鲨口脱险 In the Jaws of a Shark

佚名/Anonymous

Except for the seals bobbing their black beads in and out of the green Pacifc waters, brothers Eric and Nick Larsen seemed to have the ocean to themselves.

Dressed in wet suits, gloves on their hands, they straddled their rocking surfboards under a brilliant blue sky. There was a southerly fow to the ocean this cool Monday morning, July 1，1991.Four-foot waves were sweeping into a narrow, deserted beach, one of the many coves on the coastline north of Californias Monterey Bay.

Sometime after 8 a. m.，50-year-old Nick pointed his board toward the shore about 150 yards away.“Im going to the truck to warm up.”he said.

“Ill stay a little longer.”Eric called after him.

Until ten weeks earlier, Eric had been a software engineer for a Silicon Valley company writing programs for a fiber-optic datanetwork for the proposed NASA space station. But he found the pace too slow and wanted to be outdoors.

So when the company began laying off employee, the 32-year-old told management hed take a leave of absence.

At six-foot-one and 175 pounds, Eric was always in shape. Now he brought himself to peak fitness, running, swimming, bicycling, surfng and canoeing.

Awaiting the break of a good wave, Eric gazed seaward. Then he noticed a swirling turbulence close by. Theres something really big down there, he thought.

In that instant, he felt a powerful clamp on his left leg. Gaping in horror, he saw two wide rows of white, triangular teeth, bared to the gums, biting through fesh. Thigh to shin, his leg was caught in the jaws of a great white shark at least 15 feet long.

Pry them loose！In lightning-fast refex, Eric shot his gloved left hand to the top of the monsters snout, his right to the bottom. He pushed mightily against the jaws, while the shark tugged.

At that moment, the jaws opened, and Eric jerked his leg free. He kicked away from the hulking attacker, arms still out stretched. Too late, he tried to pull them in.

Lunging, tail thrashing, the shark sank its teeth deep into Erics left arm from elbow to wrist and crunched down on the bone of the right forearm. His hands, untouched, groped inside the huge cavity of the mouth.

Eric was afraid, but not terrifed. His engineer‘s mind focused on the jaw. Pulling and tugging desperately, he felt his right arm move against the teeth. A fierce pull, and he tore it out. Attack！Hit him！Bunching his right fst, he smashed the shark’s gray-white belly in a hammer blow. The hide felt fat, muscular, but the pressure came offhis left arm and he yanked it clear.

He was under the shark, away from its jaws. Then his body was jerked violently. The shark had snagged the six-foot nylon leash attaching Eric‘s right ankle to the surfboard. I’m all chewed up, he thought wildly, and now this.

For several seconds, he was towed through the water feet first at dizzying speed. Then, abruptly, he was foundering. The leash was broken, the shark nowhere in sight.

He kicked to the surface and gulped air. His surfboard was floating only a few feet away, and he swung himself aboard, belly down.

Over the wave crests Eric caught a glimpse of the shoreline and paddled for it. Relax, he coached himself. Its not over yet. Conserve your energy.

He settled into a rhythmic pace, but each stroke of his arms left a scarlet trail. Anxiously, he scanned the ocean for a dorsal fn. The shark was out there somewhere. To fnd him, it had only to follow the blood.

Eric wanted to go faster, but dared not. The harder he paddled, the faster his heart pounded and the more his blood lost. Halfway to shore, he looked behind, and his eyes fxed on a wave rushing at him. Head up, hands guiding, he caught its crest and rode it to shore. At least he cant get me here.

A woozy feeling came over him as he sat there and inspected the raw pulp of tissue under the shreds of his wet suit. Down his left leg and along his arms were wounds that gaped to the bone. From the deep laceration above the knee, he judged that the shark had mangled the muscle. Blood spurted from a cut in the crook of his left arm. The shark had severed an artery. He had escaped its jaws, but now he couldbleed to death in minutes.

He clamped the gash firmly with his right hand, and thrust the arm above his head. Blood must have been spouting out of the arm since the attack. Already the loss was making him faint.

If he passed out with his hand no longer sealing the wound, life would bleed out of him. Erics mind raced, ls this the end?

He had been in tight spots many times. Always he had pulled through. The key was emotional control, never to be so frightened that he could not think and act. Life‘s too good.l’m too young to die on this death.

He had to get around the headland where he could been seen. Clambering to his feet, arm still clenched, he staggered up the beach.“Suck it up, Eric，”he told himself aloud.“Hike！”

Eric understood what was happening to his body. While in graduate school in Montana he had spent two years as a ski-patrol volunteer and had earned a certificate in advanced frst aid. The skill had served him through nearly a dozen rescues.

After 50 yards, he slumped on his backside. He needed to put his legs up, get more blood to his vital organs, but there was no time. He rested 30 seconds and stumbled on.

