美国国家公共电台 NPR Springtime Weather Finally Warms Up Inland Alaska

Springtime Weather Finally Warms Up Inland Alaska

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Imagine a winter where there's only four hours of daylight, and temperatures regularly drop 30 below zero. If you're in Fairbanks, Alaska, you don't have to imagine it. But it's May, and it's finally starting to feel like spring. From Alaska's Energy Desk, Ravenna Koenig has this audio postcard.

RAVENNA KOENIG, BYLINE¹: When you ask people in Fairbanks about the things that herald² spring, you get a long list. One of them is a 93-year-old man in a custard-yellow truck.

GLENN HACKNEY: This is the most famous pickup³ in Fairbanks. This little, yellow pickup has been hauling trash around town for 25 years.

KOENIG: That's Glenn Hackney. He's lived in Alaska since 1948. And every spring, he's bothered by the same sight - trash that has piled up over the winter and is slowly being uncovered by the melting snow. Hackney says most of what he picks up is plastic and paper scraps⁴. But he's also encountered some stranger stuff, like a bowling⁵ ball and a gilded⁶ rose packed in a box.

HACKNEY: So I figured it was a jilted lover (laughter) who tossed it out the window.

KOENIG: I drive with Hackney to the part of the highway he says is the biggest eyesore, and we get out.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC)

KOENIG: There's something in particular he's here to get rid of.

HACKNEY: We're looking at a mattress⁷ that somebody has lost off their pickup.

KOENIG: We haul it into the back of his truck.

HACKNEY: Can you do it?

KOENIG: Yeah.

While Hackney's one of the main boosters of the cleanup cause, he's not alone in his efforts. Fairbanks also has a community-wide cleanup day this time of year. About a mile from where we pick up the mattress, there's another spring phenomenon that takes place.

(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS SQUAWKING)

KOENIG: On the last Thursday of April, over a thousand birds were counted at a former dairy farm called Creamer's Field, now a wildlife refuge. Most were passing through on their way to nests further north and west. Mark Ross is a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. He stood in front of a table crowded with taxidermy birds, teaching a group of fifth-graders which was which.

MARK ROSS: Snow goose. Canada goose.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Peregrine falcon⁸.

ROSS: Peregrine falcon. The world's fastest creature is the great duck eater.

KOENIG: Creamer's Field this time of year is busy with people looking through binoculars⁹, taking pictures and gazing out from their car windows in the parking lot. And the moment earlier in the season, when some of the very first birds arrive, is its own event. There's a contest here called the goose watch contest.

ROSS: They have a jingle¹⁰. (Singing) I'm a goose watcher. I'm a goose - that's been going on for about 30 years.

KOENIG: Ross actually judges that contest. People fill out guesses for the date and time of the first goose's arrival. And whoever gets closest wins 500 bucks¹¹. Springtime also means that a less-welcome airborne critter's back in town - the mosquito.

GERRY HOVDA: Well, it’s our state bird (laughter).

KOENIG: Gerry Hovda's the manager at Frontier Outfitters. It's a sporting goods store where you can buy everything from camping equipment to guns to fishing line and, of course, mosquito gear.

HOVDA: Yeah. It's up on Aisle¹² 2 here. I've got your mosquito netting for over your cot.

KOENIG: Netting, a mosquito repellent wash for clothes, chemical discs you can burn to keep the bugs¹³ away, plus mosquito spray. Hovda says he puts them out...

HOVDA: Soon as the hand warmers get put away.

KOENIG: The first mosquitoes start appearing around now. By the summer, they'll be everywhere.

HOVDA: They get in your nose. They get in your mouth. You can have lunch out on a - riding your bike.

KOENIG: Fairbanks still has a ways to go before winter is truly over. It snowed several times last week, and the trees are still bare. But even a slow spring is a welcome one. It means that the summer everyone's been dreaming about through the dark months is just around the corner.

For NPR News, I'm Ravenna Koenig in Fairbanks.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And that report comes to us from our former WEEKEND EDITION producer and Alaska's Energy Desk, a public media collaboration¹⁴ focused on energy and the environment.

1 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。

2 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

3 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

4 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

5 bowling   

n.保龄球运动

参考例句：

• Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
• Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？

6 gilded   

a.镀金的，富有的

参考例句：

• The golden light gilded the sea. 金色的阳光使大海如金子般闪闪发光。
• "Friends, they are only gilded disks of lead!" "朋友们，这只不过是些镀金的铅饼！ 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡

7 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

8 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

9 binoculars   

n.双筒望远镜

参考例句：

• He watched the play through his binoculars.他用双筒望远镜看戏。
• If I had binoculars,I could see that comet clearly.如果我有望远镜，我就可以清楚地看见那颗彗星。

10 jingle   

n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵

参考例句：

• The key fell on the ground with a jingle.钥匙叮当落地。
• The knives and forks set up their regular jingle.刀叉发出常有的叮当声。

11 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

13 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。