We humans like to conquer.
For the same reason that soccer players want to hold the World Cup trophy(奖杯) and tennis players crave a Grand Slam win, mountaineers dream of reaching the highest peak on the planet — Mount Qomolangma, which towers about 8,844 meters above sea level.
“Everybody wants to stand on top of the world,” Mirza Ali from Pakistan who had just “conquered” Mount Qomolangma, told the Los Angeles Times.
However, this desire to conquer has become so strong that we have begun to travel in the wrong direction.
During this year’s climbing season—from March to May—at least 11 climbers died in the Himalayas, making it one of the worst seasons on record. And the fact that many of the climbers were inexperienced is one of the major factors(因素) contributing to the tragedy, according to USA Today.
“They don’t train very hard. They underestimate(低估) Qomolangma,” Jangbu Sherpa, who has been working as a guide on Mount Qomolangma since 2006, told NBC News. “There are lots of climbers who just want to check the box so that they can say they’ve been to the top of the world.”
This ignorant attitude of climbers also leads to other problems—apart from putting their own lives at risk, of course. According to HuffPost, the mountain’s cleaning group collected 12 tons of trash—including food wrappers(包装袋), and oxygen tanks—left behind this climbing season. This once holy(神圣的) and peaceful corner of the world has, as The Atlantic reporter Margret Grebowics put it, “lost its magic”.
Perhaps what we should do now is restore meaning to the activity itself—real meaning. And for Alison Levine, a US mountaineer who reached the summit(山顶) of Mount Qomolangma in 2010, the meaning doesn’t come with the summit itself, but with everything that led her up to it.
“When I did make it to the summit, what I realized is that standing on top of a mountain doesn’t change you and doesn’t change the world,” Levine told the NPR. “It’s really about the journey. The journey is the most important thing on any mountain.”
It’s true that we humans like to conquer. But the first step of conquering anything is probably to learn to conquer our own greed(贪婪) and ignorance.
12. What does the underlined word “crave” mean?
A.have no interest in | B.have a strong desire for |
C.be optimistic about | D.be likely to win |
13. What is a major cause of the climbing tragedy this year, according to USA Today?
A.Not having enough training and experience. |
B.Not bringing enough number of oxygen tanks. |
C.Not having professional climbing equipment. |
D.Not being accustomed to the cold weather. |
14. What matters more to Levine when she climbs?
A.Being on top of the world. |
B.Being able to change the world. |
C.The journey to reach the summit. |
D.The spirit to conquer the summit. |
15. What attitude does the author hold toward climbing Mount Qomolangma?
A.Regretful. | B.Critical. | C.Encouraging. | D.Doubtful. |