雙語+MP3|美國學生藝術史53 精美的禮物

 
這座雕像是由一個名叫文森西奧·貝拉的瑞士雕刻家制作的。你喜歡這座雕像嗎？它被稱作一尊“充滿戲劇化”的雕像，因為它向人們展示了當時發(fā)生的事件。它刻畫的不僅僅是拿破侖本人，還有他重拾昔日輝煌的心愿。 
53 A HANDSOME PRESENT精美的禮物
 
HAVE you ever been inside a statue? Most big bronze statues are hollow and often there is room inside for a man—if there were only any way of getting in. But there is only one statue in the whole world that hundreds of thousands of people have been inside of. The thousands of people can’t all get in at one time, but forty people can get into the head at one time. You’ve probably already guessed what I’m talking about. It is the Statue of Liberty. 
The Statue of Liberty stands on a stone base or pedestal. The pedestal stands on a little island at the entrance of New York harbor. Every ship that goes in or out of New York passes near the statue. Even in the dark the passengers on a ship can see it, for at night it is lighted up with strong search-lights. Travelers coming back from abroad feel they are really home when they sight the Statue of Liberty. 
 
No.53　THE STATUE OF LIBERTY（《自由女神像》）　　BARTHOLDI（巴托爾迪　制） 
Photograph by Ewing Galloway 
The Statue of Liberty is the biggest bronze statue in all the world. What would you think if you saw a woman as tall as a ten story building? A woman whose hand is sixteen feet long. (What a hand for swatting mosquitoes!) A woman whose eyes are each two and a half feet wide. (What eyes to get cinders in!) A woman whose uplifted right arm is forty-two feet long. (What an arm for throwing baseballs!) A woman whose finger is as long as an elephant is high! If you wanted that woman to wear a ring, the ring would have to be as big as a hoop. If you wanted the woman to wear gloves, the material for the gloves would spread over more room than a tennis court! 
Such a woman is Liberty. She is sometimes called “Liberty En Lightening the World.” This is because Liberty holds a lighted torch, in her raised right band. The torch is so big that people climb a ladder inside the right arm and then walk around the torch as if it were a porch. You might make a rhyme of it: 
 
Liberty’s torch, 
Is used for a porch. 
 
Held in Liberty’s left arm is a tablet. On the tablet (which is very much bigger than a dining room table) are these letters: 
 
JULY IV 
MDCCLXXVI 
 
Do you know what they mean? Even if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you, so you have a puzzle to work out. 
The Statue of Liberty can be seen from a long way off, but you can’t get very close to it unless you take a boat. When you get off the boat you walk up some steps to the pedestal. Inside the pedestal you take an elevator and ride up to the top of the pedestal. Then you have to climb stairs to reach the top of the statue. The stairs wind round and round inside the statue like a snail’s shell, and the higher you climb, the more you feel like going slowly—also like a snail. As you climb you can see the framework that the statue is built around, made of rods of steel. You can see how the statue is fitted together out of separate pieces of bronze. 
When you finally get up inside the head you can look out of windows in Liberty’s crown. 
The man who made the huge statue was a Frenchman named Bartholdi (Bar-tól-dee). A Frenchman made it as a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. Bartholdi chose the place for Liberty to be put and then went back to France and made a model. Then the model was used to make the huge bronze pieces of the statue itself. These pieces were brought, in a ship, to the United States and put together on the island. It was like fitting together a gigantic picture puzzle, for of course each piece of bronze was a different shape. 
I think it was a very effective and friendly present for the Republic of France to give to the Republic of the United States, don’t you?