英語美文：夢想起飛 別一飛沖天

Larry Walters’ boyhood dream was not an unusual one: He wanted to fly. What was unusual, though, was the way he fulfilled it. After finishing school, Larry joined the U.S. Air Force, but was rejected from pilot-training school because of poor eyesight. However, his dream remained.

拉里·沃爾特少年時期的夢想并不很平常：他想飛。然而不尋常的是他實現(xiàn)的方式。從學校畢業(yè)后，拉里就加入美國空軍，但由于視力不佳而被飛行訓練學校拒之門外。盡管如此，他的夢想依然沒變。

Larry, aged 33, was not a pilot, but a truck driver in Los Angeles. One day, while sitting outside in his lawn chair, Larry had his eureka moment. As he watched jets fly overhead, an idea came to him to use weather balloons to fly.

33歲的拉里不是一名飛行員，而是洛杉磯的一名卡車司機。一天，當拉里坐在屋外的折椅上時，突然靈機一動。他看到噴氣機從頭頂飛過，就想到可以用氣象探測氣球來飛行。

A few weeks later, Larry bought 42 one-meter diameter weather balloons. He tied them to a lawnchair and filled them with helium. Then he sat down in the chair with some beer, sandwiches, and a BB gun. Larry’s plan was to float about 10 meters above his backyard, enjoy a few hours in the air, and then pop some balloons with his gun to get back down. But things did not go according to Larry’s plan.

幾個星期后，拉里買了42個直徑為1米的氣象探測氣球。他將氣球綁在折椅上并注入氦氣。接著他坐上椅子，帶了一些啤酒，三明治和一支BB槍。拉里計劃在他家后院飄起10米高左右，好好在空中享受幾小時，然后用槍擊破一些氣球以回到地面。但是事情并沒有按照拉里的計劃進展。

When his friends cut the anchor lines, Larry, lifted by the 42 balloons, shot skyward at anastonishing speed. He finally settled at an altitude of 4,000 meters. Afraid to popany of the balloons, in case he should upset the balance of his “craft,” Larry sat, cold and frightened, in the sky with his beer and sandwiches for 14 hours.

朋友們一切斷錨線，拉里就被42個氣球拉起，并以驚人的速度射向天際。最后他停在海拔4000米的高度上。擔心擊破一些氣球會導致他的“飛行器”失去平衡，拉里又冷又怕，與他的啤酒和三明治在空中坐了14個小時。

Airline pilots heading toward Los Angeles’ busy international airport radioed in reports of the strange sight. Larry’s presence in the skies caused numerous planes to be rerouted.Eventually, Larry worked up the nerve to shoot a few balloons and slowly descended, landing in power lines. Uninjured, he climbed down to safety and was arrested by waiting police.

飛往繁忙洛杉磯國際機場的民航飛行員，用無線電報告了這一奇怪的景象。拉里停留在空中迫使許多飛機改變航線。最終拉里鼓起勇氣擊破了幾個氣球慢慢地下降，停在電線上。拉里沒有受傷，爬了下來，獲得了安全，隨即被等候的警方逮捕了。

When asked by a reporter why he had done it, Larry responded, "a man just can’t sit around." Larry fulfilled his dream, and set a record for a gas-filled balloon flight. But it cost him: He was later fined US$1,500 for violating air safety regulations.

當記者問及為什么會有此舉動，拉里答道：“一個人就是不能坐在那里不干事。”拉里實現(xiàn)了夢想，而且創(chuàng)造了一項以充氣氣球飛行的記錄。然而這讓他付出的代價是：他后來因違反空中安全條例被罰1500美金。