Nellie Bly: 72 Days to Beat a Fictional Man

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?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？

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.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。

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.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。

Exactly. And that is the strange part of this whole story.没错。而这正是整个故事诡异的地方。

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.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。

She did. Her editors told her about two days before the ship left. She had almost no time to plan.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。

One small travel bag, the clothes she was wearing, and a coat. Her money was in a small bag tied around her neck.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。

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.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。

East. Across the Atlantic first.向东。先横渡大西洋。

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.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。

Right. And while everyone was guessing, she was on ships and trains.对。而就在所有人都在猜的时候，她在船上和火车上。

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.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。

Yes. And he was kind to her. From France she took a train to Italy, then a ship through the Suez Canal.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。

The waiting. In Ceylon, which we now call Sri Lanka, she got stuck for about a week because the next ship was late.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。

And she was losing time. After that she went to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan. On the way she bought a monkey.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。

She did. People on the ship loved it. Her editors in New York were less sure.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。

Then she crossed the Pacific. And here the weather turned against her. She reached San Francisco two days later than planned.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。

Very close. But the newspaper had a plan. They paid for a private train, just for her, from California to New York.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。

One passenger and her monkey. The train was rerouted to avoid a snowstorm. Crowds came out at every station to see her pass.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。

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.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。

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.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。

That is the whole trick of it. Slow, and never stopping.这就是全部的诀窍。慢，但一直不停。

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.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。

Bisland also beat eighty days. She came home on January 30, after about 76 days.比斯兰也打败了八十天。她在 1 月 30 日到家，用了大约 76 天。

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.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。

There had been. Four days earlier. By the time she arrived, the bands had gone home.曾经有过。四天前。等她到的时候，乐队已经回家了。

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.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。

A few months. A man named George Francis Train did it in 67 days. Years later someone did it in 35.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。

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.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。

The newspaper's bill was 805 dollars.报社的账单是 805 美元。

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.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。

And nobody guessed Bisland's time. Nobody was even counting it.而没有一个人猜比斯兰的时间。根本没人替她数。

Three sentences. That is harder than it sounds, because the story has two women in it.三句话。这比听起来难，因为故事里有两个女人。

Thanks for listening to Learn English with Podcasts. See you in the next episode.感谢收听 Learn English with Podcasts。我们下期再见。