英語(yǔ)播客 A Cup of English: 拓荒者的村落 Pioneer village

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A museum that is close to my house is the Cashmere Museum and Pioneer Village. Cashmere is a little town that is just eight miles away. It is a very small, country town surrounded by hills, and is known for(1) two things: a candy factory, and the museum. As my aunt was visiting from Spain, and is very interested in history, I thought that it would be nice to take her and my mother there for a day out. The museum had a lot of Indian artifacts and photos, and by Indian, I mean Native American Indian. There was an impressive amount of tools, baskets, and ceremonial instruments. This area is rich in Native American history. Outside of the museum building, however, was a collection of original pioneer houses. They were wooden cabins, and had been collected from a forty mile radius(2). They were arranged in a square, and together formed a perfect little village. There was a school, a few shops, a jail, a saloon, a church, and a couple of private houses. They had all been built around the 1880's. Everything inside the cabins revealed the progress of history. There was a printing cabin, with an original printing press. This reminded me that printed news, at that time, was quite a new thing. The cabins revealed to me how sophisticated our lives are now; back then(3), they were very basic. The homes usually had just one or two rooms, with the beds quite close to the oven, so they could stay warm in the winter. The photos that you can see on this link show a how the pioneers of this area lived, just before the Industrial revolution reached the U.S.

1. '...is known for' means 'has the reputation for', 'does something regularly' or 'has done something memorable'.

a. Rosa Parks is known for initiating the civil rights movement in the U.S.

b. Paul Klee is known for experimenting with color in his art.

c. Mrs Brown is known for her fabulous pies.

2. 'Radius' is a mathematical term meaning the line from the center of a circle to the perimeter.

a. To calculate the area of a circle, you need to know the radius.

b. The police searched a radius of two miles outside of the city.

3. '..back then..' refers to a point in time that has already been mentioned. It is mainly used to refer to the distant past.

a. When my father was a boy, the Second World War was taking place. Back then he lived on a Canadian island.

b. The pioneers came to Wenatchee in the 1800's. Back then, they didn't have electricity.