fingertips and lots of focus.
Strong fingertips?
Yes. I support most of my weight by my fingertips.
What about focus?
The ability to stay focused is just as important as strength.
Yeah.
And you also need a lot of... courage.
That's true.
Fear of climbing without a rope is a huge challenge to overcome.
Yeah. One single mistake would probably be fatal.
I know.
My greatest accomplishment is staying alive.
I'm so scared.
I'll never do this again.
Oh, come on.
Hey, let's go back down now.
Yeah. Good idea.
OK.
What are you doing?
Calling a helicopter.
Help!