美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Big Brutus,' World's Largest Electric Shovel, Turned Into Museum

'Big Brutus,' World's Largest Electric Shovel¹, Turned Into Museum

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: 

You never know what roadside attraction you might find along America's byways. Our colleague Melissa Block is on a reporting road trip around the country, and she just had to check out a behemoth in Kansas.

MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE²: When I told folks in Kansas that I was going to be in the southeastern corner of the state, everybody said you've got to go see Big Brutus. Big Brutus - what's Big Brutus? It is the world's largest electric shovel. And that's where we're going right now. We just saw a sign. Big Brutus in West Mineral, Kan.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Come with us as we guide you through the past, present and future of this mammoth³ mining machine.

BLOCK: Mammoth is right. You can see it on the horizon from miles away.

BETTY BECKER: At the very top, it's 160 feet, or like a 16-story building.

BLOCK: Our guide is Betty Becker. She's manager of Big Brutus and the mining museum.

BECKER: Weighs 11 million pounds.

BLOCK: 11 million pounds?

BECKER: Yes.

BLOCK: Put another way, 5,500 tons. Big Brutus is painted bright orange. Its job was to scoop⁴ rock and dirt off the coal seam in a strip mine. Each bucket load could fill three railroad cars.

BECKER: It took 52 men about 11 months to assemble big Brutus.

BLOCK: The cost, back in 1962, $6.5 million. Big Brutus worked 24 hours a day for 11 years. When the PNM coal mine shut down in 1974, Big Brutus dug his last pit right here. They backed Brutus out and parked the giant in the fields. It would have cost too much to dismantle⁵ so...

BECKER: They just left it here.

BLOCK: Should we go up?

BECKER: Let's go.

BLOCK: All right.

BECKER: Watch your step, and watch your head.

BLOCK: We climb up a metal staircase till we're five stories off the ground. The boom goes up another 100 feet or so. You used to be able to climb all the way up there, too. Some people even got married up there but not anymore.

BECKER: There's the stairway to the boom, which has been locked and closed and no one...

BLOCK: I see.

BECKER: ...Goes there.

BLOCK: Boom is closed by notice from insurance company.

BECKER: Yes, ma'am. Yes.

BLOCK: It's tempting⁶ though, isn't it?

BECKER: No, not really.

(LAUGHTER)

BLOCK: The shovel operator would sit in a glass-enclosed compartment⁷. You get a nice view of Kansas farmland from up high here. It took huge amounts of power to run this electric shovel.

BECKER: And they plugged it in just like you plug in an electric lamp or something.

BLOCK: Betty Becker's father drove a coal truck at the mine, hauling coal from the pit to the cleaning plant.

BECKER: He passed away on the job. So he was at work, and we got a call to come to the hospital, and he was gone. So anyway, but that was...

BLOCK: Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry.

BECKER: ...That was in 1966. That was a long time ago. So...

BLOCK: Betty tells me when the mine shut down in the '70s, it was devastating⁸ for this community.

BECKER: West Mineral got quite a bit smaller because people had to go other places for, you know, work. And then we lost our school, and just how little towns are gone - they're not as popular anymore. But Big Brutus will be here forever. So...

(LAUGHTER)

BLOCK: And after all this time, she's grown awfully⁹ fond of the monster machine.

BECKER: Yeah, it's like part of my family (laughter) - a big part.

BLOCK: A very big part.

BECKER: A very big part (laughter), yes.

BLOCK: Betty Becker, thanks so much for showing us around Big Brutus - 16 stories tall, the world's largest electric shovel in West Mineral, Kan.

BECKER: Thank you very much.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAETANO VELOSO SONG, "POR QUEM?")

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's our colleague Melissa Block. She's on a reporting road trip we're calling Our Land.

1 shovel   

n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出

参考例句：

• He was working with a pick and shovel.他在用镐和铲干活。
• He seized a shovel and set to.他拿起一把铲就干上了。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 mammoth   

n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的

参考例句：

• You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
• Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。

4 scoop   

n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出

参考例句：

• In the morning he must get his boy to scoop it out.早上一定得叫佣人把它剜出来。
• Uh,one scoop of coffee and one scoop of chocolate for me.我要一勺咖啡的和一勺巧克力的。

5 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

6 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

7 compartment   

n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间

参考例句：

• We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴，整个客车隔间由我们独享。
• The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。

8 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

9 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。