英语听力—环球英语 1402 Jamie Wardley: The Ice Sculptor

 　　Voice 1

 

　　Welcome to Spotlight¹. I’m Liz Waid.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　And I’m Bruce Gulland. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand - no matter where in the world they live.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　It is winter in the United Kingdom. The city of Bradford is very cold. People in the city centre stop and listen. They hear the roaring sound of a chainsaw. This tool is very loud. People usually use chainsaws to cut down trees. But on this day, a man is using the chainsaw differently. He is using it to cut a large piece of ice. As he works, small pieces of ice fly off into the air. The man is carving² the ice into a particular shape. A crowd gathers to watch him. They are amazed that he can make such a beautiful sleigh from the block of ice.  The sleigh looks so real that the people can imagine horses pulling it across the snow.

 

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　　The man creating this sleigh is Jamie Wardley. He is a special kind of artist. He is an ice sculptor⁴. Today’s Spotlight is on Jamie Wardley and ice sculpture.

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Jamie Wardley loves to sculpt³.  He first trained as a sand sculptor. He learned to create beautiful images using sand. Later, he learned about ice sculpture. Now he does sand sculpture in the summer, when the weather is warm in the United Kingdom.  And in the winter, he sculpts⁵ ice. Wardley loves working with ice. He told Spotlight:

 

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　　‘Ice is just such a beautiful thing. It has got a special quality about it…It is wonderful and exciting too because it is such a strong material. You can do wonderful things with it.’

 

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　　Working with ice can be wonderful.  But it is also difficult.  The conditions must be just right.  Ice melts when the air’s temperature rises above zero degrees Celsius⁶. So Wardley has to work in cold temperatures. If the weather is cold enough, he can work outside - in the open air.  But winter in the United Kingdom is not always very cold. So often he works in a large freezer. The temperature in the freezer is between negative 10 and negative 12 degrees Celsius. Wardley told Spotlight,

 

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　　‘To be in this freezer we wear very warm clothes. We are in there all day. I work in other places where it can be negative 25 degrees. So negative 12 degrees is fine for me.’

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　Wardley enjoys sculpting⁷ ice outside in the winter.  When he sculpts in the open air, people can watch.  They can be part of the creative process.  Spotlight asked Wardley what he enjoys most about ice sculpting. He said:

 

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　　'I think it is the creativity. You get to create something.  And often with the kind of work, we get to create it in a public environment.  People get to see you make these things.'

 

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　　When people watch ice sculptors⁸ work, they recognize the great skill it requires. Ice sculptors must also be strong and skilled artists.  Wardley explained the basic ice sculpting process to Spotlight:

 

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　　‘First we get a block of ice. Then we mark an image on the ice.  We do this with a small, sharp shaping tool called a chisel⁹. Then we simply cut the image out using a chainsaw. We use chisels¹⁰ again after that. And sometimes we may use some rough sand paper to smooth and round off edges’.

 

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　　Wardley makes it sound simple. But the tools he uses are sharp and dangerous. And the ice is very heavy. Each block of ice weighs 120 kilos. And some larger sculptures are made from several combined blocks ice.

 

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　　Sometimes ice sculptures can be as big as buildings. In several cold countries, artists even build whole hotels from ice and snow. In Kemi, Finland there is an ice hotel called the SnowCastle. Each year, Wardley helps build the SnowCastle.

 

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　　Inside the Snowcastle, the temperature is negative 5 degrees Celsius. Even the dining tables are made of ice. So you have to wear winter clothes when eating. And you need to wear a hat when sleeping. Jamie Wardley told Spotlight about it:

 

　　Voice 3

 

　　‘I go to the ice hotel in the middle of January. We make ice sculptures there. The ice hotel is built every year in January. Then it melts in April. Each year we rebuild it and create a new design. A group of Finnish people make the ice hotel structure. Then we go in and design the inside of the rooms…We finish it beautifully and make sculptures.’

