THIS IS AMERICA - Unusual Museums

THIS IS AMERICA - Unusual Museums
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, March 01, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. Come along with us this week as we visit some unusual museums in the United States.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

A nineteen-sixteen Packard funeral bus. The Mercedes that carried the body of Princess Grace of Monaco in nineteen-eighty-two. A copy of the sarcophagus container that held the body of King Tutankhamen of Egypt. These are some of what visitors find at the National Museum of Funeral History, near Houston, Texas.

Some people like traditional collections of artwork and other objects in a museum. Millions visit the Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C., for example. But other people like smaller museums that collect one kind of object.

Museum goers can learn about funerals, foods, the lives of actors, the history of radio ... even teeth.

VOICE TWO:

 
National Museum of Dentistry
Most people would not consider a visit to a dentist their idea of a good time. But the Doctor Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry does not drill or pull teeth. Instead, it just tells about them.

The museum is at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The first college to train dentists began there. A man named G.V. Black helped launch the profession in the eighteen-hundreds. When Doctor Black treated patients, he had no electric light. Most dental offices in those early times had big windows instead. Chairs for patients faced south to help dentists work by sunlight.

Looking at devices once used to remove infected teeth should pleases visitors. They should be happy that dentists no longer use them.

VOICE ONE:

One set of false teeth in the museum is of special interest. It is made of animal bone. America's first president, George Washington, wore these false teeth. They look as though they might have hurt.

The museum also has a huge toothbrush in an exhibit called "Plaque¹ Attackers." Visitors can use the toothbrush on a huge mouth. The mouth shows how plaque bacteria can damage the teeth. Children learn how to keep their teeth clean.

VOICE TWO:

Another museum collects devices that help people hear. Some are old, and some are new. The Kenneth W. Berger Hearing Aid Museum is at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The museum has more than three-thousand hearing aids from around the world. Some hearing aids were designed to look like other objects. These devices were for people who did not want anyone to know they were wearing a hearing aid.

Here is how this museum got started. In nineteen-sixty-six, a professor at Kent State answered some questions for a publication now called Hearing Journal. Professor Kenneth Berger told the editor that he would like to show some hearing aids in the Speech and Hearing Clinic at the school. But the published story said he wanted a museum of hearing aids.

VOICE ONE:

Soon Professor Berger began to receive old hearing aids. They arrived from all over the United States and from other countries. A man in Massachusetts sent more than five-hundred hearing aids. Professor Berger and his wife kept the growing collection in their home. Then, enough space opened at the university for his collection to become a real museum.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Some popular foods in America also have their own museum. One is the Jell-O Museum in LeRoy, New York.

Some Jell-O products taste like fruit. They come in colors like red, orange, yellow or green. You add water to make it from powder. Then you cool the liquid gelatin until it becomes solid. People like to watch how it shakes when moved. Jell-O was invented in eighteen-ninety-seven. This museum tells about the history of the product.

VOICE ONE:

Another museum also tells about a popular food product -- mustard². This museum is in Mount³ Horeb, Wisconsin. Mustard is a spicy⁴ substance made from mustard seeds. People have added it to their food for centuries. It tastes good on some meats and on bread.

The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum has more than three-thousand kinds of mustard. These come from almost every one of the fifty states and several other countries. The museum shows how mustard is made. Visitors can taste three-hundred kinds of mustard. But it is probably not a good idea to try them all at once.

VOICE TWO:

A museum in Boston, Massachusetts, collects another common substance, but not one you would want to eat. This place is called the Museum of Dirt. It has hundreds of small containers of soil, sand and other dirt. People have given the museum dirt from around the world.

For example, the museum has dirt from Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. There is red sand from Nome, Alaska, containing gold. There is also dirt from Mount Fuji in Japan.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

Some museum collections are about the lives of famous people. A museum in Branson, Missouri, honors Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans. Roy Rogers was called the "King of the Cowboys." He appeared in cowboy movies beginning in the nineteen-thirties. He later appeared on television.

Roy Rogers and Dale Evans entertained people for more than a half a century. People in movies were not supposed to kiss when these two first appeared on film. So Roy kissed his horse.

The museum is full of memories of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. There are western hats and clothing. Photographs. Letters and recordings⁵. A statue of Roy Rogers' horse, Trigger⁶, stands outside the museum. Inside the museum are mounted⁷ versions of Trigger, Dale Evans' horse Buttermilk and their dog Bullet, a German shepherd. They were among the most famous animals ever to appear in Hollywood movies.

