大学英语精读听力第四册 unit9

[00:00.00]Unit Nine  Text
[00:15.05]In 1976,during America\'s bicetennial celebration,
[00:19.98]a family decided to travel to the American West
[00:23.12]instead of joining the majority of people that were celebrating on the East Coast.
[00:27.77]They wanted to follow the trails that the pioneers had made
[00:31.71]when they began to settle the West.
[00:34.06]The family was looking forward to making their own discoveries.
[00:38.16]JOURNEY WEST Jim Doherty
[00:41.35]We began our trip out West on June 19,1976,
[00:46.92]a time when millions of other American families
[00:49.89]were preparing to crowd into the Bicentennial shrines of the East.
[00:53.76]We sized up America\'s 200th birthday celebration a bit differently.
[00:58.64]Although the Republic may have been born in the East,
[01:01.73]it had spent most of its time and energies since then moving west.
[01:05.88]So we resolved to head in the same direction in 1976,
[01:10.32]following the old pioneer trails and the famous rivers.
[01:14.45]Concentrating primarily on Wyoming and Montana,
[01:17.69]we would explore such legendary mountain ranges as the Big Horns,
[01:21.53]the Bitterroots and the Swan.
[01:23.80]There was one problem though.
[01:26.07]I was sure our four kids--educated about the West through the movies--
[01:30.54]would be disappointed.
[01:30.59]As an environmental editor,
[01:32.73]I knew that strip mining was tearing up many scenic areas
[01:36.29]and that clear-cutting was causing widespread damage in the mountains.
[01:39.79]I was well aware that draining and damming
[01:42.79]were making a mess of many rivers and wetlands.
[01:45.12]The grasslands were overgrazed and coal-burning power plants were befouling the air.
[01:50.79]Wildlife was on the run everywhere
[01:53.55]and tourists were turning the national parks into slums.
[01:56.90]I was prepared for the worst.
[01:58.75]But how to prepare the kids?
[02:01.00]The answer,we decided,
[02:03.09]was to undertake our journey not just as tourists on a holiday,
[02:06.90]but as reporters on the trail of "the real West."
[02:10.56]So all of us,from my kids to my wife,
[02:13.41]pledged to do our homework before we left and to record on the way everything we did,
[02:18.55]saw,heard,felt or thought.
[02:21.61]Predictably, we did not uncover any new truths about the West in three short weeks.
[02:28.06]But there were plenty of surprises on that 5,200-mile journey
[02:32.53]and the biggest one was this: I had been wrong.
[02:35.87]Some of the troubles we saw were every bit as bad as I had dreaded.
[02:40.03]But by and large,the country was as glorious,
[02:42.98]as vast and as overwhelmingly spectacular
[02:45.93]as those know-nothing kids had expected!
[02:48.67]Half the fun of going west is discovering,along the way,
[02:52.46]how much the past is still with us.
[02:54.89]Old wives\'s tales.
[02:55.00]Little old farm towns shaded from the summer heat by enormous maple trees on streets.
[03:00.51]White-haired folks reading the paper on their farmhouse porches at sunset.
[03:05.16]Worn-out windmills standing alone in pastures...All in all,
[03:05.23]we did not see much evidence that smalltown America is vanishing
[03:09.02]as we traveled through rural Wisconsin,Minnesota and South Dakota.
[03:13.51]It\'s true that many new homes are rising in many old cornfields.
[03:18.11]But for the most part,
[03:19.21]life in vast areas of the American heartland remains
[03:22.55]pretty much the same as it was 30 and 40 years ago.
[03:26.10]In the hilly farmlands of southern Wisconsin and Minnesota,
[03:30.05]we found the fields and forests green and the creeks still flowing.
[03:33.97]The farms,with their "eggs for sale"signs
[03:37.81]and enormous "grandma\'s gardens"in the front yards,looked prosperous and secure.
[03:43.16]Not much further north,though,a drought was threatening the land.
[03:47.73]In South Dakota, the situation was far worse.
[03:51.52]"Haven\'t seen anything like this since the dirty thirties,"one farmer told us.
