【饥饿游戏】44
时间：2017-03-21 07:09:53
搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。
（单词翻译）
Chapter 11
Sixty seconds. That’s how long we’re required to stand on
our metal circles before the sound of a gong releases us. Step
off before the minute is up, and land mines blow your legs off.
Sixty seconds to take in the ring of tributes all equidistant
with a curved tail, the mouth of which is at least twenty feet
high, spilling over with the things that will give us life here in
the
arena3. Food, containers of water, weapons, medicine, garments,
fire starters. Strewn around the Cornucopia are other
supplies, their value decreasing the farther they are from the
horn. For instance, only a few steps from my feet lays a threefoot
square of plastic. Certainly it could be of some use in a
downpour. But there in the mouth, I can see a tent pack that
would protect from almost any sort of weather. If I had the
guts4 to go in and fight for it against the other twenty-three tributes.
Which I have been instructed not to do.
We’re on a flat, open stretch of ground. A plain of hardpacked
dirt. Behind the tributes across from me, I can see
nothing, indicating either a steep downward slope or even
cliff. To my right lies a lake. To my left and back, spars piney
woods. This is where Haymitch would want me to go. Immediately.
I hear his instructions in my head. “Just clear out, put as
much distance as you can between yourselves and the others,
and find a source of water.”
there before me. And I know that if I don’t get it, someone
else will. That the Career Tributes who survive the bloodbath
will divide up most of these life-sustaining spoils. Something
catches my eye. There, resting on a
mound8 of blanket rolls, is a
silver sheath of arrows and a bow, already strung, just waiting
to be engaged. That’s mine, I think. It’s meant for me.
I’m fast. I can
sprint9 faster than any of the girls in our
school although a couple can beat me in distance races. But
this forty-yard length, this is what I am built for. I know I can
get it, I know I can reach it first, but then the question is how
quickly can I get out of there? By the time I’ve
scrambled10 up
the packs and grabbed the weapons, others will have reached
the horn, and one or two I might be able to pick off, but say
there’s a dozen, at that close range, they could take me down
with the spears and the clubs. Or their own powerful fists.
Still, I won’t be the only target. I’m betting many of the other
tributes would pass up a smaller girl, even one who scored
an eleven in training, to take out their more fierce
adversaries11.
Haymitch has never seen me run. Maybe if he had he’d tell
me to go for it. Get the weapon. Since that’s the very weapon
that might be my
salvation12. And I only see one bow in that
whole pile. I know the minute must be almost up and will have
to decide what my strategy will be and I find myself positioning
my feet to run, not away into the stir rounding forests but
toward the pile, toward the bow. When suddenly I notice Peeta,
he’s about five tributes to my right, quite a fair distance,
still I can tell he’s looking at me and I think he might be shaking
his head. But the sun’s in my eyes, and while I’m puzzling
over it the gong rings out.
And I’ve missed it! I’ve missed my chance! Because those
extra couple of seconds I’ve lost by not being ready are
enough to change my mind about going in. My feet
shuffle13 for
a moment, confused at the direction my brain wants to take
and then I lunge forward,
scoop14 up the sheet of plastic and a
loaf of bread. The pickings are so small and I’m so angry with
Peeta for distracting me that I sprint in twenty yards to
retrieve15a bright orange backpack that could hold anything because
I can’t stand leaving with virtually nothing.
A boy, I think from District 9, reaches the pack at the same
time I do and for a brief time we grapple for it and then he
coughs, splattering my face with blood. I stagger back,
repulsed17by the warm, sticky spray. Then the boy slips to the
ground. That’s when I see the knife in his back. Already other
tributes have reached the Cornucopia and are spreading out
to attack. Yes, the girl from District 2, ten yards away, running
toward me, one hand clutching a half-dozen knives. I’ve seen
her throw in training. She never misses. And I’m her next target.
All the general fear I’ve been feeling condenses into at
immediate5fear of this girl, this
predator18 who might kill me in
seconds. Adrenaline shoots through me and I
sling19 the pack
over one shoulder and run full-speed for the woods. I can hear
the blade whistling toward me and reflexively hike the pack
up to protect my head. The blade
lodges20 in the pack. Both
straps21 on my shoulders now, I make for the trees. Somehow I
know the girl will not pursue me. That she’ll be
drawn22 back into
the Cornucopia before all the good stuff is gone. A grin
crosses my face. Thanks for the knife, I think.
At the edge of the woods I turn for one instant to survey the
field. About a dozen or so tributes are
hacking23 away at one
another at the horn. Several lie dead already on the ground.
Those who have taken flight are disappearing into the trees or
into the void opposite me.
adrenaline
reflexively adv.条件反射式地；反身地
分享到：
收听单词发音 
