胡敏讀故事記托福詞匯117：住在沙漠邊緣 living at the edge of the desert
You don’t need a humanistic education in order to become a herdsman. Tending camels is a humble occupation, not at all well suited to hypersensitive individuals, such as myself, camels are quite arrogant beasts, only too ready to try and humiliate
those who care for them, for example, by spitting at them.
要成為一個(gè)牧人，你不需要接受人文主義的教育。照料駱駝是一份微賤的工作，一點(diǎn)也不適合高度敏感的人，比如我自己。駱駝是很高傲的野獸，隨時(shí)準(zhǔn)備好試圖羞辱照顧它們的人，比如朝他們吐唾沫。
As a herdman, there is no need to hypothesise on the meaning of life, what you do need, though, is a well-balanced nature,
plus a fair amount of humility, living at the edge of the desert presents a great many hurdles to economic survival, clearly,
herding camels must be one of the most difficult forms of animal husbandry.
作為牧人，沒有必要假設(shè)生命的意義。然而，你確實(shí)需要平衡的天性，再加上一定程度的謙卑。住在沙漠邊緣給經(jīng)濟(jì)的維持造成很多障礙。顯然，放牧駱駝肯定是畜牧業(yè)中最困難的行當(dāng)之一。
Still, camels are well-adapted to life around the desert, they drink lots of water when they find it and store it in their humps, for when conditions are more precarious, likewise, they do not have much of a problem with the sand storms that rage like hurricanes in springtime, hurling clouds of dust and clods of earth over long distances, hustling anyone in their path to look for shelter, the howling of the wind alone is enough to hypnotise humans and animals alike.
盡管如此，駱駝很適應(yīng)沙漠的生活。它們發(fā)現(xiàn)水時(shí)會(huì)喝很多，并且貯藏在駝峰里，以防遇到更危險(xiǎn)的情況。同樣，春天像颶風(fēng)一樣肆慮的沙塵暴對(duì)它們來說也算不上什么問題，沙塵暴把灰塵和土塊投擲到很遠(yuǎn)的地方，粗野地推搡那些正在找庇護(hù)所的人。大風(fēng)的咆哮聲就足以把人和動(dòng)物都催眠了。
New breeds of hybrid grains have been developed that thrive under conditions that are less than humid, these grains are easy
to husk, while the husks themselves can be used as fodder for the camels, that leaves the problem of personal hygiene. How do you keep yourself clean and healthy in conditions of such severe shortage of humidity, let alone in the middle of a dust storm?
新品種的雜交谷物已經(jīng)研制出來，能在不太潮濕的環(huán)境下茂密生長(zhǎng)。這些谷物很容易去殼。外殼可以作為駱駝的飼料。剩下的問題就是個(gè)人衛(wèi)生。如何讓自己在這種嚴(yán)重缺少濕氣的條件下保持清潔健康呢，更何況在沙塵暴中呢?
Living at the edge of the desert is tough, to say the least. My hypothesis is that I would not last longer than a week under such conditions of hardship.
至少可以這么說，住在沙漠邊緣是艱苦的，我的假設(shè)是我在這種艱苦的條件下，只能堅(jiān)持不超過一個(gè)星期的時(shí)間。
Words:
Humble adj.微賤的，謙遜的
Humid adj.潮濕的
Humidity n.濕氣，濕度
Humiliate vt.羞辱，使丟臉
Humility n.謙卑
Hump n.駝背，峰，圓形隆起之物
Hurdle n.籬笆，障礙
Hurl vt.用力投擲
Hurricane n.颶風(fēng)，暴風(fēng)雨
Husbandry n.節(jié)儉， 耕種，務(wù)農(nóng) ，農(nóng)牧業(yè)
Husk n.外殼，皮 vt.剝….的殼。 削皮
Hustle n.擁擠喧嚷，催促，粗野地推
Hybrid n.雜種，混血兒
Hygiene n.衛(wèi)生
Hypersensitive adj.高靈敏度的，感覺過敏的
Hypnotise vt.催眠
Hypothesis n.假設(shè)，假說
Hypothesise vt.假設(shè)，假定。