Twice more he dropped to the sand in a half-faint, He felt the blood pulsing under his hand, ready to spout.“Get tough！”he commanded, tightening his grip.

Ahead，300 feet away, was a cluster of four beach houses. He stumbled toward them. Then he could go no further he had to sit down. Blood pooled in the sand around him.“Help me！”he cried.

In a small cottage at the edge of the beach，16-year-old Ben Burdette heard someone yelling. Stepping outside, he saw a man lying on the sand.“Help！”came a shout.“Ive been attacked by a shark. Call 911.”

Ben saw the mans upraised arms were covered in blood. Turning on his heeds, he sprinted for the house.

Inside, Bens mother, Michele, heard her son at the phone.“on the beach, bitten by a shark, looks pretty bad……”

She ran to the beach. The fgure sprawled there was still crying out. She gasped at the gore of his legs and arms. Kneeling at his side, she saw his lips were gray.“Im loosing it，”he said.“You have to stop the bleeding. My left arm. Theres a pressure point underneath, up near the armpit. Hold on tight.”

Michele sank her fngers into the main brachial artery of the arm.

Seconds later, Ben was on the scene with towels. Following Eric‘s instruction, he used them to elevate the wounded man’s feet. Then he raced off to flag down the rescue units. Michele avoided looking at Erics wounds and kept asking him questions to keep him awake.

In ten minutes or so, they were joined by a registered nurse, who was also captain of the volunteer rescue squad in nearby Davenport, a rescue team from the California Department of Forestry and Nick Larsen. He had been leaning against the truck, just a few hundred yards away, suspecting nothing.

“Its good to have you here.”said Eric as Nick gripped his hand.

The rescuers, soon reinforced by an ambulance crew, labored over Eric for nearly an hour. They gave him pure oxygen and began running fuid into his veins. Cutting away his wet suit, they bandaged his wounds and pulled rubberized, inflatable trousers on his legs to force blood to his upper body.

Rescuers were astonished he was still lucid after such massive blood loss. The first reading of his systolic blood pressure was a perilously low 50.But by the time an evacuation helicopter got to thebeach for the six-minute flight to Dominican Santa Cruz Hospital, Erics blood pressure was close to normal.

It plummeted again with the removal of the pressure pants in the emergency room at Dominican, then began to rise after infusions of red blood and more fuids. Doctors judged that he had lost nearly half the blood in his body.

In the operating room, one surgeon worked on Erics leg, another on his arms. The quadriceps leg muscle was severed, a piece of an arm muscle bitten out altogether. Both arms were laid open to the bone. The bone itself was scratched by the sharks serrated teeth.“Its like the bone was sawed with a bread knife，”commented one doctor.

A week later, he was home with splint on his leg and casts on both arms. Three weeks after that he was limping along the beach and reliving his adventure.“I think the shark was tasting me, hoping I was a seal.”he said.“Maybe he didn‘t like the taste of the rubbery wet suit and that’s why he let me go.”

此刻，除了海豹的黑脑袋在绿色的太平洋上跃动，整个海域似乎就剩下埃瑞克·拉森和尼克·拉森两兄弟了。

1991年7月1日，一个星期一的早晨，他们穿着潜水紧身衣，戴着手套，在湛蓝的天空下踏着冲浪板冲浪。有一股来自南方的洋流来到此地，4英尺高的海浪冲击着加利福尼亚蒙特雷海湾众多海湾中一个狭窄、荒凉的小海滩。

早晨8点后，50岁的尼克将冲浪板指向150码以外的海滩，说道：“我要到卡车里暖和暖和。”

“我想再待一会儿。”埃瑞克在他的身后喊着。

10个星期以前，埃瑞克还在硅谷一家公司担任软件工程师，为美国国家航空航天局太空站的光纤数据网络编写程序。但他讨厌那种慢条斯理的工作环境，所以决定出去走走。

于是，当公司准备裁员时，32岁的埃瑞克便向人事管理部门提出了休假请求。

埃瑞克身高6英尺1英寸，体重175磅，有着一副匀称的身材。他经常做一些适当的健身活动，比如跑步、游泳、骑车、冲浪、划船，拥有非常健康的体魄。

埃瑞克凝视着前方，等待着下一拨大浪的到来。此时，他注意到附近有一个带有旋涡的浪，他想，一定有什么大东西在下面。

就在这一刻，他感到有一股强大的力量拽住了他的左腿。他惊恐地看到，两排露出牙床的三角形白色牙齿穿透了他从大腿到小腿的皮肤，刺进了肉里。一条至少长达15英尺的大白鲨咬住了他！

