VOA慢速英语:南非人发现一种新的生活方式
Hello and welcome back. I’m Jim Tedder inWashington. Today we travel to South Africa to seehow the other guy lives. We will introduce you to a manwho has some new ideas about living in the big city. Our second item is for the birds. Actually it is about thebirds, and how they have known something forthousands of years that we are just learning.
As It Is …a radio and Internet program to help you learnand improve your American English…is coming yourway …from VOA.
Ten year ago, the central downtown business area ofJohannesburg, South Africa, looked as if it had seenmuch better days. Many buildings stood empty. Normal city services had stopped operating. But these days in the areaknown as CDB, things are different.
Anderson Street is a main connector in downtown Johannesburg. Very nearthat street, Dirk Bahmann walks through a building’s entrance area. He stepsinto the elevator and rides up to the fourth level.
He opens a door at the end of the hall and enters a space planned for bothwork and home living. The area has become his personal design and buildingproject since he bought the apartment six years ago.
Mr. Bahmann is an architect and artist who grew up in the suburbs north ofJohannesburg. But he says urban living connects him better to thecommunity than living in towns on the edges of cities.
“For me, living in the city was a means to kind of connect with people in aneveryday, ordinary way without it having to be pretentious, and that you feelpart and belong to something."
Over the last few years, developers have retaken ownership of manybuildings. Crime has decreased. Middle and upper-class home buyers havestarted to take an interest in the area.
Mr. Bahmann designed and built his own modern apartment. It is both homeand office. It uses movable furniture to make the space seem as large aspossible. But he says there is one problem with living in the city.
"The only thing I miss is getting a full night's sleep. I'm very sensitive to noise,so I always wake up when someone is walking down the road and shouting, orpeople who hoot when they want to get into the building."
He says except for lack of sleep, the area provides easy living. He can buyfood, eat at restaurants, and get all his art materials within minutes fromhome.
Just outside the downtown area is Johannesburg's Brixton neighborhood.Small houses there are built close to the ground. Homeless people often sleepon steps and porches and under building extensions that protect them the rainand the hot sun.
Some people see danger in Brixton. But architect Thomas Chapman seessomething else. He says he sees the possibility of apartment living, or what iscalled loft living. Mr. Chapman says the area has great promise to developand increase its population.
"That's why we're choosing to act here, because I don't think it's been fullyrealized, the potential here for what we call loft living or apartment living.”
Mr. Chapman is with a group called Local Studio. He and his partners areworking on a building with eight apartment units, a coffee shop and a newoffice space for their own business.
Mr. Chapman says developers are leading the efforts to redevelop CDB. But he says the city attracted their interest. He said, for example, that the cityinvested in such community basics as pavement – hard roads andsidewalks.
"The truth is that management has gotten better and crime has gotten less. Istrongly think it's an urban management issue, and the city has made strides."
Still, developers are taking private responsibility for some issues. Mr.Chapman pointed to the successful development of Maboneng. Developersthere have hired full-time security guards. They also have invested in streetlighting and waste management.
Mr. Chapman says his development will likely need some of those sameinvestments. And he says they usually provide a return. The architect saysthere is a great chance for Johannesburg's city neighborhoods to grow andcompete with traditional living in suburbs.
He says that as a designer of cities, he believes that is where the future lies.
“V” Is For Energy Efficiency
No matter where people are making new homes and offices, saving energy isimportant. For us humans, the goal can be difficult. But for some of ourfeathered friends, being energy efficient comes naturally. Just take a look upthere.
Scientists at Britain’s Royal Veterinary College in London may have solved amystery that has puzzled us for years. Why do flocks of birds often fly in aformation that looks similar to the letter “V”? The answer is, they say, becauseit saves energy.
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Birds fly past the U.S. Capitol as the sun rises in Washington, D.C. |
This is how it works. Many drivers know that being behind a large truck cansave you gasoline. That is because the truck is pushing a lot of air around it. The car faces less resistance because a partial vacuum – an empty space – is created behind it.
Steven Portugal, a researcher at the Royal VeterinaryCollege, says birds knew that long ago. The scientificteam studied Northern Bald Ibises. They placed smalldevices on the back of each bird. One of the devices, akind of GPS, recorded the flight plan it followed.
The other device documented the birds’ wingmovements. The readings showed that the birds coulduse the rising stream of air created by the tip – the edgeof the wing—of the bird flying in front of it.
Mr. Portugal said it was already known from earlier research that birds couldbe helped to save their energy by flying in V-formation. But he said his teamshowed the way the upward stream of air could be put to work.
“Scientists had predicted that birds could take advantage of this by flying in aV-formation shape. But actually what no one had been able to do previouslywas to understand the mechanism by which that upwash could be captured.”
The Austrian conservation group Waldarappteam and its special aircrafthelped the British scientists. With that help they were able to follow the birdson their migration to Italy.
The GPS navigation devices recorded in real time the position and speed ofeach bird within the flock. The other devices, the accelerometers, recordedhow fast and hard each bird flapped its wings back and forth. The scientistsrecreated the birds’ movements in a computer.
Jim Usherwood is a Royal Veterinary College professor. He says each birdwas very effective in reacting and responding to the movement of the bird justin front of it.
“If you can position yourself in the right bit of upwards air, then you can getsome kind of benefit.”
Scientists now plan to study how the birds decide which bird will lead the flockon yearly migrations across Europe.
My, how time flies when you are having fun! Get it? Flies? Birds? Oh, well. Thank you for spending some time with us. Remember, more LearningEnglish Programs are just seconds away. And world news follows at thebeginning of the hour. I’m Jim Tedder in Washington. We’ll see you later!。
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