Washington's Spy Museum Becomes Great Tourist Attraction　试听

Espionage and the tricks of the spy trade are at heart of a new museum that opened earlier this year in Washington. The International Spy Museum has become one of the city's most popular tourist attractions.

The first thing you hear when you step inside Washington's new International Spy Museum is a stream of[1] tense[2] and solemn[3] voices admonishing[4] you never to reveal anything about the exhibit you are about to see.

The mock warning is a reminder of the deep-rooted secrecy underpinning[5] the business of espionage[6] - a trade whose practices and history the museum set out to relate when it opened this summer.

Jennifer Saxon, the Museum's Director of Media Relations, says the privately run museum has been a success so far, with some 200,000 visitors since it opened its doors. Besides, she says the museum's founders could scarcely have chosen a better place than Washington to put it. "DC was a real natural place for them to put it. DC is probably filled with more spies today than it ever was before and many people argue that there are probably more spies in Washington than there are any place else. This is where all the information comes, not only from the United States, but internationally, so this is where all the analysts are, this is where everyone is if they want to find out that kind of information about international affairs."

The museum, which puts great emphasis on artifacts[7], is filled with tools of the spy business: Cipher machines[8], a Soviet-era coat with buttonhole[9] camera and, of course, the famous "Bulgarian[10] Umbrella," a poisoned umbrella tip the Soviet KGB[11] used to fatally stab[12] Bulgarian dissident[13] Georgi Markov[14] in London in 1978.

Then, towards the middle of the exhibit, the visitors are invited to get on all fours[15] and crawl through a 10-meter-long duct[16] in which they can listen in on Cuban leader Fidel Castro[17] as he discusses his national security policy with aides. The point of the conversation, which is not real, is to show how easy it is to spy, and how no one, whether common citizen or high-ranking official, can trust his or her surroundings.

For all the James Bond type aura[18] with which popular culture has surrounded the spy business, the museum also makes it clear that espionage is a very old trade, going back at least 2,400 years. The museum's Jennifer Saxon says Sir Francis Walsingham, an Englishman serving Queen Elizabeth I[19], organized the first known spy network, in the second half of the 16th century. "He organized that for Queen Elizabeth to help keep her on the throne[20]. It was actually his spy network that was able to track down Mary Queen of Scots in her plot to assassinate[21] Queen Elizabeth and also was able to get the evidence against Mary Queen of Scots to try her for treason."

Of course, the museum tells the stories of some of the great spies in history, especially those who worked for the Soviet KGB: Englishman Kim Philby[22], Americans Ethel and Julius Rosenberg[23] and, of course, some who have recently committed treason against the United States. Again, Jennifer Saxon. "Aldrich Ames[24], who worked for the CIA, who spied for the Soviet Union and later the Russians; Robert Hanssen[25], who worked for the FBI, also spied for the Soviet Union and the Russians, for decades for both of them, just gave a number of names to the Soviet Union and Russia about spies the U.S. had in Russia. Both, it's argued were very responsible for the death of individuals who were undercover[26] in the Soviet Union."

In fact, some espionage experts say there were at least as many Russian spies in Washington in the late 1990s as there had been Soviet spies at the height of the Cold War.

Now, forget that you ever heard this report.

华盛顿的间谍博物馆成为有巨大吸引力的旅游景点

谍报活动和间谍行当的伎俩成为今年早些时候一个在华盛顿新开的博物馆的核心展示内容。国际间谍博物馆已经成为该市最受欢迎的旅游景点之一。

走进华盛顿新建的国际间谍博物馆，你首先听到的是一连串庄严而令人紧张的声音，警告你永远不要泄漏你将看到的任何展出内容。

这个假模假式的警告是对于支撑间谍业固有的保密性的一个暗示。该博物馆在今夏开业后致力于讲述这个行当及其历史。

博物馆媒体关系处处长詹尼弗·萨克森说，这个私营的博物馆到目前为止是成功的。自开业以来，它已经接待了约20万名游客。此外，她说博物馆的创建者们几乎没有可能找到一个比华盛顿更好的地方来修建该馆。"哥伦比亚特区是他们建造本馆真正天然的地方。现在在哥伦比亚特区的间谍可能比以前任何时候都要多，很多人说在华盛顿的间谍恐怕也比任何别的地方多。这是所有这种信息的源泉，这些信息不仅来自于美国，也来自于国际社会，因此这里是所有的分析人员出没的地方，也是任何希望弄清国际事务的机密信息的人来的地方。"

博物馆把重点放在物品的展示上。该馆摆满了间谍业使用过的各种工具。密码电报器，前苏联时期用过的在扣眼装有相的外套，以及，当然，著名的"保加利亚雨伞"。1978年，前苏联克格勃特工在伦敦用该伞带毒的伞尖给了保加利亚持不同政见者格奥尔基·马可夫致命的一击。

然后，在参观展览快到一半的时候，游客们会被邀请四肢着地，爬过一个10米长的管道。在管道里他们可以听到古巴的领导菲德尔·卡斯特罗和他的参谋人员们讨论国家安全政策。播放这个并非真实的对话，用意在于展示从事间谍活动是多么容易，而任何人，不管是普通老百姓还是高官，是多么不能够随便相信自己的周围环境的安全性。

尽管大众文化中的间谍业充满了詹姆士·邦德类型的氛围，博物馆也明确地展示，间谍业是一个非常古老的行当，可以追溯到至少2400年前。博物馆的詹尼弗?萨克森说，为伊丽莎白一世女王效力的英国人弗朗西斯·沃辛汉爵士，在16世纪下半叶组织了第一个间谍网。"他是为了帮助伊丽莎白女皇保住王位而组织的间谍网。正是他的间谍网成功地查获苏格兰的玛丽女王要暗杀伊丽莎白女皇的阴谋，并找到审判苏格兰的玛丽女王叛国罪的证据。"

当然，博物馆讲述一些历史上最了不起的间谍故事，尤其是那些为苏联克格勃工作过的间谍们。英国人金?菲尔比，美国人艾捷尔和朱利叶斯·罗森堡。当然，还包括一些最近对美国有叛国罪的人。詹尼弗?萨克森又说道："阿尔德里奇·阿麦斯曾在中央情报局工作，为前苏联和后来的俄国做过间谍；罗伯特?汉森为联邦调查局工作，也为前苏联和俄国做过间谍。他们两个都做了几十年间谍，向苏联和俄国提供一些美国在俄国的间谍的名字。据说，被雇佣在苏联从事秘密间谍活动的一些人之所以死去，可以说他们两个是很大的原因。"

事实上，一些间谍专家说，20世纪90年代后期，在华盛顿的俄国间谍至少和在冷战高潮期时在华盛顿的前苏联间谍一样多。

现在，忘记你曾经听过这个报道。