(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Phoebe Zimmermann. And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today we tell about an unusual man who had many abilities.
Building designer. Engineer. Inventor. Thinker. Poet. Not five people. Just one: Richard Buckminster Fuller. "Bucky" Fuller, as he was known, was one of the most unusual thinkers of the twentieth century. His aim in life was to make the human race a success in the universe.
Bucky Fuller spent most of his life searching for new ideas. He also searched for unusual connections between existing ideas. He described himself in these words: "A complete, future-thinking design-science explorer."
Fuller believed deeply in technology. Through technology, he said, people can do anything they need to do.
R. Buckminster Fuller died in nineteen eighty-three at the age of eighty-seven. During his long life, he discussed his idea about technology and human survival. He called his idea "dymaxion." It came from three words. Dynamic, meaning a force. Maximum, meaning the most. And ion, which is an atom or group of atoms with an electrical charge.
Fuller explained the word dymaxion as a method of doing more with less. Everything he did was guided by this idea. He designed a dymaxion car, a dymaxion house, and a dymaxion map of the world. But he probably is known best for another invention -- the geodesic dome. A geodesic dome is a round building made of many straight-sided pieces.
Talking about R. Buckminster Fuller means using strange words. This is because Fuller himself invented words to describe his ideas and designs. His designs were way ahead of his time. They still are.
R. Buckminster Fuller was born in Milton, Massachusetts, in eighteen ninety-five. Bucky could not see clearly, because his eyes did not point straight ahead. So, his world was filled with masses of color without clear shapes.
When he was four years old, he got eyeglasses to correct the problem. Suddenly, he could see the shapes of people's faces. He could see stars in the sky and leaves on the trees. He never lost his joy at the beauty he discovered in the world.
As a child, Bucky Fuller questioned everything. He was a very independent thinker at an early age. His refusal to accept other people's ideas and rules continued as he grew older. One result was that he never completed his university studies. He was expelled two times from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He thought his time was better spent having fun than studying.
Yet Bucky Fuller was very serious about learning. He proved this when he joined the American navy during World War One.
In the navy, he learned all about navigation, mathematics, mechanics, communications and electronics engineering. He loved this world of modern technology. Soon after he joined the navy, he designed new rescue equipment. It helped save the lives of some pilots during training. Fuller's good navy record won him a short-term appointment to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was there he first developed two ideas that were important for the rest of his life.
While studying warships, Fuller realized that they weighed much less than buildings, yet were able to do much more. He decided better designs could also help humans do more, using fewer materials.
In nineteen seventeen, Bucky Fuller married Anne Hewlett. Their daughter, Alexandra, was born about a year later. Bucky was a very emotional man, as well as an intellectual one. He loved his little daughter. She was the wonder of his world. Then Alexandra became very sick. The medicine to cure her had not been invented yet. She died at the age of four.
Bucky Fuller blamed himself, although he had done everything he could to save her. His sorrow overcame him. He began to drink too much alcohol. Yet he continued to work hard.
Fuller was head of a company that made a light-weight building material. He was not a successful businessman, however. And the company began to fail. He was dismissed by the owners. It was nineteen twenty-seven. His wife had just given birth to another baby girl. They were living in Chicago, Illinois. He had no job and no money. He felt he was a complete failure.
Bucky Fuller walked through the streets of Chicago along lake Michigan. He stood silently on the shore. He considered killing himself. Then, as he explained later, he realized he did not have the right to kill himself. He said he had felt something inside him that day. He called it the Greater Intelligence or God. It told him he belonged to the universe. So Bucky Fuller decided to live. And he would live the way he thought best. He promised to spend his remaining years in search of designs that could make human existence on Earth easier. This began his great creative period.
Fuller's first design was the dymaxion house. It was not built at the place it would stand. It was built in a factory, then moved. It did not cost much to build. And it did not look like a traditional house in America. Its roof hung from a huge stick in the center. Its walls were made of glass. It contained everything needed for people to live. Power came from the sun. Water was cleaned and re-used.
Fuller then designed and built the dymaxion car. It looked a little like the body of an airplane. It had three wheels instead of four. It could go as fast as one hundred eighty kilometers an hour. It carried up to twelve passengers.
Several companies were interested in building and selling Fuller's house and car. But his designs were so different, so extreme, that banks were not willing to lend money for the projects. So the dymaxion house -- which could have provided low-cost housing for everyone -- was never built. And the dymaxion car -- which could have provided safe, pollution-free transportation using little gasoline -- was never produced.
Bucky Fuller did not give up his idea of doing more with less. He had an idea for another building design. It would provide the most strength with the least amount of material. He began looking for the perfect shape.
