美国英语听力80篇1 Lesson05

[00:04.60]The two black stone walls are set into the earth.

[00:10.11]They are about 76 meters long.

[00:13.11](They form a) wide letter "V".

[00:15.65]As you walk down into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the walls rise above you.

[00:22.73]Cut into the walls are the names of the 58,220 Americans who died or are still missing.

[00:32.73]The names are listed in the order that the soldiers died.

[00:37.07]Those who died together are remembered together.

[00:41.38]Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They seem to be looking at the wall of names.

[00:49.19]The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has become one of the most-visited places in Washington.

[00:57.52]About one and one-half million people visit it every year.

[01:02.62]People who go there experience powerful emotions. Many say it has become almost a holy place.

[01:12.20]Almost any time of day, you can see people standing 1 at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.

[01:20.40]They are looking at the name of a family member or friend who died in Vietnam.

[01:27.95]Some reach out and touch the name. Some put a piece of paper over it.

[01:34.17]They rub the paper with a pencil so the name on the wall appears on the paper.

[01:40.65]In this way, they are able to take part of the memorial with them.

[01:56.61]The success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial influenced veterans of the Korean War to press for a memorial of their own.

[02:10.04]Congress approved the idea.

[02:12.94]In July 1995, the Korean War Veterans Memorial opened.

[02:19.57]It is near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

[02:23.46]It honors the men and women who served, and those who died, in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.

[02:33.36]The Korean War Veterans Memorial has several parts.

[02:38.28]The war has been called "the Last Foot Soldier's War."

[02:43.32]So, the memorial includes a series of nineteen statues of soldiers, walking.

[02:50.16]Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel.

[02:55.39]Each is more than two meters high.

[02:58.68]The soldiers seem to be moving up a hill toward a large American flag.

[03:05.44]On one side of the memorial is a stone walkway.

[03:09.78]It shows the names of the 22 countries that sent troops to serve in Korea under the United Nations command.

[03:19.68]On the other side is a shiny stone wall.

[03:23.62]It shows images of more than 2,400 support troops.

[03:29.58]These include nurses, cooks, and truck drivers.

[03:34.28]The faces were reproduced 2 from photographs taken during the war.

[03:39.53]The last part of the memorial is the round Pool of Remembrance.

[03:46.25]The pool shows the number of American and United Nations forces who died or who were wounded,

[03:54.06]captured, or missing in the war.

[03:56.88]The number totals more than 2,000,000.

[04:01.03]Cut into the wall above the pool is the simple yet powerful message: "Freedom is not free."

[04:15.37]The newest war memorial in the Washington area has a long name.

[04:24.62]It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.

[04:30.60]It is very different from the other war memorials.

[04:34.52]It recognizes the service of all the women who served in all of the nation's wars.

[04:41.42]1,800,000 American women were part of the country's military forces.

[04:49.38]Former President Ronald Reagan signed legislation 3 in 1986 to honor American women in the military.

[04:58.92]A retired 4 air force general, Wilma Vaught, was chosen to lead the effort to build the memorial.

[05:07.23]The memorial took eleven years to build. It cost more than 21,000,000 dollars.

[05:14.31]The women's military memorial opened in October 1997.

[05:21.59]It is near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery 5 in Virginia.

[05:27.47]Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed the women's memorial.

[05:33.45]It is a place of glass, water and light.

[05:37.66]The memorial has a large wall that is shaped in a half-circle.

[05:42.96]In front of the memorial, 200 jets of water meet in a pool.

[05:48.97]The designers say this water fountain celebrates the combined strength of many individuals.

[05:56.88]Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels 6.

[06:04.80]The memorial also has information about military women on a computer.

[06:10.39]It includes names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about 250,000 military women.

[06:20.32]General Vaught says it was important for women in the military to be honored because their efforts have not been recognized.