VOA标准英语2010年-Want to Go 'Resorting'?

A gussied-up old seaside town in New Jersey¹ is one option

Ted² Landphair | Washington, DC 15 March 2010

This could be Charleston, South Carolina, or another Old South town. But it was taken in Cape³ May, where a number of southern gentry⁴ once summered and built houses.

Spring is just days away in the Northern Hemisphere. That means the people of quaint⁵ Cape May, New Jersey, may already be busy, airing out their sumptuous⁶ homes in preparation for the annual rush of beach-loving guests.

This town of 4,000 people, whose numbers swell⁷ to 40,000 in the summertime, lies on the tip of a little peninsula that sticks out into the mouth of the Delaware Bay.

Sea captains on the way up the Delaware River to Philadelphia would stop at Cape May to pick up pilots who knew the bay's treacherous⁸ shoals and currents. Many ship's captains fell in love with the town and built homes there.

 

Even before the American Revolution of the late 1700s, Cape May merchants advertised in Philadelphia newspapers, inviting⁹ people to resort in Cape May.

Guests take in the sea air on the veranda¹⁰ of the commodious¹¹ Cape May Hotel in the New Jersey resort town of the same name in 1909.

America's first seaside resort also became a cool summertime retreat for wealthy planters from the American South. That's why you see columned mansions¹² there.

And plenty of stately, English-style Victorian houses and grand old hotels, too. In fact, Cape May now boasts the single greatest concentration of late-19th Century architecture in the world!  More Victorian homes, even, than you'll find in any one place in England.

Cape May is also famous for its brightly painted gingerbread accents — gingerbread meaning fancy wooden decorations from the time when people in town had a saying: Decorate everything, including the decoration!

This is a small, but quaint Cape May Victorian home. Note the ruffled¹³ gingerbread trim.

You might wonder how such treasures survived the hurricanes, fires, and recessions that have surely battered¹⁴ the area — and indeed they have.

The answer is that despite appearances, Cape May is not a wealthy town. People have not had a lot of money to tear down the old homes and build new ones. So now Cape May — all of it, not just a neighborhood or two — is preserved as a historic district, the first ever designated in America. 
 

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

3 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

4 gentry   

n.绅士阶级，上层阶级

参考例句：

• Landed income was the true measure of the gentry.来自土地的收入是衡量是否士绅阶层的真正标准。
• Better be the head of the yeomanry than the tail of the gentry.宁做自由民之首，不居贵族之末。

5 quaint   

adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的

参考例句：

• There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里，有很多小巷。
• They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。

6 sumptuous   

adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的

参考例句：

• The guests turned up dressed in sumptuous evening gowns.客人们身着华丽的夜礼服出现了。
• We were ushered into a sumptuous dining hall.我们被领进一个豪华的餐厅。

7 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。

8 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

9 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

10 veranda   

n.走廊；阳台

参考例句：

• She sat in the shade on the veranda.她坐在阳台上的遮荫处。
• They were strolling up and down the veranda.他们在走廊上来回徜徉。

11 commodious   

adj.宽敞的；使用方便的

参考例句：

• It was a commodious and a diverting life.这是一种自由自在，令人赏心悦目的生活。
• Their habitation was not merely respectable and commodious,but even dignified and imposing.他们的居所既宽敞舒适又尊严气派。

12 mansions   

n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Fifth Avenue was boarded up where the rich had deserted their mansions. 第五大道上的富翁们已经出去避暑，空出的宅第都已锁好了门窗，钉上了木板。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Oh, the mansions, the lights, the perfume, the loaded boudoirs and tables! 啊，那些高楼大厦、华灯、香水、藏金收银的闺房还有摆满山珍海味的餐桌！ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

13 ruffled   

adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She ruffled his hair affectionately. 她情意绵绵地拨弄着他的头发。
• All this talk of a strike has clearly ruffled the management's feathers. 所有这些关于罢工的闲言碎语显然让管理层很不高兴。

14 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。