VOA慢速英语2010年-American Mosaic - A Story of Chinese i

Welcome to American Mosaic¹ in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m Mario Ritter.

Today: Some new music from the West Coast band Wavves.

A question about a colorful bridge in Northern California.

And a mystery from the Old West concerning empty graves, a faraway homeland and long-forgotten papers.

(MUSIC)

Chinese Immigrants in the Old West

MARIO RITTER: This next story is about emptied burial places and an unmet longing² for home. It begins with a box of newly discovered documents about Chinese immigrants in the Old American West. Bob Doughty³ has more.

BOB DOUGHTY: The documents were given to a public radio station in Portland, Oregon by someone who did not want to be identified. The documents list names, dates and places. The names are of dead Chinese immigrant workers. Most died around one hundred years ago.

Baker⁴ City Chinese Cemetery⁵

The information leads to a Chinese burial place in John Day, Oregon, where workers and miners were buried. Christina Sweet works at the Kam Wah Chung State Historic Site. It shows how Chinese communities developed all over the American West more than a century ago. They grew near mining areas and fish processing centers. Now, however, most signs of the towns have disappeared.

The records also lead to a Chinese cemetery in Baker City, Oregon. However, few Chinese immigrants are still buried there. Sixty-two years ago most of the remains⁶ were dug up and shipped back to China for reburial. This was so that families could visit the graves. And to honor the traditional Chinese belief that the spirits of the dead could protect the living.

Chinese groups organized the return of Chinese remains across the West. The newly recovered documents tell about two such campaigns of return. In nineteen twenty-eight, the remains of about six hundred Chinese immigrants were shipped home. After World War Two, about six hundred more were sent back.

Rebecca Liu teaches Chinese language classes for the Chinese Consolidated⁷ Benevolent⁸ Association. That group was responsible for raising money for the returns. Ms Liu found records for the last big campaign in Portland. She says the organization would send a request to every city and Chinese community in Oregon. She says everyone would give a few dollars.

But things went wrong with the process. A wrong body was dug up. A shipping⁹ agent was accused of wrongdoing. But the biggest problem was the civil war in China. The last shipment of remains was sent to China in nineteen forty-nine.

Ivy¹⁰ Lin is a documentary film maker¹¹ in Portland. She wanted to know what happened to the final remains. Her search turned into a movie called “Come Together Home.”

The carefully packed box of bones was sent to a hospital in Hong Kong. But Ms. Lin said the Chinese Communist Party had closed the borders. She says the bones from the nineteen forty-nine shipment remain in Hong Kong. And Chinese people outside the country stopped sending home their dead.

Golden Gate Bridge

MARIO RITTER: Several listeners have asked about the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. It is one of the world’s most beautiful bridges. It is also one of the most visited places in the world. Vehicles cross the bridge an average of forty-one million times each year. More than one billion eight hundred million vehicles have used the bridge since it opened more than seventy years ago.

The bridge has always been painted “International Orange” because that color went well with the natural surroundings. The color also is easier to see in the heavy fog that often covers the area. But the Golden Gate Bridge was not named for its orange color. It was named for the body of water that it crosses, the Golden Gate Strait.

The Golden Gate Strait is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The Golden Gate Bridge links the city of San Francisco with Marin County, California.

Planning for the bridge began in the nineteen twenties when the area around San Francisco was growing. People living in the area needed another way to get to the city besides the small ferry boats.

Joseph Strauss was the chief engineer for the project. Work began in nineteen thirty-three. Mister Strauss demanded the strongest safety protections in the history of bridge building. These included the first use of “hard hats” to protect the workers’ heads and special glasses to protect their eyes.

A special safety net was suspended under the bridge. This net saved the lives of nineteen men during the construction. However,eleven other workers were killed when they fell from the bridge through the net. Still, this was a new safety record for the time.

The Golden Gate Bridge opened in nineteen thirty-seven. It extends one thousand two hundred eighty meters across the water. The total length is two thousand seven hundred thirty-seven meters. It was the largest suspension bridge in the world until nineteen sixty-four. That is when the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opened in New York City. Today, the Golden Gate Bridge is the ninth longest suspension bridge in the world.

The chief engineer, Joseph Strauss, wrote a poem called “The Mighty¹² Task is Done” after the Golden Gate Bridge was completed. It is written on the bridge. Here is how the poem begins:

At last the mighty task is done;

Resplendent in the western sun

The Bridge looms¹³ mountain high;

Its titan piers¹⁴ grip ocean floor,

Its great steel arms link shore with shore,

Its towers pierce the sky.

Wavves / "King of the Beach"

MARIO RITTER: Musician Nathan Williams formed Wavves in San Diego, California in two thousand eight. He has released an album every year. But the latest recording¹⁵, “King of the Beach,” is very different. Fritzi Bodenheimer has more on Wavves and the new album.

FRITZI BODENHEIMER: “King of the Beach” represents a new sound for Wavves. The guitars are quieter and the words are often understandable. This is partly because “King of the Beach” is the first Wavves album made in a real studio.

Nathan Williams had some concerns about this. He said he was excited but also nervous. He worried that producer Dennis Herring might have too much control over the final sound of the songs.

But Williams says the studio process just created a better song- writing environment. Here is the album’s title cut.

(MUSIC)

Wavves also sounds different because is it now a band instead of a one-man operation. Drummer Billy Hayes and bassist Stephen Pope joined last year after meeting Nathan Williams in Barcelona, Spain. Williams had had a bad show there. He had fought on stage with a drummer he toured with. Williams later apologized online. He said he was sorry for being drunk and on drugs during his performance. Here is “Idiot” from “King of the Beach.”

(MUSIC)

Wavves are performing across western Europe right now. The group returns to the United States in August and continues its “King of the Beach” tour for several more months.

We leave you with Wavves performing “Baby Say Goodbye.”

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER:

I'm Mario Ritter. Our program was written by Tom Banse and Caty Weaver¹⁶ who was also the producer.

You can find transcripts¹⁷, MP3s and podcasts of our shows at voaspecialenglish.com. If you have a question about American life, send an e-mail to [email protected]. We might answer it on this show. Please remember to tell us your name and where you live.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English
 

1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

3 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

4 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

5 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

6 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。

7 consolidated   

a.联合的

参考例句：

• With this new movie he has consolidated his position as the country's leading director. 他新执导的影片巩固了他作为全国最佳导演的地位。
• Those two banks have consolidated and formed a single large bank. 那两家银行已合并成一家大银行。

8 benevolent   

adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的

参考例句：

• His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him.他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。
• He was a benevolent old man and he wouldn't hurt a fly.他是一个仁慈的老人，连只苍蝇都不愿伤害。

9 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

10 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

11 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

12 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。

13 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》

14 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

15 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

16 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。

17 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句