As the man tried to swing the speedboat round, the steering wheel came away in his hands.

当那人试图让快艇转弯时，方向盘脱手了。

He waved desperately to his companion, who had been water skiing for the last fifteen minutes.

他绝望地向他的伙伴挥手，他的伙伴在过去的15分钟里一直在滑水。

Both men had hardly had time to realize what was happening when they were thrown violently into the sea.

他们两个还没来得及意识到究竟发生了什么事情，就被猛地抛入了海里。

The speedboat had struck a buoy, but it continued to move very quickly across the water.

快艇撞上了一个浮标，但它仍在水面上快速行驶着。

Both men had just begun to swim towards the shore, when they noticed with dismay that the speedboat was moving in a circle.

两个人刚开始向岸边游去，就突然惊愕地发现快艇正在转着圈行驶，

It now came straight towards them at tremendous speed.

它现在正以惊人的速度直冲他们驶来。

In less than a minute, it roared past them only a few feet away.

不到1分钟的工夫，它从离他们只有几英尺远的地方呼啸着驶了过去。

After it had passed, they swam on as quickly as they could because they knew that the boat would soon return.

快艇过去之后，他们以最快的速度向前游去，因为他们知道快艇马上就要转回来。

They had just had enough time to swim out of danger when the boat again completed a circle.

他们刚刚来得及游出危险区，快艇就又转完了一圈。

On this occasion, however, it had slowed down considerably.

然而这一次它的速度慢多了。

The petrol had nearly all been used up.

汽油几乎已经用光。

Before long, the noise dropped completely and the boat began to drift gently across the water.

没过多久，噪音便彻底消失，快艇开始在水面上慢悠悠地漂流。