26
0Episode: Nellie Bly: 72 Days to Beat a Fictional Man
Subtitle: 娜丽·布莱：72 天击败一个虚构的人
Duration: approximately 9 minutes
Level: B1
PubDate: 2026-11-12
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[Mike]: Welcome back to Learn English with Podcasts. Sarah, imagine someone hands you one small bag, no phone, and a train ticket. Could you go around the world?
zh:欢迎回到 Learn English with Podcasts。Sarah，想象有人递给你一个小包、没有手机，只有一张火车票，你能环游世界吗？
[Sarah]: With one bag? I bring more than that for a weekend.
zh:一个小包？我过个周末带的东西都比这多。
[Mike]: In 1889, a reporter named Nellie Bly did exactly that. She went around the world with one small bag, and she did it in 72 days.
zh:1889 年，一位叫娜丽·布莱的记者真的这么做了。她带着一个小包环游世界，只用了 72 天。
[Sarah]: 72 days. Was there a rule she had to follow?
zh:72 天。她有什么必须遵守的规则吗？
[Mike]: One big one. There was a famous novel called Around the World in Eighty Days. The hero, Phileas Fogg, goes around the world in eighty days. She wanted to beat him.
zh:有一条很重要的规则。当时有本著名的小说叫《八十天环游地球》。主人公菲利亚斯·福格用八十天环游世界。她想打败他。
[Sarah]: Wait. Beat him? He is not real. He is a character in a book.
zh:等等。打败他？他并不是真人啊。他是书里的一个角色。
[Mike]: Exactly. And that is the strange part of this whole story.
zh:没错。而这正是整个故事诡异的地方。
[Sarah]: So how did it start? Who said yes to this idea?
zh:那这件事是怎么开始的？谁同意了这个想法？
[Mike]: She did. She worked at the New York World, a big newspaper. Her boss said if the paper ever sent anyone, it would be a man. She told him she would go for another paper and win.
zh:是她自己提出的。她在《纽约世界报》工作，那是一份大报。她的上司说，如果报社要派人，会派一个男人。她告诉他自己会去另一家报社，并且赢下来。
[Sarah]: That is a very brave thing to say to your boss. Did she get the job?
zh:对老板说这种话真够勇敢的。她拿到这个机会了吗？
[Mike]: She did. Her editors told her about two days before the ship left. She had almost no time to plan.
zh:拿到了。编辑部在船出发前大约两天才通知她。她几乎没有时间准备。
[Sarah]: Two days. So what did she pack?
zh:两天。那她带了什么行李？
[Mike]: One small travel bag, the clothes she was wearing, and a coat. Her money was in a small bag tied around her neck.
zh:一个小旅行袋、身上穿的衣服，还有一件外套。她的钱放在一个系在脖子上的小袋子里。
[Sarah]: No suitcase full of dresses. No letters of introduction. Just money on a string.
zh:没有装满裙子的行李箱。没有介绍信。只有脖子上拴着的钱。
[Mike]: And here is a detail I love. She left on the morning of November 14, 1889, at 9:40, from a pier in New Jersey. The ship was called the Augusta Victoria.
zh:有个细节我特别喜欢。她在 1889 年 11 月 14 日上午 9:40 出发，从新泽西的一个码头。船叫奥古斯塔·维多利亚号。
[Sarah]: Going which way? East or west?
zh:往哪个方向？东还是西？
[Mike]: East. Across the Atlantic first.
zh:向东。先横渡大西洋。
[Sarah]: And the newspaper, what did they do while she was gone?
zh:那报社呢，她走了以后报社做什么？
[Mike]: They turned it into a game. Readers could guess the exact time she would come home. The prize was a trip to Europe. Almost one million people sent in guesses.
zh:他们把它变成了一场游戏。读者可以猜她到家的确切时间。奖品是一次欧洲旅行。将近 100 万人寄来了猜测。
[Sarah]: One million guesses. That is not a news story anymore. That is a national hobby.
zh:100 万份猜测。那已经不是一条新闻了。那是全民的消遣。
[Mike]: Right. And while everyone was guessing, she was on ships and trains.
