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VOA慢速英语-SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Stopping to Smell the Roses, a

时间:2008-08-22 06:20来源:互联网 提供网友:jameslee   字体: [ ]
    (单词翻译:双击或拖选)
VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty1.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we visit the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The United States Botanic Garden is located on the grounds of the Capitol, the building where Congress meets. In fact, Congress operates the garden through the office of the Architect of the Capitol. The Botanic Garden is a museum alive with four thousand different plants from across America and the world.
 
Conservatory2 building at the U.S. Botanic Garden. At right is the dome3 of the Capitol.

Visitors can explore the collection indoors, in the glass-and-stone building called the Conservatory, and also outdoors. Next to the Conservatory is the National Garden, which opened in two thousand six.

VOICE TWO:

The National Garden took five years to build. The project cost ten million dollars and was financed with private donations.

Visitors can enjoy wildflowers and roses -- the rose is the national flower -- along with beautiful stonework, fountains and pools. One area of the National Garden presents plants that attract butterflies. Another has plants native to the mid-Atlantic area.

The National Garden also includes a square with a fountain based on a complex geometric design. This area is called the First Ladies Water Garden. It has two purposes. One is to honor the wives of American presidents and their service to the country. The other is to recognize the importance of water to life and civilization.

VOICE ONE:
 

Clematis Josephine, or Evijohill, in Bartholdi Park

Across the street from the National Garden and the Conservatory is Bartholdi Park. The park was created in nineteen thirty-two and is also part of the Botanic Garden.

Plants and garden designs are set around the historic Bartholdi Fountain, sculpted4 by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. He was the French sculptor5 whose better known works include the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The historic roots of the United States Botanic Garden go back to the eighteen hundreds. But the garden has been in its present location since nineteen thirty-three.

We visit on a hot August day. We decide to ignore the heat and see the open-air exhibits first. Throughout the Botanic Garden currently is an exhibit called "One Planet -- Ours!" The exhibit urges people to take better care of Earth's resources and to improve the environment.

Global warming is the subject of a collection of artwork in the National Garden. There are sculptures of Earth called "Cool Globes." One of the globes is by a twelve-year-old girl, Emily Abrams, who wanted children to help fight global warming. She exchanged e-mail with children in twenty-four countries around the world to get their ideas.

The result is a richly colored globe called "Listen to Our Children." Emily had help from, among others, her sister and brothers and from artist Michelle Korte Leccia.

Paintings by children from Tortuguero, Costa Rica, cover the oceans on the globe. The children painted on handmade paper made of banana leaves. Their suggestion for fighting global warming is to protect the rainforests.

VOICE ONE:

Another of the globes in the National Garden is called "Unplugged Fun." It was made by students and teachers at the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, Illinois. Children ages four to eighteen suggested play activities that do not require any electric power. One picture shows children on park swings. In another picture, a person rows a boat on a bright blue sea.

A nonprofit organization called Cool Globes created the exhibit at the Botanic Garden. The exhibit continues through October thirteenth.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:
 

Rosa Mermaid6 hybrid7 bracteata rose in the National Garden

As we pass through the National Garden, we see switchgrass. The plants are standing8 tall in the sun. Gardeners plant switchgrass for its stately appearance. Farmers use it to separate crops and to hold soil in place. And now, some energy experts think switchgrass could serve another purpose, as an important resource for fuel.

Next, we walk over to the First Ladies Water Garden and see a memorial exhibit for Lady Bird Johnson. She was the wife of Lyndon Johnson, America's thirty-sixth president.

Lady Bird Johnson beautified the White House gardens and other gardens and parks. She also campaigned for a law called the Beautification Act of Nineteen Sixty-Five. That law resulted in more wildflowers and fewer big advertising9 signs along the nation's highways.

VOICE ONE:

Lady Bird Johnson died last year at age ninety-four. At the age of seventy, she established a wildflower research center. That center is now part of the University of Texas at Austin, which created the exhibit honoring her at the National Garden.

There are plants from different parts of the country. A magnolia, for example, represents trees from the Southeast and the Midwest. A Colorado blue spruce tree and a plant called silver pony10 foot help represent the Rocky Mountains and the Southwest.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Next, we enter the Conservatory. The air is cooler inside. We walk past two narrow pools. Water shoots into the air alongside tall plants and trees.

The building is divided into rooms. Each room recreates different habitat conditions. The areas of the Conservatory include medicinal plants, rare and endangered species, a children's garden, a Hawaiian garden, a jungle and a desert.

In the Garden Court we find some examples of what experts call "economic plants." We start getting hungry as we see plants and trees bearing olives, figs11, almonds, plums, tea, coffee and rice.

A family of five from Costa Rica is resting on a Garden Court bench. The mother recognizes one of the trees. She tells her children that they have those trees back home.

VOICE ONE:

We move from the relative cool of the Garden Court into the warmth of a jungle. Sunlight from outside shines on this thick green world. The light comes through the top of the building. The glass-covered area in the Palm Court is about twenty-eight meters high. We can climb steps to see the palm trees and other growth from above. Or we can ride up in an elevator.

From these heights, we can see rings that circle the bottoms of the royal palms. Other trees called teddy bear palms have material that looks like brown fur. And we see trees that look like huge bottles, which we suspect explains their name: bottle palms.

