VOA标准英语2012--Remote US Museum Survives in Hells Canyon
时间：2018-12-16 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(十月)
Remote US Museum Survives in Hells Canyon 1
The rushing Snake River cut America’s deepest gorge 2 through Idaho in the Rocky Mountains of the American Northwest.
Today, it’s known as Hells Canyon.
Every few kilometers along the way, the river widened and scoured 3 out sandbars. There, protected from biting winds and howling snowstorms high above, Nez Percé Indians fashioned winter villages and buried their dead. Later, around 1880, ranchers took their place.
And in the 1930s, at the height of the Great Depression, ranch 4 foreman Len Jordan and his wife, Grace, bought a ranch there that included a white-frame house, a blacksmith shop, and a rustic 5 cabin.
And because Grace kept a journal that grew into the book Home Below Hell’s Canyon, and Len would become Idaho’s governor, the story of their rough-hewn existence on the remote sandbar would spread throughout the Great Northwest.
The only electricity came from a clever water wheel in Kirkwood Creek 6 that Len had jerry-rigged out of cowbells, bolted to a wheel from an old Model-T Ford 7.
Grace cooked on a simple wood stove for her husband and three children, and dozens of smelly sheephands.
Grace Jordan’s kitchen has been spiffed up a bit from the
The Jordans sold the ranch in 1943, and it passed through several owners.
In the 1970s, the U.S. Forest Service rejected proposals to dam the Snake River to provide hydroelectric power and irrigation to nearby towns.
Instead, it established the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, restoring the Jordans’ ranch buildings as a museum and creating a spot where rafters could stop and picnic.
But there are only two ways to reach it, even today: by raft down the Snake, or on foot or horseback along a narrow, precipitous trail.
Those who go there are reminded that there’ll be no cellphone service or Internet connection. Now that, in this day and age, is a hardship.
- The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
- The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。
- East of the gorge leveled out.峡谷东面地势变得平坦起来。
- It made my gorge rise to hear the news.这消息令我作呕。
- We scoured the area for somewhere to pitch our tent. 我们四处查看，想找一个搭帐篷的地方。
- The torrents scoured out a channel down the hill side. 急流沿着山腰冲刷出一条水沟。
- He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
- The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。
- It was nearly seven months of leisurely rustic living before Michael felt real boredom.这种悠闲的乡村生活过了差不多七个月之后,迈克尔开始感到烦闷。
- We hoped the fresh air and rustic atmosphere would help him adjust.我们希望新鲜的空气和乡村的氛围能帮他调整自己。