时间:2018-12-18 作者:英语课 分类:2018年NPR美国国家公共电台10月


英语课

The Flight Of The Condors 2, And Their Audience


LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:


With a wingspan of up to 10 feet, the California condor 1 is one of the largest birds in North America and also one of the rarest. After the population plunged 3 in 1982, all of the remaining birds were taken into captivity 4 for safekeeping and breeding. From member station KJZZ in Phoenix 5, Stina Sieg reports on the annual release of young condors into the wild.


STINA SIEG, BYLINE 6: It's usually easy to miss the dirt road jutting 7 north from a tiny highway near the Arizona-Utah border. But not this morning. It's a long line of cars rumbling 8 toward lonely, rosy 9 cliffs and the encampment of birdwatchers forming under them.


CHRIS PARISH: This is phenomenal. I think there are more vehicles here than we had people in some of the early releases.


SIEG: Chris Parish is with the Peregrine Fund, which has been reintroducing condors to Arizona for more than 20 years with the help of various organizations and state and federal agencies. Today, more than 750 condor groupies are here. One is Brigitte Le Vea.


BRIGITTE LE VEA: This is really, really, really special. I've been trying so hard all season to see a damn condor. And I'm finally here. And I'm so excited about it.


SIEG: That's even though the crowd is a half-mile away and a thousand feet below the four young birds waiting in a clifftop holding pen. Through spotting scopes, people are watching older condors that were released years ago swooping 10 and sitting on rocks, unfurling their big, black wings. With their naked, pink necks, these scavengers sometimes get called ugly. But here people use a different word - charismatic.


LEE ANN MCADA: Oh, my God. How could they not be? It's like you look at those wings up there, and you look at those heads and how they soar. How could you not think that they're charismatic? They're gorgeous.


SIEG: Lee Ann McAda drove seven hours to be here all for something that could last two minutes or all day. When the pen is opened for the first time, you never know how long these birds will wait to take their first, free flight high over the desert.


UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Four, three, two, one.


UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: All right. Let's open them up.


SIEG: A biologist on the ground communicates to a biologist on the cliff a thousand feet above. It takes a moment to open the pen's door. But then a burst.


UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Oh. Oh, my God.


UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Holy cow. It never happens this fast.


SIEG: Three condors fly out almost immediately. Massive wings flapping against the sky. It's instant, elating gratification. And for Ron Brown, a park ranger 11 at the Grand Canyon 12, it's deeply personal.


RON BROWN: I was in the hospital three weeks ago with a pretty major heart attack. This is - my first big thing was to come here because I knew that this just makes you feel alive.


SIEG: His late wife, Pat, thought so, too. Brown says the last time she was here, she was sick and probably didn't weigh 100 pounds. But she was glowing. Brown says that's the effect these birds and the effort to save them have on people.


BROWN: This kind of thing is human beings trying our best to say, together, we can do this.


SIEG: Soon, the fourth and final condor flies free. Thanks to interventions 13 like this one, there are now nearly 500 California condors in the wild. For NPR News, I'm Stina Sieg reporting from Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in Arizona.


(SOUNDBITE OF ZOO STRATEGIES' "UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES")



1 condor
n.秃鹰;秃鹰金币
  • The condor soars above the mountain heights.禿鹰翱翔于高山之上。
  • A condor prepares to fly in Colombia.一只兀鹰在哥伦比亚准备振翅高飞。
2 condors
n.神鹰( condor的名词复数 )
  • What would our condors feed on if no one was in danger? 你不发生危险,那我们秃鹰吃啥呢? 来自互联网
  • Yo mama so fat she has been declared a natural habitat for Condors. Yomama是如此之肥,她被定为秃鹰的自然栖息地。 来自互联网
3 plunged
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降
  • The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
  • She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳,从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。
4 captivity
n.囚禁;被俘;束缚
  • A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
  • He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。
5 phoenix
n.凤凰,长生(不死)鸟;引申为重生
  • The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
  • The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。
6 byline
n.署名;v.署名
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
7 jutting
v.(使)突出( jut的现在分词 );伸出;(从…)突出;高出
  • The climbers rested on a sheltered ledge jutting out from the cliff. 登山者在悬崖的岩棚上休息。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The soldier saw a gun jutting out of some bushes. 那士兵看见丛林中有一枝枪伸出来。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
8 rumbling
adj.美好的,乐观的,玫瑰色的
  • She got a new job and her life looks rosy.她找到一份新工作,生活看上去很美好。
  • She always takes a rosy view of life.她总是对生活持乐观态度。
9 swooping
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的现在分词 )
  • The wind were swooping down to tease the waves. 大风猛扑到海面上戏弄着浪涛。
  • And she was talking so well-swooping with swift wing this way and that. 而她却是那样健谈--一下子谈到东,一下子谈到西。
10 ranger
n.国家公园管理员,护林员;骑兵巡逻队员
  • He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
  • He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。
11 canyon
n.峡谷,溪谷
  • 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。
12 interventions
n.介入,干涉,干预( intervention的名词复数 )
  • Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
  • The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网
学英语单词
Ambot
ancestim
apoplexy involving the hollow organs
arguablest
ATPR
aural polyp
Cantillana
capeman
cartonfuls
cash donation
chlorantraniliprole
Cinzas, R.das
circulation failure
climatotherapy
columinescence effect
craniopharyngioma
cut them out
deoxyadenosine moniphosphate
derigueur
detorting
division center
encortin
English saddle
escape speed
exultingly
facultyman
femtocells
fibre cross-talk
flight line of aerial photography
flushing rubefaction
fps
gearing oil sprayer
harira
have a shy at something
hold sb in honor
Hopkinson yoke
Huon River
Hylobatidae
incremental cost
interpenetrative
interwinding backbone
iothalamates
joint with single butt strap
junk financing
keep off the spot
key brick
letter boxes
lido di roma (lido di ostia)
lilyturfs
lytropic liquid crystals
magnox
main class
manahawkin
march order
mosquito boat
MTAU
mtpa
natural model
non-linear field theorv
novatophan
off-axis distribution
overhaulings
packet radio
percentage uncertainty
pezzolis
plafibride
planariids
propeller shaft turning wrench
reconstructive surgeries
resliced
resplendencies
resulting tide
ring groove carbon remover
rock blasting
roseal
rotating-loop antenna
SAL (symbolic assembly language)
Samara River
Sargent
self love
sensitive thermometer
set-point
simavastatin
SMA-60
solventless coil
sovok
spacelike line
steel-lined wire winding channel
strum plate
sudoxicam
suicidal ideation
syndactylous
tendotransplantatio periostealis
thrust pressure
thunderegg
torch oil gun
tornadocane
traumatise
ultrared heating
violinophone
viral rubella
wilhelm eduard webers