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EXPLORATIONS - Styrofoam Stonehenge: A Full-Size Copy in a Search for Long-Lost AnswersBy Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Wednesday, February 15, 2006

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell some of the latest discoveries about the ancient mysterious structure in Britain called Stonehenge.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Scientists say the circle of stones called Stonehenge has stood in England for at least four thousand years. In modern times, millions of people from all over the world have visited the ancient monument.

Experts believe the builders of Stonehenge knew about design, engineering and sound. These ancient people did not have highly developed tools. But they built a huge monument of heavy stones. One of the largest stones weighed about forty thousand kilograms.

VOICE TWO:

Stonehenge is the best known of a number of such ancient places in Britain. It stands on the flat, windy Salisbury Plain, near the city of Salisbury, England.Most of the stones of Stonehenge stand in incomplete1 formations of circles. They differ in height, weight and surface texture2. For centuries, people have questioned the meaning of the stones.

Early Britons built Stonehenge from bluestone and a very hard sandstone called sarcen. Some of the monument's standing3 stones have lintel stones on top. The lintels lie flat on the standing stones. Some monument stones are more than seven meters high. Other, broken stones lie on the ground.

VOICE ONE:

Work on Stonehenge may have started as early as five thousand years ago. Scientists believe it was completed over three periods lasting4 more than one thousand years. Archeologists have studied Stonehenge for many years. Their research helped make possible the building of an exact, full-size copy or replica5 of the mysterious circle.

VOICE TWO:

A television company, the National Geographic6 Channel, paid for the replica. One goal was to learn more about Stonehenge. And National Geographic Channel filmmakers wanted to record the process. The result was a television film called Rebuilding Stonehenge or more simply, Stonehenge.


Explorations

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Most scientists have thought that Stonehenge was built to line up with the summer sunrise on the longest day of the year. Was the stone circle meant to observe the activities of the sun, moon and stars? Was it a theater? A religious center that honored the dead? Or was it all those things?

Archeologist and Stonehenge expert Mike Pitts designed the replica to help answer those questions. The result was a huge laboratory for experiments.

Crawley Creatures, a British company that makes special effects for movies, was chosen to create the replica. The company built its version of the ancient monument in a huge military building in Bicester (BUY-stir) in Oxfordshire, England.

VOICE TWO:

The National Geographic Channel film follows the special effects team as it made and placed copies of more than one hundred seventy stones. Crawley Creatures said it would finish the project by June twenty-first, two thousand five. That was the summer solstice, the longest day of every year. The winter solstice, on December twenty-first, is the shortest day of the year.

The special effects team shaped and cut the copied stones. They used a lightweight material called Styrofoam. The workers had to follow Mister Pitts' design exactly.

Even the smallest mistake could have harmed the project. For example, if the lintels were cut wrong, they could not lie correctly on the upright stones. But after three months of hard work, the team was ready to put the replica in place.

VOICE ONE:

The British Department of Defense8 lent the company a special train to carry the Styrofoam Stonehenge. Like the real Stonehenge, the replica was to stand on Salisbury Plain. The team succeeded in setting it up by June twentieth. But all that night the designers worried. Would the winds blow over some of the copied stones? In the morning, however, the replica looked fine.

VOICE TWO:

The movie cameras photographed Mike Pitts as he inspected the replica. It was an important day for him. Mister Pitts saw what he believes is Stonehenge as it looked when first completed. Stones that had disappeared over the years were reproduced9.

For example, three tall stones called trilithons stood inside the replica's outer circle. Only one is left at the real Stonehenge. And Stonehenge has only thirty-four stones remaining within what is called the Sarcen Circle.

The replica has eighty-nine of these stones.

VOICE ONE:

Broken stones cover a large area in the center of Stonehenge. There are none in the replica. This gave Mister Pitts a new feeling of open space in the inner Stonehenge area.

The appearance of the replica's center provides information about the monument's purpose. It seems to strengthen a current scientific theory. This idea proposes that the early Britons used Stonehenge as a ceremonial theater or religious center. The inner space of the replica looks like it could have worked well for that purpose.

VOICE TWO:

The replica permitted several other scientists to also test that theory. For example, Aaron Watson performed experiments with sound.

