VOA慢速英语2010年-THIS IS AMERICA - Getting a Feel for t

BARBARA KLEIN:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember. This week on our program, we tell you about Lake Champlain and the Finger Lakes in the northeastern United States.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: Lake Champlain borders two states, New York and Vermont, and Quebec, Canada. Many people like to vacatcayion at this freshwater lake. They enjoy sailing and fishing, water skiing, swimming, or just sitting at the water’s edge, daydreaming¹. The waters can look so still and blue, like a painting, though they can also become rough with waves when the wind blows.

STEVE EMBER:

Much of the area around Lake Champlain has a country feeling. Nearby are woods where people can hike. In the fall, visitors can watch the sugar maple² trees surrender their colorful autumn leaves.

Many animals and birds live around Lake Champlain. Road signs warn drivers to watch out for moose, big animals that can walk into the road.

The sun sets over Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, on August 24

Visitors at the lake also keep their eyes open for "Champ." Champ is like an American Nessie, the sea monster that supposedly lives in Loch Ness in Scotland.

BARBARA KLEIN: Over the years there have been reports of some thing in Lake Champlain. A nineteen seventy-seven photograph only fed the mystery. In the distance it shows what appears to be a large creature in the water.

Champ can also be found helping³ the local economy by appearing on souvenirs like T-shirts and coffee cups.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Lake Champlain is a long, narrow body of water. The lake is one hundred ninety-three kilometers long and nineteen kilometers at its widest. It reaches a depth of one hundred twenty-two meters.

Finger Lakes region of west-central New York is known for its waterfalls and gorges⁵. A 2006 photo of visitors on a trail through a gorge⁴ in Watkins Glen State Park, at the southern end of Seneca Lake.

The lake flows north from Whitehall, New York. Over the Canadian border it makes its way into the Richelieu (RISH-ah-loo) River in Quebec. The Richelieu joins the Saint Lawrence River which feeds into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf⁶ of Saint Lawrence.

Lake Champlain lies in a valley between the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

A number of communities are near Lake Champlain. The largest is Burlington, a city of thirty-eight thousand people in Vermont.

BARBARA KLEIN: Lake Champlain has more than seventy islands. One island in Vermont, Isle⁷ La Motte, is known for its prehistoric⁸ geological formations. The Chazy (SHAY-zee) Reef on the island contains coral, like a reef in a warm, tropical ocean.

Scientists say this is because when the Chazy Reef began to form hundreds of millions of years ago, it was in the southern half of the world. Then the plates that form the surface of the Earth began to move around and gave the reef a new home.

(MUSIC)

Bags of Finger Lakes Popcorn⁹ on sale in 2006 at the Ithaca Farmers Market

STEVE EMBER: Lake Champlain is named for the French explorer Samuel de Champlain who first saw it in sixteen-oh-nine.

In the seventeen hundreds, the Champlain Valley became a battleground in the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years' War. French troops in Canada built a fort to control passage to the lake as a defense¹⁰ against British troops moving north. The French named it Fort Carillon. But in seventeen fifty-nine, the British took control of the fort and renamed it Ticonderoga.

Troops from the English colonies that would become the United States supported the British army in the war. But later, during the American Revolution, colonial troops fought against the British at Fort Ticonderoga.

And later still, during the War of Eighteen Twelve, the Americans defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Champlain. The defeat not only ended British demands for territory in New England. It also put an end to British hopes of controlling the Great Lakes area.

BARBARA KLEIN: The Great Lakes are Michigan, Erie, Huron, Superior and Ontario. Champlain is smaller than any of them. But in March of nineteen ninety-eight, it joined the list -- Congress declared Champlain the sixth Great Lake.

This was because of efforts by Patrick Leahy, a senator who has represented Vermont for more than thirty years. Senator Leahy was trying to get research money for Lake Champlain from the National Sea Grant Program. This program operates under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric¹¹ Administration.

The program pays for water research at universities that border either the oceans or the Great Lakes. So Senator Leahy got the words "Great Lakes including Lake Champlain" into the bill.

Many people in Midwestern states that border the Great Lakes were not at all happy. John Glenn, the former astronaut who was then a senator from Ohio, put it this way: "I know the Great Lakes. I’ve traveled the Great Lakes. And Lake Champlain is not one of the Great Lakes."

STEVE EMBER: Still, there are similarities. Lake Champlain has wildlife and rock formations that are similar to or even the same as the Great Lakes. All six were formed from the same huge piece of ice. And all six flow into the Saint Lawrence River in Canada.

Lake Champlain also has the same kinds of environmental problems, including pollution and nonnative sea life, as the Great Lakes.

