VOA慢速英语20060717b

THIS IS AMERICA - After Six Years of Work, Doors Open on a Fresh Look for Two Art Museums in WashingtonBy Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, July 17, 2006

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. This week, come along to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. These two museums in Washington, D.C., have re-opened after six years of renovation¹ work.

VOICE ONE:


National Portrait Gallery

The two collections are housed in a huge and historic building of white stone. The building dates back to eighteen thirty-six. It was where inventors established claims for their inventions.

The Old Patent Office Building became part of the Smithsonian Institution in nineteen sixty-two. It is now the Smithsonian Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture².

VOICE TWO:

The renovations cost more than two hundred eighty million dollars. Congress and private donors³ provided the money. There is no charge to visit the museums.

Space for showings is much bigger now with the new look. The roof is new. Workers also redid the floors. Hundreds of windows have been improved. Skylights have been re-opened.

Elizabeth Broun is director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She talks about the importance of the additional natural light. This is especially true for some works, like the colored glass windows by the artist John La Farge, who died in nineteen ten.

Many people used to make separate visits to see the two collections. Now, the museums share a common main entrance. In fact, they seem to melt into each other.

The National Portrait Gallery is on the east side of the first floor of the building. The Smithsonian American Art Museum, known as SAAM, is on the west side.

VOICE ONE:

In SAAM, traditional paintings share the museum with old silver-print photographs and hangings of woven material. Sculptures formed from steel and stone share space with works made from bottle tops and egg containers.


Manhattan by Georgia O'Keeffe

We stop at one of the works of fine art, a nineteen thirty-two oil painting of the New York City skyline. The work is simply called Manhattan. Georgia O'Keeffe painted it.

When we think of Georgia O'Keeffe, one of the first things we think of is flowers. She liked to paint flowers. Sure enough, we see three of them positioned among the colorful, abstract shapes of the tall buildings.

The artist once said of this work: One cannot paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt.

Georgia O'Keeffe died in nineteen eighty-six, at the age of ninety-eight.

VOICE TWO:

On now to a technological⁴ creation from nineteen ninety-five. The video artist Nam June Paik called it Electronic Superhighway: Continental⁵ U.S., Alaska, Hawaii.

Paik used more than three hundred televisions to create a standing⁶ video map of the United States. Televisions within each state present all sorts of images, including scenes from famous Hollywood movies. Bright neon lights mark the borders of the states.

Nam June Paik was born in nineteen thirty-two in Seoul, Korea. He lived in the United States for many years. He died in January at the age of seventy-three.

His Electronic Superhighway is twelve meters wide and four and one-half meters tall. It is so big, it occupies its own room.

VOICE ONE:

Some of the artists whose works appear in the Smithsonian American Art Museum are not very well known.

Martin Ramirez was born in eighteen eighty-five. He was an immigrant from Mexico. He created folk art with pencil, watercolor, small pieces of paper joined together -- whatever materials he could find. His works of people and places are densely⁷ drawn⁸ and highly detailed⁹. Markings are often repeated.

To know more about the artist is to know that this was the work of a troubled mind. Doctors identified Martin Ramirez as paranoid schizophrenic. He spent many years in mental hospitals in California.

VOICE TWO:

Now it is time to look at some other folk art -- like a giraffe made of metal bottle caps. The unidentified artist also used rubber, glass, animal hair and sheet metal.

A retired¹⁰ coal miner painted a picture of a train carrying coal. Jack¹¹ Savitsky had worked in the mines for thirty-five years. He produced the oil painting in an art class after poor health forced him to retire. Smoke rises from the engine as the train climbs a hill.

VOICE ONE:

The National Portrait Gallery is a collection of almost twenty thousand paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and photos. These are the faces of people who have influenced American history and culture. Some are easy to recognize; others are nameless images from long ago.

We see the faces of people who helped build America. Laborers¹² from the Industrial Revolution. Immigrant settlers.

We also see Native Americans and those whose people arrived as slaves from Africa.

We see cowboys and farmers and people left jobless by the Great Depression.

And we see Americans of today.

VOICE TWO:

A good way to start a visit to the National Portrait Gallery is to see one of America's best-known portraits. The painting of George Washington is by Gilbert Stuart. The first president appears as a tall, aging statesman. He is looking toward his right and has his right hand extended.


Lansdowne by Gilbert Stuart

The painting is known as the Lansdowne portrait. A very wealthy senator and his wife commissioned the work in seventeen ninety-six for the first Marquis of Lansdowne. The marquis was an ally in the British Parliament during the American Revolution.

The portrait had been on loan. A thirty million dollar gift in two thousand one permitted the gallery to buy the painting. The gift came from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation of Las Vegas, Nevada.

The director of the gallery, Marc Pachter, calls the Lansdowne portrait the jewel of the collection.

VOICE ONE:

The National Portrait Gallery exhibits portraits of all the American presidents.

These include a portrait of Lyndon Johnson by an artist who received much praise for his art, Peter Hurd. But Johnson, who became president in nineteen sixty-three, disliked this portrait. It was too traditional and official-looking for him. So he rejected it for the White House.

VOICE TWO:

Another, very different kind of portrait at the gallery is of Marilyn Monroe. Andy Warhol used a silkscreen print on paper to make this image of the actress. Her famous blonde hair has an orange-ish look.

A graphite drawing by Elaine de Kooning from around nineteen sixty-five shows jazz musician Ornette Coleman playing his saxophone. Wendy Wick Reaves is the head of prints and drawings at the gallery. She points out areas of uneven¹⁴ and unclear pencil marks in the drawing. She says these are meant to represent the feeling of freedom in jazz.

VOICE ONE:

Also in the National Portrait Gallery is a painted-wood sculpture of Rosa Parks. The civil rights activist¹⁵ is being seized by agents of the law. The sculpture is by Marshall Rumbaugh.

In nineteen fifty-five, Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. That incident helped launch the modern civil rights movement.

Visitors can also find a portrait of basketball player Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq has his hand over his face. We see just one eye looking out of this black-and-white photograph by Rick Chapman.

VOICE TWO:

A special exhibit celebrates the nineteenth-century poet Walt Whitman. Historian David Ward¹³ notes that Whitman had a connection to the building that houses the two museums today.

For a while, the poet worked there in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. During the Civil War, he helped the wounded in a hospital set up in the building.

VOICE ONE:

The Old Patent Office Building is recognized as a National Historic Landmark¹⁶. People say it is one of the most beautiful buildings in Washington. And why not? A building that houses some of the finest works of art of a nation should itself be a work of art.

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁷. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. You can see some of the art we talked about, and get a transcript¹⁸ of this show, at www.unsv.com. We hope you can join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 renovation   

n.革新，整修

参考例句：

• The cinema will reopen next week after the renovation.电影院修缮后，将于下星期开业。
• The building has undergone major renovation.这座大楼已进行大整修。

2 portraiture   

n.肖像画法

参考例句：

• I am going to have my portraiture taken.我请人给自己画张肖像。
• The painting of beautiful women was another field of portraiture.人物画中的另一个领域是仕女画。

3 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

5 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 densely   

ad.密集地；浓厚地

参考例句：

• A grove of trees shadowed the house densely. 树丛把这幢房子遮蔽得很密实。
• We passed through miles of densely wooded country. 我们穿过好几英里茂密的林地。

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

12 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

13 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

14 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

15 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。

16 landmark   

n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标

参考例句：

• The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
• The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。

17 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

18 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。