THIS IS AMERICA - To Win New Visitors, Las Vegas Puts Its Mo

THIS IS AMERICA - To Win New Visitors, Las Vegas Puts Its Money on Old Image as Adult Playground
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, December 12, 2005

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. A marketing¹ campaign for Las Vegas says, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." What does happen there? That is our subject this week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Las Vegas, Nevada, began as a small settlement in a sandy desert. Trains stopped there for water. Today people stop there for a lot more.

 
arttoday las vegas roulette
The city is famous for its hotels and casinos where people risk their money on games of chance. Many visitors to Las Vegas bring their families. There is entertainment by top performers. Not all the entertainment, though, is fit for children.

To some people, Las Vegas is a moral wasteland -- "Sin City." To others, that is the appeal.

VOICE TWO:

Away from the gambling² and the big hotels, Las Vegas can seem like any other city. True, its mayor, Oscar Goodman, formerly³ served as a defense⁴ lawyer in organized-crime cases. But there are stores and schools and houses -- and lots of people who want to live in those homes. The population of Las Vegas and its surrounding communities is nearing two million.

The federal government says the population rose by more than eighty percent between nineteen ninety and two thousand. In fact, in the national population count of two thousand, it was the fastest-growing area in the country.

VOICE ONE:

The weather is usually warm and sunny, and the air is dry. The average temperature is between nineteen and twenty degrees Celsius⁵.

The climate for jobs looks good, too. Many people move to Las Vegas to work in the hotels or the building trades, or in jobs that service those industries.

Unlike most Americans, people who live in Nevada do not have to pay a state tax on their wages.

VOICE TWO:

But Las Vegas has a problem like that of many other desert communities. The city needs more water. The area depends heavily on Lake Mead⁶, on the border with Arizona. Lake Mead is a man-made body of water fed by the Colorado River. But in recent years, a shortage⁷ of rain has decreased the water level in Lake Mead.

To deal with the water shortage, Las Vegas sends some of its used water back into the Colorado River to use again. The city has some of the most severe restrictions⁸ in the country on the use of water for things like watering grass. Officials urge people to grow desert plants instead.

(Music)

But some officials believe that efforts to save water are not enough. They want to build to build a pipeline⁹ almost four hundred kilometers long. The pipeline would carry groundwater from other areas of Nevada to Las Vegas. It would cost two thousand million dollars to build.

 
McCulloch las vegas recovers Venetian courtyard at night
VOICE ONE:

Each year, more than thirty-five million people visit Las Vegas looking for a good time. The signs on the hotels are huge and brightly colored. Author Tom Wolfe wrote that Las Vegas is the only town in the world where the signs make up the skyline.

Some of the most unusual hotels in America can be found along what is known as the Strip. Visitors to the Luxor Hotel, for example, can feel like they are in ancient Egypt. The three-sided building looks like a pyramid, only it is made of black glass.

Inside, visitors ride in boats along what is meant to be the Nile River. There is a huge statue like an ancient Egyptian sphinx, and a burial place like that of King Tutankhamen.

Another place along the Strip, the Bellagio Hotel and Casino, has a water-and-light show that visitors gather to watch.

The Wynn Las Vegas Hotel is a recent addition to the Strip. It opened in April. The Wynn cost almost three thousand million dollars to build.

VOICE TWO:

A number of older hotels in Las Vegas have been brought down in recent years to make room for new ones. Presidents Harry¹⁰ Truman and John F. Kennedy stayed with their families at the Sands Hotel and Casino. The Sands has been gone since nineteen ninety-six.

The end was sad for people who remember hearing artists like Frank Sinatra perform there. Sinatra made the hotel a headquarters for more than forty years.

 
Frank Sinatra
Sinatra led a group of friends who were also famous. This so-called Rat Pack often entertained with him. The group included Sammy Davis Junior and Dean¹¹ Martin. Listen as Dean Martin sings "Volare."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Visitors to Las Vegas have a lot of entertainment to choose from. Currently¹² there are shows like "Mamma Mia" and "Avenue Q."

