美国国家公共电台 NPR PHOTOS: The Creamy, Sculpted Dunes Of White Sands National Monument

 

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

White Sands National Monument in southern New Mexico is a huge expanse of pure, white sand dunes² that form a shifting, spectacular landscape. Here's NPR's Melissa Block with the latest in her series Our Land on a place like no other on the planet.

MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE³: When we put out a call on social media asking for ideas of places we should go in New Mexico, a bunch of people said, you've got to go to White Sands. OK - twist my arm.

MARIE FRIAS SAUTER: So who would like to go out on the dune¹?

BLOCK: We would.

FRIAS SAUTER: OK, let's do it (laughter).

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Yeah.

BLOCK: We hike up into an other-worldly landscape - picture bright white sand dunes, like creamy sculpted⁴ waves, rippling⁵ and rolling for miles off to the horizon.

FRIAS SAUTER: Maybe like snowfields...

BLOCK: We're with White Sands superintendent⁶ Marie Frias Sauter.

FRIAS SAUTER: ...Frosting on a white cake.

BLOCK: Cobalt-blue sky above and, far in the distance, purple mountains that ring at this desert basin.

FRIAS SAUTER: As the sun goes down and slants⁷ more on an angle, it becomes just a play of shadows, just light and dark and light and dark. And it's just gorgeous.

BLOCK: Imagine you're park ranger⁸ Eugene Ibarra, and this is your office.

EUGENE IBARRA: Being here inside the dune field is like if you're in another planet. It's so alien-like. The only thing that reminds you that you're still in planet Earth is that the sky is blue.

BLOCK: The sun is broiling⁹ hot, but the White Sands stay cool under our bare feet.

IBARRA: It can be over a hundred degrees and it won't burn your feet. The sun is white, so it reflects back the heat in the sun.

BLOCK: It's a white and super soft.

IBARRA: Softer than sugar.

FRIAS SAUTER: Yes.

BLOCK: You're rubbing it in your hands now.

FRIAS SAUTER: Yeah (laughter). It's like powdered sugar.

BLOCK: The dunes are made of the soft mineral gypsum, laid down 250 million years ago when the southwestern U.S. was covered by the Permian Sea. Later, that seabed was pushed up into the mountains that surround us.

IBARRA: Do you see those white bands across the mountains?

BLOCK: Oh, yeah.

IBARRA: Those are gypsum deposits.

BLOCK: Rainfall dissolves those deposits, carrying the gypsum down and replenishing the sand dunes, which shift constantly with the winds.

FRIAS SAUTER: It's very easy to get lost out here. And, you know, people have died out here in the dunes.

BLOCK: How often does that happen?

FRIAS SAUTER: Too often.

BLOCK: In fact, it happened two summers ago.

FRIAS SAUTER: We lost a couple - a mother and a father, husband and wife - who came out in August and hiked in the afternoon the Alkali Flat trail. And they did not survive. Their son did, but they did not so...

BLOCK: What happened?

FRIAS SAUTER: They didn't have enough water. And they underestimated the difficulty of the trail and hiking on a hot August afternoon.

BLOCK: There are signs warning that there's no water available beyond the visitor's center. But it's easy to forget just how unforgiving this park can be because it's so beautiful.

I watched sisters Belen and Lourdes Materon - visiting from Houston - as they play in the sand, letting it drizzle¹⁰ through their fingers.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #1: Can I tell you something about this? Sometimes when you look close to it, it looks like little crystals.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #2: It's weathered crystals.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #1: It's super sparkly and pretty and nice.

BLOCK: And if you're used to staying off of sand dunes to protect them - not here. At White Sands, dune sledding is encouraged.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL #1: Three and go.

BLOCK: The park service even sells plastic flying saucers in the gift shop. I get some sledding pointers from 9-year-old Antonio Pina.

ANTONIO: The trick is, if you're going to stand up, keep it low, or you can just sit down.

BLOCK: Sounds like a plan. OK, Melissa Block, about to go sledding at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Here we go. Awesome¹¹ - stuck the landing.

ANTONIO: Nice.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRIMUS SONG, "LAST SALMON MAN")

1 dune   

n.(由风吹积而成的)沙丘

参考例句：

• The sand massed to form a dune.沙积集起来成了沙丘。
• Cute Jim sat on the dune eating a prune in June.可爱的吉姆在六月天坐在沙丘上吃着话梅。

2 dunes   

沙丘( dune的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The boy galloped over the dunes barefoot. 那男孩光着脚在沙丘间飞跑。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat. 将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

3 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。

4 sculpted   

adj.经雕塑的

参考例句：

• a display of animals sculpted in ice 冰雕动物展
• The ladies had their hair sculpted by the leading coiffeur of the day. 女士们的发型都是当代有名的理发师做的。

5 rippling   

起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的

参考例句：

• I could see the dawn breeze rippling the shining water. 我能看见黎明的微风在波光粼粼的水面上吹出道道涟漪。
• The pool rippling was caused by the waving of the reeds. 池塘里的潺潺声是芦苇摇动时引起的。

6 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

7 slants   

（使）倾斜，歪斜( slant的第三人称单数 )； 有倾向性地编写或报道

参考例句：

• Most handwriting slants to the right. 大多数字体是向右倾斜的。
• That tree slants to one side because of the heavy winds. 因为刮大风，那棵树歪倒一边去了。

8 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

9 broiling   

adj.酷热的，炽热的，似烧的v.（用火）烤（焙、炙等）( broil的现在分词 )；使卷入争吵；使混乱；被烤（或炙）

参考例句：

• They lay broiling in the sun. 他们躺在太阳底下几乎要晒熟了。
• I'm broiling in this hot sun. 在太阳底下，我感到热极了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 drizzle   

v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨

参考例句：

• The shower tailed off into a drizzle.阵雨越来越小，最后变成了毛毛雨。
• Yesterday the radio forecast drizzle,and today it is indeed raining.昨天预报有小雨，今天果然下起来了。

11 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.