美国国家公共电台 NPR 'The Ravenmaster' Is Definitely (There) For The Birds

'The Ravenmaster' Is Definitely (There) For The Birds

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Christopher Skaife has one of the coolest jobs in the world. He takes care of the famous ravens² that haunt the Tower of London. He's got a new memoir³ out about his lifework. It's called "Ravenmaster." And NPR's Petra Mayer stopped by the Tower early one morning to talk to him.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE⁴: At 7 a.m., the Tower of London is peaceful - no tour groups, just distant traffic noise and, if you believe the legends, a ghost or three - except in this one corner, where there's a large, luxurious⁵ enclosure that contains some very hungry ravens.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAVEN¹ CAWING)

CHRISTOPHER SKAIFE: See, she's so hungry. There we go, babies.

MAYER: Luckily, ravenmaster Chris Skaife has breakfast ready to go.

SKAIFE: What would you like? Would you like some mice? Would you like some mice?

MAYER: Breakfast of champions - a plastic bin⁶ full of slightly gory⁷ mice and a choice rat or two. Skaife is trying to explain his morning routine to me, but...

SKAIFE: You can hear the ravens in the background. I'm so sorry. I'm telling this story, not you.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAVEN CAWING)

MAYER: There are seven ravens living at the tower right now - dominant⁸ pair Erin and Rocky, three younger males - Gripp, Harris and Jubilee⁹, Poppy, the baby, and Merlina, the queen, who has her own domain¹⁰ in one of the Tower's historic houses. After the other six have tucked into their mice, we spot Merlina hopping¹¹ along the green towards us, ready for her share of breakfast.

SKAIFE: There we go.

MAYER: Skaife and Merlina have a special bond. I stand well back while he gently pats her on the beak¹². Sometimes, he'll try to talk to her in what he calls ravenish. And sometimes, she talks back - sometimes.

SKAIFE: (Clicking tongue). As you can see, she's absolutely enthralled¹³ with that.

MAYER: She's magnificently ignoring us.

SKAIFE: Magnificently ignoring us.

MAYER: Skaife says ravens can be extremely smart. And Merlina is one of the smartest. She's fond of pranking visitors by stealing their snacks or, when she's especially bored, playing dead. But she doesn't do tricks on command. While there have been ravens in the past who could croak¹⁴ out a few words in English, Skaife says he's committed to keeping these ravens as wild as possible. So you won't hear nevermore echoing across the green. And Merlina and her colleagues are surprisingly free to fly around, which has led to some precarious¹⁵ situations.

SKAIFE: I have, as the ravenmaster, on one occasion - or maybe two or three - swung on the spire¹⁶ of the tower up there trying to catch a naughty raven.

MAYER: The official line is that the ravens have been here for centuries. And if they ever leave, the tower will crumble¹⁷ to dust, and a terrible harm will befall the kingdom.

SKAIFE: Unofficially, the ravens haven't been here that long. We can't really date the evidence of the ravens back any earlier than the 1880s, so that would make it a kind of a later Victorian myth. So what we kind of think is the ravens were brought in because the ravens were made popular by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe. And ravens were popular to have as pets. Charles Dickens had a pet raven, as well. In fact, he had three pet ravens.

MAYER: What better way to get tourists to the Tower than to set a few ravens around its famous execution grounds and start telling creepy stories about them? Skaife himself is an unending fount of raven lore¹⁸ - not just the myths and the stories but the habits, the personalities¹⁹ and the discoveries that he's made over his years on the job.

SKAIFE: I never get bored of watching what ravens do and how they go about their lives. They're just incredible. You just never know what they are going to do. So you always got to be on your toes when you're looking after them.

MAYER: Petra Mayer, NPR News, at the Tower of London.

(SOUNDBITE OF RAVEN VOCALIZING)

1 raven   

n.渡鸟，乌鸦；adj.乌亮的

参考例句：

• We know the raven will never leave the man's room.我们知道了乌鸦再也不会离开那个男人的房间。
• Her charming face was framed with raven hair.她迷人的脸上垂落着乌亮的黑发。

2 ravens   

n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Wheresoever the carcase is,there will the ravens be gathered together. 哪里有死尸，哪里就有乌鸦麇集。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A couple of ravens croaked above our boat. 两只乌鸦在我们小船的上空嘎嘎叫着。 来自辞典例句

3 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

4 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。

5 luxurious   

adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的

参考例句：

• This is a luxurious car complete with air conditioning and telephone.这是一辆附有空调设备和电话的豪华轿车。
• The rich man lives in luxurious surroundings.这位富人生活在奢侈的环境中。

6 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

7 gory   

adj.流血的；残酷的

参考例句：

• I shuddered when I heard the gory details.我听到血淋淋的详情，战栗不已。
• The newspaper account of the accident gave all the gory details.报纸上报道了这次事故中所有骇人听闻的细节。

8 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

9 jubilee   

n.周年纪念；欢乐

参考例句：

• They had a big jubilee to celebrate the victory.他们举行盛大的周年纪念活动以祝贺胜利。
• Every Jubilee,to take the opposite case,has served a function.反过来说，历次君主巡幸，都曾起到某种作用。

10 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

11 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

12 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

13 enthralled   

迷住，吸引住( enthrall的过去式和过去分词 )； 使感到非常愉快

参考例句：

• The child watched, enthralled by the bright moving images. 这孩子看着那明亮的移动的影像，被迷住了。
• The children listened enthralled as the storyteller unfolded her tale. 讲故事的人一步步展开故事情节，孩子们都听得入迷了。

14 croak   

vi.嘎嘎叫，发牢骚

参考例句：

• Everyone seemed rather out of sorts and inclined to croak.每个人似乎都有点不对劲，想发发牢骚。
• Frogs began to croak with the rainfall.蛙随着雨落开始哇哇叫。

15 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。

16 spire   

n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点

参考例句：

• The church spire was struck by lightning.教堂的尖顶遭到了雷击。
• They could just make out the spire of the church in the distance.他们只能辨认出远处教堂的尖塔。

17 crumble   

vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁

参考例句：

• Opposition more or less crumbled away.反对势力差不多都瓦解了。
• Even if the seas go dry and rocks crumble,my will will remain firm.纵然海枯石烂，意志永不动摇。

18 lore   

n.传说；学问，经验，知识

参考例句：

• I will seek and question him of his lore.我倒要找上他，向他讨教他的渊博的学问。
• Early peoples passed on plant and animal lore through legend.早期人类通过传说传递有关植物和动物的知识。

19 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。