埃瑞克的本能反应是把大白鲨的嘴撬开逃生。于是，他挥动着戴着手套的左手猛击那只恶魔的鼻子顶端，同时，右手伸向底部，去顶住鲨鱼猛力推拽的下颌。

此时，大白鲨的下颌突然张开，于是埃瑞克迅速把自己的腿从它嘴里抽出来。但是，他伸展的双臂却没有及时收回，晚了一步。

大白鲨摇动着尾巴猛扑过来，牙齿深深地咬住了埃瑞克的左臂从手肘到手腕的那段部位，然后又啃着右前臂的骨骼，并发出嘎吱嘎吱的牙齿摩擦的声音。不过，埃瑞克的手并没有被咬到，此时，他的手正在大白鲨巨大的嘴里摸索着。

埃瑞克虽然很害怕，但并未惊慌失措。作为一名工程师，冷静的逻辑思维使他注意到大白鲨的下颌。于是，他拼命地挣脱，感觉自己的右臂已经挣脱了牙齿。他猛地一用力，把右臂从大白鲨的嘴里拽了出来。他当时所有的念头就是：反击，打它。他抡起拳头，用力击打着大白鲨灰白色的下腹。大白鲨的皮摸着很平坦，肌肉发达。他感到左臂上的压力消失了，于是又猛地一用力，将手拔了出来。

此时，埃瑞克处在大白鲨的下腹，脱离了大白鲨的血口，但他的身体突然被猛烈地拽了一下。原来大白鲨咬住了一条6英尺长的尼龙绳，而那条尼龙绳子正好是埃瑞克用来把脚踝固定在冲浪板上的。埃瑞克心想：“我就要被彻底吃掉了。”

大白鲨先以较快的速度沿着海平面，在水中拖了埃瑞克几秒钟。随后，在埃瑞克的挣扎中，尼龙绳突然断了，而大白鲨也不见了踪影。

埃瑞克奋力地游上水面，并大口地呼吸着空气。他的冲浪板在几英尺外的地方浮着，于是他爬了上去。

越过浪峰，埃瑞克看到了远处的海岸线，他慢慢地向陆地划去。他告诫自己危险并未结束，一定要节省体力。

他有节奏地用双手划着水，但每动一下，他的胳膊就会流出大量的鲜血，并在海中留下一道鲜红的血迹，他仔细环顾着海中是否还有鲨鱼的鱼鳍。鲨鱼可能会在其他地方，并会随着他留下的血迹跟踪过来。

埃瑞克想快速划到陆地，但他不能这么做。因为每一次剧烈运动都会使他的心跳加速，从而导致血液流失得更快。在划向陆地的过程中，他发现有一股海浪向他涌来。于是，他抬起头，双手控制着方向，并划到了浪峰上。接着，他顺着海浪冲到了岸边。他想：“此刻，它绝不会在这里出现了。”

当埃瑞克坐在岸边检查破碎的潜水衣下面受伤的肌肉组织时，他突然感到一阵眩晕。他发现，他的左腿下面，还有双臂，全都受伤了，并且伤口深可见骨。从膝盖以上伤口的受伤程度来看，他判断大白鲨已经撕裂了他的肌肉组织，而且还撕裂了左胳膊上的一根主动脉，血液从胳膊的弯曲处喷涌而出。虽然已经脱离鲨口，但现在他仍然可能会因为失血过多而丧生。

左臂的持续失血，已经使他的身体出现虚脱状况。为了减缓血液流失的速度，他用右手夹紧伤口，将左臂抬到头部以上。那血肯定是鲨鱼袭击时就开始流的。

如果不马上控制住不断从伤口里流出的血液，他的生命将因失血过多而结束。难道就这么离开这个世界吗？埃瑞克绝望地想着。

他历经多次冒险，但总能化险为夷。关键是控制情绪，绝不能因恐惧而停止思考和行动。生命是如此的美好，而自己又这么年轻，绝不能就这样死去。

他必须绕过陆岬，以使别人能看到他。于是，他压着伤口，努力地爬起来，并艰难地在海岸上行走。“坚持下去，埃瑞克，”他大声对自己说，“走！”

埃瑞克很清楚自己现在的身体状态。因为在蒙大拿读研究生的时候，他曾经做了两年的滑水巡逻志愿者，还获得了一级急救证书，并参与了十几次救援行动。

走了50码后，他突然栽倒在地。他需要竖起双腿以保证身体的重要器官能够获得充足的血液，但是，时间所剩无几。他休息了30秒后，又站了起来。

在半路上，他曾几次栽倒在沙滩上。他感觉血液顺着手臂不停地向下流，并随时可能喷出。于是，他握紧伤口并命令自己：“坚强些！”

前面300英尺的地方，有四间海滨别墅，他步履蹒跚地走了过去。这时他再也走不动了，便坐了下来。他哭喊着“救命”，血液已经浸染了他的周围。

16岁的本·布尔德特，住在海边的一所小屋。当他听到有人在呼救时，急忙跑出去，发现一个男人倒在沙滩上，并呼喊着：“救命，我遭遇了鲨鱼的袭击，快拨911！”