Fuller found it in nature. It appeared in the shapes of organic compounds and metals. The main part of his design is a four-sided pyramid. To create a building, many pyramids are connected to each other. The connecting piece has eight sides.
Together, these two shapes create a very strong, light-weight rounded structure. The structure can be covered with any kind of material. And it can stand without any supports inside. Fuller named this structure the geodesic dome. It covers more space with less material than any other building ever designed.
After a number of experimental geodesic domes were built, industry began to understand the value of the design. Today, there are about one hundred thousand different large and small geodesic domes in use around the world. However, no one yet has acted on one of Fuller's ideas for the geodesic dome.
There are no limits to the size of a geodesic dome. So Fuller proposed using them over cities or over areas that had severe weather. A geodesic dome that size would make it possible to have complete control over the environment inside it.
Most of Bucky Fuller's inventions did not earn him much money. A lot of what he did earn he spent travelling around the world. He told anyone who would listen about his ideas for human life on this planet. He called the planet "Spaceship Earth." Humans, he said, are astronauts on Spaceship Earth. They are travelling one hundred thousand kilometers an hour around the sun. He said the Earth is like a large mechanical device that will survive only if people living on it know how to operate it correctly.
People must live on Earth just as astronauts live in a spaceship. They must use their supplies wisely, and re-use them. Buckminster Fuller said humans are able, through planning and wise use of natural supplies, to feed and house themselves forever.
重点解析
1.search for探寻
My life has been music, and a constant search for it has been the mainspring of my life
我以音乐为生，对音乐的不懈探索已经成为我生活的动力。
2.as well as此外；也
Freud postulated that we all have a death instinct as well as a life instinct.
弗洛伊德曾假定我们所有人都有生存本能和死亡本能。
3.belong to属于
Earls, princes, and kings belong to the nobility.
伯爵、亲王和国王属于贵族。
4.instead of代替
We did the logo in lower-case letters instead of capitals.
我们的徽标用了小写字母，没用大写。
5.be willing to愿意
We are willing to help but unable to do so about this.
这件事我们是爱莫能助了。
6.give up放弃
Coastguards had given up all hope of finding the two divers alive.
海岸警卫队对两位潜水员生还已完全不抱希望。
参考译文
我是菲比·齐默尔曼，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们讲述一位拥有不寻常能力的人。
