VOA标准英语2012--Dickens' Fans Mark 200th Anniversary of his Birth

Dickens' Fans Mark 200th Anniversary of his Birth

This is Portsmouth, about 100 kilometers south of London. It's a city with a proud past, one of the main homes of the British Navy.
Tourists come here to see the historic port. But though the cultural heritage is rich, the city is not.
Many people here are on welfare. The navy does not employ as many as it once did. The city's last remaining shipbuilder, providing a livelihood¹ to 1,500 families, is under threat of closure.
But Portsmouth does have one thing it can never lose.
It's where one of Britain's most famous novelists, Charles Dickens, was born on February 7, 1812.
Portsmouth wants to make the most of its famous son.
The final touches are being put on a special exhibit at the city library. The star attraction - the original manuscript of Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens' third novel.
City council member Lee Hunt:
"We're going to get millions more people visiting our city, spending their money here," said Hunt. "Of course, those millions more people are going to arouse a curiosity of local children. Some, only some, who can't read and we hope that this whole celebration encourages them to pick up a Dickens novel and start reading."
Portsmouth may have been the city of Dickens' birth, but it was London where he spent much of his later childhood and adult life. It's locations in this city that spring to mind when you picture scenes or images in his novels. London's poor houses may have gone, but warehouses² and old style arcades³ like these ones here in St. Katherine's dock in the east of the city center will be familiar to readers.
There are many locations central to Dickens' life and novels within just a few minutes' walk of this famous tourist spot.
Christopher West leads Dickens tours around these neighborhoods, taking visitors, for example, to the site of the old Marshalsea Prison on the other side of the river, where Dickens' father was jailed for not paying his debts.
West says Dickens still fascinates his audience.
“He was championing the problems of not enough health care, not enough police, problems in school, problems in parliament, problems in the law, banking⁴ in particular," said West. "While we still have these problems - very relevant today.”
Here's West's favorite passage - it's from Great Expectations...
"In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice," quotes West.
Powerful stuff now, as it would have been then. And will be, he says, in another 200 years.

1 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

2 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

3 arcades   

n.商场( arcade的名词复数 )；拱形走道（两旁有商店或娱乐设施）；连拱廊；拱形建筑物

参考例句：

• Clothes are on sale in several shopping arcades these days. 近日一些服装店的服装正在大减价。 来自轻松英语会话---联想4000词(下)
• The Plaza Mayor, with its galleries and arcades, is particularly impressive. 市长大厦以其别具风格的走廊和拱廊给人留下十分深刻的印象。 来自互联网

4 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。