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　The SnowCastle is a large and amazing work of ice. But Wardley’s smaller ice sculptures are special too. On that winter day, in the city of Bradford, Wardley created several small sculptures. He used the sculptures to tell a story. The story contained an important message about good will and understanding.   Each sculpture was a character in his story.  They were all animals that live in the cold Arctic¹¹. There was a polar bear, an ocean whale, a wolf and a little white fox.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　In Wardley’s story, the little white fox travels across the Arctic. He is looking for Santa Claus – a traditional gift giver of the Christmas Eve holiday. As he travels, the little white fox meets the other animals. They are very different from him. They are also very different from each other. The animals warn the little white fox about each other. For example, they tell him to be careful of the polar bear. They say that polar bears like to eat little white foxes. But the little white fox meets the polar bear. And the polar bear is kind to him. He does not eat the fox. Instead, the polar bear gives the little white fox some milk. All of the other animals help the little white fox too. Because of their help, the little white fox is able to finish his travels and find Santa Claus.

 

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　　Wardley explained why he created the ice sculpture story for the people of Bradford:

 

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　　‘It was a story that related to the many cultures of Bradford. We have lots of people from different places in Bradford…The story is about good will and understanding. The little fox shows good will. He accepts different cultures and different kinds of people.’

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　Ice sculptures are temporary works of art.  When the temperature rises, they will melt.  But that does not mean that their beauty is lost. The sculptures from that day in Bradford have now melted away. But their message of good will, understanding, and acceptance remains¹².

 

　　Voice 1

 

　　The writer of this programme was Katy Blake. The producer was Luke Haley. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this programme and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this programme again, and read it, on the internet at www.radioenglish.net. This programme is called, ‘Jamie Wardley: The Ice Sculptor.

 

　　Voice 2

 

　　You can also leave your comments on our website. Or you can email us at [email protected]. You can also find us on Facebook - just search for spotlightradio. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight programme. Goodbye.

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

3 sculpt   

n.雕刻，雕塑，雕刻品，雕塑品

参考例句：

• When I sculpt,my style is expressionistic.我的雕刻风格是表现主义。
• Then,sculpt the remaining fringe parting.然后雕刻剩余的边缘部分。

4 sculptor   

n.雕刻家，雕刻家

参考例句：

• A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
• The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。

5 sculpts   

雕刻( sculpt的第三人称单数 )； 雕塑； 做（头发）； 梳（发式）

参考例句：

• The Tennessee River sculpts the east side of the Cumberland Plateau. 田纳西河刻蚀着坎伯兰高原的东部边缘。
• Stress sculpts the brain to exhibit various antisocial, though adaptive, behaviors. 压力陶铸下的大脑，虽能表现出各种适应性的行为，但却有碍人际关系。

6 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

7 sculpting   

雕刻( sculpt的现在分词 )； 雕塑； 做（头发）； 梳（发式）

参考例句：

• The quality of the result is determined by a Craft( sculpting) check. 由手艺（刻）定决定结果质量如何。
• Another difficulty in the process of ice sculpting is time control. 冰雕过程中的另一项困难是时间的掌控。

8 sculptors   

雕刻家，雕塑家( sculptor的名词复数 )； [天]玉夫座

参考例句：

• He is one of Britain's best-known sculptors. 他是英国最有名的雕塑家之一。
• Painters and sculptors are indexed separately. 画家和雕刻家被分开，分别做了索引。

9 chisel   

n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿

参考例句：

• This chisel is useful for getting into awkward spaces.这凿子在要伸入到犄角儿里时十分有用。
• Camille used a hammer and chisel to carve out a figure from the marble.卡米尔用锤子和凿子将大理石雕刻出一个人像。

10 chisels   

n.凿子，錾子( chisel的名词复数 )；口凿

参考例句：

• Chisels, brushes, paints-all are the products of technology. 凿子、刷子、颜料―这些都是工艺技术的产物。 来自辞典例句
• He selected the right chisels from a pile laid out beside him. 他从摊在身边的一堆凿子中挑出适用的几把。 来自互联网

11 Arctic   

adj.北极的；n.北极

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• The sort of animal lived in the Arctic Circle.这种动物生活在北极圈里。

12 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。