BARBARA KLEIN: For people in the Champlain area, having it declared a Great Lake was great news. They saw it as a chance to get more help for the lake’s problems, and more national attention for the area.

But the measure that declared Lake Champlain a Great Lake lasted less than three weeks. The angry reaction from the Midwestern states succeeded in killing¹² it. Vermont, however, still won the right for its researchers to ask for money under the National Sea Grant Program.

(MUSIC)

A boat sits near a dock on the western side of Cayuga Lake as a rainbow shines over the opposite shore

STEVE EMBER: In central New York state, there are five lakes that look like fingers on a map. Their names come from American Indian culture. Seneca. Cayuga (ky-YOU-gah). Keuka (KYOO-ka). Canandaigua (can-an-DAY-gwa), and Skaneateles (skan-ee-AT-lis).

These are the five major Finger Lakes. Cayuga Lake is the longest among them. But Seneca Lake is the biggest and the deepest, at almost two hundred meters.

Compare that to the nine-meter depth of Honeoye (HUN-ee-oy) Lake. Honeoye is among what are considered the six minor¹³ Finger Lakes in central and western New York. The others are Owasco, Otisco, Canadice, (KAN-ah-dice), Hemlock¹⁴ and Conesus (kon-EE-sus).

BARBARA KLEIN: Most of the eleven lakes contain cold water fisheries like trout¹⁵ as well as bass¹⁶ and other warm water fishing.

The Finger Lakes area is home to industries and large cities like Syracuse and Rochester. But there are still many farms. And the area has a large number of grape vineyards and wine producers.

STEVE EMBER:Several colleges and universities are in the Finger Lakes area. They include Ithaca College, Colgate University and Cornell University.

Cornell honors Cayuga Lake in its school song, which begins: "Far above Cayuga’s waters / With its waves of blue / Stands our noble alma mater / Glorious to view.”

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: The first people to view the beauty of the Finger Lakes were the Indians. The Iroquois believed that the Great Spirit formed the lakes. The Great Spirit was closely linked with nature.

STEVE EMBER:Science tells us that a large body of ice moved across the land. The last glacier¹⁷ covered large areas of what is now the northeastern United States about twenty thousand years ago. The glacier moved south and then north again.

In doing so, it moved through many river valleys. It made the valleys deeper and wider than they were before. Then the ice started melting and moved north again. The glacier left huge amounts of soil and rocks in what scientists call the Valley Heads Moraine. A moraine is a landform created by all the material carried and left by a glacier.

BARBARA KLEIN: The Valley Heads Moraine prevented old rivers from flowing south, as they had before. This left the valleys filled with water. And this is how scientists say the Finger Lakes came to be.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁸. I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. Transcripts¹⁹ and MP3s of our programs can be downloaded at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

 

1 daydreaming   

v.想入非非，空想( daydream的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Stop daydreaming and be realistic. 别空想了，还是从实际出发吧。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Bill was sitting and daydreaming so his mother told him to come down to earth and to do his homework. 比尔坐着空想， 他母亲要他面对现实，去做课外作业。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 maple   

n.槭树，枫树，槭木

参考例句：

• Maple sugar is made from the sap of maple trees.枫糖是由枫树的树液制成的。
• The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 gorge   

n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃

参考例句：

• East of the gorge leveled out.峡谷东面地势变得平坦起来。
• It made my gorge rise to hear the news.这消息令我作呕。

5 gorges   

n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕

参考例句：

• The explorers were confronted with gorges(that were)almost impassable and rivers(that were)often unfordable. 探险人员面临着几乎是无路可通的峡谷和常常是无法渡过的河流。 来自辞典例句
• We visited the Yangtse Gorges last summer. 去年夏天我们游历了长江三峡。 来自辞典例句

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

8 prehistoric   

adj.（有记载的）历史以前的，史前的，古老的

参考例句：

• They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
• It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。

9 popcorn   

n.爆米花

参考例句：

• I like to eat popcorn when I am watching TV play at home.当我在家观看电视剧时，喜欢吃爆米花。
• He still stood behind his cash register stuffing his mouth with popcorn.他仍站在收银机后，嘴里塞满了爆米花。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 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。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

14 hemlock   

n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉

参考例句：

• He was condemned to drink a cup of hemlock.判处他喝一杯毒汁。
• Here is a beech by the side of a hemlock,with three pines at hand.这儿有株山毛榉和一株铁杉长在一起，旁边还有三株松树。

15 trout   

n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属)

参考例句：

• Thousands of young salmon and trout have been killed by the pollution.成千上万的鲑鱼和鳟鱼的鱼苗因污染而死亡。
• We hooked a trout and had it for breakfast.我们钓了一条鳟鱼，早饭时吃了。

16 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

17 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

18 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

19 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句