[低空跳伞玩的就是心跳]玩的就是心跳

　　By Paul Unwin 　　保罗・安文 　　 　　The majority of us would think that those who choose to jump off the top of a cliff or building with only a single parachute to save your life before hitting the ground ①are in dire need of having their heads examined. However, practitioners of "Base Jumping" insist that they"re no crazy adrenaline junkies who have exhausted all the extreme and dangerous sports they can think of, and therefore invented this one. According to them, the activity is enjoyed by a large cross-section of society, from solicitors and I.T. consultants to plumbers and students, people of all ages, even up to those in their fifties. Estimates place the number of base jumpers at less than 1500 worldwide, although you can count me out!
　　我们中的大部分人会认为，那些决意从悬崖或建筑物的顶端跳下、在触地之前只带着一顶降落伞来自救的人急需检查一下他们的脑子。然而，玩“低空跳伞”的人则坚称，他们不是疯狂的寻求刺激者，玩完了所有他们所能想到的极限和危险运动，因而便发明了这项运动。按照他们的说法，这个活动得到了社会上众多群体的喜爱，从律师和IT顾问一直到管道工和学生，各个年龄层的人都有，甚至还有那些50多岁的人。虽然你可以不用把我算在内，但估算起来在全球范围内低空跳伞者的数量不多于1500人。
　　
　　What Exactly is Base Jumping?
　　Base Jumping is basically using a parachute to jump off a tall fixed object. The word "BASE" is an acronym standing for the four categories of objects from which one can make a jump:
　　
　　B - Building
　　A - Antenna (An uninhabited tower, such as an aerial mast)
　　S - Span (A bridge, arch, or dome)
　　E - Earth (A cliff or other natural formation)
　　
　　When a base jumper completes a jump from one of the 4 categories mentioned above, they apply for a "BASE number", and the aim is to complete all 4.
　　
　　Base Jumping History
　　
　　BASE jumps really began in the early 1900"s with a certain Frederick Law in 1912 jumping from the Statue of Liberty; Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert jumped the cliff "El Capitan" in Yosemite Valley in 1966, and in 1976 in the opening sequence of James Bond"s The Spy Who Loved Me, stuntman Rick Sylvester jumped Mt. Asgard in Canada, first showing Base Jumping to the general public.
　　These early incidents were, however, more experimental, and it was not until 1978 that film-maker Carl Boenish coined the acronym BASE, that the jumps began as a true recreational exercise. Boenish used "ram-air" parachutes (most modern parachutes we see today are self-inflating so-called "ram-air" types), and the "freefall tracking technique" (allowing the jumper to move away from the jumped-off object for safety).
　　By the 1980"s, BASE jumping, largely due to the efforts of Boenish, increased in popularity amongst parachutists and skydivers and hundreds had begun to ②take an interest in and participate in the activity.
　　Differences between Base Jumping and Skydiving
　　1. BASE jumps are made from much lower altitudes than skydives.
　　2. During a BASE jump, the jumper will always be in close proximity to the object he has jumped from, greatly increasing the danger.
　　3. As a BASE jumper starts with no airspeed and generally jumps from a lower altitude than a skydiver, he will very rarely reach terminal velocity.
　　
　　Base Jumping Technique
　　
　　The BASE jumper"s parachute has to open extremely quickly at low airspeeds. Also, the cliff or tower that the jumper has launched himself off will always be a danger if the parachute opens backwards, and can cause the jumper to impact with the jumped off object - this is the main cause of injury in base jumping.
　　Most Base jumps are made from less than 305 metres, leaving very little time to open a parachute. As an example, to fall to the ground from an object 150 metres high would take 6 seconds. In an instance such as this, the parachute must be opened before half the distance has been fallen (i.e. within 3 seconds). Normal parachutes and harnesses are not suitable for this kind of jump, and BASE jumpers use specially designed harnesses and parachute containers with extra large chutes. Scarily, they jump with no reserve parachute, as with such a short jump there would be no time to use one!
　　Base Jumping Today
　　In the 1990"s the surge in interest in extreme sports led to more coverage and a little more acceptance of BASE jumping, although by most it is still seen as a daredevil stunt and not a sport. However, we will be unlikely to see it as an Olympic event in Beijing 2008 or even London 2012!
