33 来自母亲节的报道
DATE=5/7/01
TITLE=THIS IS AMERICA #1063 - Mother's Day
BYLINE=Shelley Gollust
VOICE ONE:
Sunday, May 13th, is Mother's Day in America. It is a day when millions of Americans (1) honor their mothers in many （2） different ways. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. The story of Mother's Day is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
(MUSIC BRIDGE)
VOICE ONE:
Mother's Day is the day when people （3）express the love and thanks they feel for their mother. They give her gifts. They send her a （4）greeting card. They buy her flowers. And they take her out to dinner.
Mother's Day has been a national （5）celebration in the United States for more than eighty years. The idea of honoring mothers is much older than that. Ancient civilizations in what is now (6) Turkey honored the goddess (7) Cybele. In their belief system, she was the mother of all the gods. The belief in Cybele spread to the （8）ancient Greek and Roman civilizations. Many centuries later, celebrations to honor mothers were held in other countries, too.
VOICE TWO:
During the Eighteen-Hundreds, a number of Americans （9）organized local celebrations to honor mothers. It took a long time, however, to gain support for a national celebration. The person most responsible for doing this was Anna Jarvis.
Miss Jarvis began her effort in the early Nineteen- Hundreds. She wrote thousands of letters to （10）congressmen, city officials, teachers, and newspaper publishers. She traveled across the country to gain support for her idea.
In Nineteen-Fourteen, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress agreed that the second Sunday in May should be observed as Mother's Day in America.
VOICE ONE:
Anna Jarvis wanted Mother's Day to be a simple event. She thought children could honor their mothers with small acts of （11）kindness. She did not want Mother's Day to become a time for businesses to make a lot of money. But her efforts to prevent this from happening did not succeed. The day has become a major moneymaking event for gift stores, flower stores, the greeting card industry, and telephone companies.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Today, millions of Americans （12）observe Mother's Day in some way. They buy more than one- hundred- fifty million Mother's Day greeting cards. Companies produce more than one- thousand different kinds. Most of the cards show pictures of flowers or hearts or other things that people feel are linked to being a mother. They have messages that express a person's love and thanks for his or her mother. Some are humorous. And some have no words -- people can express their own feelings for their mother.
VOICE ONE:
Many people give flowers for Mother's Day. It is one of the busiest days of the year for the flower industry. Even Americans who live far away from their mothers can send flowers.
They order and pay for the flowers at a local flower store. The local store places a telephone call or sends a fax message to a flower store in a faraway city. And that store carries the flowers to the person's mother in that city.
VOICE TWO:
Many people have written songs about mothers and Mother's Day. Here is a song called "Mother's Day." It was written and is （13）performed by Rick Margitza.
((TAPE CUT 1: "MOTHER'S DAY))
VOICE ONE:
Americans spend millions of dollars to buy Mother's Day gifts. Stores begin major advertising （14）campaigns several weeks before the holiday. Clothes, sweet-smelling (15) perfume, and jewelry are popular traditional gifts. Candy also is very popular. But Mother's Day gifts can be imaginative, too. Many mothers like to receive books or sports （16）equipment or tickets to the theater.
VOICE TWO:
Mother's Day is a time for young children to do special things for their mother. Some will make a special gift or draw a special picture. Maybe they will play this special song on the piano. It is called "My Dear Little Mother." It was written by Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky in the Eighteen- Hundreds, the music shows how he felt about his mother, and here, it is performed by Carol Rosen Berger.
((TAPE CUT 2: "MY DEAR LITTLE MOTHER"))
VOICE ONE:
One family activity on Mother's Day is to have the children cook the early morning meal. Then they serve the food to their mother while she is still in bed. Or they might clean the house so she does not have to do it. Fathers might take care of the children that day so the mother can rest or take a walk or read a book. Many mothers feel that this free time on their special day is a very good Mother's Day gift.
VOICE TWO:
The day is an important time for family （17）gatherings. Some families get together to honor all members who are mothers: grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and cousins. Many people who cannot spend the day with their mother call them on the telephone. Mother's Day is one of the busiest days of the year for America's telephone companies. More than one- hundred- twenty- five million sons and daughters will telephone their mother on Sunday.
VOICE ONE:
Other families will get together for a meal at a local eating-place. This means that mothers do not have to cook on their special day. Going out to dinner has become a tradition on Mother's Day. More than thirty-percent of Americans do it. As a result, restaurants are extremely (18) crowded that day. It has become one of the busiest days of the year for the restaurant industry in the United States.
