VOA慢速英语文本：《今日美国》第25课.doc

1、英语翻议讲解：1.upward adj.向上的, 上升的, 升高的 例句：Downward movement is much faster than upward one. 向下移动比向上移动快得多。 Prices have an upward tendency. 价格有上升的趋势。2.dissolve vt. vi.溶解,使（固体）溶解 例句：The sun dissolves snow. 太阳使雪融化。3.description n.描述, 形容 例句：Can you give me a description of the thief? 你能给我描述一下那个窃贼的模样吗? A compr

2、ehensive description is one that is full and complete. 一篇详尽的描写就是一篇充实完整的描写。4.gaze vi.凝视；注视；盯着 例句：The climbers stood on the top of the mountain, gazing at the splendid view. 登山队员们站在山顶, 凝视壮丽的景色。 Never in his life had he gazed on such splendor. 他生平从没有见过如此辉煌壮丽的场面。5.perch vt.vi.栖息；停留 例句：The bird perched o

3、n a big branch. 鸟栖息在一根大树枝上。（使）坐；（使）坐在边沿 例句：The village is perched on top of a high hill. 村子坐落于一个高山顶上。1. Inspiring. Words like these come to mind as visitors enter a world of silence, darkness and cold, almost two hundred thirty meters under the e to mind出现在脑海中,想起例句：All the old and recent hatreds com

4、e to his mind. 旧恨新仇一起涌上他的心头。2.Guides explain that it did not result from the action of water and streams like other limestone caves.result from产生于, 由引起 例句：Nothing had resulted from our efforts. 我们的努力没有产生什么结果。 His failure resulted from not working hard enough. 他的失败是工作不够努力造成的。3.While the adults go out

5、 at night for food, the young bats hang out in the cave for four or five weeks. hang out呆在某处，或与某人呆在一起 例句：why do you just hang out in bars?Do you want to hang out with me instead 你只呆在酒吧玩吗？何不跟我一起去玩？ Girls just love hanging out in the bathroom. 女孩子喜欢在洗手间里磨蹭。4.It is easy to imagine that it was the bats

6、that led ancient people to discover the cave. it强调句型it 引导的强调句型，通常形式为：It + be +被强调部分+ that/who +句子其他成分。这种强调句由普通陈述句转换而来，用来强调句子的主语、宾语或状语。例如：It was Toms mother that / who bought Tom a bicycle on his birthday.是汤姆的妈妈在汤姆生日那天给他买了辆自行车。It was yesterday that I met him. 我是昨天见到他的。在此类强调句中需要注意的是：1)不管被强调部分是单数还是复数，其

7、前一律用it is / was 而不能用 they are /wereIt is the teachers who teach me very well. 这就是教我教得很好的老师。2)被强调部分指人时，被强调部分可用that /who来指代；被强调部分指物时，被强调部分后只能用that 指代It is this house that has a beautiful garden. 就是这个房子有一个美丽的花园。3)强调部分指时间和地点时，被强调部分只能用that 指代，而不能用when, where 等指代It was yesterday that I entered the school.

8、 我是昨天进的学校。卡尔斯巴德洞窟国家公园位于美国西部的新墨西哥州佩科斯河西岸的吉娃娃森林内部。1930年5月14日建成，面积189平方公里，公园包括83个独立的洞穴。这是一个神奇的洞穴世界，它以丰富多样而美丽的矿物质而著称。特别是龙舌兰洞穴，构成了一个地下的实验室，在这里可以研究地质变迁的真实过程。卡尔斯巴德洞穴形成于2.8亿2.25亿年前的二叠纪。雨水渗入瓜达卢佩山石灰岩山体的裂缝，溶解了松软的岩石，刻凿出隧洞和洞穴，留下的矿物质形成了各种造型。溶洞分为三层，洞穴中的钟乳石千姿百态，每一处钟乳石都有形象的名字，如“恶魔之泉”、“国王宫殿”、“太阳神殿”等。另外，洞穴中还有岩帷幕和洞穴珍珠。

