时间:2019-01-12 作者:英语课 分类:2015年VOA慢速英语(十)月


英语课

Q&A: Tales from the Lewis and Clark Expedition 问答:刘易斯和克拉克探险队的故事


ANNA: Hello and welcome to As It Is from VOA Learning 1 English.


ANNA: I’m Anna Matteo in Washington, DC. And today we bring you a live Q&A for our listeners. For those who may have not heard that expression before, Q&A stands for “Questions” and “Answers.” I will be asking the questions, and my co-worker here at VOA, Kelly Jean Kelly, will be answering them.


Kelly has just returned from an exciting road trip, an expedition. And she’s going to tell us all about it. So, welcome to the studio, Kelly!


ANNA: Hi, Kelly. How are you?


KELLY: Great!


ANNA: And let’s just begin with our first question.  What is an "expedition.” It’s a great word. Meriam-Webster dictionary defines 2 it as a journey especially by a group of people for a specific purpose, such as to explore a distant place or to do research. But also the group of people who travel together are called an expedition. What was the purpose, Kelly, of your recent expedition?


KELLY: Well, we were actually reporting on another expedition! That expedition happened in 1805. It was led by two men. Their names are Lewis and Clark -- so, Americans sometimes call it the Lewis and Clark expedition.


KELLY: And Lewis and Clark were exploring the western United States. They traveled by boat and over land from St. Louis, Missouri. And you can picture a map of the United States … St. Louis is in the middle in today’s Midwest. And Lewis and Clark traveled from St. Louis all the way to the Pacific Ocean in what is now Oregon. So for our expedition we just traveled over the last part of their journey. We went to Montana and then on to the ocean in Oregon.


ANNA: For one thing that sounds fantastic, by the way. Tell us some of things you learned 3 on this trip -- this expedition -- that made an impression on you. And that means, um, the things you remember because they were so different or so important.


KELLY: So, one of the things I learned was about the other people who traveled with Lewis and Clark. Lewis and Clark are pretty famous in U.S. history. But there was a whole group of people with them. And one of them was a young Native American woman. She was very young. She was maybe 15-, 16-, 17-years old. And she helped translate so Lewis and Clark could talk to the Native American tribe 4 called the Shoshone in Montana. And the Shoshone were very important for Lewis and Clark because the Shoshone helped them get across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific.


KELLY: This young woman is usually called Sacagewea. But one of the things I learned on this trip is that her name was probably actually pronounced, Sah-caw-gah-wee-ah.


ANNA: That’s very different than we learned in school. What was she translating?


KELLY: So, it was interesting. She was translating the Shoshone language for Lewis and Clark. But she didn’t necessarily 5 speak English. And that was the only language that Lewis and Clark spoke 6. But she spoke her own language. She spoke a different Native American language. And she spoke some French. And her husband was French. So, she probably heard the Shoshone language, translated it into French, her husband translated into English for Lewis and Clark. There might have been maybe one or two other people involved in that chain of communication. So, you can imagine that any basic conversation could take hours!


ANNA: And you think what could have been lost in translation or perhaps misunderstood going through so many different people.


KELLY: Exactly. Exactly.


ANNA: Don’t go away. When we return we will hear more about Kelly’s trip and more about the Lewis and Clark expedition. You are listening to the VOA Learning English program As It Is.


ANNA: Welcome back. I’m Anna Matteo here in our Washington, D.C. studio with VOA reporter Kelly Jean Kelly. Kelly has just returned from a road trip, or more formally, an expedition, from the American West. But before we continue, I have a language question: How is an expedition different from a road trip or business trip?


KELLY: Oh, that’s a good question. Well, a road trip is usually just for fun. And a business trip is usually for a specific purpose related 7 to your job. So you might go on a business trip to attend a meeting or a conference.


KELLY: But an expedition is really more like an adventure. It’s usually longer than a business trip. And it usually is more for the purpose of learning new information. And in fact, we’ve been talking about the Lewis and Clark expedition -- another name for the expedition is the “Corps 8 of Discovery.”