VOICE TWO:
Another Mother's Day activity is to go to a music （19）concert. One of the songs people might hear is this one, "Songs My Mother Taught Me." It is by the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak ['DVAWR ZHAHK]. It is performed by violinist Itzhak Perlman.
((TAPE CUT 3: "SONGS MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME"))
VOICE ONE:
Mothers are not the only members of the family who have a special day. In June, Americans will celebrate Father's Day. It is a much newer celebration. President Richard Nixon declared Father's Day a national （20）observance in the early Nineteen-Seventies.
There also is a special day to honor grandparents in the United States. It is in September. It is a day when children are urged to talk with -- and learn from -- older people.
VOICE TWO:
For now, we want to wish all mothers, everywhere, a "Happy Mother's Day." Here is Dick Hyman playing the song "Let Every Day Be Mother's Day."
((TAPE CUT 4: "LET EVERY DAY BE MOTHER'S DAY"))
VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Shelley Gollust, it was produced and directed by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.
注释：
（1） honor[??????]n.尊敬, 敬意v.尊敬, 给以荣誉
（2） different[ ???????? ]adj.不同的
（3） express[????????? ]adj.急速的, 特殊的n.快车, 快递v.表达, 表示
（4） greeting[ ???????? ]n.祝贺, 问候
（5） celebration[ ????????????? ]n.庆祝, 庆典
（6） Turkey [??????] n. 土耳其
（7） Cybele[ ????????]n.西布莉(古代小亚细亚人崇拜的自然女神,与希腊女神Rhea等同)
（8） ancient[ ?????????]adj.远古的, 旧的
（9） organize[???????????]v.组织, 使有机化
（10） Congress [????????] n. (代表) 大会, [C～] (美国等国的) 国会, 议会
（11） kindness[ ????????? ]n.仁慈, 亲切
（12） observe[?????????]v.观察, 观测
（13） perform[???????? ]v.履行, 执行
（14） campaign [?????????] n. [军] 战役, (政治或商业性) 活动
（15） perfume[ ????????? ]n.香味,香水v.使发香
（16） equipment[????????????]n.装备, 设备
（17） gathering[????????? ]n.聚集, 收款
（18） crowded[????????? ]adj.拥挤的, 塞满的
（19） concert[???????? ]n.音乐会, 一致
（20） observance[ ???????????]n.遵守, 惯例
34 母亲节特别礼物--阿米对答机
DATE=5-11-2001
TITLE=AMERICAN MOSAIC #817 - Amy's Answering Machine
BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach
HOST:
(Start at 59")Sunday, May thirteenth is Mother's Day in the United States. It is a day to honor mothers. Most Americans send their mothers flowers or give them gifts on Mother's Day. Amy Borkowsky has a (1) suggestion for an unusual Mother's Day gift - a record and book she produced about her own mother. Steve Ember has more.
ANNCR:
Amy Borkowsky lives in New York City, more than one- thousand (2) kilometers away from her mother. Amy is more than thirty years old, yet her mother still worries about her health and safety. So she leaves unwanted messages of advice on Amy's telephone answering machine. Amy saved the funny messages and began playing them to audiences when she performed as a （3）comedian. They were a big hit. So, last year, she released a record of some of them. It was called "Amy's Answering Machine." Here is an example.
((CUT 1: 35 section))
AMY: So I'm an adult, OK, and I have a job, my own (4) apartment...but my mother still doesn't seem to realize that I'm capable of taking care of some really very basic needs.
MA: Hi Amila...It's me, honey. If you haven't already left to go to the Motor Vehicle Bureau, keep in mind that the wait is very long, so before you go you may want to empty your (5) bladder. All right, honey? That's all for now. Bye. ))
This year, Amy Borkowsky has written a book, "Amy's Answering Machine: Messages From Mom". It includes messages not on the record. It also includes stories behind each of the messages, and cartoon pictures of the funny situations described in the book. We leave you now with another message from Amy Borkowsky's mother. This one is about her birthday.
((CUT 2:47))
"Happy Birthday To You,
Happy Birthday To You,
Happy Birthday, Dear Amila,
Happy Birthday to you,
How old are you now?
How old are you now?
Better hurry and find a husband,
Before your (6) ovaries shut down."
All right, that's just a little (7) creativity for my birthday girl.
I love you sweetie.))
