VOA标准英语2011--You'll Never Guess One of America's Boom

You'll Never Guess One of America's Boom States

During a spring of extraordinary flooding in America's Northern Plains, the mostly flat, lightly populated state of North Dakota experienced 17 record river crests¹. This, after one blizzard² after another dumped unprecedented³ snows onto the windswept state.
Windswept? One snowstorm's 80-kpm winds snapped trees and blew so much snow around that stretches of hundreds of highways had to be closed.
Not a problem for these hardy⁴ folks. As one North Dakota Internet blogger reported, people calmly fired up their wood stoves, melted snow for water, threw on an extra layer of clothes, and sent out caravans⁵ to pluck people out of snowdrifts.
In these conditions, it's not hard to see why thousands of people left North Dakota between the better farming days of the 1930s and 2010. Besides, folks there admit the place is a tad dull. After all, the official state beverage⁶ is milk.
But guess what? Despite its rugged⁷ conditions and lack of big cities, major-league sports teams, and well-known cultural attractions, North Dakota's population INCREASED by 5 percent in the first decade of this century.
How's this possible in a place where North Dakotans joke that they have just two seasons: winter, and the short time in between to fix the roads?
A big oil boom in northwestern North Dakota, near the Canadian border, helps explain the growing population. The discovery of millions of barrels of oil has brought jobs and prosperity to towns like Williston, whose population is up 16 percent since 2000.
And to the east, the state's largest city, Fargo, is thriving, too, thanks to a technology explosion at a regional Microsoft office and elsewhere, as well as a lively arts and nightclub scene that has kept a lot of young North Dakotans from departing for warmer climes.
There's even more art out west for all to see, a collection of the world's largest metal sculptures along North Dakota's "Enchanted⁸ Highway." In some ways, the whole state is enchanted by its surprising prosperity these days.
Nobody would have guessed that, even a decade ago.

1 crests   

v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点

参考例句：

• The surfers were riding in towards the beach on the crests of the waves. 冲浪者们顺着浪头冲向岸边。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The correspondent aroused, heard the crash of the toppled crests. 记者醒了，他听见了浪头倒塌下来的轰隆轰隆声。 来自辞典例句

2 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

3 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

4 hardy   

adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的

参考例句：

• The kind of plant is a hardy annual.这种植物是耐寒的一年生植物。
• He is a hardy person.他是一个能吃苦耐劳的人。

5 caravans   

（可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队）

参考例句：

• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles that are pulled by horses. 旧式的吉卜赛大篷车是由马拉的涂了颜色的木质车辆。
• Old-fashioned gypsy caravans are painted wooden vehicles. 旧时的吉普赛大篷车是涂了颜色的木质车辆。

6 beverage   

n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料

参考例句：

• The beverage is often colored with caramel.这种饮料常用焦糖染色。
• Beer is a beverage of the remotest time.啤酒是一种最古老的饮料。

7 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

8 enchanted   

adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She was enchanted by the flowers you sent her. 她非常喜欢你送给她的花。
• He was enchanted by the idea. 他为这个主意而欣喜若狂。