英语播客 A Cup of English 2016 Chief Moses

Moses Lake is a town that is situated about an hour and a half from where I live. I don't usually choose to go there; however, in the winter, my children will often have basketball tournaments there once or twice. The journey there takes you through flat farmland, and then through miles of dry open areas of, well, nothing really. The type of land is called 'scabland' where there is very little rainfall(1), and a bush called 'sagebrush' grows everywhere. Geologically speaking, it's part of the largest lava plateau(2) in the world, and it stretches for miles and miles and miles. Part of the road to Moses Lake travels along side the Columbia river which is impressive. But as the road turns away from the river, the land stretches out for miles with no sign of trees or houses. Moses Lake has, of course, a very large lake which initially provided fish for the inhabitants of the town. It was named after Chief Moses, the leader of the Sinkiuse tribe, who had to negotiate with the U.S government to give up the land in exchange for a reservation. The High School is named after him. His picture is on the walls, and a point of pride for the town. As each basketball team has a name, like The Wenatchee Panthers, Moses Lake High School athletes are called the Chiefs, meaning the leaders in Native Indian tradition. The rest of the town doesn't seem to reflect much of its Indian roots(3) which is a shame. It has an important airplane training base, and some farming, but the town itself is not very attractive. I can imagine, however, Moses Lake transformed by some good planning and creativity. It could become an attractive reflection of Native Indian history, and modern progress.

1. I used the word 'rainfall' in the podcast instead of 'rain'. Why? Its because I was talking about the average amount of rain in a year. You can also use the word when talking about a shorter amount of time, like a month. It implies a measurement.

a. The rainfall in Seattle is actually a lot more than in the U.K.

b. The rainfall each Spring causes floods in town. (Here you could use 'rain', but I wish to indicate volume).

2. The word 'plateau' is a geological term that is sometimes used figuratively.

a. The castle is situated on the edge of a plateau that sits in the middle of the valley.

b. The computer sales plateaued after three weeks, and then went down.

3. 'Roots' here in the podcast refers to the Native American ethnic heritage. The use of the word is figurative, but of course we use the word literally as well.

a. Cutting down the tree was easy, but pulling up all of the roots was hard work!

b. They have just moved to a new town, and hope to eventually put down roots there.