在线英语听力室

VOA慢速英语2014 AS IT IS 2014-02-13 South Africans Find a New Way to Live 南非人寻找一种新的生活方式

时间:2014-02-26 14:18:35

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

 

AS IT IS 2014-02-13 South Africans Find a New Way to Live 南非人寻找一种新的生活方式

Hello and welcome back.  I’m Jim Tedder1 in Washington.  Today we travel to South Africa to see how the other guy lives.  We will introduce you to a man who has some new ideas about living in the big city.  Our second item is for the birds.  Actually it is about the birds, and how they have known something for thousands of years that we are just learning.

As It Is …a radio and Internet program to help you learn and improve your American English…is coming your way …from VOA.

Ten year ago, the central downtown business area of Johannesburg, South Africa, looked as if it had seen much better days.  Many buildings stood empty.  Normal city services had stopped operating.  But these days in the area known as CDB, things are different. 

Anderson Street is a main connector in downtown Johannesburg.  Very near that street, Dirk Bahmann walks through a building’s entrance area.  He steps into the elevator and rides up to the fourth level.

He opens a door at the end of the hall and enters a space planned for both work and home living.  The area has become his personal design and building project since he bought the apartment six years ago.

Mr. Bahmann is an architect and artist who grew up in the suburbs north of Johannesburg.  But he says urban living connects him better to the community than living in towns on the edges of cities.

 “For me, living in the city was a means to kind of connect with people in an everyday, ordinary way without it having to be pretentious2, and that you feel part and belong to something."

Over the last few years, developers have retaken ownership of many buildings. Crime has decreased. Middle  and upper-class home buyers have started to take an interest in the area.

Mr. Bahmann designed and built his own modern apartment.  It is both home and office.  It uses movable furniture to make the space seem as large as possible.  But he says there is one problem with living in the city.

"The only thing I miss is getting a full night's sleep.   I'm very sensitive to noise, so I always wake up when someone is walking down the road and shouting, or people who hoot3 when they want to get into the building."

He says except for lack of sleep, the area provides easy living.  He can buy food, eat at restaurants, and get all his art materials within minutes from home.

Just outside the downtown area is Johannesburg's Brixton neighborhood. Small houses there are built close to the ground. Homeless people often sleep on steps and porches and under building extensions that protect them the rain and the hot sun.

Some people see danger in Brixton.  But architect Thomas Chapman sees something else.  He says he sees the possibility of apartment living, or what is called loft4 living.  Mr. Chapman says the area has great promise to develop and increase its population.

"That's why we're choosing to act here, because I don't think it's been fully5 realized, the potential here for what we call loft living or apartment living.”

Mr. Chapman is with a group called Local Studio.  He and his partners are working on a building with eight apartment units, a coffee shop and a new office space for their own business. 

Mr. Chapman says developers are leading the efforts to redevelop CDB.  But he says the city attracted their interest.  He said, for example, that the city invested in such community basics as pavement – hard roads and sidewalks. 

"The truth is that management has gotten better and crime has gotten less. I strongly think it's an urban management issue, and the city has made strides."

Still, developers are taking private responsibility for some issues. Mr. Chapman pointed6 to the successful development of Maboneng. Developers there have hired full-time7 security guards.  They also have invested in street lighting8 and waste management.

Mr. Chapman says his development will likely need some of those same investments.  And he says they usually provide a return. The architect says there is a great chance for Johannesburg's city neighborhoods to grow and compete with traditional living in suburbs. 

He says that as a designer of cities, he believes that is where the future lies.

“V” Is For Energy Efficiency

No matter where people are making new homes and offices, saving energy is important.  For us humans, the goal can be difficult.  But for some of our feathered friends, being energy efficient comes naturally.  Just take a look up there.

Scientists at Britain’s Royal Veterinary College in London may have solved a mystery that has puzzled us for years. Why do flocks of birds often fly in a formation that looks similar to the letter “V”? The answer is, they say, because it saves energy.

 

This is how it works.  Many drivers know that being behind a large truck can save you gasoline.  That is because the truck is pushing a lot of air around it.  The car faces less resistance because a partial vacuum – an empty space – is created behind it.

