佚名/Anonymous
Larry Walters is among the relatively few who have actually turned their dreams into reality. His story is true, even though you may find it hard to believe.
Larry was a truck driver, but his lifelong dream was to fly. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. So, when he finally left the service, he had to satisfy himself with watching others fly the fighter jets that crisscrossed the skies over his backyard. As he sat there in his lawn chair, he dreamed about the magic of flying.
Then one day, Larry Walters got an idea. He went down to the local Army-Navy surplus store and bought a tank of helium and forty-five weather balloons. These were not your brightly colored party balloons, these were heavy-duty spheres measuring more than four feet across when fully inflated. Back in his yard, Larry used straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair, the kind you might have in your own back yard.
He anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with helium. Then he packed some sandwiches and drinks and loaded a BB gun, figuring he could pop a few of those balloons when it was time to return to earth.
His preparations completed, Larry Walters sat in his chair and cut the anchoring cord. His plan was to lazily float up away, and then lazily back down to terra firma. But, things didn't quite work out that way.
When Larry cut the cord, he didn't float lazily up—he shot up as if fired from a cannon! Nor did he go up a couple hundreds feet. He climbed and climbed, until he finally leveled off at eleven thousand feet! At that height, he could hardly risk deflating any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really experience flying! So, he stayed up there, sailing around for fourteen hours, totally at a loss as to how to get down. Eventually, Larry drifted into the approach corridor for Los Angeles International Airport. A Pan Am pilot radioed the tower about passing a guy on a lawn chair at eleven thousand feet... with a gun on his lap.
LAX is fight on the ocean, and you may know that at nightfall, the winds on the coast begin to change. So, as dusk fell, Larry began drifting out to sea.
At that point, the Navy dispatched a helicopter to rescue him. But, the rescue team had a hard time getting to him, because the draft from their propeller kept pushing his home-made contraption farther and farther away. Eventually, they were able to hover over him and drop a rescue line with which they gradually hauled him back to earth.
As soon as Larry hit the ground, he was arrested.
But as he was being led away in handcuffs, a television reporter called out to ask, "Mr Waiters, why did you do it?"
Larry stopped, eyed the man for a moment and replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around."
能夠將夢想變為現實的人絕對是鳳毛麟角，而拉裏·沃爾特斯正是其中之一。他的故事是真實的，盡管你可能覺得有些不切實際。
拉裏是卡車司機，然而他畢生的夢想卻是飛行。高中畢業後，夢想成為飛行員的拉裏決定參加美國空軍。不幸的是，糟糕的視力沒能讓他如願。所以，直到最後退役，拉裏也隻能在後院裏看著噴氣式戰鬥機在空中往來穿梭，得到一絲安慰。每當拉裏坐在草坪椅上，便會想象著飛翔的美妙。
一天，拉裏·沃爾特斯想到了一個主意。他去了當地海軍剩餘物資供應處，買了1罐氦氣和45隻皮氣球。這些氣球可不是派對上五彩繽紛的氣球，而是載重氣球，充足氣後可以達到4英尺多寬。回到院子後，拉裏用繩子將氣球係在草坪椅上。這種椅子在你們自家後院裏或許就能找到。
拉裏將椅子固定在吉普車的保險杆上，然後給氣球注入氦氣，隨後準備好三明治、飲料，以及裝滿子彈的BB獵槍，打算到時候打爆幾個氣球就可以返回地麵了。
萬事俱備後，拉裏·沃爾特斯便坐到椅子上，割斷了固定繩索。他原本計劃慢悠悠地飄上一陣子，然後再慢悠悠地返回地麵。然而，情況並不是那麽簡單。
當拉裏割斷繩索時，他並沒有慢悠悠地飄上去，反而像大炮裏射出的炮彈一樣射向了天空，而且也不僅僅升到幾百英尺的高空。他不斷攀升，最終居然升到了11000英尺的高空！在這樣的高度，拉裏可不敢放掉任何氣球的氦氣，要是失去平衡，就真的要在空中飛了！所以，他老老實實地待在那裏，整整飄了14個小時，根本不知道該如何著陸。最終，他飄到了洛杉磯國際機場的航道上。一名泛美航空公司的飛行員向控製台報告：有名男子坐在11000英尺高空中的一個草坪椅上……腿上還放著一把槍。
洛杉磯國際機場靠近海洋。你知道，一到黃昏時分，海岸上的風向會變。因此，隨著夜幕慢慢降臨，拉裏便開始向海的方向飄去。
這時，海軍派遣一架直升飛機前來營救。然而，救援隊很難接近拉裏，因為螺旋槳的氣流總是將他自製的裝置推得更遠。最終，他們盤旋在拉裏的上方，拋下營救繩索，才將他慢慢拖回到地麵。
拉裏的腳剛一著地就被逮捕了。
然而，當拉裏帶著手銬被帶走時，一名電視台記者大聲喊道：“沃爾特斯先生，你為什麽要這樣做？”
拉裏止住腳步，看了看這個人，若無其事地說：“是個男人，就不能隻是坐著。”
What makes life dreary is the want of motive.
—George Eliot
沒有了目的，生活便鬱悶無光。
——喬治·埃略特
surplus[?s?:pl?s]adj.多餘的；過剩的
They sold the surplus goods.
他們把剩餘商品賣掉。
inflate[in?fleit]v.使膨脹；使得意；使通貨膨脹
The buyers bid against each other and often inflate the prices they pay.
買主們競相投標往往人為地提高價錢。
anchor[???k?]v.停泊；拋錨；用錨係住
Several boats lay at anchor in the harbour.
港灣裏停泊著幾隻船。
nonchalantly[?n?n??l?ntli]adv.不激動地；冷淡地
She answered nonchalantly, "Because I only like the jam on top."
她冷淡地說：“因為我隻愛吃上麵的醬啊。”
他原本計劃慢悠悠地飄上一陣子，然後再慢悠悠地返回地麵。
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在這樣的高度，拉裏可不敢放掉任何氣球的氦氣，要是失去平衡，就真的要在空中飛了！
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最終，他們盤旋在拉裏的上方，拋下營救繩索，才將他慢慢拖回到地麵。
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Larry Walters is among the relatively few who have actually turned their dreams into reality.
turn into：變成
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But, things didn't quite work out that way.
work out：設計出；做出；實行；實現
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