旅途必备

旅途必备

手机？图书？还是防晒霜？Ben Saunders是著名的极限探险家，26岁便成为单人穿越北极的第三人， 36岁又徒步完成史上距离最长的南极之旅。作为探险家，什么是他不带就不出门的？而你的旅途必不可少的又是什么？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

explorer 探险家；勘探者[ek'splɔːrə(r)]

expedition 远征；探险队[ekspɪ'dɪʃ(ə)n]

laminate 分成薄片['læmɪneɪt]

satellite phone 卫星电话

juxtapose 并列；并置[,dʒʌkstə'pəʊz]

devoid of 没有；缺乏的

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

如果您读完全文用时为： 那么，您的阅读速度相当于 每分钟阅读的英文单词数

3分9秒 母语为英语者的朗读速度 140

1分53秒 母语为英语的中学生的阅读速度 250

1分3秒 母语为英语的大学生的阅读速度 350

0分43秒 母语为英语的速读高手 1000

I never leave home without …（433words）

By Ben Saunders as told to Carl Wilkinson

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What special items do expert travellers pack to ease their journeys? In the latest in our series, polar explorer Ben Saunders explains why he never flies without a Field Notes notebook.

On every expedition I always take a notebook made by a tiny American company called Field Notes. It’s small and made from waterproof paper, so it’s pretty rugged; I’ve been using them for about 12 years.

There is so much more to it than just a diary — the notebook becomes like a control panel for the whole expedition. In the front I have vital phone numbers, printed and laminated, from family members to satellite phone numbers for rescue aircraft. After that I’ve got all the data — each day I record latitude, longitude and the distance covered.

After all that useful stuff, there’s my diary itself. It tends to be me complaining a lot and swearing. [On the Scott expedition in 2013/4] I had Scott’s and Shackleton’s expedition diaries on a Kindle and we could juxtapose their days with ours. Their diaries were usually written as log books so they tend to be fairly devoid of emotion — they just talk about the weather and distance. It made us feel completely inadequate, complaining about feeling cold with 21st-century equipment when they had woollen jackets and hobnail boots.

A bit like a prisoner writing on a wall, I also have a tally crossing off the days until we get home. You spend months counting down the days until you get out there, then all you want is to get home.

One of the strangest things was that for nearly four months in the Antarctic we hardly had access to the internet. We could send pictures and blog posts via satellite phone and receive messages, but we weren’t surfing the net. It can drive you mad if you’re trying to think of a certain word or title of a film and can’t Google it for months.

My diary is heavily customised, but there’s one way I’d improve on it next time. There’s a Norwegian explorer called Borge Ousland who was the first to ski solo to the north pole. He always carries pressed flowers and leaves. In the polar regions you really miss living things — foliage, flowers and grass — so I’d definitely do that in future.

Ben Saunders’ expeditions include the 2013-14 Scott expedition, a 105-day round-trip to the South Pole, the first time the expedition that defeated both Scott and Shackleton had been completed. He will be speaking on June 14 at the Royal Geographical Society, London, see darewincelebrate.eventbrite.co.uk. He was speaking to Carl Wilkinson

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. Where is the Field Notes’ headquarters?

A. US

B. UK

C. China

D. Japan

2. Why did Ben call his notebook as a control panel?

A. it is a private diary

B. it contains many things necessarily

C. Ben has been kept it for a long time

D. it can be a satellite phone in case of danger

3. What kind of information can’t be found on Scott’s and Shackleton’s expedition diaries?

A. weather

B. emotion

C. distance

D. direction

4. What does Ben want to do in future in the polar regions?

A. ski solo

B. surf the net

C. watch a film

D. bring living things

[1] 答案 A. US

解释：Field Notes是美国一家制作笔记本的公司，Ben已经保持记录这个习惯12年了。

[2] 答案 B. it contains many things necessarily

解释：这不仅仅是一本日记，更记录了紧急联系人和每天探险的数据等，在关键时刻发挥重要作用。

[3] 答案 B. emotion

解释：他们的日记更像是一种记事簿，几乎去除了对于感情的记录——只谈天气和航程。

[4] 答案 D. bring living things

解释：在寒冷的地方，见到有生机的东西是很难得的。