Just one wheel 一「輪」獨秀

You need good balance to ride a bike with two wheels. Can you imagine how hard it must be to ride a bike with just one wheel?

It seems that this woman doesn't think riding a unicycle is enough of a challenge. She is doing something that would be impossible for most people to do: she is riding all the way across the US on a unicycle. That's more than 4,500km, and she isn't wearing any shoes!

There are other people who do some amazing things on unicycles. In the US, there is a new sport called mountain unicycling. In this sport, people drive their car to the top of a tall mountain, then they ride down steep mountain slopes on a unicycle.

In Germany and Switzerland, there is another amazing unicycle sport. It is called unicycle hockey. In this sport, people use sticks and a ball to play hockey, but instead of skating on ice, they ride around the ground on unicycles.

(Marc langer, staff writer)

騎雙輪腳踏車時，你需要良好的平衡感。你可以想像騎單輪腳踏車有多困難嗎？

這名女子似乎不覺得騎單輪腳踏車是一項挑戰。她正在從事多數人辦不到的任務︰騎著單輪腳踏車橫越美國，總長逾四千五百公里，她連鞋子都沒穿！

也有人騎單輪腳踏車從事驚人之舉。美國有一種稱為「越野單輪車（mountain unicycling）」的新型運動。人們先開車到高山頂端，再騎著單輪腳踏車下陡峭的斜坡。

德國與瑞士還有另一種讓人歎為觀止的單輪車運動，稱為「單輪曲棍球」。競賽中，人們用竿子與一顆球來打曲棍球，不過他們不是在冰上溜冰，而是在地上騎著單輪車跑。

（翻譯︰賴美君）

今日單字

1. challenge n.

挑戰 (tiao3 zhan4)

例: The test tomorrow is going to be really hard. Getting a good grade will be a big challenge.

(明天的測驗會很困難。想拿好成績會是個大挑戰。)

2. steep adj.

陡峭的 (dou3 qiao4 de5)

例: I got tired climbing up the hill because it was so steep.

(由於這座山坡如此陡峭，爬山時我感到相當疲累。)

3. slope n.

斜坡 (xie2 po1)

例: The first time I went skiing, I skied down a slope that wasn't too steep.

(我第一次溜冰時，是從不甚陡峭的斜坡滑下。)