VOICE TWO:

Cirque du Soleil is appearing now at four hotels in Las Vegas. The circus performers are known for the artistry and skill in their movements.

VOICE ONE:

They seem to fly through the air. Close your eyes and imagine you are watching them.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

It is hard to imagine that Las Vegas once was just a lot of sand in the desert. American Indians long ago settled around a place where water rose from natural springs in the ground. Grass and other plants grew in this desert oasis¹³. In Spanish, "Las Vegas" means "the meadows¹⁴."

In eighteen sixty-five, a man from Ohio, Octavius Gass, had a farm of about three hundred twenty hectares there. The crops grew, kept alive by the water.

A United States senator¹⁵, William Clark of Nevada, later bought the land. Then, in nineteen-oh-five, Clark sold the land to settlers. Six years later, the Nevada legislature officially created the city of Las Vegas.

VOICE ONE:

The growing population of the American West required more water. So the federal government built Hoover Dam. The project was finished in nineteen thirty-one.

 
Hoover Dam
That same year, Nevada became the first state to approve casino gambling. Legal gambling became a way to get more visitors, and more money, into the state. The state needed the money because the population just kept increasing. Today, most of the fifty states have casinos. Often they are operated by Native American tribes¹⁶.

Many religious leaders and other people opposed the decision to make gambling legal in Nevada.

By the nineteen forties, however, Las Vegas was famous for its casinos, and its showgirls. State laws also made Nevada a place where people could get married -- or unmarried -- quickly.

VOICE TWO:

Las Vegas has long been seen as a place where adults can go to do things they might not be too proud of. In recent years, the city tried to remake itself into more of a family place. But that idea did not pay off as well. So the old image is back with sayings like "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

To some people, Las Vegas still represents all that is bad about popular culture. But a Virginia woman who recently spent a few days there had this advise for visitors:

"Do not gamble¹⁷ more money than you can lose without feeling bad. See the best shows. If you do those things, you will have a wonderful time."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁸. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

2 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

3 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

6 mead   

n.蜂蜜酒

参考例句：

• He gave me a cup of mead.他给我倒了杯蜂蜜酒。
• He drank some mead at supper.晚饭时他喝了一些蜂蜜酒。

7 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

8 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

9 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

10 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

11 Dean   

n.(大学)院长，系主任，教务长

参考例句：

• The students much like the new dean.学生们很喜欢这位新系主任。
• Who is the dean of the Foreign Languages Department?外语系主任是谁？

12 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

13 oasis   

n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方

参考例句：

• They stopped for the night at an oasis.他们在沙漠中的绿洲停下来过夜。
• The town was an oasis of prosperity in a desert of poverty.该镇是贫穷荒漠中的一块繁荣的“绿洲”。

14 meadows   

草地，牧场， （河边的）低洼地( meadow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The trail wends its way through leafy woodland and sunny meadows. 这条小径穿过葱郁的林区和洒满阳光的草地。
• They have railed the meadows off from the new railway cutting. 他们已用栏杆把草地和新铁道的路堑隔离开来。

15 senator   

n.参议员，评议员

参考例句：

• The senator urged against the adoption of the measure.那参议员极力反对采取这项措施。
• The senator's speech hit at government spending.参议员的讲话批评了政府的开支。

16 tribes   

n.部落( tribe的名词复数 )；（动、植物的）族；（一）帮；大群

参考例句：

• tribes living in remote areas of the Amazonian rainforest 居住在亚马孙河雨林偏远地区的部落
• In Africa the snake is still sacred with many tribes. 非洲许多部落仍认为蛇是不可冒犯的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 gamble   

n.冒险；v.赌博，孤注一掷

参考例句：

• Setting up this business was a bit of a gamble.开办这样的公司有点冒险。
• Drive carefully and don't gamble with your life.小心驾驶，别拿你的生命冒险。

18 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。