2006年VOA标准英语-New Orleans Antique Store Sells Unique His

By Greg Flakus
New Orleans
02 May 2006
 
watch Antique Store report

This New Orleans antique store is in its 5th generation of family ownership  
  
Eight months after Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans continues to struggle towards recovery. People from all over the country have an interest in that recovery because of the history and cultural vitality¹ of New Orleans. Nowhere is that represented better than in the part of the old French Quarter where antiques are sold.

VOA's Greg Flakus has this report from New Orleans about the most unusual antique shop in the area.

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The past always seems alive on the streets of New Orleans, but it is even more alive in James H. Cohen and Sons antique store on Royal Street.

Here, you can find items ranging from old cavalry² sabers, pistols and rifles, to Etruscan coins.

Of course, you can also find many of these items in museums.

 
Barry Cohen 
  
But Barry Cohen, great-great-grandson of the store's founder³, says this place offers something museums do not. "You can hold these pieces of history in your hand and you can take them home with you and you can own them."

So if you are in the market for a sword or an old flintlock dueling⁴ pistol, this is store for you.

Barry says one customer bought a set of old European dueling pistols for a wedding present.

"On the box he wrote, or he had inscribed⁵, 'until death do us part.' That is one of the most interesting gifts I have heard of,” said Cohen.

  
  
You can also spend your money here to buy money -- that is, coins and currency from times gone by. You can even buy one of the bills that gave the southern United States its nickname -- Dixie.

Down the street from the Cohen Antique store, on the corner now occupied by this drug store, there was a bank that issued notes with the French number for ten -- "dix," which was pronounced by merchants up and down the Mississippi like “diks” and later, Dixie.

At the store you can also buy coins from the time of Alexander the Great and other ancient artifacts. Most customers at the Cohen Antique store are visitors to New Orleans who just happen upon it, according to Barry Cohen.

"Eighty-five percent of our business is the tourism industry, people coming in and not realizing there is a store like this. We have been told by so many customers who have been around the country or around the world and they say they have never seen a store like this."

Tourism -- and business -- have slowed since Katrina  
  
But tourism has slowed greatly since Katrina and walk-in business at the shop has also diminished. Still, Barry remains⁶ optimistic.

"We will get through it. This business has lived through the Depression, through two wars, three wars, we have lived through other hurricanes and we are going to make it through this one, it is just going to be a matter of time," he says.

1 vitality   

n.活力，生命力，效力

参考例句：

• He came back from his holiday bursting with vitality and good health.他度假归来之后，身强体壮，充满活力。
• He is an ambitious young man full of enthusiasm and vitality.他是个充满热情与活力的有远大抱负的青年。

2 cavalry   

n.骑兵；轻装甲部队

参考例句：

• We were taken in flank by a troop of cavalry. 我们翼侧受到一队骑兵的袭击。
• The enemy cavalry rode our men down. 敌人的骑兵撞倒了我们的人。

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 dueling   

n. 决斗, 抗争(=duelling) 动词duel的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• More light-hearted But somewhat puzzled, Vladimir prepared to meet Eugene on the dueling ground. 弗拉基米尔心里轻松了一些，但仍感到有些困惑，在这种心情下，他准备去决斗场地迎战叶甫盖尼。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• They had been dueling for hours and finally called a draw. 他们一直决斗了数小时，最后打成平局。

5 inscribed   

v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接

参考例句：

• His name was inscribed on the trophy. 他的名字刻在奖杯上。
• The names of the dead were inscribed on the wall. 死者的名字被刻在墙上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。