林肯博物馆利用最新科技展现第16任总统生平

 

Lincoln Museum to Use Newest Technology to Bring 16th President to Life

林肯博物馆利用最新科技展现第16任总统生平

 

The lives of Abraham Lincoln – American’s sixteen’s president, and argue believe one of its greatest, -- will soon be presented in a way never seen before. A revolutionary new museum is set to open in Springfield, Illinois, the capital of Lincoln's home state. Along with traditional displays of photographs and documents, visitors will encounter disembodied voices and faces that will bring the turbulent decades of the mid-1800s to life.

 

The clang of hammers and the buzz of saws echo through the empty museum hallways, and dust motes¹ sparkle in the shafts² of sunlight streaming through the windows of the lobby rotunda³. But the blank walls and construction noise don't faze the museum's executive director, Richard Norton Smith. He sees what the museum will look like when it opens -- when visitors can explore what he calls "the totality of Lincoln's life."

 

The journey begins in a log cabin, like the one Abraham Lincoln lived in as a child. A log cabin made of real logs.

 

Smith: If you work with most exhibit designers and you say, 'Give me a log cabin,' you'd get a Styrofoam log cabin. This is a 200-year-old frame dwelling⁴ that was located in Virginia, taken apart, and put back together to create the Lincoln's Indiana home.

 

But most of the museum is more 21st century than 19th. A modern television newsroom will broadcast campaign commercials from Lincoln and his presidential opponents or what the campaigns might have produced if there had been television in 1860. Children can use an interactive⁵ computer to ask the President questions and then get the answers. And what appear to be ghosts talking about the past will materialize out of nowhere.

 

Someone criticize Norton Smith for the Disney-like feel of museum. But He says you can combine scholarship and showmanship -- in fact, he says you should.

 

Smith: I think any good history engages a reader, a viewer, a participant, a visitor on more than one level. In a nutshell, we're using 21st century technology to recreate the 19th century in a way that will be credible⁶ and memorable⁷.

 

Mr. Smith is also trying to humanize President Lincoln and his family. Visitors will see the young Lincoln as he encounters a slave auction⁸, watch as he courts Mary Todd in the parlor⁹ of her home in Springfield, and share Mrs. Lincoln's grief as their little son lies in his bedroom at the White House, dying of typhoid.

 

But the museum will not be a shrine¹⁰ to the 16th president.

 

Smith: You will get a sense of what people living in the spring of 1861 might have been feeling, might have been saying, might have been shouting, as their country came apart at the seams. By early 1861, several southern states had seceded¹¹, and the nation was moving closer to civil war. You will not only hear the voices -- sometimes strident voices -- on both sides of this issue. But you will actually see the faces of those people coming at you out of dark. It will be, for some people probably disturb, disturb themselves.

 

Fighting began in April of the 1861. In one room of the museum, visitors can track the battles of the Civil War.

 

Smith: And here is a huge electronic map. And you can follow the movement of both armies over those four years and the lower right-hand corner, is "odometer of death".

 

By the time the Civil War ended with the surrender of southern forces on April 9, 1865, that odometer would have passed 600,000. Less than a week later, another casualty -- President Lincoln was shot by a southern sympathizer as he and Mrs. Lincoln watched a play in the museum's replica¹² of the Ford¹³ Theatre box, visitors can see the Lincolns just before the fatal shot.

 

One of the most effective uses of technology is the Ghosts of Past Theater. Richard Norton Smith says the library setting that combines live actors and holograms technology.

 

Smith: For example, there's a file cabinet that will open .A document will appear, it will turn into Civil War soldiers -- three-dimensional [figures] who will tell their stories. The Lincolns will appear as ghosts. It's a marvelous way to impart to young people, why does history matter. Why do we save all this stuff? What's the point of all these old papers? Which in a sense is the point of the entire museum.

 

I’m Kavita Cardoza, in Springfield, Illinois.

 

注释：

revolutionary [5revE5lu:FEnEri] adj. 革命的

rotunda [rEu5tQndE] n. 圆形建筑，圆形大厅

recreate [5ri:kri5eit] v. 使再现

memorable [5memErEbl] adj. 值得纪念的

odometer [C5dCmitE] n. 里程表

dimensional [di5menFEnEl] adj. 空间的

1 motes   

n.尘埃( mote的名词复数 )；斑点

参考例句：

• In those warm beams the motes kept dancing up and down. 只见温暖的光芒里面，微细的灰尘在上下飞扬。 来自辞典例句
• So I decided to take lots of grammar motes in every class. 因此我决定每堂课多做些语法笔记。 来自互联网

2 shafts   

n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等）

参考例句：

• He deliberately jerked the shafts to rock him a bit. 他故意的上下颠动车把，摇这个老猴子几下。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Shafts were sunk, with tunnels dug laterally. 竖井已经打下，并且挖有横向矿道。 来自辞典例句

3 rotunda   

n.圆形建筑物；圆厅

参考例句：

• The Capitol at Washington has a large rotunda.华盛顿的国会大厦有一圆形大厅。
• The rotunda was almost deserted today,dotted with just a few tourists.圆形大厅今天几乎没有多少人，只零星散布着几个游客。

4 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

5 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

6 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

7 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

8 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

9 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

10 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

11 seceded   

v.脱离，退出( secede的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The Republic of Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903. 巴拿马共和国于1903年脱离哥伦比亚。
• One of the states has seceded from the federation. 有一个州已从联邦中退出。 来自辞典例句

12 replica   

n.复制品

参考例句：

• The original conservatory has been rebuilt in replica.温室已按原样重建。
• The young artist made a replica of the famous painting.这位年轻的画家临摹了这幅著名的作品。

13 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。