读者文摘:美国最棒的路边景观(1)

My husband and I were driving down I-65, still in Tennessee but near the Alabama border, when a statue of a giant chicken caught my eye.

我和丈夫开车沿着I-65号州际公路行驶时，在田纳西州、但靠近阿拉巴马州边界的地方，我看到了一个巨大的鸡的雕像。

It was standing¹ in front of a truck stop near Elkton.

它矗立在埃尔克顿附近的一个卡车站前。

I am grateful to be married to a man who will instantly pull off the highway when someone says, "Hey, let's take a selfie with that chicken!"

我很感激能嫁给这样一个男人，他会在某个人说“让我们和那只鸡拍张照片吧”的时候，立即驶离高速公路。

That particular chicken is an advertisement for the Shady Lawn Truck Stop's fried-chicken plate. It is wearing a chef's hat.

那个特别的鸡的雕像是阴暗的草坪卡车站的炸鸡的广告。它戴着厨师帽。

Its wings hold a giant fork and a giant carving² knife underneath³ them. The combination makes for a troubling message:

它的翅膀下夹着一把巨大的餐叉和一把巨大的切肉刀。这一组合传递出了一个令人不安的信息：

chicken as both dinner and diner. It is also covered with graffiti, mostly people's names but also an exhortation⁴ to "Read More."

晚餐和用餐者都是鸡。它也布满了涂鸦，大多是人们的名字，但也有“多读书”的劝诫。

Unlike the existential conflict at the heart of the chicken's identity, that's a message I had no trouble decoding⁵.

不像既存的鸡的身份的核心冲突，我轻易地就把这个信息破解获取了。

Between Nashville and the Alabama Gulf⁶ Coast, where my husband and I were heading, there are quite a few unusual roadside attractions.

在纳什维尔和我丈夫和我要去的阿拉巴马海湾沿岸之间，有一些不寻常的路边景点。

An actual NASA Saturn⁷ rocket, all 168 feet of it, is posed as if for blastoff at the Alabama welcome center near Ardmore.

在阿德莫尔附近的阿拉巴马欢迎中心，一枚真正的NASA土星火箭，全部168英尺长，摆出要发射的姿势。

The Ave Maria Grotto⁸, where a Benedictine monk⁹ built 125 miniature replicas¹⁰ of famous buildings, religious sites,

圣玛利亚石窟，一位本笃会修道士在这里建造了125个著名建筑和宗教遗址的微型复制品，

and shrines—all made in part from found objects such as cold cream jars and toilet floaters—occupies a four-acre park in Cullman.

还有神龛——部分是由发现的物品制成的，比如冷奶油罐和马桶漂浮物——占据了卡尔曼一个四英亩的公园。

Fifty-five miles south of this "Jerusalem in miniature," in Birmingham, the cosmology goes back even further.

在这个“迷你耶路撒冷”以南55英里的伯明翰，宇宙学可以追溯到更远的地方。

Rising above the city is a mammoth¹¹ statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge.

矗立在城市上空的是一座巨大的火神雕像，即罗马的火神和锻造之神。

It is the world's largest castiron statue, but during the years when I was growing up there, its fame lay primarily in its peculiar¹² attire¹³:

它是世界上最大的铸铁雕像，但在我在那里长大的那些年里，它的名气主要来自它独特的服装：

Vulcan is wearing nothing but a blacksmith's apron¹⁴ and knee-high sandals, and his bare buttocks shine a moon right at the adjacent city of Homewood.

火神只穿了一条铁匠的围裙和一双及膝的凉鞋，赤裸的屁股正对着霍姆伍德附近的城市闪耀着月光。

Perhaps because that image is still fresh in mind by the time drivers on I-65 reach Chilton County, center of the Alabama peach-growing region,

也许是因为司机在I-65州际公路上行驶至阿拉巴马州桃树种植区的中心奇尔顿县时，那幅画面依旧清晰，

it's hard not to see a connection between Birmingham's famous landmark¹⁵ and Chilton County's water tower, which was built in the shape of an authentically¹⁶ cleft¹⁷ peach.

所以，人们不难领会到伯明翰的著名地标和奇尔顿县的水塔之间的联系。水塔是以一个真正的裂口桃子的形状建成的。

Ten miles down the road, as if to punish such thoughts, there's a billboard¹⁸ directing motorists to "GO TO CHURCH or the Devil Will Get You!"

