VOA慢速英语2009-EXPLORATIONS - Visiting 7 Man-Made Wonders in th

VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. There are many natural wonders in the United States. Today, we take you to seven man-made wonders in America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Against the city's gleaming spires,
Above the ships that ply¹ the stream,
A bridge of haunting beauty stands –
Fulfillment of an artist's dream.

That poem is about our first man-made wonder -- the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. It extends more than four hundred eighty meters over the East River to connect the areas of Brooklyn and Manhattan. A famous bridge builder David B. Steinman wrote the poem. But he did not build the Brooklyn Bridge.

VOICE TWO:
　
Brooklyn Bridge

It was the dream of another man, John A. Roebling. He was a member of the design team and became chief engineer of the building project in eighteen sixty-seven. Sadly, he became sick and died before work even started. He had an accident when visiting the area where the bridge was to be built.

Building began in eighteen seventy. It was very dangerous. Few records were kept on such events. But, historians say between twenty and thirty men died as a result of the building project. Some died from falling off the bridge or from being struck by equipment.

Others died or were injured from working in the structures called caissons. These lay deep below the surface of the Earth. The workers would get a pressure sickness called the bends.

VOICE ONE:

John Roebling's son, Washington, was severely² disabled by the bends. He had been named chief engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge project soon after his father died. Washington Roebling continued the work from his home after he was disabled.

The Brooklyn Bridge opened on May twenty-fourth, eighteen eighty-three. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is still a beautiful structure. The bridge has tens of thousands of suspension wires that spread many meters across and up and down to towers on each side. From a distance the many wires look like the stringed musical instrument called the harp³. The center of the Brooklyn Bridge rises almost forty meters above the East River. It is one of the most famous and beloved New York City landmarks⁵.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Another bridge makes our list of the seven man-made wonders. This one is in northern California.

The Golden Gate Bridge is named after the waterway it crosses. The Golden Gate Strait lies between the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. The bridge over it links the city of San Francisco with Marin County.

Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge. Building began in nineteen thirty-three. The bridge opened in nineteen thirty-seven. It is almost one thousand three hundred meters long. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world for almost thirty years. Then, in nineteen sixty-four, the larger Verrazano Narrows bridge opened in New York City.

VOICE ONE:

Joseph Strauss used newly developed protective equipment for the men who worked on the bridge. These included a special safety net under the bridge. But still, eleven men were killed during construction.

The color of the bridge, International Orange, is very important. It was chosen partly because it is easier to see through the heavy fog that often covers San Francisco. Many people consider the Golden Gate Bridge the most beautiful bridge structure in the world.

VOICE TWO:

Joseph Strauss wrote a poem about his bridge when the work was done. Here is a part of "The Mighty⁶ Task is Done":

At last the mighty task is done;
Resplendent in the western sun
The Bridge looms⁷ mountain high;
Its titan piers⁸ grip ocean floor,
Its great steel arms link shore with shore,
Its towers pierce the sky.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our next man-made wonder is as famous a landmark⁴ in the Midwest United States as the first two are on the East and West Coasts. The Gateway⁹ Arch in Saint Louis, Missouri is the tallest freestanding monument in the nation. The shiny, steel curve rises to almost two hundred meters. Below, the arch is exactly as wide as it is tall.
　
Gateway Arch

The famous Finnish American building designer, Eero Saarinen, designed the Gateway Arch during a national competition in the late nineteen forties. However, building did not begin until February, nineteen sixty-three. It was completed in October, nineteen sixty-five. Later a transport system was added to permit people to visit an observation area inside the top of the arch.

The Gateway Arch rises above the Mississippi River. It was named in honor of Saint Louis, which was historically called "The Gateway to the West."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

There is one place in America that almost everyone agrees is a man-made wonder: South Dakota's Mount Rushmore.

Giant faces of four great American presidents are cut into the rock near the top of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills. Each face is about eighteen meters high.

