穿越澳大利亚内陆

陕西 吕 品

他和他的妻子一直想来一场穿越澳大利亚内陆的旅行。在2018 年，他们的梦终于圆了……

题材：旅行体裁：记叙文文章词数：341建议用时：6分钟

We got our flat tyre as we drove into the Mount Barnett Roadhouse on Western Austra⁃lia's Gibb River Road. Luckily, three kind guys changed our tyre, with serious warnings to get to the service station to fix it.

My wife,Jean,and I had wanted to experience one of the English⁃speaking world's most remote places that non⁃explorers could navi⁃gate on their own: the Kimberley region, an area in the northwestern corner of Australia, with a population of just 34,000 people. And in May,2018,we got the chance to visit.

The only way to explore Kimberley is by the Gibbvery, a very bad road, or by air. We did the latter first, taking the lay of the land from the sky before we set off down the Gibbvery on four wheels.To do that,we went to the jumping⁃off point for helicopter tours in Kimberley.

“You from Canada, mate?”asked James Bondfield, our young helicopter pilot.“Uh,yes, I am.”When we Canadians open our mouths in Australia, we're almost always mis⁃taken for Americans.“I worked in Canada,”said Bondfield,explaining that he had built up his flying hours in the oil sands in northern Alberta. He also flew in the forests of Papua New Guinea,Malaysia and Indonesia before returning home and rising to be at age 30.

During the next two days,Bondfield,like any great guide,took us where we wanted to go, then showed us his own secret places there. We first picnicked atop King George Falls in the Balanggarra Indigenous Protected Area, a 1 million⁃hectare homeland of First Peoples in Australia,and their rock art,dating back to more than 40,000 years ago,is draw⁃ing global attention.

Bondfield landed us near some caves covered in the images of ancient plants and ani⁃mals. Their brightness was barely faded despite tens of thousands of years of bad weather.We crawled into rock cracks all afternoon, snapped photos and returned with shots of paintings that are among the oldest made by humans anywhere in the world.

Reading Check

1.What problem did the author face during his travel?

A.It was hard to find a helicopter pilot.

B.The locals had serious warnings.

C.The weather was stormy.

D.One of the tyres was flat.

2.What can we know about the Kimberley region?

A.It has a large population.

B.It has rare English speakers.

C.It is a challenge for non⁃explorers to navigate.

D.It is situated in the southwest of Australia.

3.What's the author's attitude towards Bondfield?

A.Satisfied. B.Tolerant. C.Ambiguous. D.Unclear.

4.What's famous in the Balanggarra Indigenous Protected Area?

A.The oil sands. B.The forests. C.Rock art. D.Ancient species.

Language Study

熟词生义

We crawled into rock cracks all afternoon,snappedphotos and returned with shots of paintings that are among the oldest made by humans anywhere in the world.整个下午我们都在岩石裂缝里缓慢前行，拍下照片，而后带着世界上最古老的人类画作的照片回来。

snapv.拍照

e.g.A passing tourist snapped the incident.一个路过的游客把这一事件拍了下来。