美国国家公共电台 NPR--Can a newly installed cellphone tower help preserve a language?

Can a newly installed cellphone tower help preserve a language?

Transcript¹

The Cherokee Nation reservation in Kenwood, Okla., has a new cell tower. Tribal² leaders hope better connectivity will keep young people close to home and preserve their culture and language.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Can a newly installed cellphone tower help preserve a language? Well, that's the hope of Cherokee Nation leaders in Oklahoma. Families can make reliable calls and send texts thanks to a nearly 360-foot-tall tower. Elizabeth Caldwell from member station KWGS reports on the significance of connectivity.

ELIZABETH CALDWELL, BYLINE³: It's lunchtime in Kenwood, Okla., a tiny community of about 1,000 people on the Cherokee Nation Reservation. It's pretty far off the beaten path. In the community center, two women are serving soup and sandwiches.

GLADYS STALLER: It's for the elders to get together here. And we serve lunch. And they just visit each other. And this is Debbie. We're the cooks here.

CALDWELL: Hi.

DEBBIE OFIELD: You want to eat?

CALDWELL: Gladys Staller and Debbie Ofield have lived in Kenwood for a long time. Today is a big day. This remote community gets a cellphone tower. Until now, Gladys says people had to connect to weak Wi-Fi at a certain spot by the community center.

STALLER: They sit outside underneath⁴ that pole and make calls.

CALDWELL: People would also drive up nearby hills hunting for bars, but not anymore.

MARILYNN MALERBA: I send you all many, many blessings⁵ and much success in everything else that you are looking to do with these funds.

CHUCK HOSKIN JR: All right. Wado, Treasurer⁶ Chief. Take care. Bye-bye.

MALERBA: My pleasure. Bye-bye.

HOSKIN: All right. Crystal clear.

CALDWELL: That's the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chuck Hoskin Jr. He's standing⁷ next to the cellphone tower in a field littered with cow patties. He just got off the phone with the U.S. treasurer, Marilynn Malerba. American Rescue Plan money paid for the AT&T Tower, and Hoskin wanted to thank Malerba. He says reliable cell service might entice⁸ young people to stay put.

HOSKIN: You have to have a community in which elders and young people are sharing the community, and the communities aren't dying on the vine.

CALDWELL: For 21-year-old Gracie Scott, who lives with her grandmother, it's exciting to be better connected. She thinks the tower will be a big help in making Kenwood a better place for everyone.

GRACIE SCOTT: You know, having service through here - there's a lot of like mail delivery drivers that, you know, get lost, and now they can use their GPSes, you know, and just people finding their way through here and being able to get a hold of people as you're through here and not thinking, oh, my gosh, when am I going to get service again, you know?

CALDWELL: Now Kenwood residents have reliable 911 service and can do telemedicine in some cases. Dawnena Squirrel lives here, too, and hopes the new cell tower will spread the Cherokee language by connecting Native speakers anywhere.

DAWNENA SQUIRREL: To see it as a reality today is incredible. And I think this will allow us to do a lot of online classes and even teach classes from here.

CALDWELL: In the meantime, Dawnena says she's just going to enjoy the simple pleasure of making a phone call, which she has not done yet. But she knows who she'll call.

SQUIRREL: Oh, my gosh. You know, I could call my guy, my boyfriend. He makes traditional Cherokee stickball sticks. And so he's over in another community. So I may call him and say, hey, we're online.

CALDWELL: And they will no longer have to sit by a pole or drive around to make a phone call. For NPR News, I'm Elizabeth Caldwell in Kenwood, Okla.

(SOUNDBITE OF FATB AND ZENDR'S "LOST THOUGHTS")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

5 blessings   

n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福

参考例句：

• Afflictions are sometimes blessings in disguise. 塞翁失马，焉知非福。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We don't rely on blessings from Heaven. 我们不靠老天保佑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 treasurer   

n.司库，财务主管

参考例句：

• Mr. Smith was succeeded by Mrs.Jones as treasurer.琼斯夫人继史密斯先生任会计。
• The treasurer was arrested for trying to manipulate the company's financial records.财务主管由于试图窜改公司财政帐目而被拘留。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 entice   

v.诱骗，引诱，怂恿

参考例句：

• Nothing will entice the children from television.没有任何东西能把孩子们从电视机前诱开。
• I don't see why the English should want to entice us away from our native land.我不明白，为什英国人要引诱我们离开自己的国土。