VOA标准英语2009年-'Copenhagen' Ice Sculpture Melts Heart

With negotiators trying to hammer out a deal on climate change in Copenhagen, a sculptor¹ in London is creating a piece of art to mirror the melting ice in the Arctic. His ice sculpture of a polar bear is designed to melt by the end of the Copenhagen Conference, leaving behind a brass² skeleton, and a big puddle³ of water.

Jennifer Glasse | London 12 December 2009

Artist Mark Coreth works on his 'Copenhagen' ice bear sculpture in Trafalgar Square in London, England

It started out as a nine ton block of ice... inside, a bronze skeleton modeled on a full-size male polar bear.  It's called the bear in the square, the brainchild of artist Mark Coreth. He says this piece of work is more about the melting ice of the Arctic than polar bears.

"When you touch that ice bear, you're touching⁴ the Arctic, you're touching the whole of that problem and what I hope is people will touch the bear, touch the Arctic, will get an understanding for the problem up there and ultimately become part of the solution," he said.

Even while sculpting⁵, Coreth tries to get everyone involved. He was inspired when visiting a remote Inuit community in Northern Canada, and now wants to share his experiences of seeing polar bears and the Arctic.

Explorer Pen Hadow led a two-and-a-half-month trek⁶ earlier this year that revealed Arctic ice is melting faster than previously⁷ thought. The bear he says brings that message home.

"It gives people an opportunity to connect with literally⁸ the processes that are going on up on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean around the North Pole which is melting," said Hadow.

As Coreth put the finishing touches on his work, the sun was getting high.  

"He's already melting, he's already beginning to tell his message," explained Coreth.

While this work isn't about polar bears specifically, the melting Arctic does mean they're threatened. The Arctic ice is their main habitat, and when it goes, their numbers are expected to drop dramatically, says Colin Butfield - the campaign's director for the World Wildlife Fund.

"Because it's happening so quickly, they haven't had time to adapt and change, if you imagine a climate changing over hundreds of thousands of years, bears and other animals would gradually move into other habitats, but because this is going to happen over decades, it will be too fast for them to adapt and look for other food sources," said Mr. Butfield.

This is a hands-on piece of art. The public is encouraged to touch it. The heat of their hands, likely to accelerate the melting process. In the end, all there will be is a giant puddle of water, the bronze skeleton and plaques⁹ -- a kind of testimony¹⁰ to the crisis of climate change.

There's another bear just like this in Copenhagen because the idea behind this whole exercise is to keep up pressure on negotiators at the climate conference to come up with a deal.

 

1 sculptor   

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。

2 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

3 puddle   

n.(雨)水坑，泥潭

参考例句：

• The boy hopped the mud puddle and ran down the walk.这个男孩跳过泥坑，沿着人行道跑了。
• She tripped over and landed in a puddle.她绊了一下，跌在水坑里。

4 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

5 sculpting   

雕刻( sculpt的现在分词 )； 雕塑； 做（头发）； 梳（发式）

参考例句：

• The quality of the result is determined by a Craft( sculpting) check. 由手艺（刻）定决定结果质量如何。
• Another difficulty in the process of ice sculpting is time control. 冰雕过程中的另一项困难是时间的掌控。

6 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

7 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 plaques   

（纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑

参考例句：

• Primary plaques were detectable in 16 to 20 hours. 在16到20小时内可查出原发溶斑。
• The gondoliers wore green and white livery and silver plaques on their chests. 船夫们穿着白绿两色的制服，胸前别着银质徽章。

10 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。