zh:对。而就在所有人都在猜的时候，她在船上和火车上。
[Sarah]: Did she go straight there? No stops?
zh:她是一路直走吗？没有停留？
[Mike]: Not at all. She stopped in England. Then in France, she went to a small city called Amiens to visit Jules Verne, the man who wrote the novel.
zh:完全不是。她在英国停留。然后到法国，她去了一个叫亚眠的小城，去拜访儒勒·凡尔纳，也就是写那本小说的人。
[Sarah]: She went to meet the author of the book she was trying to beat.
zh:她去见了她要击败的那本书的作者。
[Mike]: Yes. And he was kind to her. From France she took a train to Italy, then a ship through the Suez Canal.
zh:是的，而且他对她很友好。从法国她坐火车到意大利，然后乘船穿过苏伊士运河。
[Sarah]: What was the hardest part of the trip?
zh:旅途中最难的部分是什么？
[Mike]: The waiting. In Ceylon, which we now call Sri Lanka, she got stuck for about a week because the next ship was late.
zh:等待。在锡兰，也就是现在的斯里兰卡，她被困了大约一周，因为下一班船晚了。
[Sarah]: A whole week just waiting. That must have felt like losing.
zh:整整一周干等。那感觉一定像在输。
[Mike]: And she was losing time. After that she went to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. On the way she bought a monkey.
zh:而且她确实在输时间。之后她去了新加坡、香港和日本。路上她买了一只猴子。
[Sarah]: Sorry, she bought a monkey? On a race around the world?
zh:抱歉，她买了只猴子？在环球比赛途中？
[Mike]: She did. People on the ship loved it. Her editors in New York were less sure.
zh:她买了。船上的人很喜欢它。她在纽约的编辑们就没那么确定了。
[Sarah]: I can imagine the message back home. "Please explain the monkey."
zh:我能想象家里收到消息的样子。「请解释一下那只猴子。」
[Mike]: Then she crossed the Pacific. And here the weather turned against her. She reached San Francisco two days later than planned.
zh:然后她横渡太平洋。这时天气开始跟她作对。她到旧金山时比计划晚了两天。
[Sarah]: Two days late. At that point, eighty days is suddenly very close.
zh:晚了两天。到那时，八十天突然就变得很近了。
[Mike]: Very close. But the newspaper had a plan. They paid for a private train, just for her, from California to New York.
zh:非常近。但报社有办法。他们包了一列专列，只为她一个人，从加州开到纽约。
[Sarah]: A whole train for one passenger.
zh:一整列火车只为一个乘客。
[Mike]: One passenger and her monkey. The train was rerouted to avoid a snowstorm. Crowds came out at every station to see her pass.
zh:一个乘客和她的猴子。专列改了路线以避开暴风雪。每到一站都有人群出来看她经过。
[Sarah]: And when did she arrive?
zh:那她什么时候到的？
[Mike]: January 25, 1890, at 3:51 in the afternoon. The trip took 72 days, 6 hours, and 11 minutes. She had beaten eighty days easily.
zh:1890 年 1 月 25 日下午 3:51。全程用了 72 天 6 小时 11 分。她轻松打败了八十天。
[Sarah]: So she won. How far did she travel in total?
zh:所以她赢了。她总共走了多远？
[Mike]: About 24,900 miles. If you divide that by the time, she moved at about 14 miles an hour, day and night, for ten weeks.
zh:大约 24,900 英里。如果把距离除以时间，她大约以每小时 14 英里的速度前进，昼夜不停，连续十周。
[Sarah]: Fourteen miles an hour. That is slower than a bicycle. But it never stopped.
zh:每小时 14 英里。比自行车还慢。但它从没停过。
[Mike]: That is the whole trick of it. Slow, and never stopping.
zh:这就是全部的诀窍。慢，但一直不停。
[Sarah]: Now I want to ask the question I have been holding. Was she really the only one doing this?
zh:现在我想问一个我一直憋着的问题。她真的是唯一在做这件事的人吗？
[Mike]: No. And this is the part most people forget. A magazine called The Cosmopolitan sent its own reporter, Elizabeth Bisland, on the same day. She went the other way, west.
