访谈录 2010-09-01&09-03 布拉德·皮特献爱心

We are back on a Friday night and our Making a Difference report comes from right here in the Lower Ninth Ward¹. Katrina destroyed this neighborhood, completely flooded. There were barges² and boats on these streets. There were trucks tucked under houses. When we first drove in here when the waters receded³, we had to use GPS to tell where the roads were as we first brought a vehicle in this area. A whole lot of celebrities⁴ and big names as you know responded to Katrina and they raised a fortune. Brad Pitt for himself staked out this neighborhood and slowly he is transforming it. He commissioned 21 architects. They’ve build 50 sustainable affording homes and affordable⁵ homes rather and that number is growing. And there’s someone ready to move in the minute the next home is built.
A porch. Nothing but a concrete porch that my dad built twice and a tree.
And that is all Melba Leggett-Barns was left with five years ago here in the Lower Ninth Ward.
I said, Lord, I’m to put this in your hands, I said because I don’t know what I’m doing.
The help she was praying for arrived and it came because Brad Pitt who had fallen in love with New Orleans years ago, decided⁶ to come in here and put up homes to get the people back here.
We just heard a lawn mower⁷ a minute ago which was striking because you didn’t hear anything like that for years here.
Yeah, no, nothing. Nothing. Just Mrs. LeBlanc over here in her trailer, her FEMA trailer and Mr. Green here in his trailer. And that was, and common ground was over here. That was about it.
Brad Pitt founded Make It Right, an organization devoted⁸ to building low income eco-friendly homes for people who lost everything here and because others had decided to give up on the place.
They told people that they could build on a slab⁹ here and they set them up for catastrophe¹⁰. And this place where we’re standing¹¹ right now, there were over 1,500 deaths. That was unnecessary, it shouldn’t happen. I got, I got angry, I got really angry. Now on the flip¹² side, I have a lot of friends who are, who were involved in architecture and know a lot about it.
My house is energy efficient. I love when I get my electric bill, honey. I love that. I want to make sure I get all the sun I can get.
A lot of people, so I mean, I was good at bringing smart people in to solve these problems. But that’s what architecture is. You have the challenge and the challenges of an area, you build to answer those challenges.
Homes like Melba Leggett-Barns are built to withstand a category 4 hurricane. Solar panels are installed to save on energy bills, and having open roof access is mandatory¹³ because of the horrors we all watched during Katrina.
Take us into the future. As if we stand here five years from now. What does the neighborhood look like?
Well, this is where you see a third of the homes up now. We got half the homes in process. There’ll be 150 of these homes in that time. But I would like to see this spread. I’m hoping we raise more money to expand this idea. So I would like to see this expand to the city, expand to other places in the US. This idea of making you right, making a home that’s fair to the people who live there.
The houses cost about 150,000 dollars each. Brad Pitt says he’s in this to stay and because of this effort, Melba Leggett-Barns is now back home to stay.
It didn’t dawn on me that he would do anything. He’s like an angel. He looks, he got an angel face. If you put some wings on him and he’ll fly away.
Part of our time with Brad Pitt and talk about a day in the life. After our conversation, Brad Pitt wanted to just duck across the street, talk to a few of the neighbors, friends of his. They had house guests, visiting school teachers from New Jersey¹⁴. While he’s seen as Brad, the builder around here in the Lower Ninth Ward, he is a movie star after all. And the paparazzi had followed him out here and staked him out all the way out here. This is not the French Quarter. And when they started asking questions about his wife and whether or not he was interested in dancing with the stars. That’s when he had to go back inside because to him, today was supposed to be about this rebuilding effort, slow and steady throughout this neighborhood.

1 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

2 barges   

驳船( barge的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The tug is towing three barges. 那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。
• There were plenty of barges dropping down with the tide. 有不少驳船顺流而下。

3 receded   

v.逐渐远离( recede的过去式和过去分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• The floodwaters have now receded. 洪水现已消退。
• The sound of the truck receded into the distance. 卡车的声音渐渐在远处消失了。

4 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

5 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 mower   

n.割草机

参考例句：

• We need a lawn mower to cut the grass.我们需要一台草坪修剪机来割草。
• Your big lawn mower is just the job for the high grass.割高草时正需要你的大割草机。

8 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

9 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

10 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

11 standing   

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。

12 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

13 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

14 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。