名人轶事:Frank Lloyd Wright，1867-1959

Frank Lloyd Wright，1867-1959: The greatest American building designer of the

twentieth century

One critic said Wright's ideas were 50 years ahead of his time.

VOICE ONE:

I'm Phoebe Zimmerman.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America.

Today we tell about the life and work of the greatest American building

designer of the twentieth century, Frank Lloyd Wright.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Frank Lloyd Wright 

Frank Lloyd Wright designed buildings for more than seventy years. He did most

of his work from nineteen hundred through the nineteen fifties. He designed

houses, schools, churches, public buildings, and office buildings.

Critics say Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most creative architects.

One critic said his ideas were fifty years ahead of the time in which he

lived.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in eighteen- sixty?seven in the middle western

state of Wisconsin. He studied engineering at the University of Wisconsin. In

eighteen eighty?seven, he went to the city of Chicago. He got a job in the

office of the famous architects, Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler.

Several years later, Wright established his own building design business. He

began by designing homes for people living in and near Chicago. These homes

were called "prairie houses."

VOICE ONE:

Prairie houses were long and low. They seemed to grow out of the ground. They

were built of wood and other natural materials. The indoors expanded to the

outdoors by extending the floor. This created what seemed like a room without

walls or a roof.

In nineteen-oh-two, Wright designed one prairie house, called the Willits

House, in the town of Highland¹ Park. The house was shaped like a cross. It was

built around a huge fireplace². The rooms were designed so they seemed to flow

into each other.

VOICE TWO:

Robie House      

Visitors to Chicago can see another of Wright's prairie houses. It is called

the Robie House. It looks like a series of long, low rooms on different

levels. The rooms seem to float over the ground. Wright designed everything in

the house, including the furniture and floor coverings.

Wright's prairie houses had a great influence on home design in America. Even

today, one hundred years later, his prairie houses appear very modern.

VOICE ONE:

In the nineteen thirties, Wright developed what he called "Usonian" houses.

Usonia was his name for a perfect, democratic United States of America.

Usonian houses were planned to be low cost. Wright designed them for the

American middle class. These are the majority of Americans who are neither

very rich nor very poor.

Frank Lloyd Wright believed that all middle class families in America should

be able to own a house that was designed well. He believed that the United

States could not be a true democracy if people did not own their own house on

their own piece of land.

VOICE TWO:

Usonian houses were built on a flat base of concrete. The base was level with

the ground. Wright believed that was better and less costly³ than the common

method of digging a hole in the ground for the base. Low?cost houses based on

the Usonian idea became very popular in America in the nineteen fifties.

Visitors can see one of Wright's Usonian homes near Washington, D. C. It is

the Pope-Leighy House in Alexandria, Virginia.

1 highland   

n.(pl.)高地，山地

参考例句：

• The highland game is part of Scotland's cultural heritage.苏格兰高地游戏是苏格兰文化遗产的一部分。
• The highland forests where few hunters venture have long been the bear's sanctuary.这片只有少数猎人涉险的高山森林，一直都是黑熊的避难所。

2 fireplace   

n.壁炉，炉灶

参考例句：

• The fireplace smokes badly.这壁炉冒烟太多。
• I think we should wall up the fireplace.我想应该封住壁炉。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 fellowship   

n.伙伴关系，团体，奖学金，研究员职位

参考例句：

• You'll lose your fellowship if you do that.你如果做那件事就会丧失研究员职位。
• It looks that they'll be admitted to the fellowship.看来他们要被吸收入会了。

5 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

6 harsh   

adj.严厉（酷）的，刺耳的，刺目的，毛糙的

参考例句：

• The sunlight is very harsh.太阳光很刺眼。
• Although his words are harsh,there is positiveness in them.虽然他的话很苛刻，但有建设性。

7 stark   

adj.荒凉的；严酷的；完全的；adv.完全地

参考例句：

• The young man is faced with a stark choice.这位年轻人面临严峻的抉择。
• He gave a stark denial to the rumor.他对谣言加以完全的否认。

8 imaginative   

adj.富有想象力的，爱想象的

参考例句：

• The imaginative child made up fairy stories.这个想像力丰富的孩子自己编神话故事。
• Scott was an imaginative writer.司格特是位富于想象力的作家。

9 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

10 violated   

亵渎( violate的过去式和过去分词 )； 违反； 侵犯； 强奸

参考例句：

• Note that thick, strong angles of tibia are not violated. 注意肥厚、结实的胫骨成角部分未受损坏。
• The soldiers violated the church by using it as a stable. 士兵们把教堂当马厩，亵渎了教堂。

11 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。