沿着路再走十英里，会出现一块广告牌，上面写着“去教堂，否则魔鬼会抓住你的!”这仿佛是为了惩罚刚才的想法。

that graced the interstate near Prattville for many decades before a storm knocked it down in 2016.

这个广告牌为靠近普拉特维尔的洲际公路增色不少，直到2016年一场暴风雨把它刮倒了。

In 2017, heavy rains kept the surrounding soil too wet for the necessary repairs.

2017年，大雨使其周围的土壤过于湿润，无法进行必要的修复。

"The devil is trying to knock it all down, but we're going to get it back up," the son of the Montgomery man who first erected¹⁹ the billboard told a reporter.

第一个树立广告牌的蒙哥马利男子的儿子告诉记者，“魔鬼想把他们全部击倒，但是我们想把它再次立起来。”

Satan apparently²⁰ lost the battle last year: The sign is now back in place, the original red-tailed devil intact.

很明显，撒旦在去年的战役中失败了：“这个标志又重新立了起来，原来的红尾魔鬼完好无损。

And the monstrous²¹ red scythe²² the devil is holding could surely take even the Elkton chicken's carving knife in a fight.

而手持巨大的红色镰刀的魔鬼，在一场战斗中，甚至可以夺走埃尔克顿鸡的切肉刀。

1 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。

2 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

3 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。

4 exhortation   

n.劝告，规劝

参考例句：

• After repeated exhortation by his comrades,he finally straightened out his thinking.经过同志们再三劝导，他终于想通了。
• Foreign funds alone are clearly not enough,nor are exhortations to reform.光有外资显然不够，只是劝告人们进行改革也不行。

5 decoding   

n.译码，解码v.译（码），解（码）( decode的现在分词 )；分析及译解电子信号

参考例句：

• We cannot add any other memory to this system without further decoding. 如果不增加译码，就不能使系统的存贮容量有任何扩展。 来自辞典例句
• Examples using the 8250 will be presented in hardware section to clarify full-decoding schemes. 在硬件一节中有应用说明全译码方案8250的例子。 来自辞典例句

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

8 grotto   

n.洞穴

参考例句：

• We reached a beautiful grotto,whose entrance was almost hiden by the vine.我们到达了一个美丽的洞穴，洞的进口几乎被藤蔓遮掩著。
• Water trickles through an underground grotto.水沿着地下岩洞流淌。

9 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

10 replicas   

n.复制品( replica的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His hobby is building replicas of cars. 他的爱好是制作汽车的复制品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The replicas are made by using a thin film of fusible alloy on a stiffening platen. 复制是用附着在加强托板上的可熔合金薄膜实现的。 来自辞典例句

11 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

12 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

13 attire   

v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装

参考例句：

• He had no intention of changing his mode of attire.他无意改变着装方式。
• Her attention was attracted by his peculiar attire.他那奇特的服装引起了她的注意。

14 apron   

n.围裙；工作裙

参考例句：

• We were waited on by a pretty girl in a pink apron.招待我们的是一位穿粉红色围裙的漂亮姑娘。
• She stitched a pocket on the new apron.她在新围裙上缝上一只口袋。

15 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

16 authentically   

ad.sincerely真诚地

参考例句：

• Gina: And we should give him something 2 authentically Taiwanese. 吉娜：而且我们应该送他有纯正台湾味的东西。
• A loser is one who fails to correspond authentically. 失败者则指那些未能做到诚实可靠的人。

17 cleft   

n.裂缝；adj.裂开的

参考例句：

• I hid the message in a cleft in the rock.我把情报藏在石块的裂缝里。
• He was cleft from his brother during the war.在战争期间，他与他的哥哥分离。

18 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

19 ERECTED   

adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立

参考例句：

• A monument to him was erected in St Paul's Cathedral. 在圣保罗大教堂为他修了一座纪念碑。
• A monument was erected to the memory of that great scientist. 树立了一块纪念碑纪念那位伟大的科学家。

20 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

21 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

22 scythe   

n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割

参考例句：

• He's cutting grass with a scythe.他正在用一把大镰刀割草。
• Two men were attempting to scythe the long grass.两个人正试图割掉疯长的草。