[al:新概念英语（三）] [ar:MP3 同步字幕版（英音）] [ti:The Cutty Sark] [by:更多学习内容，请到chazidian.com搜索“新概念”] [00:01.45]Lesson 25 [00:03.39]The Cutty Sark [00:11.22]What piece of bad luck prevented the Cutty Sark from winning the race? [00:18.84]One of the most famous sailing ships of the nineteenth century, the Cutty Sark, can still be seen at Greenwich. [00:26.90]She stands on dry land and is visited by thousands of people each year. [00:32.80]She serves as an impressive reminder of the great ships of the past. [00:39.01]Before they were replaced by steamships, sailing vessels like the Cutty Sark were used to carry tea from China and wool from Australia. [00:49.58]The Cutty Sark was one of the fastest sailing ships that has ever been built. [00:55.04]The only other ship to match her was the Thermopylae. [00:59.05]Both these ships set out from Shanghai on June 18th, 1872 on an exciting race to England. [01:07.49]This race, which went on for exactly four months, was the last of its kind. [01:13.38]It marked the end of the great tradition of ships with sails and the beginning of a new era. [01:20.68]The first of the two ships to reach Java after the race had begun was the Thermopylae, but on the Indian Ocean, the Cutty Sark took the lead. [01:30.66]It seemed certain that she would be the first ship home, [01:34.63]but during the race she had a lot of bad luck. [01:38.17]In August, she was struck by a very heavy storm during which her rudder was torn away. [01:44.44]The Cutty Sark rolled from side to side and it became impossible to steer her. [01:50.46]A temporary rudder was made on board from spare planks and it was fitted with great difficulty. [01:56.92]This greatly reduced the speed of the ship, for there was danger that if she travelled too quickly, this rudder would be torn away as well. [02:06.45]Because of this, the Cutty Sark lost her lead. [02:10.48]After crossing the Equator, the captain called in at a port to have a new rudder fitted, but by now the Thermopylae was over five hundred miles ahead. [02:20.92]Though the new rudder was fitted at tremendous speed, it was impossible for the Cutty Sark to win. [02:27.24]She arrived in England a week after the Thermopylae. [02:31.38]Even this was remarkable, considering that she had had so many delays. [02:36.84]There is no doubt that if she had not lost her rudder she would have won the race easily.