万花筒 2009-09-22&09-24 世界第一高男的辛酸生活

Imagine a world where nothing fits, where ceilings are too low, cars are too small, and buying a jacket off the rack is but a distant dream. Welcome to the world of Sultan Kosen, the tallest man on earth.

I was around ten years old when I first noticed that I was taller. I was 175 centimeters at the time. My family noticed that I was getting taller. My family said, oh well, Sultan is going to be a really big man. And even at that time, I was about 10 centimeters taller than my mother and my father.

It turned out there was a medical explanation for his exceptional size. A tumour¹ had formed on the part of the brain that regulates growth. It was eventually removed, but not before he had grown to a staggering eight foot one. That's about four inches taller than China's Bao Xishun, the previous holder² of the Guinness World Record. Everything Sultan wears has to be custom made, right down to the shoes on these, the world's biggest feet.

Well, I have to tell you this is the largest size we do. (Right.) I doubt this is gonna be nothing near.

Just give you an idea of the scale here; I'm actually six foot three, six foot four on a good day. And I've always thought of myself as fairly tall. But as you can see in Sultan's presence, he is absolutely enormous. He is eight foot one. It is a very, very strange feeling being in his presence. And as you can see, he absolutely dwarfs³ me.

But Sultan's height isn't just an inconvenience; it's also taken a toll⁴ on his work life and his love life. A 27 years old, he's never had a full time job or a girlfriend. But he's hoping that will change soon. His new place in the Guinness World Record book has catapulted him from relative obscurity in his Native Turkey into sudden fame and a world tour. He says he's enjoying all the attention, which is just as well. Wherever he goes, people stop, sometimes point and stare, and ask to have their pictures taken beside him. So does all the fuss ever make him wish he was a more average size?

I used to want to be a lot shorter. But now I have accepted that this is my height. And I'm happy with it, said with arguably the biggest smile in the world.

Don Riddell, CNN, London.

 

1 tumour   

n.(tumor)(肿)瘤，肿块

参考例句：

• The surgeons operated on her for a tumour.外科医生为她施行了肿瘤切除手术。
• The tumour constricts the nerves.肿瘤压迫神经。

2 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

3 dwarfs   

n.侏儒，矮子（dwarf的复数形式）vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Shakespeare dwarfs other dramatists. 莎士比亚使其他剧作家相形见绌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The new building dwarfs all the other buildings in the town. 新大楼使城里所有其他建筑物都显得矮小了。 来自辞典例句

4 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。