对于城市居民来说，公园是他们远离喧嚣烦扰、和自然亲密接触的不二之选。作为满足人们休闲需要的重要场所，我们或多或少都在公园中感到快乐和满足。然而，公园的恒常不变让越来越多的人对公园感到习以为常。疫情期间，纽约人民在远离自然、远离亲密关系的过程中重新发现了中央公园对于他们的意义。
Finding Refuge, and a Snowy Owl, in Central Park
在中央公园，找到庇护和雪鸮
By Michiko Kakutani
Central Park has long provided a refuge from the anxieties and stresses of daily life, perhaps never more so than during the coronavirus siege. New Yorkers who visited the park every day, as well as those who had long taken it for granted, felt a renewed love for this amazing rectangle of green in the heart of the big city: its startlingly lush woodlands and rolling lawns, its meandering trails and wide-open meadows, and, of course, its astonishing wildlife including owls, hawks, herons and a dizzying array of other birds and waterfowl who for generations have used Central Park as a vital rest stop in their migratory travels, knowing what many humans only came to fully appreciate during the uncertainties of the pandemic — that the park is a beautiful and essential sanctuary.
长期以来，中央公园一直是人们摆脱日常生活焦虑和压力的庇护所，也许在新冠疫情封锁期间，这种作用变得更加突出。不管是每天造访公园的纽约人，还是那些早已习惯了它存在的人，都对这片市中心的长方形绿地感到惊艳，并重生爱意：郁郁葱葱的树林和高低起伏的草坪，蜿蜒曲折的小径和平坦开阔的草地，当然还有令人惊叹的野生动物，包括猫头鹰、老鹰、苍鹭和其它鸟类、水禽，让人目不暇接。它们世世代代把中央公园作为迁徙中的重要歇脚点，它们清楚地知道许多人类在疫情不确定时期才充分认识并感激的事实——这座公园是一个美丽而必不可少的庇护所。
The park was planned and constructed at another difficult time — in the years before and during the Civil War, when both the nation and New York City were grappling with rising political and social tensions over slavery and class and immigration, and the fallout of rapid industrialization and technological change. Unlike many European parks that had originally been built for the rich or aristocratic, Central Park was designed as a democratic public space, where the poor and rich alike could “easily go after their day’s work is done” and “stroll for an hour, seeing, hearing, and feeling nothing of the bustle and jar of the streets”, according to Olmsted, chief architect of the park.
中央公园是在另一个困难时期——南北战争前后几十年里规划建造的。当时，整个国家和纽约都在努力应对因为奴隶制、社会阶级和移民而不断加剧的政治和社会紧张局势，以及快速工业化和技术变革带来的影响。中央公园的总建筑师奥尔姆斯特德说，和许多最初为富人或贵族建造的欧洲公园不同，中央公园被设计成一个大众公共空间，无论穷人还是富人，都可以"在完成一天的工作后轻松前往"，"花一小时的时间散步，完全远离街上的熙熙攘攘"。
Watching people in Central Park come together “in pure air and under the light of heaven,” Olmsted argued, it was impossible to ignore the “evident glee” many felt in the experience: “all classes largely represented, with a common purpose,” each individual “adding by his mere presence to the pleasure of all others, all helping to the greater happiness of each”: People taking time off from work and workaday worries to engage in what he called “healthful recreation” — strolling, boating, ice skating, listening to music, contemplating the beauty of the meadows and woods, communing with all that was sublime in Nature.
奥尔姆斯特德认为，看着中央公园里的人们"在纯净的空气中，在天堂之光的照耀下"走到一起，我们很难忽视人们在这种体验中感受到的“鲜明的喜悦”：所有的阶级在这里都有一席之地，他们为了一个共同目的而来（"，每个人"仅仅因为自身的存在，就给其他人带来了更多的快乐；而他们所有人作为整体又同时有助于每个个体获得更大的幸福"。人们得以从工作和日常烦恼中抽身出来，参与他所说的"健康休闲活动"——散步、划船、滑冰、听音乐、凝视着美丽的草地和树林、与大自然中一切壮丽的景象交流。
生词好句
1.snowy owl
雪鸮（一种白色猫头鹰）
2.Central Park
中央公园
拓展:
指的是在曼哈顿岛中央，被誉为"纽约绿肺"的长方形公园
3.have long done something
长久以来，一直……
拓展:
has long been yearning for something
对某事向往已久
has long coveted something
长期觊觎某人某物
4.refuge
英 [ˈrefjuːdʒ] 美 [ˈrefjuːdʒ]
n. 庇护所（a place providing safety or shelter or a state of being safe and sheltered）
拓展:
refuge from 逃离......的避难所
a refuge from the outside world
逃离外界的避难所
a refuge from heartbreak
逃离心碎的避难所
5.never more so than
从来没有比某个时期更……
拓展:
否定+比较级等同于最高级
I’ve long missed my family, never more so than at festivals.
