AMERICAN MOSAIC - Songs by Waylon Jennings/a question about

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ -March 1, 2002: Songs by Waylon Jennings/a question about five-and-dime²
stores/palindromes

HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC
—
VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we:
play some songs by Waylon Jennings ..
.
answer a question about five-and-dime stores ..
.
and report about something called a palindrome.

Palindromes

HOST:

Do you know what a “palindrome”
is? The word comes from the Greek word, “palindromos,
”
which means
“running back again.
”
A palindrome is any word, sentence, poem or number which reads the same backwards³ as
it does forwards. Sarah Long tells us more.

ANNCR:

One of the best known palindromes in the English language is the sentence, “Madam, I’m Adam.
”
If you
write it on a piece of paper, it reads the same from the end to the beginning as from the beginning to the end.

The country and western singing group “Riders In The Sky”
recorded a song about a man who speaks only in
palindromes. Let’s listen to some of it:

((CUT 1: "THE BALLAD⁴ OF PALINDROME"))

This palindrome was written one-hundred years ago to honor⁵ American President
Theodore Roosevelt: “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!
”
Here is another palindrome:
“Rise to vote, sir.
”

There are other simple palindromes. For example, the name of a popular Swedish rock
and roll group was ABBA, spelled A-B-B-A. Some names are palindromes. For
example, Ava, spelled A-V-A and Hannah, spelled H-A-N-N-A-H.

This year, Two-Thousand -Two, is a palindromic year. The
experts say that a palindromic year usually happens only
about every one-hundred-ten years. However, the last one

happened in Nineteen-Ninety-One. Experts also noted⁶ a historic⁷ moment in
palindromic time that took place recently, at two minutes after eight o’clock at
night on February twentieth. That is when time on a twenty -four hour clock read as
a palindrome. The time was twenty hours two minutes, on the twentieth day of the
second month, in the year Two-Thousand-Two. So it was written Two-Oh-Oh-Two,
Two-Oh-Oh-Two, Two -Oh -Oh-Two.

Five and Dimes⁸

A man, a plan ...
... the canal

HOST:

Our V-O-A listener question this week comes from Russia. Alexey Mozgovenko wants to know about five-andten-
cent stores, also called five-and-dime stores or dime stores.

A dime is an American coin worth ten cents. The idea for five-and-dime stores came from Frank⁹ Winfield
Woolworth. He was born in Rodman, New York in Eighteen-Fifty-Two. He worked at the local village store as a
young man. Later, he accepted a position with a business in Watertown, New York. It was there that Mister¹⁰
Woolworth proposed¹¹ his idea.

He suggested that the company cut the price of goods it had trouble selling. Mister
Woolworth proposed selling those goods for just five cents. Company officials
agreed to try his idea. It was a huge success. The campaign was so successful that it
was expanded to include new goods.

In Eighteen-Seventy-Nine, Woolworth opened the first five -and-ten-cent stores in
Utica, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The company quickly expanded. Six
groups of stores resulted from the five-cent experiment. They were united in
Nineteen-Twelve to form the F.W. Woolworth Company.

Mister Woolworth became a rich man. In Nineteen-Thirteen, he built the Woolworth

building in New York City. At the time, it was the tallest building in the world.
Frank Woolworth died in Nineteen -Nineteen. At the time of his death, his company operated more than one thousand
stores.

Christmas shopping,
Woolworth's, Washington,
Dec. 1941
(Photo -Library of Congress)
Most American towns in the twentieth century had a Woolworth’s store. The stores offered low
cost clothing and products for the home. Many also offered hot meals.

As recently as forty years ago, the United States had thousands of these five-and-dime stores.
Other businesses attempted to copy Mister Woolworth’s idea. They had names like Ben
Franklin, Grants¹², Kresge ’s and G.C. Murphy ’s.

However, few have survived today. Experts say the dime stores were unable to react to changes in

the American economy. Larger stores began to offer the same products and more choices at lower
prices.

Five years ago, the Woolworth Company closed all its general product stores in the United States. It had become
clear that the stores could no longer compete with larger companies. Yet many Americans still have happy
memories of shopping at the local five-and-dime.

