Explore wonderful West Virginia
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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we tell you about a popular area for outdoor activities in the state of West Virginia.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The song "Country Roads" was very popular when John Denver first recorded it in 1971. It still is popular with people who live in West Virginia and visitors who have fallen in love with what is known as the Mountain State.

VOICE TWO:

West Virginia is a small state. But it has many different areas of interest to visitors who like to hike, camp, climb rocks, raft in rivers, fish and hunt. One area that offers many kinds of outdoor activities is called the Potomac Highlands. It is in the eastern part of the state, not far from the border with the state of Virginia.

The Allegheny Mountains divide the area from north to south. Rivers on the east side of the Potomac Highlands flow into the Potomac River and continue on toward the Atlantic Ocean.

Monongahela National Forest is in this area. It covers more than 350,000 hectares of West Virginia, mostly in the Potomac Highlands.

VOICE ONE:

A good place to begin a visit to West Virginia is at Spruce Knob1. It is about 1,500 meters high, the highest mountain in the state. You can drive your car slowly up a rough road to the top.

There are places to stop along the road to look at the fields and forests down below and far in the distance. At the top, you follow a short path to a stone-and-steel observation tower. On either side of the path are what look like river beds of big rocks. Wildflowers of different colors brighten the rocky land. From the tower, you see wilderness2 in all directions.

VOICE TWO:

Whispering Spruce Trail follows a circular path around the observation tower. The path leads past an open field covered with huge rocks, through a group of tall spruce trees, and past a field of blueberry bushes. Off in the distance you see a valley way below and lines of bluish gray mountains that seem to reach forever.

Spruce Knob has more than one hundred kilometers of hiking trails. Some of them are paths made in the early 1900 by men who climbed the mountain to cut trees. It also has a lake for fishing and a campground where people can stay.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Near Spruce Knob is one of the best-known places in West Virginia -- Seneca Rocks. This rock formation is made of white-grayquartzite, a kind of sandstone. It is about 300 meters above the river that flows below. When the sun shines on the almost straight-sided rocks, they look like bright shining wings rising out of a mountain of green trees.

VOICE TWO:

Experienced rock climbers love Seneca Rocks. The rocks are very difficult to climb. Not many people were known to have climbed them until the Second World War began. Then the Army used the rocks to train troops for action in the mountains of Europe. Now there are almost four hundred mapped ways to climb Seneca Rocks.

Visitors who are not experienced rock climbers can follow a steep man-made path that takes them to the top. The path begins at Seneca Rocks Discovery Center at the base of the rocks. The Discovery Center has exhibits about the earliest American Indians who lived in the area. The center also has information about the wildlife and plants of the area.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

West Virginia is a state divided by mountains. But the area has also been divided in other ways during its history.

In the early years of the United States, it was the western part of the state of Virginia. It was part of Virginia until 1861. Then, as the American Civil War began, the Virginia state government voted to rebel against the United States. Virginia joined other southern states in forming the Confederate States of America.

But representatives from the western counties opposed the decision to leave the Union. So the area separated from Virginia. In June of 1863, West Virginia became the 35th state.

VOICE TWO:

Many Civil War battles were fought in West Virginia. Even though West Virginia had remained in the Union, about half of the people in the state supported the South. Many families were divided. Sometimes brothers fought on opposite sides. After the North won the war, divisions in the state slowly healed.

Most of the people in the state were farmers in the eighteen hundreds. Then two natural resources -- coal and trees -- became important. Mining of coal and logging of the forests became major industries as transportation improved on the rivers and railroads were built. Coal and wood continue to be important to the state's economy.

Toward the end of the 20th century, tourism became an important industry. The number of visitors to West Virginia continues to increase every year.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Potomac Highlands area of West Virginia has a lot of sandstone. Sandstone is a soft rock. The action of wind and water can form cave openings like natural rooms within the rock.

Two major caves are open to the public near Smoke Hole and Seneca Rocks. Seneca Caverns3 and Smoke Hole Caverns have been used through the ages. Native Americans used them to build fires to dry their food. During the Civil War, soldiers from both sides used them at different times to store weapons. Now these caves provide underground experiences for visitors.

VOICE TWO:

Guides lead groups on lighted paths down into the ground and through the caves. Visitors see wonderful formations hanging from the ceiling and growing up from the floor. It takes centuries for water dripping through the rock to make these beautiful formations.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Breathtaking. Wonderful. A treasure. These are words that visitors use to describe Dolly Sods, a large wild area in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. About 150 years ago, a magazine described this same area as very dangerous. It said the forests and undergrowth were so dense4, no one could get through them. Bears and panthers lived there but no people.