9、最吸引人的是巨室洞穴，1200米长，188米宽，85米高。四壁的钟乳幔将其装点得犹如一座豪华的宫殿。洞窟内还有另一壮观景象，黄昏时蝙蝠倾巢出动，形成漫天飞舞的“蝙蝠云”。园内还有各种小哺乳动物、爬虫和鸟类等。英语听力原文：VOICE ONE:Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. Im Bob Doughty.VOICE TWO:And Im Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we explore a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the American

10、 Southwest, near the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park contains more than one hundred caves below the surface of the desert. Most are closed to the public. But anyone can visit the main attraction, one of the largest caves in the world.(MUSIC)Kings Palace Room in Carlsbad

11、CavernHuge. Incredible. Inspiring. Words like these come to mind as visitors enter a world of silence, darkness and cold, almost two hundred thirty meters under the ground.An elevator lowers you into the world of Carlsbad Cavern, the big cave at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Silent, except for the

12、 voices of guides and visitors. And not completely dark. The National Park Service has enough lighting to see many of the beautiful formations all around. The temperature is about thirteen degrees Celsius.A cavern is a large cave. But Carlsbad Cavern is really a long series of chambers. One of these

13、 is called the Big Room. The Big Room is more than three hectares big. The ceiling is seventy-seven meters high. The Big Room is the single largest underground chamber ever found in North America.Examples of stalactites and stalagmitesThe Big Room and other parts of the cavern contain huge, sharp fo

14、rmations of minerals. People are free to explore the lit formations in the Big Room. But park rangers must guide visitors to other areas of the cave.Stalactites hang from the ceiling. Stalagmites rise from the floor. Some even meet to create a column. Other formations look like needles, popcorn, pea

15、rls and flowers.A visitor still remembers the memory aid she learned long ago from her fifth-grade teacher. Stalactites have to hang on tight to the ceiling or they might fall off. And be careful about stalagmites - you might trip over one on the floor.One of the first questions that visitors have i

16、s how did Carlsbad Cavern form? Guides explain that it did not result from the action of water and streams like other limestone caves. Instead, it was created by the action of sulfuric acid.The limestone developed about two hundred fifty million years ago. Then, within the last twenty million years,

17、 movements in the earth pushed the rock upward, forming the Guadalupe Mountains. Today these mountains extend from west Texas into southeast New Mexico.The action of oil and natural gas created hydrogen sulfide in the limestone. The hydrogen sulfide reacted with oxygen in rainwater moving through th

18、e rock. Sulfuric acid developed. The acid created the caves by dissolving the limestone in its path.Later, the water and most of the acid left the caves as the Guadalupe Mountains continued to rise. This permitted freshwater to move through. The freshwater left behind minerals. These minerals became

19、 the formations and shapes on the ceilings, walls and floors of the caves.People are not the only ones who visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. About four hundred thousand Mexican free-tailed bats come to the big cave from Mexico each summer to give birth.Thousands of bats fly out of the natural en

20、trance of the caveEvery evening, as the sun goes down, thousands of adult bats fly out of the natural entrance of the cave. It can take from twenty minutes to more than two hours for them all to leave. The bats fly to nearby river valleys to feed on night-flying insects. Then, toward morning, they r

21、eturn to the bat cave within Carlsbad Cavern.Park Service rangers explain that mother bats find their babies by remembering their location, their smell and the sound of their cry. Mothers and pups hang in groups on the ceiling. They spend the day resting and feeding.While the adults go out at night

22、for food, the young bats hang out in the cave for four or five weeks. Then, in July or August, they join their mothers on these nightly flights.Finally, in late October or early November, the bats all leave and return to Mexico. But they always return the next year.It is easy to imagine that it was

23、the bats that led ancient people to discover the cave. Archeologists and others have found evidence of Ice Age hunters near the cave entrance. They have also found pieces of spear points left about ten thousand years ago.More recently, Apache Indians painted pictures at the entrance. And evidence of

