2007年VOA标准英语-Supporters of Interim Visitors Center Push for

By Mona Ghuneim
New York
07 September 2007

As the sixth anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terror attack approaches, construction of a memorial and museum at the site of the former World Trade Center has been underway for more than a year. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is slated¹ for a partial opening in 2009. But some survivors², families of the victims, rescue workers and community members have been working on a memorial project of their own, a visitors center they hope will be integrated into the museum when it finally opens its doors. From VOA's New York Bureau, Mona Ghuneim reports.

Tribute Center

Lee Ielpi is one of the founders³ of the Tribute Center, the visitors center located at Ground Zero, the seven-hectare area where the Twin Towers once stood. He lost his son, a New York City firefighter, on September 11th. A retired⁴ firefighter himself, Ielpi volunteered at the recovery site but always felt the need to do more. He says that when he realized the national museum and memorial weren't going to be finished until at least 2009, he wanted something sooner. So in 2004, he and co-founder Jennifer Adams began work on an "interim⁵ museum." They felt tourists and visitors deserved a more immediate⁶ interpretation⁷ of the area.

"Before that, there was a fence, and you would come here and you'd look through a fence," Ielpi said. "And you wouldn't know what you were looking at. You didn't know if you were in the right spot."

Ielpi says the Tribute Center aims to show visitors the "right spots" at Ground Zero, with the right people. Two-hundred volunteers made up of survivors, family members, rescue workers and lower Manhattan residents work at the center. They offer walking tours of the area and are on hand to speak with visitors.

The Tribute Center is composed of five small galleries in a space that was a fast food restaurant before September 11. The galleries show artifacts recovered from the site including firefighter badges. Quotations⁸ on the walls are from oral histories of survivors and witnesses. Located across the street from the National Museum, the Tribute Center is independent of the museum but collaborates⁹ with it.

The Center's exhibits director, Wendy Aibel-Weiss, says the center has a cooperative relationship with the future National Museum. She says the Tribute Center has a very personal approach.

"The one thing that is special to the Tribute Center, that's unique to this place, which may or may not be happening across the street, is that everything in our museum is an authentic¹⁰ story," she said. "Everything that's said here are people's real experiences."

Aibel-Weiss says the center has received almost 300,000 visitors since it opened in September of 2006, but has not done any formal outreach.

rendering11 of proposed World Trade Center Memorial" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070914/0926591.jpg" width="210" vspace="2" border="0" />

This file image provided by World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation on March 11, 2006, shows artist's rendering of proposed World Trade Center Memorial

Co-founder Ielpi is also on the board of the National Museum, but he says he is not sure what the museum has in mind for the Tribute Center. He says he hopes the two will merge¹².

"What we'd like to see, and what so many people are now talking about, is picking us up and moving us across the street and we'd become the visitors' center across the street," he said. "Sounds like the right thing to do."

Ielpi says the Tribute Center, which was created with help from the September 11th Families Association, is only about family. He says there are no politics involved, but the families of the victims have often disagreed on what should be created on the World Trade Center site.

1 slated   

用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Yuki is working up an in-home phonics program slated for Thursdays, and I'm drilling her on English conversation at dinnertime. Yuki每周四还有一次家庭语音课。我在晚餐时训练她的英语口语。
• Bromfield was slated to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. 布罗姆菲尔德被提名为美国农业部长。

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

6 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

7 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

8 quotations   

n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价

参考例句：

• The insurance company requires three quotations for repairs to the car. 保险公司要修理这辆汽车的三家修理厂的报价单。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These quotations cannot readily be traced to their sources. 这些引语很难查出出自何处。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 collaborates   

合作( collaborate的第三人称单数 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Third, main economy Central Bank collaborates to cut the interest rate. 第三，主要经济体央行联手降低利率。
• Any one who collaborates should be shot. 与敌人勾结者一律枪决。

10 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

11 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

12 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。