Unit 2
Text B When courage triumphed over fear
当勇气战胜恐惧
1 I know what courage looks like. I saw it on a flight I took six years ago, and only now can I speak of it without tears filling my eyes at the memory.
我知道勇气是什么样子。我六年前在乘坐的一架航班上就见识了。只到现在，凭记忆述说这件事的时候，我才不致热泪盈眶。
2 When our plane left New York that Friday morning, we were a talkative, high-energy group. The early-morning transcontinental flight hosted mainly professional people going to San Francisco for a day or two of business. As I looked around, I saw lots of designer suites, CEO-level expensive haircuts, designer briefcases and all the trimmings of lofty business travelers. I settled back with my paperback novel for some light reading and the brief flight ahead.
那是星期五的早上，当我们的飞机从纽约起飞时，我们这帮人还高谈阔论、劲头十足。这趟横贯大陆的清晨航班主要搭载了一些前往旧金山出差一两天的职业人士。我向四周打量一下，看到的多是名贵西装、经理人式的考究发型、名牌公文包以及气宇轩昂的商务旅行者们的各种装束。我身子往后一靠，拿出一本简装小说准备轻松阅读一下，度过时下这短暂的飞行。
3 Immediately upon take-off, long before we had reached our cruising altitude, it was clear that something was wrong. The aircraft was bumping vertically up and down and tilting left to right. All the experienced travelers, including me, looked around with knowing grins. We had experienced minor problems and turbulence on prior flights. If you fly very much, you see these things and learn to act relaxed about them.
飞机刚一起飞，远未达到巡航高度时，我们就明显感到有什么不对劲。飞机直上直下颠簸、忽左忽右倾斜。我们这些有出门经验的人都四下环顾着，会心地笑了笑。在以前的飞行中，我们都经历过一些小问题和气流颠簸。如果你飞机坐多了，这类事情见多了，你也就学会泰然处之了。
4 It wasn't long before our relaxed attitudes began to evaporate. Minutes after we were in flight, our plane began dipping wildly and one wing plunged downward. The plane climbed higher but that didn't help our plight. The pilot soon provided some grave news regarding the flight.
没过多久我们放松的心情就开始消失了。飞行才几分钟，飞机就失控下坠，而且一只机翼向下倾斜。尽管飞机爬高了些，但于事无补。飞行员很快通报了这次飞行的严重事态。
5 "We are having some difficulties," he said. "At this time, it appears we have no nose-wheel steering. Our indicators show that our landing system has failed, which necessitates that we abort the flight and return to New York. Because of the problems with the mechanism o, if you look out the windows, you will see that we are dumping fuel from the airplane. We want to have as little on board as possible in the event of a rough touchdown."
“我们现在遇到了一些麻烦，”他说。“目前看来前轮转向装置无法运转；指示器显示，我们的着陆系统失灵了。我们必须放弃飞行，返回纽约。由于机械装置出现了问题，我们的起落架可能无法锁住，因此乘务人员将帮助大家做好准备，预防着陆时的颠簸。还有，如果大家看一下窗外，就会看见我们正在倾倒飞机上的燃油。我们想尽量减轻飞机的负荷，以应对飞机硬着陆。”
6 In other words, we were about to crash. No sight has ever been so sobering as that fuel, hundreds of gallons of it, streaming past my window out of the plane's tanks. The flight attendants scrambled to get people into position and comforted those who were instantaneously hysterical.
也就是说，我们要坠机了。从飞机油箱里倒出的成百上千加仑的汽油就从舷窗外飞流直下，没有什么比这种景象更能让人感到事态的严重。乘务人员急于让大家各归其位，还尽力安抚那些顷刻之间歇斯底里的乘客。
7 As I looked at the faces of my fellow business travelers, I was stunned by the changes I saw. Many looked visibly frightened now. Even the most sophisticated looked vulnerable and grim. Their faces actually looked panicked. There wasn't a
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