听播客学英语 140 伯明翰市政厅

 　　I think you know by now that I live in Birmingham, which is the second largest city in England, after London. Birmingham is not an old city. It does not have ruins from Roman times, or a castle, or a mediaeval cathedral. Two hundred and fifty years ago, Birmingham was just a village. But then came the industrial revolution. Little Birmingham became a centre of the new metal and engineering industries. The town grew and grew, and by about 1830, 160,000 people lived here. Leading Birmingham citizens began to think that the new town needed some fine public buildings, to reflect its new wealth and importance. So they decided¹ to build a Town Hall.

　　Now, the expression “town hall” in English normally means the headquarters of the administration of the town – a building with offices where people work, in other words. But not in Birmingham. Our Town Hall is a public hall. It was built as a place for concerts, public lectures and political meetings.

　　The group of citizens planning the Town Hall first collected together the money they needed; then they employed an architect and builders.The architect designed the Town Hall to look like a Roman temple – look at the picture on the website, or on your iPod screen, and you will see what I mean. The builders brought stone for the building by ship and canal boat all the way from Anglesey, in north Wales. Inside, skilled craftsmen² built an organ – one of the largest organs in Britain at the time. And in 1834 the new Town Hall opened with a music festival to help raise money for a local hospital.

　　Over the years since then, Birmingham Town Hall has seen all sorts of events and performance. The first performance of Mendelssohn’s great oratorio³ Elijah took place in the Town Hall in 1846, and in the following year Mendelssohn himself played the organ at a concert. Several of the works of the English composer Edward Elgar were also given first performances in the Town Hall. Charles Dickens read from his book “A Christmas Carol”, and the Town Hall has seen countless⁴ public and political meetings. It was the home for Birmingham’s orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones performed there, as did countless other classical, jazz and pop musicians.

　　But then things started to go wrong. The building began to deteriorate⁵. Atmospheric⁶ pollution attacked the stonework, and water came through the roof. Moreover, the facilities at the Town Hall were no longer what modern audiences expect. A spendid new concert hall, Symphony Hall, opened in Birmingham in the early 1990s, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra moved there from the old Town Hall. In 1996, the city council decided that the Town Hall was no longer safe, and it closed. Many people feared that it would never re-open.

　　The Town Hall stood empty and silent for the next nine years. Finally, the city council managed to find enough money – with help from the National Lottery⁷ and the European Union – to repair and restore the building. Workmen covered the Town Hall in scaffolding and polythene sheeting, and the work of restoration started. And now it is finished, and the Town Hall will re-open today, 4 October, with a gala concert. I think that Mendelssohn and Elgar would be pleased. To celebrate the occasion, here is a short extract from Max Reger’s Toccata and Fugue in D, Opus 59 No 5, and it is played by Michael Austin on the magnificent organ of Birmingham Town Hall.

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 craftsmen   

n. 技工

参考例句：

• rugs handmade by local craftsmen 由当地工艺师手工制作的小地毯
• The craftsmen have ensured faithful reproduction of the original painting. 工匠保证要复制一幅最接近原作的画。

3 oratorio   

n.神剧，宗教剧，清唱剧

参考例句：

• It's the world's most popular oratorio.这是世界上最流行的清唱剧。
• The Glee Club decided to present an oratorio during their recital.高兴俱乐部的决定提出的清唱剧在其演奏。

4 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

5 deteriorate   

v.变坏；恶化；退化

参考例句：

• Do you think relations between China and Japan will continue to deteriorate?你认为中日关系会继续恶化吗？
• He held that this would only cause the situation to deteriorate further.他认为，这只会使局势更加恶化。

6 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

7 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。