2007-09-08, Sammer Gateway: 卡尔斯贝洞窟国家公园

It is early evening and soon this amphitheater will be standing¹ room only for the evening show. Bats, hundreds of thousands of Mexican Free-tailed bats, are hungry tornado² that swirls³ out of New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns⁵ each night in search of food. It's one of the many sights enjoyed by the park's half million visitors each year. There are more than 100 known caves in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park. One of the caverns is not only a popular attraction but also a potential problem. About 1 in 3 visitors stops to fuel up in this underground lunchroom. The park service conducted an environmental assessment⁶ of the caverns, and in 1993 concluded that this lunchroom had to go. Among other problems the study said that light, heat, and fumes⁷ associated with the lunchroom were probably damaging the delicate limestone⁸ formations that are Carlsbad's crown jewels. There's also a concern that it's disruptive to the bats. Trouble is for many visitors the lunchroom is part of the show.

Most every visitor that has ever been here before, you ask them what they remember, and they can remember the bats and they can remember the underground lunchroom. We ate lunch in the underground lunchroom.

Picking up where his father left off, Frank Hodnett has built a multimillion-dollar concession⁹ here, including a second restaurant and gift shop up top. Cavernous in itself, the entire lunchroom sits on a paved floor with seating for some 700 people. Some kiosks here date from the 30s, and they are solid concrete. Frank Hodnett maintains that tearing out the facility would cause more environmental havoc¹⁰ than leaving well enough alone.

If you took everything out, and not allow another visitor in here, it would never be restored to the natural state. So what we have to do is manage the resource the best we can.

Randy Rasmussen wasn't convinced. He ran a regional office of the National Park's Conservation Association.

There are issues associated with demolition¹¹, it has to be studied, but I think in the long term, my organization and others would support those types of activities that remove this, return this to a more natural state.

Wandering through the enormous, 8.2-acre cavern⁴ known as the Big Room, tourists, even the kids show up quiet reverence¹² for the place. The park service and environmentalists say the lunchroom is a glaring contrast.

This is like funneling¹³ that you simply fall(s) into a plastic tube and running the visitors through a, into a giant water slide.

It appears that at the bottom of the scientific and political abyss, the food fight in Carlsbad Caverns is at least partly a matter of taste.

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

3 swirls   

n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Swirls of smoke rose through the trees. 树林中升起盘旋的青烟。 来自辞典例句
• On reaching the southeast corner of Himalaya-Tibet, It'swirls cyclonically across the Yunnan Plateau. 在到达喜马拉雅--西藏高原东南角处，它作气旋性转向越过云南高原。 来自辞典例句

4 cavern   

n.洞穴，大山洞

参考例句：

• The cavern walls echoed his cries.大山洞的四壁回响着他的喊声。
• It suddenly began to shower,and we took refuge in the cavern.天突然下起雨来，我们在一个山洞里避雨。

5 caverns   

大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Within were dark caverns; what was inside them, no one could see. 里面是一个黑洞，这里面有什么东西，谁也望不见。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• UNDERGROUND Under water grottos, caverns Filled with apes That eat figs. 在水帘洞里，挤满了猿争吃无花果。

6 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

7 fumes   

n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体

参考例句：

• The health of our children is being endangered by exhaust fumes. 我们孩子们的健康正受到排放出的废气的损害。
• Exhaust fumes are bad for your health. 废气对健康有害。

8 limestone   

n.石灰石

参考例句：

• Limestone is often used in building construction.石灰岩常用于建筑。
• Cement is made from limestone.水泥是由石灰石制成的。

9 concession   

n.让步，妥协；特许(权)

参考例句：

• We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
• That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。

10 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

11 demolition   

n.破坏,毁坏,毁坏之遗迹

参考例句：

• The church has been threatened with demolition for years. 这座教堂多年来一直面临拆毀的威胁。
• The project required the total demolition of the old bridge. 该项目要求将老桥完全拆毁。

12 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

13 funneling   

[医]成漏斗形：描述膀胱底及膀胱尿道交接区

参考例句：