因特网的传播系统及发展历程
DATE=5-11-2001
TITLE=AMERICAN MOSAIC #817- Internet
BYLINE=Paul Thompson
HOST:
(Start at 4'05")We answer two questions this week from listeners in Brazil. Both want to know about the （1）Internet (2) communications system. Daniela Andressa Arrano asks how the Internet began. Marlene Sol asks how many Americans use the World Wide Web.
The Internet permits the world to communicate. Both Marlene and Daniela sent their questions to American Mosaic using the Internet.
The Internet began more than thirty years ago. It was designed to link computers. Its goal was to increase communication among universities, the government and some major American businesses. The Internet made it easy for them to send large amounts of information quickly.
As time passed, more people began using the Internet. In Nineteen-Eighty-One, the Internet linked two- hundred- thirteen computers. Only nine years later, it linked more than three- hundred- fifty- thousand computers. Today experts say there are about three- hundred- million computers connected to the Internet.
Business leaders began using the Internet as a （3）valuable tool. Companies around the world now use the Internet. Many could not exist without the Internet. A recent report in the American magazine, Newsweek, said more than eighty- nine- million Americans now use the Internet at work.
The Internet has changed the way people work. A newspaper recently told about a young woman who moved from Washington, D-C to the far northern state of (4) Alaska. She continues to work for a company in Washington but does her work in Fairbanks, Alaska using a computer and the Internet.
The World Wide Web is the part of the Internet that lets computer users find written （5）material, pictures and sound. It is the most popular part of the Internet system.
No one really knows how many Americans use the World Wide Web part of the Internet. A good guess would be a number in the hundreds of millions. People use it to play games. They use it for business. And students use computers to search the World Wide Web for information for their (6) schoolwork.
The Internet is becoming more important than anyone had thought possible. And its importance is expected to （7）increase even more in the future.
美国流行爵士歌乐手凯利·史密斯
DATE=5-11-2001
TITLE=AMERICAN MOSAIC #817 - Keely Smith
BYLINE=Nancy Steinbach
HOST:
(Start at 7'50")Keely Smith was a popular jazz singer in the Nineteen-Fifties. She is probably most famous for her work with her husband, （1）bandleader Louis Prima. Jim Tedder has more.
ANNCR:
Keely Smith was born in Nineteen-Thirty-Two in Norfolk, Virginia. She started working with Louis Prima in New York City in Nineteen-Forty-Nine. They were married four years later. They performed at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, （2）Nevada, and recorded many songs together. Perhaps their most famous is this one, "That Old Black Magic."
((CUT 1: THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC))
Keely Smith and Louis Prima ended their (3) marriage in Nineteen-Sixty-One. She stopped singing for a time to care for her children. She started again when they had grown up. A few years ago, she recorded an album of swing music. Here is the title song, "(4) Swing, Swing, Swing."
((CUT 2: SWING, SWING, And SWING))
Earlier this year, Keely Smith released another album, "Keely Smith Sings Sinatra." It was recorded in Nineteen-Ninety-Five. Frank Sinatra died soon after. She decided not to release the （5）album then because of his death. Keely Smith says she had sent him the recordings and he especially liked one of the songs. We leave you now with that song, "New York, New York."
注释：
（1）suggestion[ ????????????]n.提议, 意见
（2）kilometer[ ?????????? ]n. [物]千米, 公里
（3）comedian[???????????? ]n.喜剧演员
（4）apartment[ ?????????? ]n. <美>公寓住宅, 单元住宅
（5）bladder[ ?????? ]n.膀胱, 气泡, 球胆
（6）ovary[ ????????]n. (生物)卵巢, (植物)子房
（7）creativity[?????????????? ]n.创造力, 创造
注释：
(1) Internet[????????]n.因特网, 国际互联网络
(2) communications[??????????????????]n.[计] 通信
(3) valuable[???????????]adj.贵重的, 有价值的
(4) Alaska[?????????]n.阿拉斯加州(美国州名)
(5) material[??????????]n.材料, 原料adj.物质的, 肉体的
(6) schoolwork[?????????]n.(包括课堂作业和家庭作业)作业
(7) increase[ ?????????]n.增加, 增大, 增长v.增加, 加大
注释：
(1) bandleader[??????????????]n.伴舞乐队的指挥
(2) Nevada[ ?????????]n.内华达州(美国西部内陆州)
(3) marriage[???????? ]n.结婚, 婚姻
(4) swing[ ?????]v.摇摆, 摆动n.秋千, 摇摆
(5) album[ ?????? ]n.集邮本, 照相簿
35 二十世纪著名诗人罗伯特·福斯特（二）
DATE=5-13-01
TITLE=PEOPLE IN AMERICA #1821 - ROBERT FROST, PT.2
BYLINE=RICHARD THORMAN
Voice one:
I'm rich Kleinfeldt.
