美国国家公共电台 NPR 30-Foot Border Wall Prototypes Erected In San Diego Borderlands

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Prototypes of President Trump¹'s proposed border wall are going up near San Diego. Each prototype is a little different. You can see the photos. One is a 30-foot-high slab² of concrete and steel, another is a 30-foot-high slab of steel and concrete. Eight variations are all meant to pave the way for a wall that Congress has yet to fund. NPR's John Burnett is here for an architecture review. Hi, John.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE³: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: So what's it like when you go down to the border and actually get a look at these things?

BURNETT: It's quite a scene. The Border Patrol has created this media bullpen at the edge of the construction site. And they've been shuttling in journalists from around the U.S. and around the world from as far away as Japan and Germany to see the great U.S.-Mexico border wall. You put on these fluorescent⁴ vests and hardhats and watch cranes lifting huge sections of sand-colored walls into place. They're massive, as you said - as tall as a three-story building.

INSKEEP: Well, the president had talked about innovative⁵ designs. At one point, he said maybe it should have solar panels, different ways to stop people from crossing the border. Did you see any innovations?

BURNETT: Nothing particularly artistic⁶ or high tech about these walls. One has elaborate spikes⁷ on top of it in case an illegal crosser has a really tall ladder.

INSKEEP: OK, well, I know you've spent time on both sides of the (laughter) border. Let's hear what people down there told you about it.

EDUARDO OLMOS: We're actually at the prototype site, San Diego sector⁸, where eight of the prototypes are being built.

BURNETT: That's Border Patrol Agent Eduardo Olmos of the San Diego sector.

OLMOS: Once these are built, they're going to be evaluated for different characteristics like anti-climbing, anti-breaching, anti-scaling, anti-digging, anti-tunneling. Also, they have to be aesthetically⁹ pleasing.

BURNETT: The prototypes have all the appeal of blast walls. Some models are solid reinforced concrete. Others incorporate vertical¹⁰ steel posts. On the U.S. side, no one is allowed anywhere near the wall prototypes because of security precautions. To see what people think about them, I crossed the border at the Otay Mesa port of entry and worked my way over to the Los Torres neighborhood of Tijuana. There's a ramshackle recycling business here in Mexico that looks directly onto the soaring concrete slabs¹¹.

Jose Avila Rodriguez is pulling wires out of the dashboard of a wrecked¹² truck.

JOSE AVILA RODRIGUEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: "From the size of the wall they're building, they don't even want the wind to blow from there to over here," he says ruefully. His granddaughter Melanie plays with puppies in the dusty street. Her grandmother Juana fills a bag with plastic bottles and considers Trump's border wall.

JUANA: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: "I don't think the new wall will deter¹³ people," she says. "How many years have they been crossing to the other side?" Border Patrol officials in San Diego say they need some kind of new obstacle. Illegal crossers have cut 1,700 holes in the existing steel mesh¹⁴ fencing in the past three years. Just in the past three weeks, a half-dozen Mexican men have been nabbed in the construction zone while the prototypes were going up. Roy Villareal is the chief patrol agent here.

ROY VILLAREAL: What we want is something that is better, that is, again, impenetrable, unscalable and not capable of being dug under very quickly.

BURNETT: Six construction companies that won a nationwide competition to design and build the prototypes have until the end of this month to finish the eight mockups. I asked Villareal after his agency selects its favorite designs, does he believe these giant barriers will actually go up along the 2,000-mile frontier? He doesn't want to be pinned down.

VILLAREAL: These prototypes are going to influence the next evolution of our border infrastructure¹⁵. So it very well may not be what you witness this morning.

BURNETT: Border Patrol officials are not waiting for a new wall design. The chief in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas told me he's planning to build 60 new miles of barriers, if Congress funds it, but he'll use what's there now - rust-colored steel columns that rise no higher than 18 feet. The administration has asked Congress for $1.6 billion for the first segments of the president's border wall.

But it faces a number of obstacles. It's opposed by congressional Democrats¹⁶ as well as most of California's and San Diego's leadership. And lawmakers in Washington are being hit with billions in unforeseen spending for hurricane damages from Texas to Puerto Rico. Doris Meissner, a former immigration commissioner¹⁸ and now a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration¹⁷ Policy Institute, thinks prospects¹⁹ for funding the wall look dim.

DORIS MEISSNER: The real issue with building a wall is what the Congress does, not what the contractors²⁰ do. And the price tag on this is enormous.

BURNETT: The Border Patrol expected the prototypes to spark big protests. But since construction began, there have been no demonstrations²¹.

CHRISTIAN²² RAMIREZ: We knew that this was political theater and that we weren't going to respond. This is much ado about nothing.

BURNETT: That's Christian Ramirez, director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition²³ in San Diego, which has organized local rallies against Trump's immigration policies but not this time.

INSKEEP: So what are they doing instead, John Burnett?

BURNETT: Well, Ramirez thinks the real fight is in Washington. And that's where Congress will decide what to do about funding the border wall and what to do about the nearly 800,000 dreamers, the immigrants who were brought into this country illegally as children.

INSKEEP: OK. I guess we should mention that while activists²⁴ have been relatively²⁵ quiet, they think it's much ado about nothing, President Trump seems kind of excited.

BURNETT: Exactly. On Tuesday, the president tweeted a picture of those massive barriers with the message border wall prototypes underway.

INSKEEP: OK. That's NPR's John Burnett in Texas. John, thanks as always.

BURNETT: You bet, Steve.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

5 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

6 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

7 spikes   

n.穗( spike的名词复数 )；跑鞋；（防滑）鞋钉；尖状物v.加烈酒于( spike的第三人称单数 )；偷偷地给某人的饮料加入（更多）酒精（ 或药物）；把尖状物钉入；打乱某人的计划

参考例句：

• a row of iron spikes on a wall 墙头的一排尖铁
• There is a row of spikes on top of the prison wall to prevent the prisoners escaping. 监狱墙头装有一排尖钉，以防犯人逃跑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

9 aesthetically   

adv.美地，艺术地

参考例句：

• Segmental construction contributes toward aesthetically pleasing structures in many different sites. 对于许多不同的现场条件，分段施工都能提供美观，颇有魄力的桥型结构。
• All isolation techniques may be aesthetically unacceptable or even dirty. 所有的隔离方法都有可能在美观方面使人难以接受，或甚至是肮脏的。

10 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

11 slabs   

n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片

参考例句：

• The patio was made of stone slabs. 这天井是用石板铺砌而成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The slabs of standing stone point roughly toward the invisible notch. 这些矗立的石块，大致指向那个看不见的缺口。 来自辞典例句

12 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

13 deter   

vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住

参考例句：

• Failure did not deter us from trying it again.失败并没有能阻挡我们再次进行试验。
• Dogs can deter unwelcome intruders.狗能够阻拦不受欢迎的闯入者。

14 mesh   

n.网孔，网丝，陷阱；vt.以网捕捉，啮合，匹配；vi.适合； [计算机]网络

参考例句：

• Their characters just don't mesh.他们的性格就是合不来。
• This is the net having half inch mesh.这是有半英寸网眼的网。

15 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

16 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

18 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

19 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

20 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

22 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

23 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

24 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。