PBS高端访谈:美国国家公园迎100岁生日

 　　HARI SREENIVASAN: It was a hundred years ago today that President Woodrow Wilson signed what was called the Organic Act, creating the National Park Service.

　　Jeffrey Brown takes our Bookshelf outdoors.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Terry Tempest Williams, author, naturalist¹ and environmental activist², grew up in Utah surrounded by national parks.

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS, Author, "The Hour of Land": They were our backyard. And with our family business, laying pipe in the American West, it was this wonderful juxtaposition³ between intrusion in the land and protected land.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The story of the land, right?

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: So, I feel like the American West is in my bones in the deepest way. And I also felt conflicted at a really young age, because I saw my father, my uncle, my grandfather, my brothers digging trenches⁴ in the land.

　　And yet I saw prairie dogs on the side of the trenches. And my impulse was to protect them from the very destruction that was putting food around our table..

　　JEFFREY BROWN: One hundred years since the creation of the National Park Service, the contradictions and controversies⁵ over America's public lands continue.

　　But there is no denying the popularity of the parks themselves, Great Smoky Mountains in the East, Yosemite in the West, Yellowstone, the oldest park, established in 1872, and so many more, large and small, natural landscapes and historic monuments, some 412 parks and sites in all.

　　And attendance records continue to be broken, with more than 300 million visits last year. In "The Hour of Land," a Terry Tempest Williams, who still lives in Utah, has written part natural history, part memoir⁶, part call for preservation⁷.

　　We talked at Great Falls Park, a small, but dramatically beautiful National Park Service site just 15 miles from Washington, D.C., with the Potomac River crashing over and through rock formations and turkey vultures hovering⁸ overhead.

　　So, what happens to you when you go out into a park?

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: The miraculous⁹.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The miraculous? Nothing less than that, huh?

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: I mean superlatives. This is about superlatives.

　　Just seeing this, all of a sudden, you say, OK, I remember what matters, and I am very, very small. And, you know, humor returns, deep breathing returns, and that sense of affection.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: You go to all the different parks. You tell their stories. And we see that a lot of the issues of today have been there forever, right, whose land is it, the local vs. national governance of the land.

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: I thought I — in the beginning, Jeff, I thought I was writing a book about our national parks. It became very clear to me it was a book about America in…

　　JEFFREY BROWN: More than the parks themselves?

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: I think so, because they are the soul of our country. They are a reservoir for our spirit.

　　And they are not only memory palaces for each of us, but they really do hold our stories, not just one story, but multiple stories, diverse stories. And I think the gift of this for me has been, what story are we choosing to tell? What stories aren't we telling? And that's been the power of "The Hour of Land" for me.

　　美国国家公园迎100岁生日

　　JEFFREY BROWN: One continuing story pits energy development vs. preservation. Terry Tempest Williams describes in personal terms a visit several years ago to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota with her father.

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: We fell in love with it. We also saw in that viewshed oil and gas development. We went to see the Bakken oil fields when it was at its peak.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Right.

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: My father was shattered. He turned to me and said: "This is too pretty of a landscape for oil and gas development."

　　That was my father, who would tell you he's very proud of the scars that he's created on the American landscape. There is little my father and I would agree on politically, but come to a national park, and that is our common ground. And he's the one that gave me this sense of place, this ethic¹⁰ of place.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Do you see a way to balance the needs of preservation and economic development?

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: I live in a state where national monuments and parks were fought over. Now they are the economic engine that is keeping rural Utah alive.

　　That's in our history, whether it's Grand Teton National Park, whether it's Grand Staircase National Monument. History shows us that it has always been a prudent¹¹, beautiful decision. And 300 million visits in our national parks system, I think, celebrates that idea.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Three hundred million visits also brings up the notion that we hear about today of the parks being loved to death. Right? That's another issue for today's parks.

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: I think it shows us our need. I think it shows us our void.

　　You and I both know that, yes, in Yellowstone, it's not bumper¹² to bumper. It's chest to back. But if you're a half-a-mile off the beaten path, you're in a very, very wild place.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: What is your hope, then, for the next 100 years for the national parks?

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: It's very difficult to establish a national park. I think it's going to be even more difficult to keep them. And I think we, as citizens of this country, have to fight for them. I think we have to make sure that the public lands stay public.

　　And I think we have to love them. And each of us, with the gifts that are ours, I think we have to give those gifts up in the name of community, to think beyond our own species, to think about grizzlies¹³. Do we really want them delisted, to think about these black vultures, their power, their foreboding, powerful, beautiful presence, that we too will die, and they will pick our bones.

　　These are not political issues. Ultimately, I think they are spiritual issues. And this is where the spirit of America dwells.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Terry Tempest Williams, thank you so much.

　　TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS: Thank you.

1 naturalist   

n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)

参考例句：

• He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
• The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。

2 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

3 juxtaposition   

n.毗邻，并置，并列

参考例句：

• The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.这两句话连在一起使人听了震惊。
• It is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors.这是并列对比色的结果。

4 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

5 controversies   

争论

参考例句：

• We offer no comment on these controversies here. 对于这些争议，我们在这里不作任何评论。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon. 围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。 来自辞典例句

6 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。

7 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

8 hovering   

鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
• I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。

9 miraculous   

adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的

参考例句：

• The wounded man made a miraculous recovery.伤员奇迹般地痊愈了。
• They won a miraculous victory over much stronger enemy.他们战胜了远比自己强大的敌人，赢得了非凡的胜利。

10 ethic   

n.道德标准，行为准则

参考例句：

• They instilled the work ethic into their children.他们在孩子们的心中注入了职业道德的理念。
• The connotation of education ethic is rooted in human nature's mobility.教育伦理的内涵根源于人本性的变动性。

11 prudent   

adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的

参考例句：

• A prudent traveller never disparages his own country.聪明的旅行者从不贬低自己的国家。
• You must school yourself to be modest and prudent.你要学会谦虚谨慎。

12 bumper   

n.(汽车上的)保险杠；adj.特大的，丰盛的

参考例句：

• The painting represents the scene of a bumper harvest.这幅画描绘了丰收的景象。
• This year we have a bumper harvest in grain.今年我们谷物丰收。

13 grizzlies   

北美洲灰熊( grizzly的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Suns beat the Memphis Grizzlies 127-113 earlier Tuesday night. 在周二晚上早些时候，太阳以127：113击败孟菲斯灰熊。
• Whatever you do, do not blink.They're like grizzlies. 无论你做什么，别眨眼。他们跟熊有点相象。