VOA标准英语2011--US Bridge Loses Main Claim to Fame

US Bridge Loses Main Claim to Fame

Several years ago, the U.S. automobile-rental company Avis came up with an imaginative, if not exactly boastful, advertising¹ slogan. "We're Number Two!" in number of rentals², it went. "We Try Harder."
The folks in southern Louisiana might want to dust that one off, because, just last month, its Pontchartrain Causeway - which had been the longest bridge in the world - lost that title to a brand-new bridge in China.
A causeway is a long road, often resting on pilings or a dirt embankment, over water or wetlands.
 The two parallel spans of the Pontchartrain Causeway, supported by 9,500 concrete pilings, wind for 38 kilometers (24 miles) between the north and south shores of Lake Pontchartrain. That's America's second-largest inland body of saltwater behind Utah's Great Salt Lake.
The Louisiana bridge brought what had been the remote "North Shore," as it is called, into the Greater New Orleans community. It was only lightly damaged during Hurricane Katrina, the deadly storm that wiped out whole neighborhoods in New Orleans in 2005.
So the causeway was a key route used by rescue and recovery teams based on the North Shore as the city was slowly rebuilt.
peter.clark, Flickr Creative Commons
Usurping³ the Pontchartrain Causeway's title as the world's longest bridge is a 42-kilometer (26-mile) bridge over Jiaozhou Bay in China's eastern Shandong Province. It took four years to build.
Since the Chinese built just one span across that bay, the bridge requires only 5,000 pilings. So if the Pontchartrain causeway needs a calling card - admittedly not a very dramatic one - it can claim that when it comes to concrete pillars, it's still number one.

 

1 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

2 rentals   

n.租费，租金额( rental的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In some large hotels, the income derived from this source actually exceeds income from room rentals. 有些大旅馆中，这方面的盈利实际上要超过出租客房的盈利。 来自辞典例句
• Clerk: Well, Canadian Gifts is on the lower level. It's across from Prime Time Video Rentals. 噢，礼品店在楼下，在黄金时刻录像出租屋的对面。 来自口语例句

3 usurping   

篡夺，霸占( usurp的现在分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权

参考例句：

• Earlier the Ukrainian President dissolved Parliament because it claimed it was usurping power. 之前乌克兰总统解散国会因为国会声称要夺权。