万花筒 2008-04-21&-4-22 “鸟巢”体育馆一瞥

Well this is the centerpiece for Beijing's Games, officially it's called the National Stadium. It's better known as the "Bird's Nest" because of that avant-garde design of the interwoven steel beams¹ on the outside and until now that's all we’ve been able to see. Inside here, 91 thousand people are expected to gather for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the track-and-field competition and also the soccer finals.

 There is still some last-minute work going on here but now construction of all Olympic venues² is complete, most of them finished well ahead of time. It took just over four years and about 400 million US dollars to build this stadium. And architects say the same project in the United States or Europe would have cost many times more and taken a lot longer, but here in China a cheap pool of labor³, one stage as many as seven thousand workers kept cost down and kept construction on an almost nonstop seven-day week timetable.

 And the original plans here had a retractable⁴ roof but that was scrapped⁵ because of cost. So there’s now some concern that it might rain during the opening ceremony but a bigger concern for Games' organizers is just who will be sitting up there on the second level. That's the area which is being reserved for world leaders and heads of state. Some have said they won't be coming, others have said they are checking their diary.

 Now once the Olympics are finished, the designers say they hope that the stadium will become an icon⁶ for Beijing, much like they say the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.

 John Vause CNN Beijing.

1 beams   

n.梁( beam的名词复数 )；束；1 光线；（电波的）波束v.发出光与热( beam的第三人称单数 )；面露喜色；播送；1 笑容满面，眉开眼笑 2 发射电波，播送 3 放出束状的光（或热）

参考例句：

• The beams are riddled with woodworm. 这些木梁被蛀虫蛀得都是洞。
• In front were five rooms with painted beams and carved pillars. 正面五间上房，皆是画梁雕栋。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 retractable   

adj.可收回的；可撤消的；可缩回的；可缩进的

参考例句：

• a knife with a retractable blade 弹簧刀
• So, any thoughts of what you want for the retractable bed kid? 那么想为那个睡折叠床的小子做什么？ 来自电影对白

5 scrapped   

废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架

参考例句：

• This machine is so old that it will soon have to be scrapped. 这架机器太旧，快报废了。
• It had been thought that passport controls would be scrapped. 人们曾认为会放开护照管制。

6 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。