VOA标准英语2012--Seattle, 'City of Clocks' Keeps on Ticking
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(十月)
Seattle, 'City of Clocks' Keeps on Ticking
If you’ve been to Seattle, Washington - or even just heard about it - you’d probably guess that its nickname is something like “The Space Needle City.”
That 184-meter-high tower, with an observation deck and restaurant, was built for the 1962 world’s fair there, and has become the city’s most famous landmark 1.
Or maybe Seattle is “The City Where It’s Always Raining.” That’s an exaggeration, as there are plenty of other U.S. cities that get more total precipitation.
But elsewhere it often rains hard and then clears. Seattle gets long, drizzly 2 showers off the Pacific Ocean, sometimes with days of cloudy skies before and afterward 3.
Seattle is also world-famous for its seafood 4 - particularly salmon 5 - caught in the ocean or fast-moving area rivers.
But the city’s nickname comes from none of these sources, and when you hear it, you’ll want an explanation.
Seattle is the “City of Clocks.”
Not alarm clocks or huge clock towers but street clocks. “Post clocks,” they’re sometimes called.
There are still at least a dozen of what once numbered 55 or more of these large timepieces, weighing up to two tons, perched on cast-iron pedestals or columns on important downtown streets.
Most of these clocks served as ticking advertising 6 testimonials for the jewelry 7 shops that maintained them.
So many were dark green that there’s even a color called “street clock green.”
Others were red, in the faint hope that truckers would see and avoid them.
Among those still standing 8, Benton’s Jewelers’ clock has four globe lamps; the clockworks inside Ben Bridge’s Jewelers’ post clock are encased in glass so all can see them; and the face of the clock in front of the Thomas Carroll jewelry store rests beneath four quaint 9 carriage lamps.
Concerned about what it called “pedestrian circulation,” Seattle’s Board of Public Works came close to banishing 10 street clocks in 1953, but a compromise was reached.
If an owner promised to keep a clock running and accurate, and to clean it twice a year, it could stay.
That soon drastically cut the number of clocks, but Seattle still has more than in all of vast New York City.
Whenever there’s a story about the old post clocks, Seattle’s newspapers can’t seem to resist a play on words.
“Time Will Tell,” a headline will read.
Or, when one gets restored, “It’s About Time.”
One Seattle historian mused 11 that the old public timepieces had wonderful stories to tell, “if only they could tock.”
As in . . . tick . . . tock.
- The Russian Revolution represents a landmark in world history.俄国革命是世界历史上的一个里程碑。
- The tower was once a landmark for ships.这座塔曾是船只的陆标。
- This section of the country is drizzly in the winter. 该国的这一地区在冬天经常细雨蒙蒙。
- That region is drizzly in winter. 那个地区冬天常下小雨。
- Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
- Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。
- There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
- Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。
- We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
- Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？
- Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
- The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
- The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
- Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。
- 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。
- There were many small lanes in the quaint village.在这古香古色的村庄里，有很多小巷。
- They still keep some quaint old customs.他们仍然保留着一些稀奇古怪的旧风俗。
- And he breathes out fast, like a king banishing a servant. 他呼气则非常迅速，像一个国王驱逐自己的奴仆。 来自互联网
- Banishing genetic disability must therefore be our primary concern. 消除基因缺陷是我们的首要之急。 来自互联网