Steven Portugal, a researcher at the Royal Veterinary College, says birds knew that long ago.  The scientific team studied Northern Bald Ibises.  They placed small devices on the back of each bird. One of the devices, a kind of GPS, recorded the flight plan it followed.

The other device documented the birds’ wing movements.  The readings showed that the birds could use the rising stream of air created by the tip – the edge of the wing—of the bird flying in front of it.

Mr. Portugal said it was already known from earlier research that birds could be helped to save their energy by flying in V-formation.  But he said his team showed the way the upward stream of air could be put to work. 

“Scientists had predicted that birds could take advantage of this by flying in a V-formation shape.  But actually what no one had been able to do previously9 was to understand the mechanism10 by which that upwash could be captured.”

The Austrian conservation group Waldarappteam and its special aircraft helped the British scientists.  With that help they were able to follow the birds on their migration11 to Italy.

The GPS navigation devices recorded in real time the position and speed of each bird within the flock. The other devices, the accelerometers, recorded how fast and hard each bird flapped its wings back and forth12.  The scientists recreated the birds’ movements in a computer.

Jim Usherwood is a Royal Veterinary College professor.  He says each bird was very effective in reacting and responding to the movement of the bird just in front of it.

“If you can position yourself in the right bit of upwards13 air, then you can get some kind of benefit.”

Scientists now plan to study how the birds decide which bird will lead the flock on yearly migrations14 across Europe.

My, how time flies when you are having fun!  Get it?  Flies?  Birds?  Oh, well.  Thank you for spending some time with us.  Remember, more Learning English Programs are just seconds away.  And world news follows at the beginning of the hour.  I’m Jim Tedder in Washington.  We’ll see you later!


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 tedder 2833afc4f8252d8dc9f8cd73b24db55d     
n.(干草)翻晒者,翻晒机
参考例句:
  • Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆?特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
  • Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆?泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网
2 pretentious lSrz3     
adj.自命不凡的,自负的,炫耀的
参考例句:
  • He is a talented but pretentious writer.他是一个有才华但自命不凡的作家。
  • Speaking well of yourself would only make you appear conceited and pretentious.自夸只会使你显得自负和虚伪。
3 hoot HdzzK     
n.鸟叫声,汽车的喇叭声; v.使汽车鸣喇叭
参考例句:
  • The sudden hoot of a whistle broke into my thoughts.突然响起的汽笛声打断了我的思路。
  • In a string of shrill hoot of the horn sound,he quickly ran to her.在一串尖声鸣叫的喇叭声中,他快速地跑向她。
4 loft VkhyQ     
n.阁楼,顶楼
参考例句:
  • We could see up into the loft from bottom of the stairs.我们能从楼梯脚边望到阁楼的内部。
  • By converting the loft,they were able to have two extra bedrooms.把阁楼改造一下,他们就可以多出两间卧室。
5 fully Gfuzd     
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
参考例句:
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
6 pointed Il8zB4     
adj.尖的,直截了当的
参考例句:
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
7 full-time SsBz42     
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的
参考例句:
  • A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
  • I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
8 lighting CpszPL     
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光
参考例句:
  • The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
  • The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。
9 previously bkzzzC     
adv.以前,先前(地)
参考例句:
  • The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
  • Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿,解释原先发生了什么。
10 mechanism zCWxr     
n.机械装置;机构,结构
参考例句:
  • The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
  • The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。
11 migration mDpxj     
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙
参考例句:
  • Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
  • He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。
12 forth Hzdz2     
adv.向前;向外,往外
参考例句:
  • The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
  • He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
13 upwards lj5wR     
adv.向上,在更高处...以上
参考例句:
  • The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
  • The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。
14 migrations 2d162e07be0cf65cc1054b2128c60258     
n.迁移,移居( migration的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • It foundered during the turmoils accompanying the Great Migrations. 它在随着民族大迁徙而出现的混乱中崩溃。 来自辞典例句
  • Birds also have built-in timepieces which send them off on fall and spring migrations. 鸟类也有天生的时间感应器指导它们秋春迁移。 来自互联网

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。