Sculptor¹⁰ Gutzon Borglum was chosen to create the Mount Rushmore memorial. It was completed in nineteen forty-one, after fourteen years.
　
Hoover Dam

Each president represents important values in America. George Washington led the cause for independence. Thomas Jefferson represented the belief in equality. Abraham Lincoln ended slavery and saved the Union. And Theodore Roosevelt was a conservationist and symbol of the progressive spirit of America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

We go next to one of the largest and most difficult structures ever built in the United States: Hoover Dam. The dam is in the Black Canyon¹¹, near Las Vegas, Nevada. It controls the water of the Colorado River and produces electric power.

Workers began to build Hoover Dam in nineteen thirty-one. They finished in just five years.

More than twenty thousand men worked on the project. It was very dangerous. Ninety-six workers were killed. Many others were injured.

The Hoover Dam is two hundred twenty-one meters tall. It weighs more than six and one half million tons. At the time, it was the largest and tallest dam in the world. And it was one of the largest producers of electric power ever built.

Hoover Dam also created Lake Mead¹², the largest man-made lake in America.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Another man-made wonder of the United States was built long before the nation was established. About nine hundred years ago, the Ancestral Puebloan people built villages high in the walls of canyons¹³ in Mesa Verde, Colorado. Six hundred cliff dwellings¹⁴ are now part of the Mesa Verde National Park.

Visitors can stand at the top of the mesas and look into the dwellings almost hidden in openings of the rock walls. The Puebloan people cut small steps into the rock. A series of such steps connected buildings containing hundreds of rooms.

The rock walls have protected the buildings from severe weather in the area.

So they remain mostly unchanged in the hundreds of years since they were built.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our final man-made wonder is in the northwestern city of Seattle, Washington. The Space Needle was built as the central structure for the nineteen sixty-two World's Fair.

Edward Carlson designed the one hundred eighty-four meter tall structure. The Space Needle has a wide base on the ground. It is narrow in the middle. On top is a large ring-like structure.

The structure was meant to look like a "flying saucer," a vehicle that was popular in science fiction space travel stories. The saucer includes an observation area and eating place. The restaurant slowly turns to provide visitors with a three hundred sixty degree view of Seattle.

The Space Needle was not very costly¹⁵. The building project cost about four million five hundred thousand dollars. It was designed and completed in about a year and opened on the first day of the World's Fair.

Today, the Space Needle is the most popular place for visitors to Seattle. And it remains¹⁶ the internationally known symbol of the city.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁷. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

1 ply   

v.(搬运工等)等候顾客，弯曲

参考例句：

• Taxis licensed to ply for hire at the railway station.许可计程车在火车站候客。
• Ferryboats ply across the English Channel.渡船定期往返于英吉利海峡。

2 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

3 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

4 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。

5 landmarks   

n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址）

参考例句：

• The book stands out as one of the notable landmarks in the progress of modern science. 这部著作是现代科学发展史上著名的里程碑之一。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The baby was one of the big landmarks in our relationship. 孩子的出世是我们俩关系中的一个重要转折点。 来自辞典例句

6 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

7 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 piers   

n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩

参考例句：

• Most road bridges have piers rising out of the vally. 很多公路桥的桥墩是从河谷里建造起来的。 来自辞典例句
• At these piers coasters and landing-craft would be able to discharge at all states of tide. 沿岸航行的海船和登陆艇，不论潮汐如何涨落，都能在这种码头上卸载。 来自辞典例句

9 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。

10 sculptor   

n.雕刻家，雕刻家

参考例句：

• A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
• The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。

11 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

12 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

13 canyons   

n.峡谷( canyon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This mountain range has many high peaks and deep canyons. 这条山脉有许多高峰和深谷。 来自辞典例句
• Do you use canyons or do we preserve them all? 是使用峡谷呢还是全封闭保存？ 来自互联网

14 dwellings   

n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The development will consist of 66 dwellings and a number of offices. 新建楼区将由66栋住房和一些办公用房组成。
• The hovels which passed for dwellings are being pulled down. 过去用作住室的陋屋正在被拆除。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

16 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

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。