ANNA: The phrase “Corps of Discovery”: Can you talk about the word “corps.” Our listeners might think it is spelled quite differently than they’re hearing.


KELLY: Oh sure, yeah. Corps is spelled C-O-R-P-S, in this case, like the French word for “body.” And it usually means an organized part of a military group. So, it’s a military word. And that actually makes sense for the Corps of Discovery because it was a military expedition. Lewis and Clark were both soldiers. And most of the men who traveled with them were also soldiers. And the U.S. government paid for the trip. So, you can imagine it like a Special Forces operation.   


ANNA: They also had this woman, Sacagawea, whose name we now know is pronounced …


KELLY: Sa-CAH-ga-wea.


ANNA: And she was for part of the trip pregnant 9. Is that correct?


KELLY: Yes! And that was also something I didn’t realize. And that was particularly meaningful to me because I, actually, am also pregnant, if I can share that with our listeners.


ANNA: Please do. How far along are you?


KELLY: Like Sacagawea I’m six months pregnant. And she was six months pregnant when she joined up with Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery. And, in fact, Lewis and Clark actually helped deliver her baby. So for a good part of this trip she actually had an infant 10. And she carried him on her back over the Rocky Mountains and then along the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.


ANNA: That is fascinating. I actually had no idea as well. It’s almost as if the two of you were sharing a parallel 11 experience while you were on your expedition, although, you probably had a more comfortable of a time.


KELLY: Correct. I thought fondly of Sacagawea as I was traveling in our rental 12 car.    


ANNA: So, what can look forward to and our listeners, what can they expect?


KELLY: Oh, we’re going to have a lot of great stuff 13. We’re going to have a video that talks about the Lewis and Clark expedition. And we’re going to have a lot of pictures. We’re going to have a slide show, including a slide show about Sacagawea. And we’re going to have some different articles about other things that were happening in the time. So, you can imagine and really understand why the Lewis and Clark expedition is so important in American history. It’s a great adventure story. And it’s interesting. And it’s a good character study. But it also really fits into a bigger narrative 14 about U.S. history. So, we’d like to give all of that information to you.


ANNA: Well, thank you Kelly for sharing details, and we look forward to the finished product.


KELLY: Thanks, everybody! It was great to be here. Thanks, Anna!



n.学问,学识,学习;动词learn的现在分词
  • When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时,常会从车上掉下来。
  • Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。
规定( define的第三人称单数 ); 使明确; 精确地解释; 画出…的线条
  • This name defines us all. 这个名字造就了我们。 来自演讲部分
  • The range of incomes over which this happens defines the 'poverty trap'. 发生在这种情况的收入范围,称为“贫困陷阱。”
adj.有学问的,博学的;learn的过去式和过去分词
  • He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
  • In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里,他被视为有学问的人。
n.部落,种族,一伙人
  • This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
  • Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。
adv.必要地,必需地;必定地,必然地
  • More work does not necessarily call for more men.增加工作量不一定就要增添人员。
  • A voter must necessarily be no younger than eighteen.选民必须在18岁以上。
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
adj.有关系的,有关联的,叙述的,讲述的
  • I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
  • We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组
  • The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
  • When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时,他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
adj.怀孕的,怀胎的
  • She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
  • She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。
n.婴儿,幼儿;adj.婴儿的;幼稚的,初期的
  • Tourism was then still in its infant stage.旅游业当时还处在初创阶段。
  • I also need an infant's food for my baby.我要买些婴儿食品给我的孩子。
n.相似处;平行线;纬线;adj.平行的;类似的
  • This is the parallel points in the characters of different men.这就是不同人物间个性上的类似之处。
  • The growth of the two towns was almost parallel.这两个城镇的发展几乎相同。
n.租赁,出租,出租业
  • The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
  • We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。
n.原料,材料,东西;vt.填满;吃饱
  • We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
  • He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的
  • He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
  • Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。
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