本发现，这个人抬举着已经被鲜血浸染的双臂。于是，他迅速跑向屋里。

“在沙滩上……被鲨鱼袭击……看起来很糟……”在屋里，本的妈妈米歇尔听到儿子打电话。

于是，她跑到沙滩上，发现一个男人伸开四肢躺在那儿，并不停地哭喊。米歇尔看到他受伤的腿和手臂时，很惊讶。她马上跑过去跪在他的旁边，发现他的嘴唇已经灰白，“请帮我用力压住我的左腋窝下，我需要止血，请用力压住！”那个男人请求道。

米歇尔用手指掐住了他左臂的主动脉。

随后，本按照埃瑞克的指导，拿来毛巾，用它们垫起埃瑞克受伤的腿，然后跑去迎接救援人员的到来。米歇尔不敢看埃瑞克的伤口，但她不停地和他说话，问他问题，让他保持清醒。

大约过了10分钟，一名来自附近达文波特市的注册护士赶来了，她同时是志愿救援队队长。随后，一支来自加利福尼亚林业部的专业救援队和尼克也赶到了现场。

埃瑞克对紧握着他手的尼克说：“能见到你真是太好了。”

救援队开着救护车赶来救援，针对埃瑞克的伤势展开了将近一个小时的现场抢救工作。他们给他输氧输液，剪掉他的潜水服，给他的伤口进行简单包扎。同时，为他穿上特制的橡胶压力裤，以便压迫血液流向全身。

救援人员惊讶地发现，埃瑞克在如此大量失血的状态下，仍然能保持清醒。第一次测量时，他的血压已经低于50毫米汞柱，生命危在旦夕，但是6分钟后，当急救飞机抵达现场并把他送到圣·克鲁兹多明教会医院时，埃瑞克的血压又奇迹般地恢复到了正常水平。

在多明教会医院的急诊室中，医生把埃瑞克身上的压力裤脱下时，他的血压又开始下降。于是医生立刻为他输血，血压才恢复了上来。医生判断，埃瑞克的失血量几乎达到了人体血液总量的一半。

在手术室，一名外科医生负责埃瑞克的腿，另一名负责他的胳膊。他的腿部肌肉被严重撕裂，胳膊上的肌肉也被撕掉了一块，双臂上的伤口全都深可见骨，而他的骨头上还留有鲨鱼牙齿的咬痕。一名医生说：“骨头好像是面包被刀切过一样。”

一个星期后，埃瑞克回到家中养伤，腿和胳膊上固定着厚厚的夹板。三个星期后，埃瑞克可以下地走路了。他又回到了那片海滩，脑海里不停地闪现着那次惊心动魄的搏斗场面。“那条鲨鱼可能以为我是海豹，想把我吃掉，但它不喜欢我的橡胶游泳衣的味道，所以就把我给放了。”埃瑞克对自己调侃道。

知识点

科幻小说的分类：科幻小说分为软科幻和硬科幻小说。软科幻小说是情节和题材集中于哲学、心理学、政治学或社会学等倾向的科幻小说。相对于“硬科幻”，作品中科学技术和物理定律的重要性被降低了，所以它所涉及的题材往往被归类为软科学或人文学科。硬科幻小说是以物理学、化学、生物学、天文学等自然科学为基础的，主要描写新技术、新发明给人类社会带来的影响。

W词汇笔记

straddle[strædl]v.跨坐；叉开腿

例 He straddled before me, with a cigar in his hand.

他叉着腿站在我的面前，手里夹着一支雪茄。

jerk[dʒə：k]v.猛拉；（使……）猝然一动

例 He jerked a big fish out of water.

他猛地将一条大鱼拉出水面。

certificate[sətifkeit]n.证书；文凭，结业证书

例 She was granted an examination certificate.

她被授予考试合格证书。

lucid[lu：sid]adj.易懂的；清楚的；透明的；头脑清晰的

例 The teacher asked me to give a lucid explanation of my being late for class.

老师要求我对上课迟到给出清晰的解释。

S小试身手

埃瑞克凝视着前方，等待着下一拨大浪的到来。

译________________________________________

越过浪峰，埃瑞克看到了远处的海岸线，他慢慢地向陆地划去。

译________________________________________

三个星期后，艾瑞克可以下地走路了，他又回到了那片海滩，脑海里不停地闪现着那次惊心动魄的搏斗场面。

译________________________________________

P短语家族

So when the company began laying off employee, the 32-year-old told management hed take a leave of absence.

take a leave of absence：休假

造________________________________________

In a small cottage at the edge of the beach，16-year-old Ben Burdette heard someone yelling.

at the edge of：在……的边缘

造________________________________________