　　Still, BASE jumping remains popular with the movies, and in 2002 the actor Vin Diesel base jumps off a bridge in the movie XXX. It has remained popular with the Bond series also, with an Eiffel Tower jump in 1985"s A View to a Kill, and several jumps created by special effects in later movies.
　　The current record for the highest BASE jump is held by Nic Feteris and Glenn Singlemann after jumping 19,000 feet from Trango cliff in Pakistan.
　　
　　China"s first Base Jumpers
　　
　　On the 6th November 2004 at 8.30am, China"s first BASE jumper, Ding Jianping, leapt off the 345m Jinmao Tower, Shanghai, and into the history books. In 2004 the International BASE jump show was held in the Jinmao tower and six Chinese jumpers joined another 31 from 15 different countries to jump from the top of the tower to the amazement and applause of the thousands of spectators.
　　6 jumpers from China were selected from more than 100 participants, chosen by Zhang Hesheng, director of the parachute department of the Aero Sports Federation of China, for their skydiving experience. Although the Chinese jumpers had the least experience of the 37 jumpers, Ding was the very first to leap off the building, holding the Chinese National flag.
　　Although most foreign jumpers had done hundreds of BASE jumps, the Chinese team of 6 only began in May 2004. Hu Weizhong, a female participant estimated that they had only practiced 15 or 16 times during training. All these training jumps were made from hot air balloon due to the lack of a suitable building. Hu commented that during the show they performed what was only their second real BASE jump from a real building.
　　
　　低空跳伞到底是什么？
　　“Base Jumping（低空跳伞）”基本上就是指使用降落伞从一个高耸的固定物体上跳下。“BASE”这个词是一个缩略语，代表的是人们可以跳下的四类物体：
　　
　　B：建筑物
　　A：天线竿（一类无人居住的塔状物，如天线竿）
　　S：横跨物（桥梁、拱门或圆屋顶）
　　E：大地（悬崖或其它天然物体）
　　
　　当一个低空跳伞者在上述四类中的一类场所完成了一次跳跃，他们就会申请一个“BASE number”，而其目标就是完成所有的四类场所。
　　
　　低空跳伞的历史
　　
　　当某个叫弗雷德里克・劳的人在1912年从自由女神像跳下后，低空跳伞才真正在20世纪早期开展起来：迈克尔・派尔基和布莱恩・舒伯特在1966年从约塞米蒂谷的“酋长岩”悬崖跳下；1976年，在詹姆斯・邦德系列《海底城》一片的开篇中，特技演员里克・西尔维斯特从加拿大的阿斯加德山跳下，第一次向普通公众展示了低空跳伞。
　　然而，这些早期活动更多地是实验性的，直到1978年制片商卡尔・伯尼什杜撰了“BASE”这个缩略语后，这类跳跃运动才作为一项真正的休闲活动开展起来。伯尼什使用了“强制进气”的降落伞（我们如今所看到的最现代化的降落伞就是会自动充气的所谓“强制进气”型）和“自由落体间距技巧”（使跳跃者可以避开跳下的物体以寻求安全性）。
