拉里的草坪椅子

　　Larry Walters' boyhood dream was not an unusual one: He wanted to fly. What was unusual, though, was the way he fulfilled it. After finishing school, Larry joined the U.S. Air Force, but was rejected from pilot-training school because of poor eyesight. However, his dream remained.

　　拉里沃尔特斯儿时的梦想是一个不寻常的人：他想要飞。多么你寻常啊，虽然他中学毕业后就加入美国空军，但被飞行员培训学校拒绝，因为视力差。然而，这是他的梦想。

　　Larry, aged 33, was not a pilot, but a truck driver in Los Angeles. One day, while sitting outside in his lawn chair, Larry had his eureka(有了，找到了) moment. As he watched jets fly overhead, an idea came to him to use weather balloons to fly.

　　拉里，33岁，是不是一个飞行员，但洛杉矶的一名卡车司机。有一天，坐在他的草坪椅子上，拉里带着他的尤里卡(有了，找到了)时刻。他看着飞机飞过，他想到了一个主意，用气象探测气球飞。

　　A few weeks later, Larry bought 42 one-meter diameter weather balloons. He tied them to a lawn chair and filled them with helium. Then he sat down in the chair with some beer, sandwiches, and a BB gun. Larry's plan was to float about 10 meters above his backyard, enjoy a few hours in the air, and then pop some balloons with his gun to get back down. But things did not go according to Larry's plan.

　　几周后，拉里买了42个直径一米的气象气球。他把他们的草坪椅和充满氦气。接着他坐上椅子，带了一些啤酒，三明治，和一个BB枪。拉里计划在他家后院飘起10米，在空中享受几小时，然后击破一些气球以他的枪回来了。但是事情并没有按照拉里的计划。

　　When his friends cut the anchor lines, Larry, lifted by the 42 balloons, shot skyward at an astonishing speed. He finally settled at an altitude of 4,000 meters. Afraid to pop any of the balloons, in case he should upset the balance of his "craft", Larry sat, cold and frightened, in the sky with his beer and sandwiches for 14 hours.

　　当他的朋友们把锚线，拉里把42个气球以惊人的速度射向天际。最后他停在海拔4000米。怕弹出的气球，以免打乱平衡自己的“手艺，拉里坐在里面感到非常的寒冷和害怕，他靠啤酒和三明治度过了14个小时。

　　Airline pilots heading toward Los Angeles' busy international airport radioed in reports of the strange sight. Larry's presence in the skies caused numerous planes to be rerouted. Eventually, Larry worked up the nerve to shoot a few balloons and slowly descended, landing in power lines. Uninjured, he climbed down to safety and was arrested by waiting police.

　　航空公司的飞行员前往洛杉矶繁忙的国际机场无线电报告了这一奇怪的景象。拉里停留在空中迫使许多飞机改变航线。最终，拉里鼓起勇气击破一些气球慢慢地下降，停在电线上。没有受伤，他爬到安全和被等待警方逮捕。

　　When asked by a reporter why he had done it, Larry responded, "A man just can't sit around." Larry fulfilled his dream, and set a record for a gas-filled balloon flight. But it cost him: He was later fined $1,500 for violating air safety regulations.

　　当记者问他为什么这样做，拉里答道，“一个人不能只是坐着。“拉里实现他的梦想，并设置为一个充气气球飞行的记录。但他付出的代价：后来他被处以1500美元的罚款，因为违反航空安全规定。