Voice two:
And I'm Shirley Griffith with the v-o-a special English program, people in America. Today we finish the story of Robert Frost and his poetry.
(Theme)
Voice one:
when Robert Frost left the United States in nineteen-twelve he was an unknown writer. When he returned from Britain three years later he was on his way to becoming one of America's most (1) honored writers. (2) Publishers who had rejected his books now competed against each other to publish them. Unlike many poets of his time Frost wrote in (3) traditional forms. He said that not using them was like playing a game that had no rules. He joined the rules of the form with the (4) naturalness of common speech. Other poets before him had tried to do this, but none with Frost's skill.
Voice two:
The common speech frost used had the words and way of speaking that could be easily seen as American. For example, a poem called "the death of the hired man" begins:
narrator:
Mary sat musing on the (5) lamp-flame at the table waiting for warren. When she heard his step,
she ran on (6)tip-(7)toe down the darkened passage
to meet him in the doorway with the news
and put him on his guard. 'Silas is back.'
Frost is telling a story about an old farm worker named Silas. The (8)discussion between warren and Mary continues:
narrator:
she pushed him outward with her through the door
and shut it after her. 'Be kind,' she said.
She took the market things from warren's arms
and set them on the (9)porch, then drew him down
to sit beside her on the (10)wooden steps
. Voice two (cont):
Warren says:
(11)Narrator:
'when was I ever anything but kind to him?
But I'll not have the fellow back,' he said.
'I told him so last (12) haying, didn't I?'
If he left then, I said, that ended it.'
Voice two (cont):
and Mary says:
Narrator:
'he's worn out. He's asleep beside the stove.
When I came up from Rowe's I found him here,
(13)huddled against the barn-door fast asleep....
Voice one:
Through the discussion between warren and Mary the reader discovers more and more about Silas. In some ways he is a good worker, but he usually disappears when he is most needed. He does not earn much money. He has his own ideas about the way farm work should be done. And he has his own ideas about himself. Instead of asking for help from his rich brother, Silas has come to (14) warren and Mary. She says:
Narrator:
...he has come home to die:
you needn't be afraid he'll leave you this time.'
'Home,' he mocked gently.
Voice one (cont):
she answers:
Narrator:
'yes, what else but home?
'Home is the place where, when you go there,
they have to take you in.'
Voice one(cont):
without ever having Silas speak, frost has made the reader know this tired old man, who has come to die in the only home he has. In the final lines of the poem the story of Silas is completed. Mary says:
narrator:
'I made the bed up for him there tonight.
You'll be surprised at him--how much he's broken.
His working days are done; I'm sure of it.
Go, look, see for yourself.'
warren returned--too soon, it seemed to her,
(15) slipped to her side, caught up her hand and waited. 'Warren?' She questioned.
'Dead,' was all he answered?
Voice one (cont):
The poem tells of the understanding that Mary and warren have for a man who has worked for them for many years. The poem also presents a sadness that Frost repeats many times.
Voice two:
Frost was like an earlier new England writer and thinker, Ralph Waldo Emerson. They never were good at joining others in programs or movements. Frost was politically (16) conservative and avoided movement of the left or right. He did this not because he did not support their beliefs, but because they were group projects. In the poem "mending wall" the speaker and his neighbor walk together along a wall, repairing the damage caused by winter weather:
Narrator:
something there is that doesn't love a wall,
that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
and spills the upper (17) boulders in the sun;
and makes gaps even two can pass (18)abreast.
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
but at spring (19)mending time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
and on a day we meet and walk the line
and set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
Voice two (cont):
The speaker questions his neighbor who says, "good (20)fences make good neighbors." The speaker says:
Narrator:
before I built a wall I'd ask to know
what I was walling in or walling out,
and to whom I was like to give offense.
Voice one:
Frost's later poetry shows little change or development from his earlier writing. It confirms what he had established in such early books as north of Boston. For example, a poem called "(21) birches," written in nineteen-sixteen begins:
Narrator:
when I see birches bend to left and right
across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been (22)swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
as ice storms do.