National Geographic Channel cameras show Mister Watson as he moved his equipment around the replica. He made valuable discoveries from the inner circle. Sounds there were the most dramatic and theatrical10. They carried from that area to other parts of the monument. The effect is similar to that of modern theaters.

The placement of the stones focuses sound from the center to the places that lined up to the summer sunrise and the winter sunset. Aaron Watson's work shows that the Stonehenge builders may have known something about sound engineering.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Many scientists agree that the ancient Stonehenge builders meant to line up their monument with the sunrise at summer solstice. But Clive Ruggles proposes that the sunset at winter solstice might have been a more important reason for building Stonehenge where it is. Mister Ruggles is an archeologist and astronomer11. His research seems to strengthen the evidence for the monument as a theater or religious center.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Ruggles used an intense light to represent the sun on December twenty-first, the winter solstice. In the National Geographic film, the light makes the outer stones look like an entrance. A path of light leads to the circle.

The sun sets between the two largest upright replica stones. This unusual light show could have been in front of visitors as they arrived. The sight suggests that the builders might have purposely planned the effect to welcome visitors to Stonehenge.

VOICE ONE:

Modern visitors often ask why prehistoric12 Britons would have come to Stonehenge. Some experts say the people needed to mark the changing seasons.

Farmers needed to know that the long dark nights of winter would get shorter. They needed to know that longer days of sunlight were coming.

Stonehenge could have provided this information. Ceremonies there could have celebrated13 the rebirth of the sun and moon.

Some scientists say people came to Stonehenge to honor their ancestors. Archeologist Mike Parker Pearson is an expert in death and burial customs. Mister Pearson believes that some of the stones represent individual people. This could explain why its builders chose special stones from places far away.

VOICE TWO:

Gordon Pipes is a wood worker, not a scientist. But in the film, Mister Pipes proposed yet another theory about Stonehenge. Many experts believe the heaviest stones came from thirty-two kilometers away on Salisbury Plain. Mister Pipes demonstrated how he believes people got such stones to Stonehenge without modern equipment.

In his experiment, specially14 cut parts of trees supported a block of material weighing almost eleven thousand kilograms. In the experiment, people moved the stone forward with other tree trunks. To do this, they looked like they were rowing a boat.

VOICE ONE:

The experiment showed that thirty-two people would have needed an estimated three months to move a similar group of stones to Stonehenge. In modern life, that may seem a long period of extremely hard labor7.

But the movie suggests that early Britons had lots of time. And they had a valuable goal. They built Stonehenge, a monument for the ages.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 incomplete L89xt     
adj.不完全的,不完善的
参考例句:
  • The building was left incomplete.那座楼没有完工就停下来了。
  • His novel was incomplete when he died.他死的时候他的小说没有写完。
2 texture kpmwQ     
n.(织物)质地;(材料)构造;结构;肌理
参考例句:
  • We could feel the smooth texture of silk.我们能感觉出丝绸的光滑质地。
  • Her skin has a fine texture.她的皮肤细腻。
3 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
4 lasting IpCz02     
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持
参考例句:
  • The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
  • We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。
5 replica 9VoxN     
n.复制品
参考例句:
  • The original conservatory has been rebuilt in replica.温室已按原样重建。
  • The young artist made a replica of the famous painting.这位年轻的画家临摹了这幅著名的作品。
6 geographic tgsxb     
adj.地理学的,地理的
参考例句:
  • The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
7 labor P9Tzs     
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 defense AxbxB     
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
参考例句:
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
9 reproduced 3700921c5a38fcacd4e33d3302724a49     
复制( reproduce的过去式和过去分词 ); 重现; 再版; 生殖
参考例句:
  • a manuscript reproduced in facsimile 精确复制的手稿
  • The article was reproduced by the special permission of the President. 由于总统的特殊允许,这篇文章被复印了一份。
10 theatrical pIRzF     
adj.剧场的,演戏的;做戏似的,做作的
参考例句:
  • The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果,叫人失望。
  • She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。
11 astronomer DOEyh     
n.天文学家
参考例句:
  • A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
  • He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。
12 prehistoric sPVxQ     
adj.(有记载的)历史以前的,史前的,古老的
参考例句:
  • They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
  • It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。
13 celebrated iwLzpz     
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的
参考例句:
  • He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
  • The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。
14 specially Hviwq     
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地
参考例句:
  • They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
  • The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

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