VOA标准英语2012--Living Museums Bring Static History to Life

 

Living Museums Bring Static History to Life

This is the time of year when thousands of tourists descend¹ upon Washington, D.C., to see the capital’s great monuments and museums, including the National Gallery of Art and an array of Smithsonian museums.

These are what might be called “static” museums. You walk in, see the pioneer Wright Brothers plane hanging from the ceiling or a great Vermeer painting, or a display of American Indian artifacts.

You look at them, maybe read a placard, or perhaps wear a headset in which a narrator gives you more background about what you’re seeing.

But in today’s world of spectacular theme parks and dazzling electronic diversions, curators at smaller museums around the country found that busy travelers - especially those with kids - were not coming the way they used to.

Looking at pictures of, or by, long-dead artists or cultural pioneers just wasn’t entertaining.

They needed to make history and art come to life, to somehow transport visitors to time periods or experiences being displayed.

So a whole new kind of museum was born - the “living history” museum.

Places such as Williamsburg, Virginia, the first and perhaps most successful of these models. It’s a completely re-created village from the days when the town was the colonial capital of Virginia.

There, characters in 18th-Century costumes fire off cannons², parade like British soldiers, farm gardens using massive plow³ horses, sing drinking songs, and even serve up tankards of beer to go with them.

And visitors get to put their heads and hands in the stocks for a photograph, help the tinsmith make spoons, or feed yarn⁴ to women in costume who are weaving.

But historical purists say all this fun stretches the truth of what life was really like which, in many cases, was hard, even brutal⁵. They fuss that tourists come away enchanted⁶ but having learned very little.

The counter argument is that if visitors can discover even a few things about, say, America’s whaling tradition or the real First Thanksgiving - and have a good time doing it - that’s more than they’d get out of looking at a bunch of boring displays.

1 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。

2 cannons   

n.加农炮，大炮，火炮( cannon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cannons bombarded enemy lines. 大炮轰击了敌军阵地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• One company had been furnished with six cannons. 某连队装备了六门大炮。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 plow   

n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough

参考例句：

• At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
• We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后，我们将马上耕田。

4 yarn   

n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事

参考例句：

• I stopped to have a yarn with him.我停下来跟他聊天。
• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。

5 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

6 enchanted   

adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She was enchanted by the flowers you sent her. 她非常喜欢你送给她的花。
• He was enchanted by the idea. 他为这个主意而欣喜若狂。