公共英語五級閲讀理解文章《美國的燈塔》

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The first navigational lights in the New World were probably lanterns hung at harbor entrances. The first lighthouse was put up by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston Harbor. Paid for and maintained by "light dues" levied on ships, the original beacon was blown up in 1776. By then there were only a dozen or so true lighthouses in the colonies. Little over a century later, there were 700 lighthouses.

The first light erected on the West Coast in the 1850's featured the same basic New England design: a Cape Cod dwelling with the tower rising from the center or standing close by. In New England and elsewhere, though, lighthouses reflected a variety of architectural styles. Since most stations in the Northeast were built on rocky eminences, enormous towers were not the rule. Some were made of stone and brick, others of wood or metal. Some stood on pilings or stilts; some were fastened to rock with iron rods. Farther south, from Maryland through the Florida Keys, the coast was low and sandy. It was often necessary to build tall towers there - massive structures like the majestic Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, lighthouse, which was lit in 1870. At190 feet, it is the tallest brick lighthouse in the country.

Notwithstanding differences in appearance and construction, most American lighthouses shared several features: a light, living quarters and sometimes a bell (or later, a foghorn) also had something else in common: a keeper and, usually, the keeper's family. The keeper's essential task was trimming the lantern wick in order to maintain a steady, bright flame. The earliest keepers came from every walk of life - they were seamen, farmers, mechanics, rough mill hands - and appointments were often handed out by local customs commissioners as political plums. After the administration of lighthouses was taken over in 1852 by the United States Lighthouse Board, an agency of the Treasury Department, the keeper corps gradually became highly professional.

在新大陸上，最初的航標燈要算那些掛在港灣入口的提燈了吧。最初的燈塔是1716 年由馬薩諸塞灣殖民地在波士頓港入口一個叫小布羅斯特的島上建起的。這最初的燈塔是通過向船隻徵收"買光錢"來維持運作的，於 1776 年被炸燬。那時，在各殖民地，真正的燈塔僅有十幾個。但過了一個世紀多一點，燈塔就增至七百多個了。

1850 年，在西部沿海建起的首座燈塔，基本上沿襲了新英格蘭燈塔的設計方案，即那種中心或周圍升起塔樓的 典型的哥德角式房子。新英格蘭與其它一些地方的燈塔在建築風格上是多樣化的。在東北部，燈塔大都建在石質的高地上，因此塔身不需要太高。它們有磚石結構的;也有木材或金屬結構的，有的燈塔建在支架上，有的則用鐵條固定在巖石上。在更南方的地區，從馬里蘭到弗羅裏達礁羣的海岸地勢低平且多為沙質，因此高大的塔身就很必要了。例如1870 年在北卡羅來納的哈特拉角建的宏偉的大燈塔，高達190 英尺，是全美最高的磚結構燈塔。

雖然美國的燈塔在外觀和結構上存在一些差異，但它們確有些共同之處，比如都有燈標、有住房、有時還有鍾(後來改用霧角)。此外，還有一個相同之處，那就是都有守塔人，通常是守塔人全家。守塔人的基本工作就是修剪燈蕊，以便火焰明亮而穩定。最早的守塔人來自各種行業：海員、農民、技工和幹粗活的。這個職位通常是作為政治回報由地方海關官員決定任命。但在 1852 年後，財政部下屬的美國燈塔管理委員會接管了所有燈塔，守塔人這支隊伍也逐漸趨向專業化了而穩定。

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