2005年NPR美国国家公共电台十一月-Stumps of the Northwest: History, Old an

....leftovers¹ from an era gone-by.

In the mid² to late 1800s, logging was a way of life in the Pacific Northwest. Loggers made vast fortunes chopping the virgin³ forest filled with giant trees that were thousands of years old. Few old-growth trees are left, but some communities are celebrating their logging culture by honoring the giant stumps⁵. Harriet Baskas reports.

“I remember when my dad would take me hiking in the woods, he would say: Now those trees could make so many houses. He was a lumberman.”

92 year old Helen Starr likes to reminisce about the old days when she volunteers at a Stillaguamish Valley Pioneer Museum in Arlington Washington. The town, located 40 miles north of Seattle, was once a major lumbering⁶ center.

“People don't realize that there were trees like that to begin with.”

But there were. Trees so big and so numerous that Pacific Northwest historian Robert Ficken doesn’t even adventure a count.

“I just prefer to say things like there was a hell of a lot of timber and it was more than people could possibly use when they first started using it.”

Those old-growth trees were often hundreds of feet tall with gnarled basis that Ficken says presented a challenge to early loggers armed with only hand saws and axes.

“The loggers would have to go above the ground maybe sometimes as much as ten feet to find a flat surface that they could stand on to do their work, and they created the flat surface by cutting these holes in the side of the tree and sticking boards in. They will stand on those boards and cut the tree down.”

The giant logs were hauled away, the giant stumps left behind to rot. If you hike you'll come across some in the woods. But in Arlington two huge stumps are community souvenirs: a stump⁴ house sits in front of the Pioneer Museum. It’s eighteen feet across and twenty feet high with a wide doorway⁷, a roof and an upper level enclosed in clear plastic.

"Nobody is gonna pick that up and carry it very far.”

85 year old museum volunteer Harry⁸ Yost, says the stump has been in this spot since 1935, serving as everything from a storage shed to a stage.

“There used to be a platform up above and there're steps you could walk into it and politicians would yak⁹ out through the side, and the governors used to come up with yak, yak. I remember here and then.”

Folks in Arlington are proud of the stump house. But Yost says the town has another stump that's even bigger.

“It is all the way from one side to the other, hooting¹⁰ the holler, across, you know.”

This stump is actually about 20 feet wide and 25 feet tall and is impossible for a motorist like Darcy Kean to ignore at this smoggy point rest area on Interstate 5, a couple of miles up the road from the museum.

“I am from East Texas. We have cedar¹¹ trees, but not this big.”

There is an archway in this cedar stump big enough to drive a car through and in 1939 Norway’s crowned prince O Louffe and Princess Marsha had their picture taken doing just that. These days, though, the stump is a walk-through attraction that had a share of vandalism and decay. It has been set on fire, cut in half, put back together and moved several times. All worth it, says Harry Yost, because it's an irreplaceable, if unusual, link to the region's past.

“It's Washington, western Washington Red Cedar, for younger generations will never see one like this. If you don't keep that well, it's just gone.”

For NPR news I am Harriet Baskas.

1 leftovers   

n.剩余物，残留物，剩菜

参考例句：

• He can do miracles with a few kitchen leftovers.他能用厨房里几样剩饭做出一顿美餐。
• She made supper from leftovers she had thrown together.她用吃剩的食物拼凑成一顿晚饭。

2 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

3 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

4 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

5 stumps   

（被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分

参考例句：

• Rocks and stumps supplied the place of chairs at the picnic. 野餐时石头和树桩都充当了椅子。
• If you don't stir your stumps, Tom, you'll be late for school again. 汤姆，如果你不快走，上学又要迟到了。

6 lumbering   

n.采伐林木

参考例句：

• Lumbering and, later, paper-making were carried out in smaller cities. 木材业和后来的造纸都由较小的城市经营。
• Lumbering is very important in some underdeveloped countries. 在一些不发达的国家，伐木业十分重要。

7 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

8 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

9 yak   

n.牦牛

参考例句：

• The most common materials Tibetan jewelry are Yak bone.藏饰最常见的材料当属牦牛骨。
• We can sell yak skin,meat and wool.我们可以卖牦牛的皮、肉和毛。

10 hooting   

（使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩

参考例句：

• He had the audience hooting with laughter . 他令观众哄堂大笑。
• The owl was hooting. 猫头鹰在叫。

11 cedar   

n.雪松，香柏(木)

参考例句：

• The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely.那棵雪松约有五尺高,风姿优美。
• She struck the snow from the branches of an old cedar with gray lichen.她把长有灰色地衣的老雪松树枝上的雪打了下来。