Już 62 518 użytkowników uczy się języków obcych z Edustation.
Możesz zarejestrować się już dziś i odebrać bonus w postaci 10 monet.
Jeżeli chcesz się dowiedzieć więcej o naszym portalu - kliknij tutaj
Jeszcze nie teraz ZAREJESTRUJ SIĘlub
Zaloguj »
On Chesapeake Bay, an Island Saved from Sinking, Part 3
Temat: Środowisko
Do some Exercises: Słuchaj i zapisuj Tworzenie zdań Ukryte słowa
VOICE ONE: March seventeenth is the day many Americans celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. Mister Brennan says ospreys also mark that day. Every year, he says, ospreys return to Poplar Island to build their homes on March seventeenth. The project leader says some of the birds place pieces of wood on heavy machinery like bulldozers. Workers remove these sticks to use the machinery. But when the workers return the next day, the birds have replaced the sticks. Mister Brennan says about one hundred seventy kinds of birds use the island for a nesting place. Sometimes a heron can be seen standing on one thin leg, motionless. Sandpipers, snowy egrets and eagles also are among the many kinds of birds of Poplar Island. They share the territory with animals like white tailed deer, river otters and mice. VOICE TWO: No people live on the island now. And no one will live there when the project is completed. But it was not always unpopulated. Native American tribes once grew vegetables like beans and corn throughout the Chesapeake coastal plain. The first known European settlement on Poplar Island was established in the sixteen thirties. Around that time England gave the land to Richard Thompson, a trader and explorer. For a few years, the settlement grew. Then tragedy struck. One day Thompson returned to Poplar Island from a trip and made a horrible discovery. Some settlers had been murdered. But the crime did not stop people from continuing to live on the island. VOICE ONE: Later, British troops occupied Poplar Island during the War of Eighteen Twelve. Historical records say a trader bought the island in eighteen forty-four. He wanted to keep one thousand cats there to produce black cat fur. But the animals escaped to the mainland when waters on the Chesapeake Bay froze in December. Until the early nineteen hundreds, Poplar Island had mail service, a store and a school. But nature was cruel. By the nineteen twenties, erosion from winds and weather had removed a large part of the land. VOICE TWO: Still, some politicians bought the island in the early nineteen thirties. They thought the wildlife and distance from Washington, D.C. would make a good place for people wishing to get away from the city. They built a clubhouse on a piece of land that had separated from the main island. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman used Poplar Island and nearby Jackson Island for holidays. The clubhouse burned down in nineteen forty-six, and the island continued to erode. Recently, a Maryland woman who remembers going to Poplar Island years ago returned on a guided visit. She said it was wonderful that life had returned to an interesting part of Chesapeake Bay. VOICE ONE: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. I'm Bob Doughty. VOICE TWO: And I'm Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America. Source: Voice of America
