英语杂谈：25 Jackson Hole - Part 2

Some of the ways of the Old West cowboy are kept alive in Jackson Hole. In the summer, visitors can go to a rodeo to see competitions based on traditional cowboy skills. Some people say it is the truest of American sports.

The rodeo usually begins with a parade of cowboys and their horses. Then comes the competition. In one event, riders try to stay on a wild animal for eight seconds. They ride wild horses and large bulls 1. The animals try to throw the cowboys to the ground. The cowboys try not to fall off.

In another event, the cowboy throws a rope around the neck of a young cow. Then he tries to tie the rope around three of its legs. The cowboy who does this in the shortest amount of time wins.

Visitors to Jackson Hole can experience different parts of cowboy life. They can ride horses. They can eat meals cooked outdoors over a fire. In the summer, they can watch actors dressed as cowboys perform "The Shootout." This short Western play has been performed since the nineteen fifties.

Arts and culture are important in Jackson Hole. Each summer, musicians from around the country perform classical music at the Grand Teton Music Festival.

Musical guests also visit local schools while they are in town. Each autumn, Jackson holds the Fall Arts Festival. This event celebrates many examples of visual and performing arts. It also provides many examples of fine local foods.

Visitors to Jackson Hole can explore the National Museum of Wildlife. When this museum opened, it was located in the center of town. But soon the museum space was not large enough to hold the art collection.

In nineteen ninety-four the museum reopened in a new building made of stone. It looks like a fortress 2 built centuries ago. The museum contains over two thousand artworks showing nature and animals.

There are many paintings, photographs and sculptures of antelope 3, deer, birds, horses and other animals. The museum says its art celebrates the powerful connection between animals and humans.

This art shows the natural beauty of the land and its creatures. To see this beauty in real life, all you have to do is walk outside the museum.

The building sits on a hillside overlooking 4 the National Elk 5 Refuge 6. The refuge contains the largest wintering population of elk in the world. It had an estimated 7 seven thousand elk this season.

The refuge has ten thousand hectares of land. It was started in nineteen twelve to help protect the local elk population.

Six kilometers north of Jackson, Wyoming, is the Grand Teton National Park. Congress 8 created this park in nineteen twenty-nine. In the nineteen forties the wealthy John D.

Rockefeller bought a great amount of land nearby. Then he gave it to the federal 9

government.

Both Rockefeller and the government added to the park later. Today, the government controls about ninety-seven percent of all the land in the Jackson Hole area.

The park is named for the Grand Teton Mountains. These mountains rise directly from the floor of the valley. They are part of the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Tetons are about four thousand meters high and sixty-five kilometers long. Many artists have mountains rise directly from the floor of the valley. They are part of

the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Tetons are about four thousand meters high and sixty-five kilometers long. Many artists have captured 10 images of these beautiful mountains.

The Native Americans who lived in the area many years ago called the mountains Teewinot, meaning "many pinnacles 11." Fur trappers from Canada had their own idea of what the three largest mountains looked like. These French-speaking hunters named them "les Trois Tetons" -- "the Three Breasts."

The Grand Teton Mountains were formed about ten million years ago. This makes them some of the youngest mountains in North America. The Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, for example, are about two hundred million years old.

Many of the lakes around the Grand Tetons were formed millions of years ago by slowmoving sheets of ice. Some small glaciers 12 are still active in the mountains.

People come to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from around the world to enjoy the best of cowboy and mountain culture. If you ever go, just don't forget your cowboy hat.