英语听力：自然百科 记忆之墙

 April 19th marks the 65th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto¹ uprising, when the last residents of the Jewish Ghetto rose up and ultimately fueled a revolt against Nazi² power. The Ghetto was razed³ following the revolt, its residents killed. Today these walls are all the remain of the compound as skyscrapers⁴ and westward⁵ looking capitalism⁶ have taken its place. The walls still stand thanks to the efforts of this man.

 

"When the authorities wanted to tear down the wall, I told them that this wasn’t a wall they could demolish⁷. And I told them if you do this, it means you are all anti-Semites. This wall has a history. People died here of hunger and Poles on the other side threw food to them. If they were caught by the Germans, it meant their deaths."

 

Mieczyslaw remembers the war is his past. The 87-year-old now lives next to the wall. An amateur historian for decades, he struggled to preserve the Ghetto remains⁸, writing letters to politicians and repairing the crumbling⁹ wall.

 

"It’s because this is history. One day I’m going to die. But today while I’m still alive fighting, nobody seems to care. Just think about when I am gone! I’ve been waging this battle for 30 years, we could’ve built a pyramid by now. That’s history. And a nation without history, whether it’s good or bad, will after a time cease to be a nation."

 

Mieczyslaw is not Jewish and never lived in a Ghetto. But the pain, hunger and fear, and dirt there hit close to home. After the war, he spent three years as a POW in a Soviet¹⁰ gulag, another prison painful to remember but impossible to forget.

 

1 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

2 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

3 razed   

v.彻底摧毁，将…夷为平地( raze的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The village was razed to the ground . 这座村庄被夷为平地。
• Many villages were razed to the ground. 许多村子被夷为平地。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 skyscrapers   

n.摩天大楼

参考例句：

• A lot of skyscrapers in Manhattan are rising up to the skies. 曼哈顿有许多摩天大楼耸入云霄。
• On all sides, skyscrapers rose like jagged teeth. 四周耸起的摩天大楼参差不齐。

5 westward   

n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西

参考例句：

• We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
• Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。

6 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

7 demolish   

v.拆毁(建筑物等)，推翻(计划、制度等)

参考例句：

• They're going to demolish that old building.他们将拆毁那座旧建筑物。
• He was helping to demolish an underground garage when part of the roof collapsed.他当时正在帮忙拆除一个地下汽车库，屋顶的一部份突然倒塌。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

10 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。