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. 就是伦敦的塔桥。大家肯定在英国的明信片和风景图片上都看到过。就是伫立在泰晤士河两岸的两个高塔，中间连结起来的一座大桥。桥的中间是可以两边吊开的，可以让很高的轮船顺利驶过。

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，这里的风景真是太漂亮了！

Finn: Fantastic!

Lily: Jess 给我们介绍说，从这里我们可以看到伦敦的圣保罗大教堂 St. Paul's, 还有伦敦巨眼摩天轮 London Eye, 以及其它一些著名的伦敦景， 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: 这座塔桥的建筑风格是歌德式的。

Finn: Gothic.

Lily: 而歌德式建筑的巅峰时期就是在欧洲的中世纪 – 所以有些人们推断说，塔桥和它旁边的伦敦塔都是在中世纪时期建造的。

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

Lily: 一座维多利亚时代的建筑物。当初建造它的目的是为了方便东伦敦的人过河。塔桥的吊桥结构也是为了方便泰晤士河上的船只能够顺利通过。

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

Lily: 现在的泰晤士河上已经没有那么多的水上交通了，不过塔桥每年照样要吊起900多次。

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

Lily: 享有优先权 has priority over 所以桥上的汽车就只好等河上的船只通过、吊桥放下来之后才能通行了。

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: 前几年当 Bill Clinton 克林顿访问伦敦的时候，就被困在了 stuck 塔桥边上。

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

Lily: 起码他没有在塔桥吊起的时候过桥，要不然可就太危险了！

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: 当塔桥的两半已经开始到从中间分开的时候，这辆巴士正好过桥过到一半 halfway across.

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

Lily: 一瞬之间作出决定- 到底是该停下来还是继续开过去呢？

Finn: And he decided to go for the jump.

Lily: 巴士整个是跳起来，落到了桥的另一边。

Finn: Thankfully, there were no serious injuries.

Lily: 没有重伤的!

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: 钢铸的大门 steel gates.

Finn: And that's all for this week.

Lily: 我们的网址是 www.bbc.co.uk/china.

Finn: Bye for now.

Lily: Bye!