万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-07-16&07-17, 美国持续高温

.....And across the country Americans are trying to beat the heat, taking shelter from days of scorching¹ temperatures at cooling centers, just as wildfires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres in 12 states. NBC's John Larson is in Winnemucca, Nevada this morning, with more on this. John, good morning.

Good morning, Ann. I know it's gonna sound a little bit strange with a record heat back there and all the records being reported out here in the west. But the information coming in from the fire lines this morning is that it's sort of a glass-half-full kinda situation. Good news: They are reporting that although it was very very hot, it was a bit cooler than expected in many of these states. And most importantly on the fire lines, the winds stayed calm.

It was just incredibly explosive.

Doing whatever they can to stay ahead of the fires, crews are fighting two dozen major fires in the state of Nevada alone. At times, this fire near Winnemucca is calm, at others, consuming 10,000 acres an hour.

"There is nothing you can do when it gets that point."

This is how it looked to a family vacationing to the east in Utah where the largest fire in Utah's history continue to burn mostly unchecked.

"We just kept going until the smoke just overtook us and we just watched ourselves go into blacker and blacker smoke."

"Just as a dark evil."

"And jumping the west side into the medium where there were a lot of big trees. And those went up, and at that point, the flames might have moved a hundred yards in a matter of seconds. And there just big wall of flame and everybody panicked."

The crushing heat that has flattened² the west has spread to the northeast. In New York, the city set up cooling centers for those without air-conditioning. In Pennsylvania, where it was 15 degrees above normal, even camp playtime was cut short.

"This morning we just sent one of our campers home, he wasn't felt, feeling well at all."

High 90s from New England to Maryland.

"You don't get used to (it), just tolerate it."

To Delaware, where a gardener plays it smart.

"Pretty bad, but I take a lot of breaks, going to shade."

And others, just play it safe.

"I don't really want to be out here, and if anybody with any good sense, they don't want to be here, either."

Now again as bad as it looks, and, and trust me the fires are bad in many of these states. Mostly good news today to report in that they have no highway closures, no major evacuations going on, no homes were lost in all that fire yesterday and of course, most importantly, no lives were lost. Ann.

Very important. Right, NBC's John Larson this morning, John.

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Glass-half-full: Is the glass half empty or half full? is a common expression, used rhetorically to indicate that a particular situation could be a cause for optimism³ (half full), pessimism⁴ (half empty), realism ("that depends on whether you are pouring or drinking"), functionalism (twice as large as it needs to be), or as a general litmus test to simply determine if an individual is an optimist⁵ or a pessimist⁶. The purpose of the question is to demonstrate that the situation may be seen in different ways depending on one's point of view and that there may be opportunity in the situation as well as trouble.

Play it smart: [口]做事聪明

1 scorching   

adj. 灼热的

参考例句：

• a scorching, pitiless sun 灼热的骄阳
• a scorching critique of the government's economic policy 对政府经济政策的严厉批评

2 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

3 optimism   

n.乐观，乐观主义

参考例句：

• Don't pour cold water on their optimism.别给他们的乐观态度泼冷水。
• Optimism made him alive through the hard days.乐观主义使他在艰难的岁月里活了下来。

4 pessimism   

n.悲观者，悲观主义者，厌世者

参考例句：

• He displayed his usual pessimism.他流露出惯有的悲观。
• There is the note of pessimism in his writings.他的著作带有悲观色彩。

5 optimist   

n.乐观的人，乐观主义者

参考例句：

• We are optimist and realist.我们是乐观主义者，又是现实主义者。
• Peter,ever the optimist,said things were bound to improve.一向乐观的皮特说，事情必定是会好转的。

6 pessimist   

n.悲观者；悲观主义者；厌世

参考例句：

• An optimist laughs to forget.A pessimist forgets to laugh.乐观者笑着忘却，悲观者忘记怎样笑。
• The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.悲观者在每个机会中都看到困难，乐观者在每个困难中都看到机会。