2014英语四级听力练习慢速3.17(2)_大学英语听力

2014英语四级听力练习慢速3.17(2)

　　Lady Liberty, as many people call the statue, was a gift from the people of France. Its full name is Liberty Enlightening the World.

　　The United States and France have been friends and allies since the American Revolution. France helped the American colonial armies defeat British forces. The war officially ended in 1783. A few years later, the French rebelled against their king.

　　A French historian and political leader, Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, had the idea for the statue. In 1865, he suggested that the French and the Americans build a monument together to celebrate freedom. Bartholdi agreed to design it.

　　In 1875, the French established an organization to raise money for Bartholdis creation. Two years later, an American group was formed to raise money to pay for a pedestal. American architect Richard Morris Hunt was chosen to design this support structure. The pedestal would stand 47 meters high.

　　In France, Bartholdi designed a model of the Statue of Liberty. Then he built a series of larger copies of the very small model statue. Workers created a wooden form covered with plaster for each part. They placed 300 pieces of copper on the forms. The copper skin was about two and one half millimeters thick, the same as two American pennies placed back-to-back.

　　The statue also needed a structure that could hold its weight -- more than 200 tons. French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel created the new technology. Later, he designed the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris.