Lesson 72 A car called bluebird “蓝鸟”汽车

叶凝云

原文

    The great racing driver, Sir Malcolm Campbell, was the first man to drive at over 300 miles per hour. He set up a new world record in September 1935 at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. Bluebird, the car he was driving, had been specially built for him. It was over 30 feet in length and had a 2,500-horsepower engine. Although Campbell reached a speed of over 304 miles per hour, he had great difficulty in controlling the car because a tyre burst during the first run. After his attempt, Campbell was disappointed to learn that his average speed had been 299 miles per hour. However, a few days later, he was told that a mistake had been made. His average speed had been 301 miles per hour. Since that time, racing drivers have reached speeds over 600 miles an hour. Following in his father's footsteps many years later, Sir Malcolm's son, Donald, also set up a world record. Like his father, he was driving a car called Bluebird.

New words and expressions 生词和短语

racing  n. 竞赛
per  prep. 每
Utah  n. 犹他（美国州名）
horsepower  n. 马力
burst  v. 爆裂
average  adj. 平均的
footstep  n. 足迹

参考译文

    杰出的赛车选手马尔科姆.坎贝尔爵士是第一个以每小时超过300英里的速度驾车的人。他于1935年9月在犹他州的邦纳维尔盐滩创造了一项新的世界纪录。他驾驶的“蓝鸟”牌汽车是专门为他制造的。它的车身长30英尺，有一个2,500 马力的发动机。尽管坎贝尔达到了每小时超过304英里的速度，但他很难把汽车控制住，因为在开始的行程中爆了一只轮胎。比赛结束后，坎贝尔非常失望地得知他的平均时速是299英里。然而，几天之后，有人告诉他说弄错了。他的平均时速实际是301英里。从那时以来，赛车选手已达到每小时600英里的速度。很多年之后，马尔科姆爵士的儿子唐纳德踏着父亲的足迹，也创造了一项世界纪录。同他父亲一样，他也驾驶着一辆名叫“蓝鸟”的汽车。