[03:56.20]Even in nomal times,most of South Dakota is dry.
[04:00.09]Now it was being burned to a crisp.
[04:02.91]The water holes were dried up
[04:05.37]and we saw dead cattle lying here and there in the treeless,rolling range.
[04:09.73]Some farmers were hauling water out to their thirsty stock daily;
[04:13.99]other were trying to drill deep wells.
[04:16.73]We saw two distinctly different Wyomings
[04:19.81]We crossed the first Wyoming between the Black Hills and the Big Horns.
[04:24.10]Wide-open grass land,fenced and colorless,
[04:27.26]with red rocks and sweet-smelling shrubs scattered about,
[04:30.70]it was typical of a hard-used land.
[04:33.32]Cattle grazed on it.
[04:33.42]Oil rigs pumped on it and power lines zigzagged all over it.
[04:37.79]Freight trains labored across it,hauling coal from strip mine to power plant,
[04:42.67]hauling uranium and other minerals to refineries.
[04:46.04]This Wyoming,clearly,was booming.
[04:48.50]The other Wyoming started some miles east of Buffalo,
[04:48.57]an unexpectedly graceful community in the foothills of the Big Horns.
[04:52.83]On one side of town,antelope abounded by fours and fives in the hills,
[04:57.40]and yellow wild flowers lined the roads.
[05:00.40]On the other side rose the Big horns and nearly 10,000 feet up,
[05:04.40]Powder River Pass cut through them.
[05:06.67]The Big Horn canyons were incredible,
[05:09.41]with four and five distinct layers of pine trees somehow clinging to the steep,rochy walls.
[05:15.87]Far,far below,Ten Sleep Creek was a thin,white torrent on the rampage.
[05:21.93]In some of the less wild terrain,we saw deer on the high green hillsides and,
[05:27.91]as we climbed up toward our picnic spot,we flushed two does and two fawns.
[05:27.96]That night,we fell asleep with the roar of Ten Sleep in our ears.
[05:32.43]We had picked by chance for our stopping place an area rich in western lore.
[05:38.25]At one time,Ten Sleep--a small village at the western base of the Big Horns--
[05:43.71]lay midway between two great Indian camps.
[05:47.08]In those days,the Indians measured distances by the number of sleeps
[05:52.26]and the halfway mark between those two camps was exactly ten sleeps.
[05:56.70]We crossed the Continental Divide for the first time on a cool morning,
[06:01.32]cutting through the Rockies in northwestern Wyoming
[06:04.09]at a place called Togwatee Pass(at a height of 9,656 feet).
[06:10.02]Our van had just leveled off and we were rounding a downhill bend when,
[06:14.38]all at once,there they were,
[06:16.65]streched out before us in aspectacular procession of massive white peaks:
[06:21.49]the Tetons My wife gasped and,behind us,the kids began to yell.
[06:27.52]In truth,it was a startling sight--a sight none of us will ever forget.
[06:32.54]We had seen mountains before,
[06:34.78]but we had never experienced anything even remotely like that initial impact of the Tetons.
[06:41.03]It was exactly what we had in mind when we decided to take our first trip "out West."
[06:40.03]New  Words
[06:57.32]bicentennial
[06:59.96]a.happening once in 200 years; of a 200th anniver-sary
[07:02.60]shrine
[07:03.52]n.神殿,圣地
[07:04.45]resolve
[07:03.95]vt.决心;决定
[07:03.45]trail
[07:04.27]n.小径,小道
[07:05.10]legendary
[07:06.01]a.传奇（似）的
[07:06.92]mountain range
[07:07.66]山脉
[07:08.39]disappointed
[07:09.21]a.失望的
[07:10.03]environmental
[07:10.87]a.环境的
[07:11.71]environment
[07:12.54]n.