VOICE TWO:

An exhibit of plants with healing qualities attracts a small crowd in the Conservatory. The exhibit presents a traditional market like those of the KwaZulu-Natal people of South Africa.

The Plant Exploration House in the Conservatory presents modern relatives of plants collected long ago by Admiral Charles Wilkes. Wilkes was an explorer. He traveled around the world between eighteen thirty-eight and eighteen forty-two.

Among the plants in the collection are birds of paradise. These have yellow and blue flowers that make them look more like birds than plants.

VOICE ONE:

Some rare orchids13 grow among the hundreds of birds of paradise. The orchids seem to bloom in all colors.

We meet a young woman from Brazil who is intensely studying the flowers. She says she hopes to find some local favorites here. Soon enough, she sees an orchid12 that grows in southern Brazil.

The young woman tells us that she is a student of horticulture, the art and science of growing things.

VOICE TWO:

The Botanic Garden offers classes for people who want to learn about growing things. For example, there were classes this summer about how to grow herbs and flowers in containers at home.

Other classes dealt with the environment. A scientist from NASA, the American space agency, explained how a warming climate affects the world's water systems.

VOICE ONE:

The internationally known horticulturist who heads the Botanic Garden, Holly14 Shimizu, describes Earth as humanity's garden. And she says people have a responsibility to take care of it.

People also have to take care of the Botanic Garden. But machines can do some of the work. Computers operate the environmental control system in the Conservatory. They can do things like raise and lower shade cloth over the windows and control heat and air-handling equipment. The computers make sure temperatures and humidity levels are just right in relation to the weather outside.

VOICE TWO:

The Conservatory re-opened in December of two thousand one after four years of work. The building systems were replaced and modernized15. But except for a small addition, the outside of the Conservatory looks much as it did in nineteen thirty-three.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Brianna Blake. The United States Botanic Garden offers a virtual tour at usbg.gov. For a link, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 doughty Jk5zg     
adj.勇猛的,坚强的
参考例句:
  • Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质:脾气倔强,性格刚强。
  • The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
2 conservatory 4YeyO     
n.温室,音乐学院;adj.保存性的,有保存力的
参考例句:
  • At the conservatory,he learned how to score a musical composition.在音乐学校里,他学会了怎样谱曲。
  • The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants.这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。
3 dome 7s2xC     
n.圆屋顶,拱顶
参考例句:
  • The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
  • They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。
4 sculpted da5be298460bb9f4b0690c2dc86da0af     
adj.经雕塑的
参考例句:
  • a display of animals sculpted in ice 冰雕动物展
  • The ladies had their hair sculpted by the leading coiffeur of the day. 女士们的发型都是当代有名的理发师做的。
5 sculptor 8Dyz4     
n.雕刻家,雕刻家
参考例句:
  • A sculptor forms her material.雕塑家把材料塑造成雕塑品。
  • The sculptor rounded the clay into a sphere.那位雕塑家把黏土做成了一个球状。
6 mermaid pCbxH     
n.美人鱼
参考例句:
  • How popular would that girl be with the only mermaid mom!和人鱼妈妈在一起,那个女孩会有多受欢迎!
  • The little mermaid wasn't happy because she didn't want to wait.小美人鱼不太高兴,因为她等不及了。
7 hybrid pcBzu     
n.(动,植)杂种,混合物
参考例句:
  • That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
  • The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。
8 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
9 advertising 1zjzi3     
n.广告业;广告活动 a.广告的;广告业务的
参考例句:
  • Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
  • The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
10 pony Au5yJ     
adj.小型的;n.小马
参考例句:
  • His father gave him a pony as a Christmas present.他父亲给了他一匹小马驹作为圣诞礼物。
  • They made him pony up the money he owed.他们逼他还债。
11 figs 14c6a7d3f55a72d6eeba2b7b66c6d0ab     
figures 数字,图形,外形
参考例句:
  • The effect of ring dyeing is shown in Figs 10 and 11. 环形染色的影响如图10和图11所示。
  • The results in Figs. 4 and 5 show the excellent agreement between simulation and experiment. 图4和图5的结果都表明模拟和实验是相当吻合的。
12 orchid b02yP     
n.兰花,淡紫色
参考例句:
  • The orchid is a class of plant which I have never tried to grow.兰花这类植物我从来没种过。
  • There are over 35 000 species of orchid distributed throughout the world.有35,000多种兰花分布在世界各地。
13 orchids 8f804ec07c1f943ef9230929314bd063     
n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Wild flowers such as orchids and primroses are becoming rare. 兰花和报春花这类野花越来越稀少了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • She breeds orchids in her greenhouse. 她在温室里培育兰花。 来自《简明英汉词典》
14 holly hrdzTt     
n.[植]冬青属灌木
参考例句:
  • I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
  • People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。
15 modernized 4754ec096b71366cfd27a164df163ef2     
使现代化,使适应现代需要( modernize的过去式和过去分词 ); 现代化,使用现代方法
参考例句:
  • By 1985 the entire railway network will have been modernized. 等到1985年整个铁路网就实现现代化了。
  • He set about rebuilding France, and made it into a brilliant-looking modernized imperialism. 他试图重建法国,使它成为一项表面华丽的现代化帝业。
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