密歇根新闻广播 百丽岛第一头小象不为人知的故事

"She is five tons of gray, ponderous¹ beauty."

That's how Rex G. White of the Detroit News described the now-forgotten treasure of the Belle² Isle³ Zoo: Sheba the Asian elephant.

She arrived in Detroit in 1923 and lived at the Belle Isle Zoo until she died on Jan. 2, 1959.

And it all began with a letter written by a schoolgirl.

Lori Feret, who is writing the first comprehensive history of Belle Isle, joined Stateside to tell the untold⁴ story of Sheba. It goes something like this:

A little girl wrote a letter to the Detroit News and asked if there was a way for schoolchildren to work together and buy something the Belle Isle Zoo didn't have: an elephant. The zoo started in the late 1800's with smaller animals, but as the 20th century approached, the animals in the zoo got bigger – more like a modern-day zoo.

The News saw this as an opportunity for some good publicity⁵, so a campaign was launched to have an "elephant day," where children across the city could contribute their lunch or milk money to the cause. 150,000 schoolchildren pooled their money together to raise about $2,000 to help cover the $2,750 price tag (more than $38,000 by today's money) of the 600-pound elephant.

The News sent a reporter to New York City to travel alongside the young elephant as she made the journey to Buffalo⁶. After some adventures in Buffalo, they took a boat to the elephant's new home in Detroit

When she arrived, Sheba was tremendously popular. She was dubbed⁷ "The School Children's Elephant".

More elephants would follow her to Belle Isle in later years, but Sheba remained a star until the zoo closed in 1956.

Listen to the full interview above to hear about the trouble Sheba got into on the way to Detroit, and what happened when a drunk man snuck into the elephant house and tried to take a nap with the elephant.

1 ponderous   

adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的

参考例句：

• His steps were heavy and ponderous.他的步伐沉重缓慢。
• It was easy to underestimate him because of his occasionally ponderous manner.由于他偶尔现出的沉闷的姿态，很容易使人小看了他。

2 belle   

n.靓女

参考例句：

• She was the belle of her Sunday School class.在主日学校她是她们班的班花。
• She was the belle of the ball.她是那个舞会中的美女。

3 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

4 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

5 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

6 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

7 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》