VOA慢速英语2018--Builders Turn to Italy’s White Gold

 

There is no end to demand for ‘Italy’s white gold.’

For many people, that white gold is not metal but marble from the town of Carrara in Tuscany. The marble mining work in Carrara is ancient. Workers first began removing stone from the mountains of Tuscany more than 2,000 years ago.

The ancient Romans were the first to recognize the beauty of the marble. Millions of people still go to Rome to see famous monuments made with the stone. Two examples are the Pantheon and Trajan’s Column. And then there are famous statues like the David and the Pietà by the sculptor¹ and painter Michelangelo.

So what is happening in Carrara today?

A visit to modern day Carrara

Sculptors², other artists and designers of buildings have never stopped making trips to the Tuscan town.

M.J. Anderson, an American, first visited Carrara 36 years ago, when she started creating sculptures. She loved the look of the beautiful stone.

Anderson says she likes to take things apart. “The great thing about carving³ marble is that once that stone is gone, it’s gone. You can’t lament⁴ about it and this keeps you moving forward in the creative process," she said.

Sculptors like Anderson know they are dealing⁵ with something very special.

“There’s no surprises when you are carving it. The molecules⁶ are put together very well and there’s so many different kinds of marble here. That's what’s so special.”

That is what is bringing in orders and big money from all over the world. Carrara’s marble is in great demand in the Arab world and in countries like China, India and Thailand. Buyers want the material to use in the rooms and floors of their homes. Others want art made of the stone. For example, a few years ago, a request came for a huge block of marble to be used in a massive statue of Buddha⁷.

An increase in the building of mosques⁸ and Islamic centers, especially in the Arab world, has meant even more demand and big business for some marble companies.

The Saudi Binladin Group, one of the world's largest builders, got control of 50 percent of Marmi Carrara in recent years. Marmi Carrara owns a third of the marble quarries⁹ that are operational in the area today.

“Just the name Carrara basically says it’s the world’s best marble. It is the most beautiful. It has a centuries’ long history of being the best marble in the world and people come here looking for and wanting the very best,” Anderson said.

Current demand and environmental concerns

What is new is that the demand is moving away from the traditional markets.

Anderson noted¹⁰ that for a long time, Italy’s white gold has been shipped to American buyers. Now, she said, the buyers are from the Middle East, and they are the ones taking the marble. Ever since the days of ancient Rome, the stone has been shipped to other areas.

The great marble artists have historically been Italian, but now they come from all over world, and some have settled in Carrara. Students like 19-year old Xintong Gao come to learn and take their knowledge home. He said his love of art, painting, and sculpture brought him here from China and he set his sights on studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara.

Working on the marble may be a labor¹¹ of love, but it is no easy work, Gao noted.

Learning to carve the marble is not the only difficulty. Removing the stone from the mountains has been a problem for hundreds of years. Modern technology has made it easier. The marble industry employs thousands of people. For those who labor inside the mountains, it is sometimes dangerous work.

The marble mining is also affecting the countryside.

Environmentalists have been expressing concerns for years that the industry is destroying the mountains and affecting the appearance of the Apuan Alps. From far away, they appear to be covered in snow. But in reality, it is the bright marble that makes the Apuan Alps white all year round.

“It’s beautiful to see the quarries. … They’re fabulous¹², the way the light hits these walls of marble,” said Anderson.

Admittedly, she notes, the environmentalists are right to be concerned. “Of course, marble does not re-grow. It’s not sustainable. It was made billions of years ago. …. Marble is being taken out of here so fast that entire mountain tops are disappearing," she said.

I’m Dorothy Gundy.

Words in This Story

carve – v. to cut

lament – v. to mourn

quarry¹³ – n. places where miners remove from the ground

fabulous – adj. very good

sustainable – adj. harvesting something like a crop so that it is not permanently damaged

1 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。

2 sculptors   

雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座

参考例句：

• He is one of Britain's best-known sculptors. 他是英国最有名的雕塑家之一。
• Painters and sculptors are indexed separately. 画家和雕刻家被分开，分别做了索引。

3 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

4 lament   

n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹

参考例句：

• Her face showed lament.她的脸上露出悲伤的样子。
• We lament the dead.我们哀悼死者。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

6 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

7 Buddha   

n.佛；佛像；佛陀

参考例句：

• Several women knelt down before the statue of Buddha and prayed.几个妇女跪在佛像前祈祷。
• He has kept the figure of Buddha for luck.为了图吉利他一直保存着这尊佛像。

8 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

9 quarries   

n.（采）石场( quarry的名词复数 )；猎物（指鸟，兽等）；方形石；（格窗等的）方形玻璃v.从采石场采得( quarry的第三人称单数 )；从（书本等中）努力发掘（资料等）；在采石场采石

参考例句：

• This window was filled with old painted glass in quarries. 这窗户是由旧日的彩色菱形玻璃装配的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They hewed out the stones for the building from nearby quarries. 他们从邻近的采石场开凿出石头供建造那栋房子用。 来自辞典例句

10 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

11 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

12 fabulous   

adj.极好的；极为巨大的；寓言中的，传说中的

参考例句：

• We had a fabulous time at the party.我们在晚会上玩得很痛快。
• This is a fabulous sum of money.这是一笔巨款。

13 quarry   

n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找

参考例句：

• Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
• This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。