[07:13.38]editor
[07:12.88]n.编辑
[07:12.38]strip mine
[07:13.15]n.露天矿 vt.露天开采
[07:13.92]scenic
[07:14.68]a.天然风景的
[07:15.43]clear-cut
[07:16.20]vt.将…的树木砍伐光
[07:16.97]drain
[07:17.71]vt.排（水等）
[07:18.44]dam
[07:19.08]n.坝,水闸  vt.build a dam across
[07:19.72]mess
[07:20.55]n.混乱肮脏
[07:21.39]wetland
[07:22.04]n.沼泽地
[07:22.70]grassland
[07:23.43]n.草地;牧场
[07:24.16]overgraze
[07:25.05]vt.   在...上过度放牧
[07:25.93]power plant
[07:26.74]发电厂
[07:27.55]befoul
[07:28.35]vt.弄脏
[07:29.15]wildlife
[07:29.97]n. 野生动植物
[07:30.79]tourist
[07:31.64]n.游客
[07:32.49]slum
[07:33.11]n.贫民窟
[07:33.72]undertake
[07:34.63]vt.承担;从事
[07:35.55]pledge
[07:36.17]vt.发誓,保证
[07:36.80]predictably
[07:37.52]ad.as one may predict
[07:38.24]uncover
[07:39.06]vt.揭开...盖子;发现
[07:39.88]know-nothing
[07:40.60]a.ignorant  n. ignoramus
[07:41.32]shade
[07:42.00]vt.荫蔽
[07:42.68]maple
[07:43.31]n.槭树,枫树
[07:43.93]folk  (AmE folks)
[07:44.48]n.people
[07:45.03]worn-out
[07:45.81]a.破旧的;精疲力尽的
[07:46.60]windmill
[07:47.29]n.风车
[07:47.98]pasture
[07:48.67]n.牧扬;牧草
[07:49.37]rural
[07:50.05]a.农村的
[07:50.73]cornfield
[07:51.55]n.(AmE)玉米田;(BrE)小麦田,谷物田
[07:52.37]heartland
[07:52.41]n.心脏地带,中心地带
[07:52.44]hilly
[07:53.16]a.full of hills
[07:53.88]grandma
[07:54.45]n.(informal)grandmother
[07:55.03]secure
[07:55.66]a.安全的
[07:56.28]drought
[07:57.03]n.干旱
[07:57.77]crisp
[07:58.40]a.脆的;易碎的 n.something crisp
[07:59.03]rolling
[07:59.65]a.绵延起伏的
[08:00.28]haul
[08:00.97]vt.拖曳
[08:01.66]stock
[08:02.38]n.牲畜
[08:03.10]distinctly
[08:03.94]ad.clearly
[08:04.77]graze
[08:05.45]v.吃（…的）草
[08:06.13]rig
[08:06.97]n.  钻塔
[08:07.80]pump
[08:08.49]vt.泵
[08:09.19]zigzag
[08:09.81]vi.弯弯曲曲地行走 n.a line shaped like row of  z\'s
[08:10.44]freight
[08:11.11]n.货物
[08:11.77]freight train
[08:11.81]n.(AmE) goods  train
[08:11.85]uranium
[08:12.58]n.铀
[08:13.31]refinery
[08:13.86]n.精炼厂,提炼厂
[08:14.41]boom
[08:15.04]vi.迅速发展,兴盛
[08:15.67]graceful
[08:16.25]a.优雅的
[08:16.84]grace
[08:17.47]n.
[08:18.09]foothill
[08:18.66]n.山麓小丘
[08:19.22]antelope
[08:19.78]n.羚羊
[08:20.34]abound
[08:19.84]vi.(特产)丰富
[08:19.34]canyon
[08:18.84]n.峡谷
[08:18.34]distinct
[08:18.96]a.明显的;不同的
[08:19.57]pine
[08:20.07]n.松树;松木
[08:20.56]cling
[08:21.23]vi.紧握着
[08:21.89]steep
[08:22.47]a.陡峭的
[08:23.04]torrent
[08:23.58]n.激流
[08:24.11]rampage
[08:24.94]n.横冲直撞,狂暴行径
[08:25.76]terrain
[08:26.41]n.地带,地形
[08:27.07]hillside
[08:27.78]n.山腰
[08:28.50]picnic
[08:29.08]n.野餐
[08:29.65]roar
[08:30.27]n.吼叫
[08:30.88]western
[08:31.52]a.of,in,from,characteristic of the west
[08:32.16]lore
[08:32.70]n.(口头)传说
[08:33.23]midway
[08:33.87]a. & ad. in a middle position
[08:34.51]half way
[08:35.19]a. & ad.at the midpoint between two things
[08:35.87]continental
[08:36.71]a.大陆（性）的;北美大陆的
[08:37.54]van
[08:38.12]客货两用车n.
