时间:2019-02-19 作者:英语课 分类:听播客学英语


英语课

   Today we meet the English word “folly 1”, and we visit a strange old building and an art exhibition.


  Let’s start with the word “folly”. I guess you know what “foolish” means. If someone is foolish, he or she does stupid or unwise things. We can call such a person a “fool”. And a “folly” is, simply, something which is foolish – something which is stupid, or unwise, or not sensible. We can say, for example, that it is folly to spend all your money at a casino, or that it is folly to drive your car on the wrong side of the road.
  In the 18th century, it was fashionable for wealthy landowners to decorate their estates with beautiful but completely unnecessary buildings. For example, a landowner might build something that looks like a ruined Greek temple, half hidden in the trees. Or he might build a tall tower on the top of a hill. These buildings had no useful purpose. They were simply to decorate the landscape. We call them “Follies”.
  We have a folly here in Birmingham. It is called Perrott’s Folly. It is a tower nearly 30 meters tall. There are six rooms, one above the other, and a spiral staircase. A man called John Perrott built the tower, in the middle of the 18th century. At that time, there was open country all around. Birmingham was still a village, a mile or two away. Today it is quite different. There are streets and cars, houses and factories and offices, where there were once fields and woods.
  Close by, there is a second tower, built in the 19th century by Birmingham Waterworks. I guess you have heard of the author J R R Tolkien, who wrote the Lord of the Rings books. When he was a child, Tolkien walked past the two towers – Perrott’s Folly and the waterworks tower – every day on his way to school. Tolkien fans say that the two towers were the inspiration for the two dark, evil towers which play an important part in Lord of the Rings.
  Today Perrott’s Folly is in poor condition. One of the floors is missing and the paint is flaking 2 off the walls. There are old pipes and a boiler 3 from a long-forgotten heating system, perhaps from the time when Birmingham University used the tower as a weather station. It is not an obvious place to hold an art exhibition.
  Part of the J??rgen Partenheimer exhibition in Perrott’s Folly.
  But last week I was able to visit Perrott’s Folly to see some art works by the modern German artist J??rgen Partenheimer. Carefully we climbed the spiral staircase. In each of the rooms, J??rgen Partenheimer had placed a single art work. When you look at his art works, they seem to remind you of something you once saw but which is now lost deep in your memory. And while we were looking at the art works, there was music playing- music written specially 4 for this exhibition by the Irish composer Kevin Volans. The music too seems to remind you of something that you once heard but have now forgotten. Very strange. Here is a little bit to keep you company until the next podcast.

n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话
  • Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
  • Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。
刨成片,压成片; 盘网
  • He received ointment for his flaking skin. 医生给他开了治疗脱皮的软膏。
  • The paint was flaking off the walls. 油漆从墙上剥落下来。
n.锅炉;煮器(壶,锅等)
  • That boiler will not hold up under pressure.那种锅炉受不住压力。
  • This new boiler generates more heat than the old one.这个新锅炉产生的热量比旧锅炉多。
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地
  • They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
  • The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。
学英语单词
absolute geopotential topography
airborne condition
amphibological
Antilusin
auxiliary lead
bandar fisheri formosae
benzoiodhydrin
bilinear functional
blogshop
bootham
bronze medal winner
brush reading
bucknalls
build-in calibrator
butt dialing
C.V.O.
carbolic acids
Caswell
coldcocks
confirmation signalling
contact-type heater
copels
corliss
cukraon
cyclical shift
cyclone air lock
D, d
delater
elephant tusk
emulsion flow properties
family of lattices
faradays
floating-ring shaft
frozen token
fructopyranose
gaming act wagering
genus Aegypius
get on someone's case
gravimetric measurement
hot-stuffed
impulsiveness
inferior temporal line
inner check valve guide
intermodulation effect
intervertebral disc punch
labour-related cost
Lindera nacusua
ludmila
maintenance bases
meat head
mom (method of moments)
Muslimophobes
Mustla
non-union worker
nonfalse
nut-rolls
operads
oxyhaemglobin
palm-oil chop
parentlike
peroneal retinacula
phosphori
picolyl
political sociology
politicalize
polyadenopathy
polyfunctional alcohol
pourover
power point
Proctopathy
proriasiform
rabbitless
radio-electrophysiolograph
rary-show
relief clauses
romantic guitar
S-shackle
she-ra
Sinex
Sino-European Container Liner Service
sociology of music
socked away
subtiligase
superhots
taarof
take precedence to
talsky
taste-testing
terminal dispensing station
through-flows
toe reflex
trip stud
turai
unequal addendum gear
vibrating-type converter
vinegar mother
Vojens
water supplies
weakenings
Xenia Zaragevna Onatopp
yappier