VOICE TWO:

 
Lucy Desi Museum
Another museum honors the memory of two other entertainers, Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz. The Lucy-Desi Museum is in Jamestown, New York. That was her hometown. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz appeared in one of America's best-loved television programs, "I Love Lucy." Millions of people watched the show during the nineteen-fifties. Even today, millions watch repeats of "I Love Lucy." The museum includes clothing and other belongings⁸ of this famous Hollywood couple.

VOICE ONE:

Still another museum claims the world's largest collection of objects about the actor James Dean⁹. The James Dean Gallery is in Fairmount, Indiana, the town where he grew up.

James Dean was a film star in the nineteen-fifties. He appeared in only three movies: "East of Eden," "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant." Each time, he played a young man angry at the world.

A man named David Loehr started the museum twelve years ago to honor the actor. The image and memory of James Dean as a rebel against society remains¹⁰ strong long after his death. James Dean was killed in a car crash in nineteen-fifty-five. He was twenty-four years old.

VOICE TWO:

From movies, we turn to radio. The development of this medium is the subject of a museum in Bedford, New Hampshire. It is called the United States National Marconi Museum.

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor and engineer. He sent the first wireless¹¹ telegraph message over the Atlantic Ocean in nineteen-oh-one. The signal reached from Cornwall, England, to Saint¹² John's, Canada.

VOICE ONE:

Visitors to the Marconi Museum learn about early wireless equipment. This invention more than proved its value at sea. In nineteen-oh–nine, it saved many lives from a sinking ship, the Republic. In nineteen-twelve, the crew of the Titanic¹³ appealed for help after that ship struck an iceberg¹⁴.

Visitors can discover how radios have changed over the years. One set from the nineteen-thirties, for example, is tall and wide. Modern children may be surprised to see no picture screen. But in the nineteen thirties radios could tell wonderful stories.

They still can.

(THEME)

VOICE TWO:

THIS IS AMERICA was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁵. This is Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States, in Special English, on the Voice of America.

1 plaque   

n.饰板，匾，(医)血小板

参考例句：

• There is a commemorative plaque to the artist in the village hall.村公所里有一块纪念该艺术家的牌匾。
• Some Latin words were engraved on the plaque. 牌匾上刻着些拉丁文。

2 mustard   

n.芥子，芥末，深黄色，强烈的兴趣，热情的人

参考例句：

• This meat should be seasoned with salt and mustard.这肉里应该加点盐和芥末调味。
• This mustard is hot enough to bite your tongue.这种芥末很辣，你的舌头会吃不消的。

3 mount   

n.山峰，乘用马，框，衬纸；vi.增长，骑上（马）；vt.提升，爬上，装备

参考例句：

• Their debts continued to mount up.他们的债务不断增加。
• She is the first woman who steps on the top of Mount Jolmo Lungma.她是第一个登上珠穆朗玛峰的女人。

4 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

5 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

6 trigger   

n.触发器，板机，制滑机；v.触发（事件）

参考例句：

• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again.他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。
• He pulled the trigger but the gun didn't go off.他打了一枪，没有发火。

7 mounted   

adj.骑在马[自行车]上的；安装好的；裱好的v.登上，骑上( mount的过去式和过去分词)；增加，上升；上演；准备

参考例句：

• He mounted his horse and rode off. 他跨上马骑走了。
• He saddled his horse, mounted, and rode away at a gallop. 他给马套上鞍子，跨上马背疾驰而去。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

9 Dean   

n.(大学)院长，系主任，教务长

参考例句：

• The students much like the new dean.学生们很喜欢这位新系主任。
• Who is the dean of the Foreign Languages Department?外语系主任是谁？

10 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。

11 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

12 saint   

n.圣徒；基督教徒；vt.成为圣徒，把...视为圣徒

参考例句：

• He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
• The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。

13 titanic   

adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的

参考例句：

• We have been making titanic effort to achieve our purpose.我们一直在作极大的努力，以达到我们的目的。
• The island was created by titanic powers and they are still at work today.台湾岛是由一个至今仍然在运作的巨大力量塑造出来的。

14 iceberg   

n.冰山，流冰，冷冰冰的人

参考例句：

• The ship hit an iceberg and went under.船撞上一座冰山而沉没了。
• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。

15 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。