安格斯: 伟大探险家/ANGUS: Great Explorers

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- 安格斯: 伟大探险家
  ANGUS: Great Explorers
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安格斯: 伟大探险家 / ANGUS: Great Explorers
[ 读物介绍 ]
David AngusGREAT EXPLORERS The great explorers have always been independent,strong-minded individuals. They are going where no one else has been before, sothey have to be bold, courageous, totally self-motivated – and driven by theirideas. It doesn’t matter whether the goal is to see what is on theother side of the hill, the ocean, the continent or even on another planet: thesame determination must exist. Vasco da Gama was in the port to welcomeChristopher Columbus returning from his historic voyage across the Atlanticand, looking at Columbus, da Gama will have acknowledged that they had similarqualities. These two were different men from the 13th-century MarcoPolo, who was more of a merchant than an adventurer; and they were different againfrom the 18th-century Captain Cook: a quieter, controlled Englishman as muchinterested in expanding scientific knowledge as gung-ho exploration. But therewould have been a mutual respect between all these men, and they would all haverecognized the bravery and achievement of those on the Apollo 7 Mission. Inthis case, the men knew where they were going (unlike Columbus who only had ahazy idea) but also knew that their survival depended, in the end, upon aknife-edge of computer calculations and space theory. Subsequent deaths inspace missions illustrate only too graphically how dangerous it is to travel atthe limits of man’s practical experience. Of course, international travel now is very easy. We can allfly across the Atlantic or the Pacific to holiday destinations. We mix withpeople from different continents, people with very different habits andexpectations. If we are walking in remote regions, we generally have a guidewho speaks the language, understands the customs, and can introduce us graduallyto the glories of the country – and advise us where to be cautious. ButBartolomeu Diaz and Magellan, Columbus and Cook had no guides. Lewis and Clarkoccasionally managed to enlist help from local tribes, but they still had tofind routes over impassable stretches of land; and when they were expecting tofind the Pacific, they suddenly had to deal with the Rocky Mountains – a verydifferent prospect!Quite quickly, travelling in the footsteps of these figuresbecame commonplace. Bartolomeu Diaz sailed down the West African coast in 1488,discovering the tip of southern Africa which he called The Cape of Storms. Hewas superseded less than 10 years later by Vasco da Gama, who finished off thejob, discovering the sea route to India. Within decades of Columbus’s greatachievement, ships were plying across the Atlantic by the hundreds. And only 50years after Magellan, Sir Francis Drake went round the globe in The GoldenHind. It took less than a generation for settlers to follow in the footsteps ofLewis and Clark, marking out the territory of the United States of America.The challenges that remain to the contemporary explorer aredifferent. Space is perhaps the biggest frontier. But if little of the landmass of Planet Earth remains to be discovered, the same cannot be said of theoceans. The sea covers two thirds of the Earth’s surface, and much explorationstill needs to be done in its depths. And there remain other journeys requiringconsiderable fortitude – the high and forbidding mountains, the hot deserts ofsand and rock, the icy wastes of Antarctica. Perhaps equally important, if not quite so historic, arethose less spectacular but nevertheless challenging journeys which stretch mostof us to the limits of our capacity, where we can experience for ourselvesdifferent sights and ways of life beyond (what we see through) the living-roomtelevision portal. When Christopher Columbus sailed into the unknown, he tookwith him the Travels of Marco Polo. It clearly wasn’t enough for him to readabout adventure in his armchair – he had to go and do it for himself! Notes by Nicolas Soames