语言学习第二弹【2018.01.21】-语民
听说，今天的成都下雪了~
像我这种见过大雪的人内心真的毫无波澜！
不多说了，转入正题！
1.US Army Dog Recognized for Heroic Action During World War II
A United States Army dog has been recognized for his actions during the Allied invasion of Sicily in World War II.
A dog named “Chips” was posthumously awarded the PDSA Dickin Medal earlier this week at a ceremony in London.
The medal recognizes the heroic actions of animals serving in military conflict.
The award is presented by a British group: the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals.
Chips’ life began as a much loved pet of the Wren family in Pleasantville, New York.
A neighboring family offered the dog to the Wrens when he was a puppy.
John Wren, who was a young boy at the time, remembers his parents’ reaction to the small animal.
“The runt of the litter was this German Shepherd-husky mix thing.
And they said to my mother, ‘Would you like him?’
And she said, ‘I’d love to have him.’
So, she took him, and she named him Chips.
And he responded well, and he was smart and obeyed well.
And then the war effort came on, and they asked for canines, or dogs, to go into the K9 Corps.
And they thought he was a perfect fit for it.
Although they were sorry to have to do it, they knew it was the right thing to do, And they did it…”
Chips easily passed his military entrance tests.
He then joined the Third Infantry Regiment of the Seventh U.S. Army and was sent to North Africa.
In January 1943, Chips helped to guard the Casablanca Conference in Morocco,
where then-U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to plan the war.
The same year in July, Chips joined "Operation Husky," the Allied invasion force landing on the Italian island of Sicily.
Lieutenant Colonel Alan Throop spoke at the award ceremony on Monday.
He said that during the invasion,紫气阁小说网 enemy forces shot at and attacked Chip’s team.
Throop said the dog broke away and forced the surrender of the enemy machine gun team.
Chips’ handler described how the dog entered the machine gun shelter,
and came out with his jaws around the neck of a German soldier.
Chips’ handler had to tell the dog to stop before the man was killed.
During the incident, Chips suffered burns and injuries, but survived.
He also saved the lives of the soldiers in his platoon.
Later, the army awarded Chips the Silver Star and nominated him for the Distinguished Service Cross.
However, the medals were later withdrawn after criticism that they were not meant for animals.
Chips survived the war and returned to the United States.
John Wren, who was four at the time, was there to welcome Chips when he arrived.
More than 70 years later, Chips finally received an award for his actions.
At the ceremony on Monday, Ayron, a U.S. military working dog based in Britain, and Throop accepted the award on Chips’ behalf.
The presentation took place at the Churchill War Rooms, named after the former British prime minister.
Winston Churchill’s great-grandson, Randolph Churchill, attended the ceremony.
Wren said he is thankful for the Dickin Medal.
“It’s just a nice way of honoring a war hero,” he told VOA.
录音提供者：Ciaral
2.New Technology Reads Ancient Documents without Opening Them
Attempting to open very old books and records without damaging them can be difficult.
But scientists in Switzerland say they have improved a method to read age-old documents without even touching them.
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are using radiation, in the form of x-rays, to create images of the documents. This method is called X-ray computedtomographyor X-Ray tomography.
On a recent day, the researchers used X-ray tomography to read from a small 14thcentury document.
Giorgio Margaritondo is working on the project. Reading from the document, he noted, "in the year 1351, a young lady from Venice...wrote atestament, and then the testament wassealed, and remained sealed for all these many centuries."
Italian officials are planning to use X-Ray tomography to build an opendigitalsystem in the State Archives of Venice.
Margaritondo says, "What you find inside the Archives are not only small documents. But most of the items are hugevolumesthe size of a table高兮妍 , and so we must be able in the future to look inside them."
Many of the documents show signs of weathering, and are easily broken.
Fauzia Albertin is also working on the project. She says, "We need a non-invasivetechniqueto read inside them. Thanks to the use for thousands of years of iron-basedinkswe can read them using X-rays."
Albertin is also with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
The researchers have a lot of work to keep them busy. The State Archives of Venice has a huge number of records. They were produced over a period of about 1,000 years. The documents cover about 80 kilometers ofshelfspace.
录音提供者：Leebone