Development Report - At Home in a Shipping Container u53中国英语学习网
An American company designs a heavy-duty house for poor workers in Mexico. Transcript of radio broadcast: u53中国英语学习网
04 October 2008
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.u53中国英语学习网u53中国英语学习网
An American named Malcom McLean invented a better box and changed the world. He designed the shipping containers that today carry most of the world's goods. Standardized containers can go on ships, trains or trucks and are easy to load and unload. u53中国英语学习网u53中国英语学习网
Malcom McLean was a truck driver who built a big trucking company. Then he bought a steamship company which he later renamed Sea-Land. He launched his idea in nineteen fifty-six using an old tanker. u53中国英语学习网
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A PFNC Global Communities home made from a shipping container | |
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A PFNC Global Communities home made from a shipping container |
Malcom McLean died in two thousand one. But his work lives on -- and not just for moving and storing goods. Surplus containers have found use as offices and housing. In recent years, some wealthy people have had homes designed from shipping containers. But containers also are being used for emergency shelters and to shelter the homeless.u53中国英语学习网
u53中国英语学习网
A company called PFNC Global Communities has designed a steel container home for poor people. It has thirty square meters of space with a sleeping area, a bathroom and a kitchen. It also has connections for electricity and water, and special paint to help protect against the sun’s heat.u53中国英语学习网
u53中国英语学习网
Several years ago, a graduate business student named Brian McCarthy was visiting American companies in Ciudad Juarez, a border city in Mexico. He was there as part of his studies. He saw that many workers lived in shelters made of paper or scrap metal. More than a year later, he read about a house designed from a shipping container. u53中国英语学习网
u53中国英语学习网
At the time, his cousin Pablo Nava was in his third year at Notre Dame University in the state of Indiana. Pablo Nava became interested in the project. He suggested that they enter the idea in a competition for business plans at the university. They won. u53中国英语学习网
With Pablo Nava and two others, Brian McCarthy established PFNC Global Communities to build the container homes. PFNC stands for the Spanish words "Por Fin Nuestra Casa" -- "Finally, a Home of Our Own." The company now operates in the American state of New Mexico but will move to Juarez soon. u53中国英语学习网
u53中国英语学习网
The sample home is twelve meters long and about two and a half meters in width and height. The kitchen has a stove to cook meals and a refrigerator to keep foods cold. Children and adults have separate sleeping areas. u53中国英语学习网
u53中国英语学习网
The company hopes manufacturers in Ciudad Juarez will buy the homes for workers and their families. PFNC wants to keep the price below ten thousand dollars.u53中国英语学习网
u53中国英语学习网
And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson.
THIS IS AMERICA - Another World, Underground: Carlsbad Caverns National Park
日期：2008年10月06日 07:01:17 作者:Ben
THIS IS AMERICA - Another World, Underground: Carlsbad Caverns National Park 6Xe中国英语学习网
In New Mexico, one of the world's largest caves attracts human visitors for its mineral formations, and bats for a place to hang out during the summer. Transcript of radio broadcast: 6Xe中国英语学习网
05 October 2008
VOICE ONE:6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
VOICE TWO:6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we explore a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the American Southwest, near the city of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Carlsbad Caverns National Park contains more than one hundred caves below the surface of the desert. Most are closed to the public. But anyone can visit the main attraction, one of the largest caves in the world.6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
(MUSIC)6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
VOICE ONE:6Xe中国英语学习网
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Kings Palace Room in Carlsbad Cavern |
Huge. Incredible. Inspiring. Words like these come to mind as visitors enter a world of silence, darkness and cold, almost two hundred thirty meters under the ground. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
An elevator lowers you into the world of Carlsbad Cavern, the big cave at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Silent, except for the voices of guides and visitors. And not completely dark. The National Park Service has enough lighting to see many of the beautiful formations all around. The temperature is about thirteen degrees Celsius. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
A cavern is a large cave. But Carlsbad Cavern is really a long series of chambers. One of these is called the Big Room. The Big Room is more than three hectares big. The ceiling is seventy-seven meters high. The Big Room is the single largest underground chamber ever found in North America.6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
VOICE TWO:6Xe中国英语学习网
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Examples of stalactites and stalagmites |
The Big Room and other parts of the cavern contain huge, sharp formations of minerals. People are free to explore the lit formations in the Big Room. But park rangers must guide visitors to other areas of the cave. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
Stalactites hang from the ceiling. Stalagmites rise from the floor. Some even meet to create a column. Other formations look like needles, popcorn, pearls and flowers.6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
A visitor still remembers the memory aid she learned long ago from her fifth-grade teacher. Stalactites have to hang on tight to the ceiling or they might fall off. And be careful about stalagmites -- you might trip over one on the floor. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
VOICE ONE:6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
One of the first questions that visitors have is how did Carlsbad Cavern form? Guides explain that it did not result from the action of water and streams like other limestone caves. Instead, it was created by the action of sulfuric acid. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
The limestone developed about two hundred fifty million years ago. Then, within the last twenty million years, movements in the earth pushed the rock upward, forming the Guadalupe Mountains. Today these mountains extend from west Texas into southeast New Mexico.6Xe中国英语学习网
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The action of oil and natural gas created hydrogen sulfide in the limestone. The hydrogen sulfide reacted with oxygen in rainwater moving through the rock. Sulfuric acid developed. The acid created the caves by dissolving the limestone in its path. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
Later, the water and most of the acid left the caves as the Guadalupe Mountains continued to rise. This permitted freshwater to move through. The freshwater left behind minerals. These minerals became the formations and shapes on the ceilings, walls and floors of the caves. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
(MUSIC)6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
VOICE TWO:6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
People are not the only ones who visit Carlsbad Caverns National Park. About four hundred thousand Mexican free-tailed bats come to the big cave from Mexico each summer to give birth.6Xe中国英语学习网
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Thousands of bats fly out of the natural entrance of the cave |
Every evening, as the sun goes down, thousands of adult bats fly out of the natural entrance of the cave. It can take from twenty minutes to more than two hours for them all to leave. The bats fly to nearby river valleys to feed on night-flying insects. Then, toward morning, they return to the bat cave within Carlsbad Cavern. 6Xe中国英语学习网
6Xe中国英语学习网
Park Service rangers explain that mother bats find their babies by remembering their location, their smell and the sound of their cry. Mothers and pups hang in groups on the ceiling. They spend the day resting and feeding. 6Xexiangxiang提供，佳禾外语进行整理。