我一直都很思念我的家乡，每逢佳节倍思亲。
I’ve never been better/happier.
我从没比这么好/开心过。
6.siege
英 [siːdʒ] 美 [siːdʒ]
n. 围攻，包围（军事语境）
7.take something for granted
对……觉得理所当然
拓展:
We take our life for granted.
我们把日常生活当成了理所当然。
8.renewed
英 [rɪˈnjuːd] 美 [rɪˈnuːd]
adj. 再次发生的，再次兴起的
拓展:
renewed fighting 重燃的战火
renewed enthusiasm 重燃的热情
9.in the heart of
处于……的中心（in the middle of; at the center of）
10.startlingly
英 [ˈstɑːtlɪŋli] 美 [ˈstɑːrtlɪŋli]
adv. 惊人地 (extremely surprisingly)
拓展:
比surprising 或 astonishing的程度还更强
startling by each step 步步惊心
11.lush woodlands
郁郁葱葱的茂密树林
拓展:
lush UK /lʌʃ/ US /lʌʃ/
adj. 苍翠繁茂的
12.rolling lawns
起起伏伏的草坡
拓展:
lawn一般指那种面积比较小的草坪，家里后院、一般公园里的草坪；
meadow 指的是大范围的、自然状态的草坪
13.meander
英 [miˈændə] 美 [miˈændər]
vi. （河流或道路）蜿蜒曲折地前行
拓展:
meandering trails 看不到尽头和走向的小径
14.wide-open meadows
豁然开朗的大草地
15.an array of sth.
大量，一批批
拓展:
an array of ancestors 列祖列宗
an array of stars 天上的繁星
an array of facts 一系列的事实
dizzying UK /ˈdɪziɪŋ/ US /ˈdɪziɪŋ/
adj. 眼花缭乱的
来自于形容词dizzy（晕眩的）
16.vital
英 [ˈvaɪtl] 美 [ˈvaɪtl]
adj. 必不可少的（侧重指维持生命和活力）
17.essential
英 [ɪˈsenʃl] 美 [ɪˈsenʃl]
adj. 必不可少的
18.sanctuary
英 [ˈsæŋktʃʊəri] 美 [ˈsæŋktʃueri]
n. 避难所，保护区；圣殿
19.grapple with something
拓展:
努力应对和克服......（to struggle to deal with or overcome a difficulty）
20.fallout
英 [ˈfɔːlaʊt] 美 [ˈfɑːlaʊt]
n. 空气悬浮物，浮尘；不良后果（unpleasant consequences）
21.aristocratic
英 [ˌærɪstəˈkrætɪk] 美 [ˌerəstəˈkrætɪk]
adj. 贵族的
22.alike
英 [əˈlaɪk] 美 [əˈlaɪk]
adv. 两者都，同样地
23.bustle and jar
喧闹和嘈杂声
拓展:
Home provides me a refuge from the bustle and jar of work.
家是一个隔离了工作中喧闹的庇护所。
24.glee
英 [ɡliː] 美 [ɡliː]
n. 喜形于色，欢欣雀跃
拓展:
evident glee 显而易见的欢喜
My folks couldn't disguise their glee at my growth.
我的父母无法掩饰他们对我成长的喜悦。
25.represent
英 [ˌreprɪˈzent] 美 [ˌreprɪˈzent]
vt. 象征，代表
拓展:
representation n. 代表
They need more representation in the movies.
在电影作品中，她们（女性角色）需要被更多地反映出来。
26.take time off
抽出时间
27.commune with sb./sth.
与某事或某人亲近、谈心
拓展:
commune with nature 向自然问道
commune with one’s friends 和朋友谈心
28.sublime
英 [səˈblaɪm] 美 [səˈblaɪm]
n. 极致的美好（very great excellence or beauty）
