Unit 3 Reading OLD TOM THE KILLER WHALE 虎鲸Tom

【课文】

I was 16 when I began work in June 1902 at the whaling station. I had heard of the killers that every year helped whalers catch huge whales. I thought, at the time, that this was just a story but then I witnessed it with my own eyes many times.

On the afternoon I arrived at the station, as I was I sorting out my' accommodation, I heard a loud noise coming from the bay. We ran down to the shore in time to see an enormous animal opposite us throwing itself out of the water and then crashing down again. It was black and white and fish-shaped. But I knew it wasn't a fish.

"That's Old Tom, the killer," one of the whalers, George, called out to me. "He's telling us there's a whale out there for us."

Another whaler yelled out, "Rush-oo ...rush-oo." This was the call that announced there was about to be a whale hunt.

"Come on, Clancy. To the boat," George said as he ran ahead of me. I had already heard that George didn't like being kept waiting, so even though I didn't have the right clothes on, I raced after him.

Without pausing we jumped into the boat with the other whalers and headed out into the bay. I looked down into the water and could see Old Tom swimming by the boat, showing us the way. A few minutes later, there was no Tom, so George started beating the water with his oar and there was Tom, circling back to the boat, leading us to the hunt again.

Using a telescope we could see that something was happening. As we drew closer, I could see a whale being attacked by a pack of about six other killers.

"What're they doing?" I asked George.

"Well, it's teamwork - the killers over there are throwing themselves on top of the whale's blow-hole to stop it breathing. And those others are stopping it diving or fleeing out to sea," George told me, pointing towards the hunt. And just at that moment, the most extraordinary thing happened. The killers started racing between our boat and the whale just like a pack of excited dogs.

Then the harpoon was ready and the man in the bow of the boat aimed it at the whale. He let it go and the harpoon hit the spot. Being badly wounded, the whale soon died. Within a moment or two, its body was dragged swiftly by the killers down into the depths of the sea. The men started turning the boat around to go home.

"What's happened?" I asked. "Have we lost the whale?"

"Oh no," Jack replied. "We'll return tomorrow to bring in the body. It won't float up to the surface for around 24 hours." "In the meantime, Old Tom, and the others are having a good feed on its lips and tongue," added Red, laughing.

Although Old Tom and the other killers were fierce hunters, they, never harmed or attacked people. In fact, they protected them. There was one day when we were out in the bay during a hunt and James was washed off the boat.

"Man overboard! Turn the boat around!" urged George, shouting loudly.

The sea was rough that day and it was difficult to handle the boat. The waves were carrying James further and further away from us. From James's face, I could see he was terrified of being abandoned by us. Then suddenly I saw a shark.

"Look, there's a shark out there," I screamed.

"Don't worry, Old Tom won't let it near," Red replied.

It took over half an hour to get the boat back to James, and when we approached him, I saw James being firmly held up in the water by Old Tom. I couldn't believe my eyes.

There were shouts of "Well done, Old Tom" and 'Thank God" as we pulled James back into the boat. And then Old Tom was off and back to the hunt where the other killers were still attacking the whale.

【课文翻译】 (建议：看译文时再次点播录音，一边跟读)

1902年6月，我开始在捕鲸站里工作，那时我才16岁。在此之前我曾经听说过虎鲸每年帮助捕鲸人捕捉大鲸鱼。当时我以为只是一个故事罢了，但是后来我亲眼见过多次。

有天下午我来到捕鲸站，正在找住处的时候，听到从海湾那边传来一阵喧闹声。我们及时赶到岸边，看到对面有一个庞大的动物猛力跃出海面，然后又坠落到水里。它黑白相间，样子像鱼，但我知道它并不是鱼。

“那是老汤姆，是虎鲸。”一位叫乔治的捕鲸人高声对我说，“它是在告诉我们那边有一头鲸，叫我们去捕猎。”

另一位捕鲸人大声喊叫，“快走啊……走啊。”这是宣告猎鲸行动马上就要开始的呼声。

“克兰西，快上，上船去。”乔治在我前面边跑边说。我以前就听说过，乔治不喜欢等人。所以尽管我还没有穿上合适的衣服，就跟在他后面跑起来。

一刻不停地，我们和其他捕鲸人都跳进渔船，朝海湾方向驶去。我朝水里望去，可以看到老汤姆就在渔船旁边游着，为我们指路。几分钟之后，汤姆不见了，于是乔治开始用桨拍打水面。汤姆出现了，转回到船边，又领着我们前往捕猎处。

通过望远镜，我们可以看到远处有情况发生了。走近一看，原来是一头大鲸受到约六、七条虎鲸的攻击。

我问乔治，“它们在干什么呢？”

“啊，它们在协同作战呢——那些虎鲸正在往那头鲸的出气孔上扑去，不让它呼吸，而其他那些虎鲸则阻止它潜水或逃跑。”乔治一边指着捕猎的情景，一边告诉我。就在这时候，最精彩的场面出现了。虎鲸们在我们的渔船和那头鲸之间开始追逐了，就像一群发狂的猎狗一样。

于是，猎鲸叉准备好了。站在船头的那个人把叉瞄准了那头鲸，扔了出去，恰好击中了要害，鲸受了重伤，没过多久就死了。过了片刻，鲸的尸体就要被虎鲸们迅速拖向深海中去了。捕鲸人于是调转船头往回走。

“怎么啦？”我问道，“我们失去鲸了吗？”

杰克回答说：“不，我们明天再回来运鲸鱼的尸体。它在24小时以内是不会浮出水面的。”

瑞德笑着补充说：“在这段时间里，老汤姆和其他虎鲸会饱餐一顿的，鲸唇和鲸舌就是它们的美食”。

虽然老汤姆和其他虎鲸都凶恶，但是它们从来不伤害人，也不袭击人。事实上，它们还会保护人。有一天，我们出海捕鲸的时候，詹姆斯被冲下水去了。

乔治大声喊道：“有人落水了！把船头调回去！”

那天海上波涛汹涌，很难调转船头。海浪把詹姆斯冲得离我们越来越远。从詹姆斯的脸上我能看出他非常恐慌，生怕被我们遗弃。随后我们看到一条鲨鱼。

我尖叫起来，“瞧，那边有一条鲨鱼。”

瑞德回答说：“别着急，老汤姆不会让它靠近的。”

我们花了半个小时才把船调转头来，回到詹姆斯落水的地方。当我们靠近他的时候，我看到老汤姆正在水中稳稳托着詹姆斯，我几乎不相信自己的眼睛。

当我们把詹姆斯拉上渔船的时候，大家都欢呼着“老汤姆，好样的”，“感谢上帝”。后来，老汤姆离开了，回到捕猎的地方，跟其他虎鲸一起捕鲸去了。

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