zh:不是。而这正是大多数人忘掉的部分。一家叫《大都会》的杂志在同一天派出了自己的记者伊丽莎白·比斯兰。她走的是反方向，向西。
[Sarah]: Same day. Two women, two directions, one planet.
zh:同一天。两个女人，两个方向，一个地球。
[Mike]: Bisland also beat eighty days. She came home on January 30, after about 76 days.
zh:比斯兰也打败了八十天。她在 1 月 30 日到家，用了大约 76 天。
[Sarah]: Then she won too.
zh:那她也赢了。
[Mike]: She beat the fictional man. She just did not beat the real woman. On her last part of the trip she missed a fast ship and had to take a very slow one.
zh:她打败了那个虚构的人。她只是没打败那个真实的女人。旅程最后一段她错过了一艘快船，只能坐一艘很慢的船。
[Sarah]: So when Bisland's ship came into New York, was there a crowd?
zh:那比斯兰的船进纽约港时，有人群吗？
[Mike]: There had been. Four days earlier. By the time she arrived, the bands had gone home.
zh:曾经有过。四天前。等她到的时候，乐队已经回家了。
[Sarah]: That is the quietest part of the story, and the saddest.
zh:这是整个故事里最安静的部分，也是最让人难受的部分。
[Mike]: It is. Two women left the same city on the same day to race a man who never existed. One came home to fireworks. The other came home to a normal harbor.
zh:是的。两个女人在同一天离开同一座城市，去和一个从未存在过的男人比赛。一个人回到家时是烟花，另一个人回到家时只是一个普通的港口。
[Sarah]: And the record she set, did it last long?
zh:那她创下的纪录保持了多久？
[Mike]: A few months. A man named George Francis Train did it in 67 days. Years later someone did it in 35.
zh:几个月。一个叫乔治·弗朗西斯·特雷恩的男人用 67 天完成了。多年后有人用 35 天完成。
[Sarah]: So the number was never the point.
zh:所以那个数字从来都不是重点。
[Mike]: The number was never the point. She was 25 years old, she travelled alone, and she showed that a woman could do it. Newspapers had said it was a job for a man.
zh:那个数字从来都不是重点。她当时 25 岁，独自旅行，她证明了一个女人也能做到。报纸曾说这是男人的活儿。
[Sarah]: And she paid for the trip how much, do you know?
zh:那她这趟旅行花了多少钱，你知道吗？
[Mike]: The newspaper's bill was 805 dollars.
zh:报社的账单是 805 美元。
[Sarah]: 805 dollars to buy a place in history. That is a very good deal.
zh:805 美元买下一个历史位置。这买卖太划算了。
[Mike]: Here is my favourite small thing. In Singapore she bought that monkey. When she got home, her editors asked her to write a book about the trip. The book is still in print.
zh:我最喜欢的一个小细节。她在新加坡买下了那只猴子。回家后编辑让她写一本关于这趟旅行的书。那本书现在还在印。
[Sarah]: A book, a monkey, and 72 days. I keep thinking about the guessing game, though. One million people waiting to know the exact minute.
zh:一本书、一只猴子、72 天。不过我一直在想那个竞猜游戏。100 万人在等一个确切的分钟。
[Mike]: And nobody guessed Bisland's time. Nobody was even counting it.
zh:而没有一个人猜比斯兰的时间。根本没人替她数。
[Sarah]: Okay, one last thing for our listeners. If you want to practise today's words, try this. Say the story back to a friend in three sentences. Not five. Three.
zh:好，最后给听众们一件事。想练今天这些词的话，试试这个：用三句话把故事复述给一个朋友。不是五句，是三句。
[Mike]: Three sentences. That is harder than it sounds, because the story has two women in it.
zh:三句话。这比听起来难，因为故事里有两个女人。
[Sarah]: That is exactly why it is a good exercise. So, what would your three sentences be? Tell us, or send us a message. We read them all.
zh:正因如此这才是好练习。那么，你的三句话会怎么写？告诉我们，或者给我们发条消息。我们都会看。
[Mike]: Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts. See you in the next episode.
zh:感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts。我们下期再见。
