VOA慢速英语20061031a

AGRICULTURE REPORT - Saving Historic BarnsBy Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Tuesday, October 31, 2006

This is the Special English Agriculture Report.


Red barn

A big red barn is probably one of the first things most Americans would think of if you asked them to imagine a farm. And not a modern metal barn, but a building made of wood like the ones in the old days.

A barn is where farmers keep animals and equipment. Over time, as fewer and fewer people worked the land, more and more barns were torn down to make way for developers. Others that remained might have fallen into poor condition.

Or perhaps they just no longer satisfy the needs of a modern farmer. Keeping an old barn in good condition might not be seen as worth the cost if it does not serve much purpose. But Americans with historic barns are being urged to save them.

The magazine Successful Farming and the National Trust for Historic Preservation¹ are working together on a program called Barn Again! The National Trust is a nonprofit organization that works to protect places of historic importance in America.

The Barn Again! program advises hundreds of barn owners every year. Awards are given for the projects that best succeed at restoring a barn for continued farm use. Winning buildings are used to demonstrate methods of preservation.

The organization suggests how problems with things like stone and concrete block foundations can be fixed². With many old barns, the foundation they are built on is falling apart. Barn Again! also offers advice for other repairs, like how to replace siding and how to use a power washer to remove loose paint. And farmers are given suggestions about how to estimate costs.

Leo Fitzpatrick of Beaverton, Michigan, won the two thousand four Barn Again! Award. He made one improvement at a time. The work took more than nine years. He did it himself, even though for a while he held another job in addition to farming. He says it cost him fourteen thousand dollars, much less than a new barn of similar size.

The improvements included strengthening the barn. There are no structural³ supports inside the building; instead, its sides hold it up. Today the barn holds fourteen thousand bales of hay.

Leo Fitzpatrick says the barn is a lot stronger than when it was new. His grandfather built it in nineteen fourteen. And Mister Fitzpatrick says his farm would not be the same without it.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. To learn more about the Barn Again! program, go to www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 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。

2 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

3 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。