Waylon Jennings

HOST:

Country music singer Waylon Jennings died last month. He had recorded more than sixty record albums and had
sixteen country music hit songs. Shep O’Neal has more.

ANNCR:

Waylon Jennings was known in the music business for refusing to take orders from country music officials. He
played a kind of country music that was a mix of western, blues¹³ and rock and roll. He once said the three kinds of
music were almost the same.

Waylon Jennings was born in the state of Texas in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven. He worked in
small bands and on radio programs as a child. He later played in the band of one of the
most famous of the early rock and roll musicians, Buddy¹⁴ Holly¹⁵.

Waylon Jennings often recorded with friends like Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.
He and Willie Nelson won a Grammy Award in Nineteen-Seventy-Eight for this song,
“Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.
”


((CUT ONE: "MAMMAS, DON’T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE
COWBOYS"))

Many Americans remember Waylon Jennings best for singing the song from a hit
television program in the Nineteen-Eighties. His record of that song sold more than one million
copies. It is called “The Dukes of Hazzard.
”

((CUT TWO: "DUKES OF HAZZARD" THEME))

Waylon Jennings became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame last October. We leave you now with
one of the songs responsible for that honor, his biggest hit, ”Luckenbach, (LUKE-en-bock) Texas.
”
((CUT THREE: “LUCKENBACH, TEXAS")
)

HOST:
This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for
AMERICAN MOSAIC
—
VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our
studio engineer was Tom Verba. And our producer was Paul Thompson.

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1 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

2 dime   

n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角

参考例句：

• A dime is a tenth of a dollar.一角银币是十分之一美元。
• The liberty torch is on the back of the dime.自由火炬在一角硬币的反面。

3 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

4 ballad   

n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲

参考例句：

• This poem has the distinctive flavour of a ballad.这首诗有民歌风味。
• This is a romantic ballad that is pure corn.这是一首极为伤感的浪漫小曲。

5 honor   

n.光荣；敬意；荣幸；vt.给…以荣誉；尊敬

参考例句：

• I take your visit as a great honor.您的来访是我莫大的光荣。
• It is a great honor to receive that prize.能拿到那个奖是无上的光荣。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 historic   

adj.历史上著名的，具有历史意义的

参考例句：

• This is a historic occasion.这是具有重大历史意义的时刻。
• We are living in a great historic era.我们正处在一个伟大的历史时代。

8 dimes   

n.（美国、加拿大的）10分铸币( dime的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters are United States coins. 1分铜币、5分镍币、1角银币和2角5分银币是美国硬币。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In 1965 the mint stopped putting silver in dimes. 1965年，铸币厂停止向10分硬币中加入银的成分。 来自辞典例句

9 frank   

adj.坦白的，直率的，真诚的

参考例句：

• A frank discussion can help to clear the air.坦率的谈论有助于消除隔阂。
• She is frank and outgoing.她很爽朗。

10 mister   

n.(略作Mr.全称很少用于书面)先生

参考例句：

• Mister Smith is my good friend.史密斯先生是我的好朋友。
• He styled himself " Mister Clean ".他自称是“清廉先生”。

11 proposed   

被提议的

参考例句：

• There is widespread discontent among the staff at the proposed changes to pay and conditions. 员工对改变工资和工作环境的建议普遍不满。
• an outcry over the proposed change 对拟议的改革所发出的强烈抗议

12 grants   

n.（来自私人或公共授予机构的）基金( grant的名词复数 )；补助金；授给物（如财产、授地、专有权、补助、拨款等）v.（退一步）承认( grant的第三人称单数 )；（尤指正式地或法律上）同意；准许；让渡

参考例句：

• Higher education grants are a carrot with which to entice students. 高等教育的助学金是吸引学生的诱惑物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Grants for the arts are not too thick on the ground these years. 这几年提供给艺术的补助金并不很多。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

14 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

15 holly   

n.[植]冬青属灌木

参考例句：

• I recently acquired some wood from a holly tree.最近我从一棵冬青树上弄了些木料。
• People often decorate their houses with holly at Christmas.人们总是在圣诞节时用冬青来装饰房屋。