时间:2019-02-19 作者:英语课 分类:听播客学英语


英语课

   My last podcast was about a motorway 1 junction 2. But today I am going to talk about something much more romantic. When I think about it, a dreamy look comes into my eyes and my heart begins to flutter. Yes, dear listeners, I am going to talk about a railway bridge.


  If you look at a map of Scotland, you will see that on the east coast there are several wide river estuaries 3. The Scots word for a river estuary 4 is a “firth”. Just north of Edinburgh is the Firth of Forth 5, the estuary of the river Forth. Further north, there is the Firth of Tay, the estuary of the river Tay. Until late in the 19th century, people crossed these estuaries by ferry, or they made a long detour 6 by road to a bridge over the river. But when the railway companies arrived in Scotland, they wanted to build fast, direct railway lines between the towns and citites. They needed to build bridges over the firths.
  The first bridge was over the Firth of Tay. It was completed in 1877, but it was destroyed in a storm two years later. A train was passing over the bridge when it collapsed 8, and many people were killed. The collapse 7 of the Tay Bridge was a great disaster, at became an important political issue in Britain at the time. The engineers responsible for the second bridge, over the Firth of Forth, decided 9 that their bridge had to be much stronger. So they built it with steel. It was in fact the first big steel bridge in the world. About 4000 workmen worked on the bridge, which was opened in 1890.
  And the bridge which they built still stands today. About 200 trains cross the bridge every day. If you travel on one of these trains, you will often see people working on the bridge. They are always there. They are scraping off old paint, or repairing the bridge, or painting or welding. People say that the painters who work on the Forth Bridge start at one end of the bridge and gradually work their way across [ie they go forward, slowly, as they paint]. By the time they reach the other side, several years later, it is time to start painting again. This was never actually true, but everyone believed that it was. In English, if we say that something is “like painting the Forth Bridge”, we mean that it is a job that never ends. By the time you have finished, you have to start again. In our house, doing the ironing is like painting the Forth Bridge. What is it like in your home?
  However, in today’s newspapers there is a report that the engineering company that maintains the bridge is painting it with a new sort of paint. They have tested the paint on oil rigs in the North Sea. It will last for 20 or 30 years, without repainting. So another great British tradititon has gone. In future, painting the Forth Bridge will no longer be – well – like painting the Forth Bridge.

n.高速公路,快车道
  • Our car had a breakdown on the motorway.我们的汽车在高速公路上抛锚了。
  • A maniac driver sped 35 miles along the wrong side of a motorway at 110 mph.一个疯狂的司机以每小时110英里的速度在高速公路上逆行飙车35英里。
n.连接,接合;交叉点,接合处,枢纽站
  • There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
  • You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。
(江河入海的)河口,河口湾( estuary的名词复数 )
  • We also recognize the diversity and complexity of controlling in fluences in estuaries. 我们也认识到在河湾内控制影响的多样性和复杂性。
  • Estuaries also contribute to economy through tourism and fishing. 河口还为人类提供了休闲和教育的场所。
n.河口,江口
  • We live near the Thames estuary.我们的住处靠近泰晤士河入海口。
  • The ship has touched bottom.The estuary must be shallower than we thought.船搁浅了。这河口的水比我们想像的要浅。
adv.向前;向外,往外
  • The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
  • He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。
n.绕行的路,迂回路;v.迂回,绕道
  • We made a detour to avoid the heavy traffic.我们绕道走,避开繁忙的交通。
  • He did not take the direct route to his home,but made a detour around the outskirts of the city.他没有直接回家,而是绕到市郊兜了个圈子。
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷
  • The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
  • The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
adj.倒塌的
  • Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
  • The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
学英语单词
action pattern
advocacy tank
albulid
anamorphotic attachment
antistreptolysin o
ASIM,A.S.I.M.
Astrida
backup governor
bakerly
ballet british colombia
belt-type exhauster
bernoulli's relations
biotinylated
BTTT
butadiene-styrene copolymer
call analyzer
capacitive two-terminal element
Chaldees
chathetometer
client isolation
comma shaped cuttings
contempt of legislature
convertile
Deep South
dressin
dsDNA
e-i pick off
Eppelborn
ethnise
ethyl triphenyl silicane
exofacial
forensic hematology
fossa interpeduncular
Guebers
hablots
hauter
height of baffle plate
holotrichia sauteri sauteri
hypofluorescence
impregnate with
insinuated
insular convolution
invitation and submission of tender
kaoliang oil
leglessly
limacella glioderma
local grid
lodgment
long-time fatigue strength
Loudia Ouolof
Medskog
micropluviometer
mileposting
millifarad
mimotope
mispractice
nacoma
neutron-irradiated bromobenzene
nitinols
octin
opinion poll
ordaining
orman
Orussidae
overelaborateness
overoxidations
p. and h.
parking and maintenance room in the bulldozer garage
passenger van
Patiala
picrotoxin
pins and needle
playing hardball
quarter-band filter
rachen
rated power of solar array
reflexa
roboticization
rotor forging
salesclerks
seagates
security breaches
seize with both hands
sharp ear hook
shawon
slowcoach
stress-rupture
sun-trap
synical
tag card reader
taking-up lever bush
the tragic
thread groove
tilia mofungensis chun et wong
typhoid spine
ultrafashiinable
ur(in)ometer
vapor hood
wo'n't
work anchor
yeley