The Millennium Bridge 千禧桥

The script of this programme 本节目台词

	Millennium1 Bridge" src="/upimg/allimg/071101/1612271.jpg" width="203" />
	Go for a bouncy walk over the Thames on the Millennium Bridge

John: June 2000, and London saw the opening of its first pedestrian-only bridge, the Millennium Bridge, between St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern art gallery. It was quite a day and within minutes hundreds of people had come to see the new bridge and to walk across it.

Oliver: I’m Oliver.

John: And I’m John, and in this edition of On The Town we’re investigating the Millennium Bridge.

Oliver: 千禧桥。

John: It was designed by the architect Lord Norman Foster, and has a very sleek², silvery appearance.

Oliver: 桥梁的设计者是一名建筑师，an architect。 银色的桥梁呈现出圆滑的造型。A sleek and silvery appearance。

John: It has a very modern look, and it’s also a suspension bridge.

Oliver: 吊桥 a suspension bridge。

Oliver: Now, I hear that there was a problem when the bridge opened to the public in 2000.

John: There was. A big problem!

Oliver: What was it?

John: The bridge wobbled!

Oliver: It wobbled， 桥是晃动的!

John: The day the bridge opened hundreds of people walked across it and it started to sway in a disconcerting way! It took two years for the bridge to be secured and made rigid³.

Oliver: 工程师们不得不给桥梁重新加固，rigid，两年之后，千禧桥才得以再次向公众开放。接下来我们会听到桥梁设计者、建筑师 Norman Foster 接受 BBC 采访时的录音。

John: Did the architect find it frustrating⁴ that the bridge had to be closed for two years?

Insert

Challenging I would say, but of course, if you measure the life of this structure in hundreds of years it will be around for as long as it has a useful life. It’s not made of materials which are going to corrode⁵, so if you measure that period that we are talking about in the wider perspective, it's a blip. A pretty harrowing blip, but a blip

John: Lord Norman Foster said it was pretty challenging to have to keep the bridge closed for two years of repairs.

Oliver: 是具有挑战性的 challenging。

John: He said the bridge is not made of materials that are going to corrode.

Oliver: 千禧桥不会被腐蚀， to corrode。

John: So the length of closure is only a blip in the life of the bridge. A blip is very short period of time.

Oliver: 建筑师说对于将长时间存在的千禧桥来讲，关闭整修的两年是非常短的，仅仅是一个微不足道的小点儿 a blip。

John: Now that the bridge has been made rigid, what do the pedestrians⁶ who walk across it think of it?

Insert

Man:

It’s like a carnival⁷, everybody is just talking about the bridge, and the construction and the wind. We’ve not had a wobble yet, it doesn’t feel like jelly.

Girl:

It doesn’t wobble anymore.

Older woman:

Well, I’m a bridge freak, and having not seen it before I came down especially to see it, and walking over, I thought it was rather beautiful to look at. It’s a bicycle-friendly, pedestrian-friendly bridge. There is in the wind, I’m afraid a slight vibration⁸, but as somebody pointed⁹ out to me, if there weren’t a vibration at all we’d have to worry. Walking over it, it looks rather beautiful.

Man with French accent:

Well it’s absolutely terrific. It’s my last day in London. I’ve been here in May last year, when it couldn’t open, and I couldn’t cross it. And today’s the last day. Look at that!

John: So now people seem to like the Millennium Bridge. One woman said she was a bridge freak.

Oliver: 那位年纪大的女性说她自己是一个桥梁迷，a bridge freak 意思是说她是一个桥梁爱好者。

John: She said it was bicycle and pedestrian-friendly.

Oliver: 方便步行和骑自行车。

John: The older woman you heard said she felt some light vibration when she was on the bridge.

Oliver: 轻微振动 Light vibration。

John: But with a suspension bridge there has to be some movement!

Oliver: But not so much that it wobbles!

John: Exactly. Well, we’ll be talking to you about more interesting places in the UK in the next On The Town, so listen out for that.

 

1 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

2 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

3 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

4 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 corrode   

v.使腐蚀，侵蚀，破害；v.腐蚀，被侵蚀

参考例句：

• The tools will corrode with rust if never used.这些工具如长期不用会长铁锈而损坏。
• It will pollute people's aesthetic taste and corrode social spirit.它污染人们的审美趣味，腐蚀社会精神。

6 pedestrians   

n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Several pedestrians had come to grief on the icy pavement. 几个行人在结冰的人行道上滑倒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Pedestrians keep to the sidewalk [footpath]! 行人走便道。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 carnival   

n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演

参考例句：

• I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
• Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。

8 vibration   

n.颤动，振动；摆动

参考例句：

• There is so much vibration on a ship that one cannot write.船上的震动大得使人无法书写。
• The vibration of the window woke me up.窗子的震动把我惊醒了。

9 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。