他是建筑设计师，工程师，发明家，思想家，诗人。不是五个人。只有一个人：理查德·巴克敏斯特·富勒。就是大家知道的巴克·富勒。他是20世纪最非同一般的思想家之一。他生活的目标是使人类在宇宙中获得成功。
巴克·富勒用了他人生的大部分时光寻找新思想。他也寻找现有的思想之间的不寻常的联系。他用下面这句话形容自己：“一位完全的有未来意识的科学设计探索者。”富勒深深地相信科技。通过科技，他说，人们可以做任何他们想做的事情。
巴克敏斯特·富勒于1983年去世，享年87岁。咋漫长的一生中，他探讨了他关于科技和人类生存的思想。
他将自己的观点称为“dymaxion”。它来自三个词汇。有活力的，意味着力量。最大化，意味着最大。还有离子，还有离子，它是一个或一组带电荷的原子。
富勒解释这个单词指的是一种以少做多的方法。他做的每件事情都由这个观点指导。他设计了这种汽车，这种房子，还有这种世界地图。但他最著名的发明可能是另一项发明——测地线圆顶。测地线圆顶是由许多直边构件组成的圆形建筑。
谈论巴克敏斯特·富勒意味着使用奇怪的词语。这是因为富勒会自己发明词语来描述他的想法和设计。他的设计远超前于他的时代。现在依然如此。
巴克明斯特·富勒于1895年出生在马萨诸塞州的米尔顿。巴基看不清楚东西，因为他的眼睛没有直视前方。所以，他的世界充满了没有清晰形状的大量颜色。
四岁的时候，他戴上眼镜来纠正这个问题。突然，他看到了人们的脸的形状。他能看见天上的星星和树上的树叶。他对自己在这个世界上所发现的美从未失去过喜悦。
作为一个孩子，巴克富勒质疑一切。他很小的时候就是一个非常独立的思想家。随着年龄的增长，他拒绝接受别人的想法和规则。结果之一是他从未完成大学学业。他两次被马萨诸塞州剑桥市的哈佛大学开除。他认为把时间花在娱乐上比花在学习上更好。
但是巴克·富勒对于学习非常认真。他在二战期间加入美国海军时证明了这一点。
在海军，他学习了航海、数学、机械、通信和电子工程的所有知识。他喜欢这个拥有现代科技的世界。他加入海军后不久就设计了新的救援设备。它在训练期间帮助挽救了一些飞行员的生命。富勒在海军方面的出色表现为他赢得了一份短期的工作，进入到位于马里兰州安纳波利斯的美国海军学院。正是在那里，他第一次提出了两个对他的余生都很重要的想法。
在研究战舰时，富勒发现它们比建筑轻很多，但是却能做到更多。他认为更好的设计能使用更少的材料，帮助人类做更多的事。
1917年，巴克·富勒和安妮·休利特结婚。大约一年后，他们的女儿亚历山德拉出生了。巴克是个非常情绪化的人，也是个非常聪明的人。他爱他的小女儿。女儿是他世界里的奇迹。然后亚历山德拉病的很重。能治愈她的药物那时还没有发明。她四岁就去世了。
巴克·富勒感到自责，尽管他已经做了一切能帮助她的事情。他的悲伤压倒了她。他开始大量酗酒。但是他继续努力工作。
富勒是一家生产轻质建筑材料的公司的负责人。然而，他并不是一个成功的商人。公司开始失败。他被老板解雇了。那是1927年。他的妻子刚刚生了另外一个女儿。他们住在伊利诺斯州的芝加哥。他没有工作，也没有钱。他觉得自己完全失败了。
巴克·富勒沿着密歇根湖在芝加哥的街头穿行。他静默地站在岸边。他想自杀。然后，正如他后来解释的那样，他发现他没有权利自杀。他说那天他感到内心有些东西。他称之为伟大的智慧或上帝。它告诉他，他属于宇宙。所以巴克·富勒决定活下去。他会以自己认为的最棒的方式活着。他决定用自己的余生寻找设计，来让人类在地球上活的更轻松。
富勒的第一个设计是最大限度利用资源住宅。它不是建在它将屹立的地方，它建立在一个工厂里，然后移走。建造这个房子也没有花费很多。它也不像美国的传统房屋。它的屋顶悬挂在中心的一根大棒上。它的墙是由玻璃制成的。它包含了一切人们生活需要的东西。能量来自太阳。水可以被清洗和再利用。
然后富勒设计并建造了最大限度利用资源汽车。它看起来有点像汽车的形体。这种汽车有三个轮子，而不是四个。它的速度可以达到每小时180公里。它最多可载十二名乘客。
有几家公司有兴趣建造和销售富勒的房子和汽车。但他的设计如此不同，如此极端，以至于银行不愿为这些项目提供贷款。所以最大限度利用资源住宅-它可以为每个人提供低花销住房-从没有被建成。最大限度利用资源汽车-它可以提供安全，无污染的运输，使用很少的汽油-从没有被生产。
巴克·富勒从没有放弃他的以少做多的想法。他有了为另一座楼房设计的想法。它将用最少的材料提供最大的强度。他开始寻找完美的形状。富勒在自然中找到了。它以有机化合物和金属的形状出现。他设计的主体是一个四面的金字塔。为了建造一个大楼，很多的金字塔都连在了一起。连接的部分有八面。
连在一起，这两个形状形成了一个非常牢固的、量轻的圆形结构。这种结构可以用任何一种材料覆盖。它里面不用支撑就可以伫立起来。富勒将这种建筑命名为网格状球顶建筑。它比任何其他设计过的建筑使用更少的材料覆盖更多的空间。
在一些实验性的网格状球顶的建筑建成后，工业开始明白这种设计的价值。今天，世界上大约有十万个不同大小的网格状球顶建筑在使用。然而，还没有人对富勒的网格状球顶建筑的想法采取行动。网格状球顶建筑的大小没有限制。所以富勒建议在有极端天气的城市或区域使用这种建筑。那种大小的网格状球顶建筑可以完全控制里面的环境。
巴克·富勒的很多发明都没有让他赚到很多钱。他挣到的很多钱都花在环游世界上了。他告诉任何愿意听他关于人类在这个星球上生活的想法的人。他称这颗行星为“地球飞船”。他说，人类就是地球飞船上的宇航员。人类正以每小时10万公里的速度绕太阳飞行。他说，地球就像一个巨大的机械装置，只有生活在上面的人知道如何正确操作它，它才能生存。
人类必须生活在地球上，就像宇航员生活在宇宙飞船里一样。他们必须明智地使用他们的补给，并重新利用它们。巴克敏斯特·富勒说人类可以通过计划和智慧的使用自然补给，来永远地生活在地球上。
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