节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-10-18
难易度:Low
关键字:strength, challenge, scale, criticism, Half Dome
Hi, everybody. Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
Thanks for joining us today.
My name is Steve.
Well, Alex Honnold, he doesn't write songs, he doesn't play drums.
But in the world of rock climbing, he's a rock star.
You see, Honnold is one of the best free soloist climbers in the world.
With each climb he makes, he defies gravity, and he defies belief.
Mountain routes that climbers normally need a few days to ascend, Honnold does
it in just a few hours.
And get this, he does it with nothing but his shoes and a bag of chalk to help
keep his hands dry.
That's it!
Let's open our magazines to page 37 and find out how he does it.
Alex Honnold - Rock Climber.
How does he do it?
Honnold climbs by fitting his fingers into the cracks of the rock face.
With most of his weight supported by his fingers alone, he pulls himself up.
However, his ability to stay focused is as important as his strength.
Other climbers agree that the fear of climbing without a rope is a huge
challenge to overcome.
Everyone knows that a single mistake would probably be a fatal one.
Hi, friends.
Thank you for joining us.
My name is Ryan.
And my name is Kaylah.
And today we're back looking at Alex Honnold, our daring, free soloing rock
climber.
OK.
Yesterday we've gotten a look at some of his past, how he got started rock
climbing and then choosing solo climbing as one of his main styles.
Now it's not just solo climbing, it's free solo climbing, which means he's
climbing with no ropes and no safety equipment.
And we... we had a quote from another... expert climber.
And he said that over half of the... free solo climbers that are famous and very
well-known in the world have actually died.
So quite possibly Alex Honnold best achievement, his most amazing feat is he's
alive.
OK, so this is not safe at all.
Of course he's not using safety equipment, so he's not being safe.
So let's actually find out how he does this.
That's right.
How do you climb a rock with no equipment?
Well, Honnold climbs by fitting his fingers into the cracks on the rock face.
OK. So as he's climbing these rocks, he just kind of sticks his fingers in what
are called "cracks." That is a small space in something.
OK.
Can you imagine pulling yourself up with your fingers because most of his weight
is supported by his fingers alone.
Yeah. Now Kaylah, have you done any kind of rock climbing before?
I have. And I like grabbing with my whole hand.
Yeah, me too.
I've done some rock climbing just a little bit.
And... in case you have to grab something just with your fingers, you quickly
learn how heavy you really are because all of the...
you have to use all the strength - which you'll find out more about in a minute
- in your fingers to hold yourself up.
That's right, just your fingers have all that weight.
Friends, if you want to experience how much you weigh on just your fingertips,
do a pushup on the floor with your hands.
Instead of being flat on the ground, sit on your fingertips.
Can you lift your body weight?
OK. It's not at all easy.
And of course, he's climbing the rock face.
That simply means the side of the rock, or the side of the mountain.
Now with most of his weight supported by his fingers alone, he then has to pull
his whole body weight up.
However, his ability to stay focused is just as important as his strength.
OK, so. We just used the word "strength" a minute ago.
That means how strong you are or how powerful you are.
So if you're using your fingers in a crack to hold yourself up, you have to have
a lot of power in your fingers.
But that's not as important as his... his need to stay focused.
Which is strange, you would think that the strength in your hands would be the
most important.
But other climbers agree that the fear of climbing without a rope is a huge
challenge to overcome.
Ryan, climbing with a rope is a huge challenge to overcome for a lot of us.
I think so too.
I know I have a big fear of, I think, of hanging just from a rope and looking
down at a great height.
And so you have to be focused.
That means you have to pay attention to what you're doing.
And that way he can overcome these challenges.
Now I'm going to... we'll take a minute till we get to "challenge" in just a
second.
But friends, think about it.
Have you ever been up at a high, high place with the fear of falling?
I have climbed before on a pole that you climb to the top of and then stand on
the top.
And as I was standing up, I was shaking so bad.
Your muscles start shaking from fear.
Now if you're climbing without a rope, you need your muscles still so that
focus.
That's why this is important to overcome this challenge.
Absolutely.
Now like Kaylah said, it's a challenge, and I'm going to help you know what a
challenge is.
A "challenge" is something that is difficult to do, that requires you to pay
attention and to spend a lot of effort in order to be successful.
OK. You have to take the time to do it.
For you, maybe challenges are school.
I was a very poor student.
My challenge was getting through school and getting good grades.
Maybe a physical challenge.
This is a mental and physical challenge.
Absolutely, because if he fails, he doesn't just have a rope to hold him up.
Everyone knows that one single mistake would probably be a fatal one.
"Single" meaning one; a "mistake" meaning something that went wrong.
One problem, one problem could be fatal.
OK. And the word "fatal" means that it causes someone or something to die.
So if you slip, you're not being held up by a rope, you would fall a long way
and die.
Now it's more than even just could be, it's probably would be.
So "could" means it could... it might happen.
"Probably" means it most likely would be death for him if he did fall.
OK. Well, we've heard that some other climbers think that free solo climbing is
too dangerous.
Well, we'll talk about that after we visit the Information Station, and then
take a break.
Bryan, Alex Honnold sure is one brave climber.
I know! Climbing without any ropes and without a partner is so dangerous.
But he's not the only person to risk his life doing crazy things.
And to learn about some other crazy things people do, let's go over to...
Information Station.
Climbing mountains is dangerous, but some people like to climb tall buildings.
In fact, this activity is called buildering.
Alain Robert from France is the most famous builderer.
He has solo climbed Taipei 101, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Empire State
Building in New York City and the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai.
And he most recently climbed the world's tallest building - the Burj Khalifa
Tower in Dubai.
Another dangerous activity is extreme parachuting.
In 1960, U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger jumped from a balloon that was
over 100,000 feet above the earth.
It took him 14 minutes to finally fall back down to the ground...
And land safely.
Now, how about flying around like a rocketman with a rocket on your back?
Oh, like Yves Rossy, a pilot from Switzerland.
He is known as the Rocketman.
Rossy attaches wings and jet engines to his back and goes up in an airplane
which takes him 7,000 feet high up in the air.
He then jumps out of the plane and turns on his jets reaching speeds of 300
kilometers per hour.
Rocketman Rossy has flown across the English Channel, and he has also circled
around the Grand Canyon.
You know, that sounds a little bit too dangerous to me, Bill.
Me too, Bryan.
So we'll just play it safe here at...
InformationStation.