2006年VOA标准英语-Vietnam Veterans Memorial Archives Contains Mor

By Deborah Block
Washington, DC
14 December 2006
 
watch Vietnam Memorial Mementos¹

This year marks the 25 anniversary of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.  Every day, mementos of love and remembrance are left at the wall of the memorial.  Many are tokens of appreciation² to the American military who died in the Vietnam War.  The items are collected each day and taken to a museum storage facility near Washington. 

 
Vietnam Veterans Memorial mementos include a large number of military identification tags
At a museum resource center, more than 100,000 mementos are stored in metal cases and blue boxes.  They range from war medals, identification tags and photos -- to military hats, balls, and heartwarming letters from family members.  A Vietnam veterans group from the state of Wisconsin left the largest object -- a custom built motorcycle.

Duery Felton is a Vietnam veteran who is the curator of the collection.  "We have the only Medal of Honor -- which is America's highest military award for gallantry --  we have the only Medal of Honor to be voluntarily returned by the recipient³ to the federal government."

 
Duery Felton is curator of the collection 
The Vietnam War, which took place from the 1960s to early '70s, was one of the United States' most controversial wars.  In 1965, the U.S. sent troops to prevent the South Vietnamese government from collapsing⁴.  Proponents⁵ of the war thought the U.S. should stay in South Vietnam so it would not fall to North Vietnamese communists.  Critics argued that the war was immoral⁶ and the South Vietnamese government lacked political legitimacy⁷.  Opposition⁸ to the war grew in the U.S. and in the late 1960s most of the public was against it.

After U.S. troops pulled out of Vietnam, the south was brought under communist control in 1975.

 
Boots that had been placed by a visitor at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial 

In Washington, the black granite⁹ wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial contains the names of the more than 58,000 American military who died in Vietnam. 

Janis Nark was an Army nurse in Vietnam who is on the memorial's board of directors. "I remember the first object that brought me to my knees was a pair of worn combat boots that I could just picture being removed from a wounded or dying soldier."

The U.S. National Park Service oversees¹⁰ the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  The Park Service's Pam West says when the memorial was opened to the public no one imagined so many personal items would be left there.  She thinks it is a way for the generation of the 1960s to heal from a controversial war. 

"We protested together, we grieved together and I think it was really the beginning of this public grieving that you see now.  And so when this phenomena¹¹ happened with this collection, it was unexpected, you know, just things that are unbelievable that you would leave at a public memorial."

The museum resource center is not open to the public.  But items from the collection will be displayed at an underground educational facility that is being built near the memorial.  It is expected to be completed in three years.

1 mementos   

纪念品，令人回忆的东西( memento的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The museum houses a collection of mementos, materials and documents. 博物馆保存着很多回忆录以及文献资料。
• This meant, however, that no one was able to retrieve irreplaceable family mementos. 然而，这也意味着谁也没能把无可替代的家庭纪念品从火中救出来。

2 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

3 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

4 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

5 proponents   

n.（某事业、理论等的）支持者，拥护者( proponent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Reviewing courts were among the most active proponents of hybrid rulemaking procedures. 复审法院是最积极的混合型规则制定程序的建议者。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Proponents of such opinions were arrested as 'traitors. ' 提倡这种主张的人马上作为“卖国贼”逮捕起来。 来自辞典例句

6 immoral   

adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的

参考例句：

• She was questioned about his immoral conduct toward her.她被询问过有关他对她的不道德行为的情况。
• It is my belief that nuclear weapons are immoral.我相信使核武器是不邪恶的。

7 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

10 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

11 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。