时间:2019-01-12 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(四月)


英语课
By Mike O'Sullivan
San Francisco, California
18 April 2007

San Francisco is a city built atop steep hills, and many say the city should be seen on foot.  Mike O'Sullivan reports that volunteer guides share their love of San Francisco on walking tours that explore the city's many nooks and crannies.






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Ken Becker, Nob Hill, San Francisco



Ken Becker is a retired 2 businessman who spends much of his time working without pay on his favorite causes, from a medical charity that helps children overseas to a local organization that offers free walking tours of historic San Francisco.


"I am a tour guide for City Guides, and I specialize in Nob Hill tours.  And I do this tour anywhere from one to four times a month," Becker says.






Nob Hill, San Francisco


Nob Hill



The neighborhood of Nob Hill sits high atop one of San Francisco's many hills.  Becker points out its sites, including the Fairmont Hotel, where delegates from 50 countries wrote the United Nations charter in 1945.  The San Francisco story goes back much earlier, of course, to Native Americans and Spanish colonial settlers, to Gold Rush millionaires and the wealthy railway barons 3 who built mansions 5 on Nob Hill in the 19th century.


 Today, magnificent Grace Cathedral, which hosts concerts and recitals 6, sits on the site of a mansion 4 destroyed by the Great Earthquake and fire of 1906.


A brisk walk down the hill to San Francisco's civic 7 center finds another tour group, led by retired engineer Leif Isaksen.  He points to city hall, a massive domed 8 building that replaced an earlier structure destroyed in the 1906 quake.  Across the plaza 9 is the civic auditorium 10, which first opened in 1915 for the Pan Pacific Exposition.  The fair marked the completion of the Panama Canal, but also offered San Francisco a chance to celebrate its rebuilding.


"San Francisco took the opportunity to tell the world 'We are back in business, and anything that Europe can do, we can do better,'" Isaksen says.


The group City Guides offers dozens of free tours, led by volunteers who want to share their love for San Francisco.  The groups explore Chinatown and North Beach, the Italian neighborhood, and climb the stairways of Russian Hill, once a burial ground for Russian merchant sailors.


For Leila, a university student visiting from France, San Francisco lives up to its reputation as a cultural center.


"I think it is like a city in Europe, you know.  The people are not very different, the culture.   But it is good.  It is a great place," Leila says.


San Francisco is a compact city, just 127 square kilometers, but volunteer guide Ken Becker says there is much to see.  He says you can tour by cable car or by automobile 11, or better yet, on foot.


"To drive does not take you very long, and yet, to walk around with the hills, it is not easy to walk up and down the hills, and so it takes you time," Becker says.  "So you always want to give yourself plenty of time here in San Francisco, and if you can, not rush, and see plenty of things.  And depending upon what you like, I think there is something here for everyone."


He says walking up and down San Francisco's hilly streets is well worth the effort. 




n.视野,知识领域
  • Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
  • Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
男爵( baron的名词复数 ); 巨头; 大王; 大亨
  • The barons of Normandy had refused to countenance the enterprise officially. 诺曼底的贵族们拒绝正式赞助这桩买卖。
  • The barons took the oath which Stephen Langton prescribed. 男爵们照斯蒂芬?兰顿的指导宣了誓。
n.大厦,大楼;宅第
  • The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
  • The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。
n.宅第,公馆,大厦( mansion的名词复数 )
  • Fifth Avenue was boarded up where the rich had deserted their mansions. 第五大道上的富翁们已经出去避暑,空出的宅第都已锁好了门窗,钉上了木板。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
  • Oh, the mansions, the lights, the perfume, the loaded boudoirs and tables! 啊,那些高楼大厦、华灯、香水、藏金收银的闺房还有摆满山珍海味的餐桌! 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
n.独唱会( recital的名词复数 );独奏会;小型音乐会、舞蹈表演会等;一系列事件等的详述
  • His recitals have earned him recognition as a talented performer. 他的演奏会使他赢得了天才演奏家的赞誉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Her teachers love her playing, and encourage her to recitals. 她的老师欣赏她的演奏,并鼓励她举办独奏会。 来自互联网
adj.城市的,都市的,市民的,公民的
  • I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
  • The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。
n.广场,市场
  • They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
  • The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。
n.观众席,听众席;会堂,礼堂
  • The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
  • The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出,伸入观众席。
n.汽车,机动车
  • He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
  • The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。
学英语单词
Ac flo
al ula
allotriomorphic
angleton
antenna array factor
apartheidized
articular sclerite
assisted take-off rocket
autolatinas
autoloaded
babbitted
ball diffuser
bediademed
Berlepsch's tinamou
bet one's bottom dollar
Bogoslovskite
Bond and Wang theory
cell attribute
chatou
circuit loading
co-pay
come to someone's ear
concessionaries
contract of marine insurance
Cowan screen
culicoides (culicoides) sumatrae
cuprometry
current information
daylight visibility
demilitarisations
draught indicating system
dromaeosaurine
earun
euxiphydria pseudoruficeps
evozine
fabric-reinforced seal
family Hexanchidae
farandine
fingerbreadth(s)
fixed review cycle
floor covers
forming-tool
fulling
gave the glad hand
gives in to
gravity dumper
hypothesize and test
ICI154129
interex
jading
Keep Britain Tidy
kernel of a morphism
Leptomyxida
light globe
long branch routine
Luanda
manahan
Merlucciinae
mucro sterni
musculus peroneus longus
Myosotis sparsiflora
navigation mesh
needle force
nitrogen 14 beam
observation and recording device
patellar dislocation
paucispiral
penetrant material
people-on-street
perithallia
phosphoenoloxaloacetic acid
placement treatment
plouviez
presbytiss
Project OXYGEN
propheticality
protective import duty
psammosarcoma
pseudolikelihoods
punch function
reorganization
roundnose tool
safety of civil aviation
sandries
Sasanguasaponin
saums
scamming
Septoria dianthi
simple effect
stasis-field
stimulus isolator
subordinate unit
suggestion-box
sweet bells
Taysider
traffic recorder machine
transient condition
travel ring
try engine
under ground economic
variabilis
vegetable wharf