VOA标准英语2010年-Mountain Music Fuels Virginia Economy

The Crooked¹ Road generally begins in Rocky Mount, where a restored train station is the town's Chamber² of Commerce and Visitors Center.

The tiny mountain town of Floyd, Virginia has one traffic light.

Only 500 people live here year-round. But there's a festival atmosphere on Friday evenings, especially in summer.

The Floyd Country Store is crowded with a few hundred people from out of town - well-dressed families with children, gray-haired senior citizens, motorcycle groups. They're all here to listen and dance to live music.

The Crooked Road

The store is a major stop on The Crooked Road, a twisting 480-kilometer long route across the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, connecting venues⁴ where traditional mountain music is played.

Woody Crenshaw bought the store five years ago, when the 20-year-old Friday Night Jamboree still attracted a mostly local crowd.

VOA - R. Miller⁵
Woody and Jackie Crenshaw's venue³, The Floyd Country Store, is a major stop on The Crooked Road, Virginia’s heritage music trail.

That was shortly after the state legislature designated U.S. Highway 8 - which runs through town - as part of Virginia's new Heritage Music Trail.

Economic development leaders believed people from around the world would come to southwestern Virginia, to hear the traditional music of Appalachia. They hoped the visitors would spend time driving along the 'crooked road' that snakes through the mountains, stopping at the places where authentic⁶ mountain music was born.

Crenshaw says the vision has become reality. He estimates the Country Store brings between 20,000 and 25,000 visitors to Floyd each year.

"We have a lot of overseas visitors, I know that because every Friday night we have a little celebration at the Country Store where we offer a hat to the person who is from the furthest away," he says. "Generally a person from Western Europe will not win the hat, but it's often that people from Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia will be here."

Economic engine

And those visitors spend money.

"We've created somewhere around 20 to 25 new businesses in Floyd and somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 new jobs in those past few years," says Crenshaw.

The Crooked Road, is a twisting 480-kilometer long route across the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, that connects venues where traditional mountain music is played.

Music has always been an important part of Appalachian culture but it was never seen as an economic asset. 

Instead, communities in this region depended on industries like coal mining, furniture making, textile manufacturing or growing tobacco to support the economy. But machines took over much of the manual labor⁷ and manufacturing went overseas.

The Crooked Road is part of an effort to re-invent the economy by highlighting the region's culture and heritage, parks, scenery and music.

Reinvention

"With this we're selling the music, which hasn't been done that much," says Roddy Moore, director of the Blue Ridge⁸ Institute, a museum and folk life center just a ways up The Crooked Road from Floyd. "In this county, Franklin County we have music at some place within the county, every night or day of the week."

That music draws people to restaurants, and stores. And it brings in nearly $13 million a year to southwest Virginia.

Jonathan Romeo, acting⁹ director of The Crooked Road, says Virginia's Heritage Music Trail has created 500 jobs.

"Well, it's definitely working here. The Crooked Road is part of a larger plan. In fact, all of Southwest Virginia is being promoted as a tourist destination."

VOA - R. Miller
This sign along Route 40 in Franklin County, one of many along The Crooked Road, directs people to a nearby bluegrass jam.

People in other parts of the world will soon see and hear more about The Crooked Road, courtesy of a new website that goes online in a few months. It will several feature videos, including one of legendary¹⁰ Virginia musician Doctor Ralph Stanley, whose museum is a major venue on the trail.

While other places may have cultural or historic trails, people in southwest Virginia say The Crooked Road is an economic engine with a rhythm all its own.
 

1 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

2 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

3 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

4 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

5 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

6 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

7 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。

8 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

10 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。