In the 1800s, a German family named Dahle raised sheep on wet, grassy5 open places called sods. Local people changed the spelling of the name and the area became known as Dolly Sods.

Dolly Sods once was covered with a dense ancient forest of red spruce and hemlock6 trees. By the late 1800s, railroads reached the area. Loggers cut down the huge trees and trains carried the wood to fast-growing cities in nearby states.

VOICE TWO:

For years, fires from lightening and logger's campfires burned through the areas where the forest had been cut down. The constant fires burned everything down to the bare rock base.

In 1920, Congress created the Monongahela National Forest. The United States Forest Service soon had trees planted in some areas and a rough road system built.

In 1975, much of the Dolly Sods area became part of the National Wilderness Preservation7 System. The Forest Service is protecting the area from too much human activity so it will return to its natural wild condition. Native plants and animals are returning.

Dolly Sods is up high, almost 1,000  meters. So plants and animals there are more like those found in northern Canada than in the rest of West Virginia.

VOICE ONE:

The northern part of Dolly Sods is called the scenic8 area. You can walk among the large rocks known as Bear Rocks and pick blueberries and huckleberries from low-growing bushes. You can spend quiet time looking at the mountains off to the east. You are up high, so even in the summer the air usually is cool.

VOICE TWO:

People come to Dolly Sods to get away from the noise and crowds of city life. They camp in the wilderness far from other people. They pick wild blueberries growing on the rocky fields and red cranberries9 growing in wet bogs10. They hunt deer, turkey and rabbits. They fish in rivers that flow through the area. And they walk on rough, rocky paths, many of which follow old railroad tracks and roads used by loggers long ago.

VOICE ONE:

Signs along roads entering the state welcome you to "wild, wonderful West Virginia." Visitors to the Potomac Highlands have a chance to experience some of those wild, wonderful places.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Marilyn Christiano and directed by Caty Weaver11. To see pictures of West Virginia, and to download transcripts12 and MP3 files of our shows, go to voaspecialenglish. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Listen again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.


quartzite : 石英岩;硅岩



点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 knob NkCyB     
n.球形把手,球形柄,旋钮,小块
参考例句:
  • There is a knob of butter on the table.桌子上有一小块黄油。
  • This knob is only held on by sellotape.这个旋钮只是用透明胶带固定住的。
2 wilderness SgrwS     
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠
参考例句:
  • She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
  • Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。
3 caverns bb7d69794ba96943881f7baad3003450     
大山洞,大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Within were dark caverns; what was inside them, no one could see. 里面是一个黑洞,这里面有什么东西,谁也望不见。 来自汉英文学 - 家(1-26) - 家(1-26)
  • UNDERGROUND Under water grottos, caverns Filled with apes That eat figs. 在水帘洞里,挤满了猿争吃无花果。
4 dense aONzX     
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的
参考例句:
  • The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
  • The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
5 grassy DfBxH     
adj.盖满草的;长满草的
参考例句:
  • They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
  • Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。
6 hemlock n51y6     
n.毒胡萝卜,铁杉
参考例句:
  • He was condemned to drink a cup of hemlock.判处他喝一杯毒汁。
  • Here is a beech by the side of a hemlock,with three pines at hand.这儿有株山毛榉和一株铁杉长在一起,旁边还有三株松树。
7 preservation glnzYU     
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持
参考例句:
  • The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
  • The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。
8 scenic aDbyP     
adj.自然景色的,景色优美的
参考例句:
  • The scenic beauty of the place entranced the visitors.这里的美丽风光把游客们迷住了。
  • The scenic spot is on northwestern outskirts of Beijing.这个风景区位于北京的西北远郊。
9 cranberries 78106be327439d47d10789051008c217     
n.越橘( cranberry的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The tart flavour of the cranberries adds piquancy. 越橘的酸味很可口。
  • Look at the fresh cranberries. 你看这些新鲜的蔓越橘。 来自无师自通 校园英语会话
10 bogs d60480275cf60a95a369eb1ebd858202     
n.沼泽,泥塘( bog的名词复数 );厕所v.(使)陷入泥沼, (使)陷入困境( bog的第三人称单数 );妨碍,阻碍
参考例句:
  • Whenever It'shows its true nature, real life bogs to a standstill. 无论何时,只要它显示出它的本来面目,真正的生活就陷入停滞。 来自名作英译部分
  • At Jitra we went wading through bogs. 在日得拉我们步行着从泥水塘里穿过去。 来自辞典例句
11 weaver LgWwd     
n.织布工;编织者
参考例句:
  • She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快,而且布的质量很好。
  • The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。
12 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句
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