美国国家公共电台 NPR In Charleston, Cannonball Discoveries Are Constant Reminders Of Past Wars

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

So in Charleston, S.C., people are being reminded of wars that were fought long before they were born. Cannonballs from the Civil War, even the Revolutionary War are washing up on beaches or being unearthed² during construction projects. And some of these pieces can still be dangerous, as South Carolina Public Radio's Alexandra Olgin reports.

ALEXANDRA OLGIN, BYLINE³: Hunkered down in a building topped with sandbags, military bomb experts are getting ready to detonate a rusted⁴ cannonball from the 1800s.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Fire in the hole.

OLGIN: The munition⁵ is wrapped in C-4 and buried underground in an empty field near Charleston.

(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)

OLGIN: This nine-inch cannonball had black powder in it and needed to be exploded. Others are found during construction, in the ocean after hurricanes or just below ground in people's backyards. Detective Carl Makins is with the Charleston County Bomb Squad⁶.

CARL MAKINS: A lot of people don't understand how dangerous cannonballs are. Somebody hit them with a hammer thinking it's kind of cool because of the sound they make and not understanding that, hey, that's a potential time bomb.

OLGIN: Makins gets several calls a year that an old relic⁷ has been found. So does Grahame Long, the curator at the Charleston Museum. He has more than 200 cannonballs and can't display them all. The rest are in storage.

GRAHAME LONG: We've had a few Revolutionary War pieces come in fairly recently, these little six-pound avocado-looking iron balls that are your quite stereotypical-looking cannonballs, which you'd expect from that time period.

OLGIN: They also find Civil War-era cannon¹ balls because the Union siege⁸ of Charleston lasted more than 500 days. And Long says at the time, the city was constantly bombarded.

LONG: On any given day, there are several if not dozens of shells coming into town. Some are going off, some aren't. And these are heavy, heavy pieces going far distances, hitting the ground hard and getting buried.

OLGIN: Long believes only a fraction of the cannonballs have been unearthed and expects they'll be found here for years to come. For NPR News, I'm Alexandra Olgin in Charleston.

1 cannon   

n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮

参考例句：

• The soldiers fired the cannon.士兵们开炮。
• The cannon thundered in the hills.大炮在山间轰鸣。

2 unearthed   

出土的（考古）

参考例句：

• Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

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 rusted   

v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I can't get these screws out; they've rusted in. 我无法取出这些螺丝，它们都锈住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My bike has rusted and needs oil. 我的自行车生锈了，需要上油。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 munition   

n.军火；军需品；v.给某部门提供军火

参考例句：

• The rebels bombed the munition factory.叛军轰炸了兵工厂。
• The soldiers had plenty of arms and munition!士兵们有充足的武器和弹药！

6 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

7 relic   

n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物

参考例句：

• This stone axe is a relic of ancient times.这石斧是古代的遗物。
• He found himself thinking of the man as a relic from the past.他把这个男人看成是过去时代的人物。

8 siege   

n.包围，围攻，围困

参考例句：

• The city was thrown down during the siege.在围城过程中，这座城市被摧毁了。
• The enemy lay siege to the town in attempt to starve the people to death.敌人围城，企图将人们饿死。