听播客学英语 111 Folly

 　　Today we meet the English word “folly¹”, and we visit a strange old building and an art exhibition.

　　Let’s start with the word “folly”. I guess you know what “foolish” means. If someone is foolish, he or she does stupid or unwise things. We can call such a person a “fool”. And a “folly” is, simply, something which is foolish – something which is stupid, or unwise, or not sensible. We can say, for example, that it is folly to spend all your money at a casino, or that it is folly to drive your car on the wrong side of the road.

　　In the 18th century, it was fashionable for wealthy landowners to decorate their estates with beautiful but completely unnecessary buildings. For example, a landowner might build something that looks like a ruined Greek temple, half hidden in the trees. Or he might build a tall tower on the top of a hill. These buildings had no useful purpose. They were simply to decorate the landscape. We call them “Follies”.

　　We have a folly here in Birmingham. It is called Perrott’s Folly. It is a tower nearly 30 meters tall. There are six rooms, one above the other, and a spiral staircase. A man called John Perrott built the tower, in the middle of the 18th century. At that time, there was open country all around. Birmingham was still a village, a mile or two away. Today it is quite different. There are streets and cars, houses and factories and offices, where there were once fields and woods.

　　Close by, there is a second tower, built in the 19th century by Birmingham Waterworks. I guess you have heard of the author J R R Tolkien, who wrote the Lord of the Rings books. When he was a child, Tolkien walked past the two towers – Perrott’s Folly and the waterworks tower – every day on his way to school. Tolkien fans say that the two towers were the inspiration for the two dark, evil towers which play an important part in Lord of the Rings.

　　Today Perrott’s Folly is in poor condition. One of the floors is missing and the paint is flaking² off the walls. There are old pipes and a boiler³ from a long-forgotten heating system, perhaps from the time when Birmingham University used the tower as a weather station. It is not an obvious place to hold an art exhibition.

　　Part of the J??rgen Partenheimer exhibition in Perrott’s Folly.

　　But last week I was able to visit Perrott’s Folly to see some art works by the modern German artist J??rgen Partenheimer. Carefully we climbed the spiral staircase. In each of the rooms, J??rgen Partenheimer had placed a single art work. When you look at his art works, they seem to remind you of something you once saw but which is now lost deep in your memory. And while we were looking at the art works, there was music playing- music written specially⁴ for this exhibition by the Irish composer Kevin Volans. The music too seems to remind you of something that you once heard but have now forgotten. Very strange. Here is a little bit to keep you company until the next podcast.

1 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。

2 flaking   

刨成片，压成片； 盘网

参考例句：

• He received ointment for his flaking skin. 医生给他开了治疗脱皮的软膏。
• The paint was flaking off the walls. 油漆从墙上剥落下来。

3 boiler   

n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等)

参考例句：

• That boiler will not hold up under pressure.那种锅炉受不住压力。
• This new boiler generates more heat than the old one.这个新锅炉产生的热量比旧锅炉多。

4 specially   

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。