24、 one of their cooking areas was found beside a nearby path.Around nineteen hundred, a teenage cowboy named James Larkin White began to explore the cave.Jim White told his story in the nineteen thirty-two book The Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caverns. Here is a reading of his description of his

25、first sight of the bats and the big cave:READER:Jim White inside Carlsbad CavernI thought it was a volcano, but then, Id never seen a volcano - nor never before had I seen bats swarm, for that matter. During my life on the range Id seen plenty of prairie whirlwinds - but this thing didnt move; it re

26、mained in one spot, spinning its way upward. I watched it for perhaps a half-hour - until my curiosity got the better of me. Then I began investigating.I worked my way through the rocks and brush until I found myself gazing into the biggest and blackest hole I had ever seen, out of which the bats se

27、emed literally to boil .The more I thought of it the more I realized that any hole in the ground that could house such a gigantic army of bats must be a whale of a big cave . I crept between cactus until I lay on the brink of the chasm, and looked down. During all the years Id know of the place, Id

28、never taken the trouble to do this. There was no bottom in sight! I shall never forget the feeling of aweness it gave me.Jim White told how he built a ladder from rope, wire and sticks and returned to the entrance of the cave a few days later.I found myself climbing down, down, deeper and deeper int

29、o the blackness . At last my feet touched something solid. I lighted my lantern, and found that I was perched on a narrow ledge, almost at the end of my rope - literally and figuratively.By now I could see into the tunnel - it wasnt much farther down to the floor of it, and that floor looked smooth

30、and level. I decided that with a little exhibition of human-fly stuff, I could hold onto the rough wall and go down another twenty feet to level territory.Standing at the entrance of the tunnel I could see ahead of me a darkness so absolutely black it seemed a solid. The light of my lantern was but

31、a sickly glow. Nevertheless, I forged ahead, and with each step the tunnel grew larger, and I felt as though I was wandering into the very core of the Guadalupe Mountains.A few years later, a settler named Abijah Long also found the entrance and went into the cavern. He found huge amounts of bat dro

32、ppings. Abijah Long hired local workers to mine the guano which he sold to farmers as fertilizer. At the same time, he explored much of the caves. Some people might even say Abijah Long was the first real explorer of Carlsbad Cavern.But Jim White made it his lifes work to make sure the public would

33、see and enjoy the cavern. He worked on Abijah Longs mining operation for twenty years.The authors of the book Carlsbad Cavern: The Early Years say Jim White took the job for the chance to keep exploring the cave. And after the mining operation closed, he started building paths in the cavern. Yet onc

34、e he had enough paths built to welcome visitors, no one seemed interested in his bat cave.Then, in nineteen eighteen, Jim White took a professional photographer into the cave. Ray Davis pictures of the Big Room appeared in the New York Times. National interest began to grow.In nineteen twenty-three,

35、 scientists from the National Geographic Society explored the caves. The following year, President Calvin Coolidge named Carlsbad a national monument. Presidents can declare national monuments, but Congress must act to establish a national park. And that is what Congress did in nineteen thirty.A wal

36、king path in the Big RoomSince then, parts of Carlsbad Caverns have been used for movie sets, weddings, even meetings of the Carlsbad City Council.Park official Marie Merrick says more than four hundred thousand people visited Carlsbad Caverns in two thousand seven. Most visitors go to the main cave

37、rn. But some experienced cavers are permitted to explore five wild caves in the park. And in another one, scientists are studying microbes in search of a cure for cancer.As for Jim White, he became chief ranger of Carlsbad Caverns. In his story in the book The Discovery and History of Carlsbad Caver

38、ns, he talks about all the work that was done.I doubt if you can understand how happy this modernizing has made me. Its like the pleasant end to a dream.Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Dana Demange. Im Bob Doughty.And Im Barbara Klein. Doug Johnson was our reader. You can discover pictures of the big cave at Carlsbad Caverns, along with transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, at . Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.版权所有：高考资源网()版权所有：高考资源网()