You will hear an interview, listen to it and complete the statements in your test book appropriately, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.0:06
Mr. Crowley, you are a well known photographer.0:29
Your job makes you travel all over the country.0:32
Could you speak about some of the places that are well worth visiting?0:35
There are thousands of them in the us it's not easy to single out just one.0:39
Perhaps today I'd like to draw attention to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.0:44
Do you mean the monument to four American presidents in South Dakota?0:49
Yes, that's exactly the monument.0:54
I mean because of its size and the skill with which it's made.0:56
It really makes a great impression.1:00
It's also become one of the popular American symbols.1:03
It's very famous indeed.1:07
Anyhow, I'd still like to remind our listeners that the monument depicts George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson.1:09
Their faces are cut in the rock.1:19
Each president's head is over 18 meters tall.1:22
Its nose is six meters long and its mouth is five and a half meters wide.1:25
As you can guess, carving portraits in rock is extremely hard work.1:34
The man who first came up with the idea was the American historian Doane Robinson.1:39
He thought the monument would attract tourism tourists to his native state of South Dakota.1:44
Nowadays, about 3 million visitors come to look at the monument each year.1:51
Robinson invited Gudson Borglum, an American sculptor and artist, to come and work on the monument, which the latter agreed to do.1:56
So when did the sculptor actually get down to this challenging job?2:06
After three years of looking for the right kind of mountain, Borglum began the carving of Mount Rushmore in in 1927.2:10
The work was completed only in 1941 by Borglum's son, as the sculptor himself had died before the carvings were finished.2:19
As I understand, the job required the effort of more than two people.2:29
If I remember correctly, more than 400 men and women worked on the monument for 14 years.2:35
To get to the top of the mountain, the they had to climb half a thousand steps.2:41
Some of them had to do it daily.2:46
The work was also very dangerous because much of the carving was done with the help of dynamite.2:49
I suppose we can say that Mount Rushmore is a memorial not only to American presidents, but also to human determination, persistence and creativity.2:55
Thanks a lot for your story, Mr. Crowley.3:05
Клик по слову — перевод и «+ в мои слова» (в любом режиме). Клик по строке или таймкоду — перейти к этому месту записи.