TED Talk How I held my breath for 17 minutes? Speaker: David Blaine 懂你英语第三课
I started learning about the world-record holder. His name isTom Sietas. 我开始了解到这个记录的保持者叫汤姆斯塔斯。
And this guy is perfectly built for holding his breath. 这家伙就像是为屏气而生的。
He's six foot four. He's 160 pounds. And his total lung capacity is twice the size of an average person.他有6尺4高，160磅重。而且他的肺活量是正常人的2倍。
I'm six foot one, and fat. We'll say big-boned. 我呢，6尺1寸，很胖，或者可以硬是说成骨架大。
I had to drop 50 pounds in three months. 所以我必须在三个月内减掉50磅。
So, everything that I put into my body I considered as medicine. 所有放进我嘴里的东西我都看作是药物。
Every bit of food was exactly what it was for its nutritional value. 每一小块食物都按照营养价值需要来吃。
I ate really small controlled portions throughout the day. 一天内我都保持吃非常小量的食物。
And I started to really adapt my body. 渐渐的我开始保持很好的状态了。
The thinner I was, the longer I was able to hold my breath. 【跟读】我越瘦，就越能长时间屏住呼吸。
And by eating so well and training so hard, my resting heart-rate dropped to 38 beats per minute. 【填空题】通过饮食控制搭配艰苦的训练，我的心率下降到每分钟38次。
Which is lower than most olympic athletes. 比多数奥林匹克选手都要低。
In four months of training i was able to hold my breath for over seven minutes. 在4个月的训练，我已经可以屏住呼吸长达7分钟之久。
I wanted to try holding my breath everywhere. 我在任何地方都训练屏气。
I wanted to try it in the most extreme situations to see if I could slow my heart rate down under duress. 尝试在极端的环境下屏气检验是否可能降低心率在如此高压下。
I decided that I was going to break the world record live on prime-time television. 【跟读】终于我准备好要打破世界纪录，要在黄金时段的电视频道直播。
The world record was eight minutes and 58 seconds, held by tom sietas, that guy with the whale lungs I told you about. 当时的世界纪录是8分58秒，汤姆，斯塔斯始终保持，我告诉过你们那个家伙有鲸鱼一样大的肺。
I assumed that I could put a water tank at Lincoln Center and if I stayed there a week not eating, 【朗读】 我设想可以在林肯中心放一个巨型水缸然后我不吃饭在那里面先待一个礼拜，
I would get comfortable in that situation and I would slow my metabolism, which I was sure would help me hold my breath longer thanI had been able to do it. 【朗读】 就会比较适应了，并且新陈代谢也会缓慢下来，我很肯定这样做可以帮我更长时间的屏住呼吸。
I was completely wrong. 显然我完全错了。
I entered the sphere a week before the scheduled air date. 我提前一个礼拜去到中心。
And I thought everything seemed to be on track. 我感觉一切都渐渐上了轨道。【词义】be on track=progressing in the expected way
Two days before my big breath hold attempt, for the record, the producers of my television special thought that just watching somebody holding their breath, and almost drowning, is too boring for television.没想到的是，在破纪录憋气尝试的前两天，电视制作人突然觉得光看人憋气像是快要淹死对电视节目太过无聊。
So, I had to add handcuffs, while holding my breath, to escape from. 于是我不得不加上手铐，边屏气边试着挣脱它们。
This was a critical mistake. 这被证明是个极严重的错误。
Because of the movement I was wasting oxygen. 开始后我因为挣脱的动作浪费了很多氧气。
And by seven minutes i had gone into these awful convulsions. 到第7分钟我已经开始不住可怕的抽搐中。
By 7:08 I started to black out. 到7分08秒时，我开始失去知觉。
And by seven minutes and 30 seconds they had to pull my body out and bring me back. 7分30秒的时候他们必须把我拉出来进行抢救。
I had failed on every level. 我输的一塌糊涂。
【选择】-Why the added challenge of escaping his handcuffs a mistake? -He was forced to use additional oxygen while escaping.