　　到了20世纪80年代，主要是因为伯尼什的努力，低空跳伞在跳伞者中和特技跳伞者中的人气出现攀升，有数百人开始产生兴趣并参与到这项活动中来。
　　低空跳伞和特技跳伞的区别
　　1.完成低空跳伞的海拔高度比特技跳伞要低。
　　2.在低空跳伞中，跳跃者始终紧紧贴近其跳下的物体，极大地增加了危险性。
　　3.由于低空跳伞者不是以空速开始，而且一般是以比特技跳伞要低的海拔高度下跳，所以他几乎不会达到临界速度。
　　
　　低空跳伞技巧
　　
　　低空跳伞者的降落伞必须在低空速下以极快的速度打开。而且，如果降落伞向后打开，那么跳跃者纵身而下的悬崖或塔楼就始终是一个危险，而且会造成跳跃者与跳离的物体产生碰撞――这是在低空跳伞中受伤的主要原因。
　　大多数低空跳伞都是在低于305米的情况下完成的，使得打开降落伞的时间少之又少。举例来说，从一个150米高的物体上下落到地面之上会用去6秒的时间。在这类情况下，降落伞必须在下落到一半之前打开（即是说在3秒之内）。正规的降落伞和背带是不适用于这类跳跃的，而低空跳伞则使用特制的背带和装有特大号降落伞的降落伞包。令人惊愕的是，他们是不会带着备用降落伞而下跳的，因为在这类短距跳跃中，是不会有时间来使用备用伞的！
　　如今的低空跳伞
　　20世纪90年代，虽然在大多数人看来它仍旧是一项蛮勇的特技表演而非运动，但是对极限运动兴趣的剧增导致了低空跳伞的报道增多且认同度略有提升。然而，我们是不可能在北京2008年，甚至是伦敦2012年奥运会上看到它作为一个项目出现的！
　　尽管如此，低空跳伞仍旧风行于电影当中，在2002年时，演员范・迪塞尔就在电影《XXX》中完成了一次自桥而下的低空跳伞。而且，它还一直风行于邦德系列中：在1985年的《雷霆杀机》中有艾菲尔铁塔之跳，在最近的电影中有不少用特效做出来的跳跃动作。
　　尼克・菲特里斯和格伦・辛格曼在从巴基斯坦的川格悬崖的19000英尺处跳下后，便保持着当前的最高低空跳伞记录。
　　
　　中国的首批低空跳伞者
　　
　　2004年11月6日8:30分，中国低空跳伞第一人――丁建平，跃下345米高的上海金茂大厦，被载入了史册。2004年，“国际低空跳伞表演”在金茂大厦举行，6名中国跳跃者与来自15个不同国家的另外31人，在数千名观众的惊讶和掌声中从大厦的顶端跳跃而下。
　　来自中国的6名跳跃者是从100多名参加者中选拔出来的，是中国航空运动协会跳伞委员会主任张荷生根据他们的特技跳伞经历而甄选出来的。虽然中国跳跃者在37名跳跃者中经验最少，但丁建平拿着中国国旗，第一个跃下了大楼。
　　虽然大多数外国跳跃者都已完成了数百次低空跳伞，但中国的6人小组只是在2004年5月才开始的。女性参与者――胡伟中估计，他们在训练中只进行了15或16次练习。由于缺少合适的建筑物，所以这些训练性跳跃都是在热气球上完成的。胡伟中说，在表演过程中，他们在真正的大楼上完成了第二次真正的低空跳伞。
　　
　　Link
　　adrenaline junkie
　　在文章的第一段中，用到了一个词组“adrenaline junkie”。这是一个固定搭配，指的是寻求刺激的一类人，这些人对于在危险境地下产生的那种兴奋感是异常着迷的。
　　
　　parachute /`p2r9H6t/ n.降落伞
　　adrenaline /9`dren9lin/ n.肾上腺素
　　junkie /`_7Mki/ n.有毒瘾者
　　cross-section /kr4s`sekH9n/ n.(有代表性的)抽样；典型
　　solicitor /s9`lisit9/ n.律师；法律顾问
　　plumber /`pl7mb9/ n.水管工人
　　acronym /`2kr9nim/ n.只取首字母的缩写词
　　antenna /2n`ten9/ n.天线
　　aerial /`^ri9l/ n.天线
　　mast /m3st/ n.柱；天线竿
　　arch /3tH/ n.拱门
　　dome /d9um/ n.圆屋顶
　　stuntman /st7ntm2n/ n.特技演员；替身演员
　　recreational /rekri`eiH(9)n9l/ adj.娱乐性的；供消遣的
　　self-inflating /self in`fleitiM/ adj.自动充气的
　　parachutist /`p2r9H6tist/ n.跳伞人；伞兵
　　skydiver /skai`daiv9/ n.做空中造型动作的跳伞运动员
　　proximity /pr4k`simiti/ n.接近；亲近
　　airspeed /`^sp1d/ n.空速
　　terminal velocity 临界速度；终极速度
　　harness /`h3nis/ n.(降落伞)背带
　　chute /H6t/ n.降落伞
　　reserve /ri`z8v/ n.储备(物)
　　coverage /`k7v9ri_/ n.新闻报导
　　daredevil /`d^,devl/ adj.蛮勇的；不怕死的
　　applause /9`pl5z/ n.鼓掌欢迎；欢呼
　　
　　① be in dire need of 急需
　　② take an interest in 对……感兴趣