[08:38.69]level
[08:39.32]v.bring or come into a horizontal plane
[08:39.94]downhill
[08:40.52]a.(sloping or going)towards　the bottom of a hill
[08:41.09]stretch
[08:41.94]v.伸延
[08:42.79]procession
[08:43.47]行列,队伍n.
[08:44.15]massive
[08:44.82]a.粗大的,巨大的
[08:45.48]gasp
[08:46.10]v.喘息
[08:46.71]yell
[08:47.25]v.make a loud sharp cry or shout,as of pain,excitement,etc.;say
[08:47.78]remotely
[08:48.51]ad.很少地,极小地;遥远地
[08:49.24]remote
[08:49.28]a.
[08:49.32]initial
[08:48.82]a.最初的,开始的
[08:48.32]impact
[08:48.94]n.影响;冲击
[08:49.57]Phrases & Expressions
[08:52.16]size up
[08:52.77]估计;品评
[08:53.38]a bit
[08:54.13]有点儿,相当
[08:54.87]tear up
[08:55.64]撕毁,毁掉
[08:56.41]make a mess of
[08:57.30]把...弄脏;把...型糟
[08:58.19]on the run
[08:59.16]奔跑着;奔逃着
[09:00.12]do one\'s homework
[09:01.12]作必要的准备
[09:02.11]by and large
[09:03.18]on the whole;in general
[09:04.25]all in all
[09:05.05](informal)on the whole
[09:05.84]here and there
[09:06.77]零星分散,在各处
[09:07.70]burn to a crisp
[09:08.99]烤焦
[09:10.29]cut through
[09:11.07]穿过穿透,
[09:11.85]cling to
[09:12.68]紧紧抓住
[09:13.50]be/go on the /a rampage
[09:15.91]横冲直撞
[09:18.33]by chance
[09:19.22]偶然地;意外地
[09:20.11]at one time
[09:21.03]从前,曾经
[09:21.96]level off/out
[09:24.16](爬高后）水平移动;(上升后）达到平稳
[09:26.35]stretch out
[09:27.24]延伸,延续
[09:28.13]in truth
[09:29.04]的确
[09:29.96]have in mind
[09:30.92]考虑打算
[09:31.89]Proper Names
[09:34.16]Wyoming
[09:34.91]怀俄明（美国州名）
[09:35.65]Montana
[09:36.37]蒙大拿（美国州名）
[09:37.09]the Big Horns
[09:38.26]大霍恩山脉（美国山名）
[09:39.44]the Bitterroots
[09:38.94]比特鲁特山脉(美国山名)
[09:38.44]the Swan
[09:39.21]斯旺山（美国山名）
[09:39.98]Wisconsin
[09:40.87]威斯康星（美国州名）
[09:41.76]South Dakota
[09:42.77]南达科他（美国州名）
[09:43.79]the Black Hills
[09:44.81]布莱克山（美国山名）
[09:45.83]Buffalo
[09:46.81]布法罗（美国城市名）
[09:47.79]Powder River
[09:48.61]波德河（美国河流名）
[09:49.44]Ten Sleep Creek
[09:50.60]十眠河（美国河流名）
[09:51.76]the Rockies
[09:52.60]洛矶山脉（美国山名）
[09:53.43]Togwatee Pass
[09:52.93]托格瓦提关（美国地名）
[09:52.43]the Tetons
[09:53.36]提腾山脉（美国山名） 大学英语精读第四册unit6 大学英语精读第四册unit7 大学英语精读第四册unit4 大学英语精读二4unit 大学英语精读四unit4 大学英语精读四un