So, naturally, the only way out of the slump that I could think of was, I decided to call Oprah. 所以很自然唯一可以摆脱消沉我可以想到的就是去找奥普拉。
I told her that I wanted to up the ante and hold my breath longer than any human being ever had. 【跟读】 我告诉她我要提高赌注我要屏住呼吸长过所有人。
This was a different record. 这是个不同的记录。
This was a pure O2 static apnea record that guinness had set the world record at 13 minutes. 这次是纯氧静止屏气记录，由吉尼斯目前的13分钟为世界纪录。
So, basically you breath pure O2 first, oxygenating your body, flushing out CO2, and you are able to hold much longer. 也就是先吸入入纯氧, 充沛氧气，排出二氧化碳，然后你就可以屏气更长时间。
I realized that my real competition was the beaver. 当时我意识到我真正的竞争者是海狸。
【选择】-What does Blaine's joke about competing with beavers demonstrate? -his desire to push the limit of human capability
In january of '08 Oprah gave me four months to prepare and train. 08年1月奥普拉给了我4个月准备和训练。
So, I would sleep in a hypoxic tent every night. 我每晚睡在低氧舱里。
A hypoxic tent is a tent that simulates altitude at 15,000 feet. 所谓低氧舱就是模拟海拔15000尺的含氧量。
So, it's like base camp everest. 跟终极野营似的。
What that does is, you start building up the red blood cell count in your body, which helps you carry oxygen better. 这么做的原因是，可以累积体内红细胞的数目，帮助你更好的保存氧气。
Every morning, again, after getting out of that tent your brain is completely wiped out. 每个早晨，同样的，从低氧舱里出来时大脑一片空白。
My first attempt on pure O2, I was able to go up to 15 minutes. 第一次尝试纯氧时，我已经可以屏气15分钟。
So, it was a pretty big success. 这已经算是不小的成功了。
The neurosurgeon pulled me out of the water because in his mind, at 15 minutes your brain is done, you're brain dead. 当那个神经外科医师把我从水里拉出来时相当震惊，在他看来，15分钟不呼吸你的大脑就完了，脑死亡。
So, he pulled me up, and I was fine. 可是当他把我拉出来，我却状态良好。
There was one person there that was definitely not impressed. 当时肯定有一个人是觉得没什么大不了。
It was my ex-girlfriend. 就是我的前女友。
While I was breaking the record underwater for the first time, she was sifting through my blackberry, checking all my messages. 当我在水下第一次打破纪录时，她却在翻我的黑莓手机，检查我所有的短信。
My brother had a picture of it. It is really ... 我哥哥拍了张当时的照片。那真的是...
I then announced that I was going to go for Sietas' record, publicly. 终于我宣布公开挑战斯塔斯的记录。
And what he did in response, is he went on Regis and Kelly, and broke his old record. 【填空】他所做的回应，就是在Regis and Kelly节目中，自己打破他以前的记录。
Then his main competitor went out and broke his record. 然后他的主要竞争者又出来，并再次打破记录。
So, he suddenly pushed the record up to 16 minutes and 32 seconds. 这样，他突然将记录 16分32秒。
Which was three minutes longer than I had prepared. You know, it was longer than the record. 比我所做的准备长出3分钟。你知道，比原来纪录长。
Now, I wanted to get the science times to document this. 这下，我打算让科学时代杂志来报道这一切，
I wanted to get them to do a piece on it. 我希望他们也能参与，
So, I did what any person seriously pursuing scientific advancement would do. 【跟读】 于是，我做了任何一个严谨探索科学的人都该做的事。
I walked into the New York Times offices and did card tricks to everybody. 我走进纽约时报的办公室给每个人表演纸牌魔术。
So, I don't know if it was the magic or the lore of the cayman islands, but john tierney flew down and did a piece on the seriousness of breath-holding. 我不知道是魔术的原因还是开曼群岛的信仰，约翰，第尔尼被说服了，还写了一篇论屏住呼吸之严重性的报道。
【选择】-Why was scientific documentation about Blaine's attempt important to him? -It would give legitimacy of his feat. （legitimacy n. 合法；合理；正统）
While he was there I tried to impress him, of course. 当他在那儿的时候，
And I did adive down to 160 feet, which is basically the height of a 16 story building,我试图给他深刻印象于是我猛地下潜了160尺，大概有16层楼那么高，
and as I was coming up, I blacked out underwater, which is really dangerous; that's how you drown. 可我在上浮过程中，昏了过去，那是相当危险的。那就是人们如何溺水的。
Luckily kirk had seen me and he swam over and pulled me up.幸运的是克尔克看到我他游过去把我救了上来。