VOA慢速英語: 美國(guó)國(guó)家公園管理局為100周年做準(zhǔn)備

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Next year the U.S. National Park service turns 100. The centennial will becelebrated across the nation and in the 407 parks and historical sitesmaintained by the U.S. government.

Sally Jewell is Secretary of the Interior. Part of her job is overseeing theNational Park Service. She was in New York City kicking off a new programcalled “Find Your Park,” and she spoke with VOA by phone.

Secretary Jewell said being outside helps both children and adults in today’s computer-driven world.

“In this fast-paced society, where we’ve got instant information at ourfingertips, and things to distract our brains, there is little to distract our bodiesand that’s why parks and open spaces are so important and even moreimportant with each passing year.”

From beautiful wild lands and majestic mountains to historical and culturalsites, the national parks can be found in all 50 states across the U.S.

Yellowstone in Wyoming, Yosemite in California and the Grand Canyon inArizona are examples of the natural beauty found in the national parks. Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia and Pullman NationalMonument in Chicago are two examples of the parks that preserve placeswhere important historical events took place in the nation’s history.

The parks had nearly 293 million visits in 2014. The Golden Gate Park in SanFrancisco was the most popular with 15 million visits. There are 28 differentkinds of national parks, and just this week, the 407th park was dedicated. Honouliuli, in Hawaii, remembers the Japanese Americans who were heldthere during World War II.

In this 2005 file photo, visitors view Half Dome from Glacier Point at Yosemite National Park, Calif.

Secretary Jewell said each park and site has an important story to tell.

“When you start to look at what those, each of those sites represent it paints arich tapestry of our history and our culture. And we are doing a much betterjob in recent years of telling the whole history of our country.”

Secretary Jewell has gathered some famous Americans to help promote theanniversary. First Lady Michelle Obama, and former First Lady Laura Bushare honorary co-chairs of the National Parks Centennial Celebration. Both firstladies share the experience of having lived in a national park, because theWhite House is one of the country’s national parks.

In a statement, Mrs. Obama said she looks forward to celebrating the NationalPark's 100th anniversary. She is “encouraging people across the country to ‘Find Your Park,’ whether it’s in your backyard, or your hometown, or in one ofour beautiful national parks.”

Some well-known Americans have filmed their own personal national parkstory and they can be seen on the National Park Foundation blog. Bill Nye,known as “The Science Guy,” and actress Bella Thorne are two of the peoplewho share their personal national park stories.

The program wants the public to share park experiences and memories atFindYourPark.com. The interactive website helps people find a park near theirhome, not just national parks, but local parks as well.

“It’s really an opportunity and an inspirational message to get people out to getthem moving, get them recognizing what parks and public lands have tooffer.”

The U.S. Congress established the first national park, Yellowstone, in thethen-territories of Montana and Wyoming in 1872. President Woodrow Wilsonformed the National Park Service in 1916 to “protect the wild and wonderfullandscapes” in the United States. There were 35 national parks andmonuments when President Wilson created the park service.

The United States was the first country in the world to set aside land foreveryone to enjoy, and to keep its natural state. Now more than 100 countrieshave some national park or similar land set aside for preservation.

I’m Anne Ball.

Anne Ball reported and wrote this story for Learning English. Hai Do was theeditor.

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Words in This Story

maintain – v. to keep something in good condition

majestic – adj. large and very beautiful

dedicated – v. to officially make (something) a place for honoring orremembering a person or an event

preservation – n. the act of keeping something in its original state or in goodcondition