The Millennium Bridge 千禧桥
Go for a bouncy walk over the Thames on the Millennium Bridge
John: June 2000, and London saw the opening of its first pedestrian-only bridge, the Millennium Bridge, between St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Tate Modern art gallery. It was quite a day and within minutes hundreds of people had come to see the new bridge and to walk across it.
Oliver: I’m Oliver.
John: And I’m John, and in this edition of On The Town we’re investigating the Millennium Bridge.
Oliver: 千禧桥。
John: It was designed by the architect Lord Norman Foster, and has a very sleek 2, silvery appearance.
Oliver: 桥梁的设计者是一名建筑师，an architect。 银色的桥梁呈现出圆滑的造型。A sleek and silvery appearance。
John: It has a very modern look, and it’s also a suspension bridge.
Oliver: 吊桥 a suspension bridge。
Oliver: Now, I hear that there was a problem when the bridge opened to the public in 2000.
John: There was. A big problem!
Oliver: What was it?
John: The bridge wobbled!
Oliver: It wobbled， 桥是晃动的!
John: The day the bridge opened hundreds of people walked across it and it started to sway in a disconcerting way! It took two years for the bridge to be secured and made rigid 3.
Oliver: 工程师们不得不给桥梁重新加固，rigid，两年之后，千禧桥才得以再次向公众开放。接下来我们会听到桥梁设计者、建筑师 Norman Foster 接受 BBC 采访时的录音。
John: Did the architect find it frustrating 4 that the bridge had to be closed for two years?
Insert
Challenging I would say, but of course, if you measure the life of this structure in hundreds of years it will be around for as long as it has a useful life. It’s not made of materials which are going to corrode 5, so if you measure that period that we are talking about in the wider perspective, it's a blip. A pretty harrowing blip, but a blip
John: Lord Norman Foster said it was pretty challenging to have to keep the bridge closed for two years of repairs.
Oliver: 是具有挑战性的 challenging。
John: He said the bridge is not made of materials that are going to corrode.
Oliver: 千禧桥不会被腐蚀， to corrode。
John: So the length of closure is only a blip in the life of the bridge. A blip is very short period of time.
Oliver: 建筑师说对于将长时间存在的千禧桥来讲，关闭整修的两年是非常短的，仅仅是一个微不足道的小点儿 a blip。
John: Now that the bridge has been made rigid, what do the pedestrians 6 who walk across it think of it?
Insert
Man:
It’s like a carnival 7, everybody is just talking about the bridge, and the construction and the wind. We’ve not had a wobble yet, it doesn’t feel like jelly.
Girl:
It doesn’t wobble anymore.
Older woman:
Well, I’m a bridge freak, and having not seen it before I came down especially to see it, and walking over, I thought it was rather beautiful to look at. It’s a bicycle-friendly, pedestrian-friendly bridge. There is in the wind, I’m afraid a slight vibration 8, but as somebody pointed 9 out to me, if there weren’t a vibration at all we’d have to worry. Walking over it, it looks rather beautiful.
Man with French accent:
Well it’s absolutely terrific. It’s my last day in London. I’ve been here in May last year, when it couldn’t open, and I couldn’t cross it. And today’s the last day. Look at that!
John: So now people seem to like the Millennium Bridge. One woman said she was a bridge freak.
Oliver: 那位年纪大的女性说她自己是一个桥梁迷，a bridge freak 意思是说她是一个桥梁爱好者。
John: She said it was bicycle and pedestrian-friendly.
Oliver: 方便步行和骑自行车。
John: The older woman you heard said she felt some light vibration when she was on the bridge.
Oliver: 轻微振动 Light vibration。
John: But with a suspension bridge there has to be some movement!
Oliver: But not so much that it wobbles!
John: Exactly. Well, we’ll be talking to you about more interesting places in the UK in the next On The Town, so listen out for that.
- The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
- We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。
- Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
- The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。
- She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
- The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。
- It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
- It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The tools will corrode with rust if never used.这些工具如长期不用会长铁锈而损坏。
- It will pollute people's aesthetic taste and corrode social spirit.它污染人们的审美趣味，腐蚀社会精神。
- Several pedestrians had come to grief on the icy pavement. 几个行人在结冰的人行道上滑倒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Pedestrians keep to the sidewalk [footpath]! 行人走便道。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
- Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。