Lily: Oh yes Finn, that's cool! Down there you can see the boat going through.

Finn: Today in On the Town from BBC Learning English, we've come to the famous Tower Bridge in London.

Lily: Tower Bridge. 就是倫敦的塔橋。大家肯定在英國的明信片和風景圖片上都看到過。就是佇立在泰晤士河兩岸的兩個高塔，中間連結起來的一座大橋。橋的中間是可以兩邊吊開的，可以讓很高的輪船順利駛過。

Finn: And right now we're standing on the high walkway between the two towers.

Lily: The walkway. 人行通道。

Finn: Here's Jess, who works for Tower Bridge, to tell us more.

Insert

We're actually standing on the high level walkways of Tower Bridge. From here we can see St. Paul's Cathedral and the London Eye and lots of very famous sights of London; so the view from up here is absolutely fantastic.

Lily: 是啊，這里的風景真是太漂亮了！

Finn: Fantastic!

Lily: Jess 給我們介紹說，從這里我們可以看到倫敦的圣保羅大教堂 St. Paul's, 還有倫敦巨眼摩天輪 London Eye, 以及其它一些著名的倫敦景， sights.

Insert

You have two Gothic towers, and it's a very very famous bridge, and then you have the walkways which span between the two towers. They were actually built to fit in with the Tower of London nearby, so that's why they're Gothic and that's why the bridge looks a lot older. It's actually a Victorian structure and it was finished in 1894; so it's actually a lot younger than people think it is.

Lily: 這座塔橋的建筑風格是歌德式的。

Finn: Gothic.

Lily: 而歌德式建筑的巔峰時期就是在歐洲的中世紀 – 所以有些人們推斷說，塔橋和它旁邊的倫敦塔都是在中世紀時期建造的。

Finn: In fact, it's quite new; it was finished in 1894. It's a Victorian structure.

Lily: 一座維多利亞時代的建筑物。當初建造它的目的是為了方便東倫敦的人過河。塔橋的吊橋結構也是為了方便泰晤士河上的船只能夠順利通過。

Finn: Yes, in those days, London's River Thames had a lot of river traffic.

Lily: 現在的泰晤士河上已經沒有那么多的水上交通了，不過塔橋每年照樣要吊起900多次。

Finn: You know, Lily, Jess told me something else about Tower Bridge: river traffic has priority over road traffic.

Lily: 享有優先權 has priority over 所以橋上的汽車就只好等河上的船只通過、吊橋放下來之后才能通行了。

Finn: And that's no matter how important the person inside the car!

Insert

We've had Bill Clinton, who was actually stuck during a bridge lift, he couldn't get across; and he was in the first car waiting for the bridge to lift. That was a few years ago now. So regardless of who is waiting, it's always the boats that get through first.

Lily: 前幾年當 Bill Clinton 克林頓訪問倫敦的時候，就被困在了 stuck 塔橋邊上。

Finn: Yes, so even the President of America had to wait when a boat was passing under the bridge.

Lily: 起碼他沒有在塔橋吊起的時候過橋，要不然可就太危險了！

Finn: That's right. He made it across safely in the end. But one year, a London bus had a very frightening experience when it was crossing the bridge.

Lily: Really, what happened?

Finn: Well here's Geoff, a guide at the Tower Bridge exhibition, to tell us what happened.

Insert

The bridge started to rise with the bus going halfway up it. The driver had to make a split-second decision and decided to go for the jump, and bounced across to the other side. There were 16 passengers on the bus at the time who got bounced about, but there were no serious injuries. It can't happen today because we've got steel gates that close before the bridge can lift.

Lily: 當塔橋的兩半已經開始到從中間分開的時候，這輛巴士正好過橋過到一半 halfway across.

Finn: The driver had to make a split-second decision.

Lily: 一瞬之間作出決定- 到底是該停下來還是繼續開過去呢？

Finn: And he decided to go for the jump.

Lily: 巴士整個是跳起來，落到了橋的另一邊。

Finn: Thankfully, there were no serious injuries.

Lily: 沒有重傷的!

Finn: But Geoff says that this won't happen these days because there are steel gates that stop cars from going across when the bridge is opening!

Lily: 鋼鑄的大門 steel gates.

Finn: And that's all for this week.

Lily: 我們的網址是 www.bbc.co.uk/china.

Finn: Bye for now.

Lily: Bye!