英语新闻视频：伦敦奥运会奖牌是怎样制作的？

 Years of hard work and sacrifice will pay off as Olympic athletes climb the podium to receive their medals in London. But exactly how are those medals made? The raw materials are mined in the Utah desert in the USA, but that’s just the start of a long and complicated process.

　　This is the Bingham Canyon¹ Mine in Utah, it has been dubbed² the largest man-made hole in the world, and this is the birthplace of a 2012 Olympic medal.

　　These massive trucks take the raw materials out of the ground -- and they are massive.

　　All that earth also only produces 1 medal -- yes 1 medal.

　　The next process is putting the dirt and earth through a series of grinders.

　　Once the ore is turned into powder, from there it reacts with a liquid chemical which separates the medal from the dirt.

　　The medal is actually the bubbles, that gets transferred to a smelter.

　　From there the copper³/silver/or gold sheets -- in this case copper -- are shipped to a factory in Wales to become Olympic medals.

相关资讯：伦敦奥运会和残奥会总共需要4700枚奖牌。眼下，这些奖牌正由英国皇家造币厂加紧制作。英国当地电视台日前采访了位于南威尔士兰特里桑特的皇家造币厂奥运奖牌制作车间。伦敦奥运会奖牌是怎样制作的？奖牌制作工作由18人组成的专家小组负责。具体制作工序都由非常有经验的师傅亲自操刀。一名叫哈里斯的师傅已经在皇家造币厂工作了40年。负责锻造的哈里斯说，制作奥运奖牌是自己一生最光荣的工作。伦敦奥运会奖牌是怎样制作的？以前他也做过英联邦运动会的奖牌，但不管在工艺上还是材料上，奥运金牌才是最好的。造币厂专家说，制作奥运奖牌需要22道工序，所有金属材料都来自美国犹他州的一家公司。奖牌制作的最后一道工序是把奖牌挂在紫色的带子上，然后放在盒子里。在挂带车间，一名女工说：“奥运会奖牌的最后工序在我这里完成，我感到非常非常自豪。”伦敦奥运会的金牌重量为400克，在重量、体积和价值上创造了夏季奥运会的历史之最。

1 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

2 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。