Voice one (cont):
and it ends:
Narrator:
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
and climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
but dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than is a swinger of birches.
Voice two:
In the nature poems there is often a (23)comparison between what the poet sees and what he feels. It is what frost in one poem calls the difference between "outer and inner weather." Under the common speech of the person saying the poem is a dark picture of the world. In "the road not taken" he says:
Narrator:
two roads (24)diverged in a yellow wood,
and sorry I could not travel both
and be one traveler, long I stood
and looked down one as far as if could
to where it bent in the (25)undergrowth;
then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim,
because it was grassy and wanted wear;
though as for that the passing there
had worn them really about the same,
and both that morning equally lay
in leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference.
Voice one:
Among Frost's nature poems, there are more about winter than about any other season. Even the poems about spring, autumn, or summer remember winter. They are not poems about happiness found in nature. They are moments of resistance to time and its changes. And even the poems that tell stories are mainly pictures of people who are alone.
Frost shared with Emerson the idea that everybody was a separate individual, and that groups weakened individuals. But where Emerson and those who followed him looked at god and saw a creator, frost saw what he says is "no expression, nothing to express." Frost sees the world as a "desert place." in a poem called "desert places," he says:
Narrator:
snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
in a field I looked into going past,
and the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
but a few weeds and (26)stubble showing last.
The woods around it have it--it is theirs.
All animals are (27) smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
the loneliness includes me unawares.
And lonely as it is that loneliness
will be more lonely ere it will be less--
a blanker whiteness of (28)benighted snow
with no expression, nothing to express.
They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
between stars--on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
to scare myself with my own desert places. Voice two:
Frost received almost every honor a writer could receive. He won the Pulitzer Prize for literature four times. In nineteen-sixty, congress voted frost a gold medal for what he had given to the culture of the United States. In the last years of his life, frost was no longer producing great poetry, but he represented the value of poetry in human life. He often taught, and he gave talks. Usually he would be asked to read his best known poem, "stopping by woods on a snowy evening:"
Narrator:
whose woods these are I think I know
his house is in the village though;
he will not see me stopping here
to watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
to stop without a farmhouse near
between the woods and frozen lake
the darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
to ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
of easy wind and (29)downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before if sleep.
Voice one:
Robert Frost died in nineteen-sixty-three. He had lived for almost one- hundred years, and had covered many miles before he slept, many miles before he slept.
(Theme)
Voice two:
This VOA special English program, people in America, was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. Robert Frost's poetry was read by Shep o'neal. Your narrators were rich Kleinfeldt and Shirley Griffith.
注释：
(1) honor[ ???? ]n.尊敬, 敬意v.尊敬, 给以荣誉
(2) publisher[???????????]n.出版者, 发行人
(3) traditional[?????????????]adj.传统的, 惯例的
(4) naturalness[????????????]n.自然, 当然
(5) lamp[????? ]n.灯
(6) tip[???? ]n.顶, 尖端
(7) toe[ ????]n.趾, 脚趾
(8) discussion[?????????? ]n.讨论
(9) porch[?????? ]n.门廊, 走廊
(10) wooden[???????]adj.木制的
(11) narrator [????????]n. 讲述者，叙述者
(12) haying[?????]n.割干草, 堆干草
(13) huddle[ ????? ]v.拥挤, 蜷缩n.杂乱的一堆, 拥挤
(14) warren[ ?????? ]n.养兔场, 拥挤的地方
(15) slip[ ???? ]n.滑倒, 事故
(16) conservative[????????????? ]adj.保守的, 守旧的n.保守派
(17) boulder[ ??????? ]n.大石头, 漂石
(18) abreast[?????????]adv.并肩地, 并排地
(19) mending[ ????????]n.修补工作
(20) fence[????? ]n.栅栏, 围墙
(21) birch[?????? ]n.桦树, 白桦
(22) swinging[ ????????]adj.愉快活跃的；多姿多彩的
(23) comparison[ ?????????? ]n.比较, 对照
(24) diverge[ ????????? ]vi.(道路等)分叉, (意见等)分歧
(25) undergrowth[ ?????????? ]n.下层丛林, 生于大树下的矮树
(26) stubble[??????? ]n.断株, 短发
(27) smother[ ?????? ]v.窒息
(28) benighted[ ????????? ]adj.赶路到天黑的, 愚昧的
(29) downy[ ?????? ]adj.绒毛的, 柔和的
