AMERICAN MOSAIC - Question About American Families / Folk an

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ -August 16, 2002: Question About American Families / Folk and Blues² Music /

Washington's Spy Museum
HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC
—
VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play some American folk and blues music ..
.
Answer a listener’s question about American families ..
.
And report about a new museum in Washington, D.C.

Spy Museum

HOST:

Washington, D.C., is famous for its many fine museums, like the Smithsonian and the National Gallery of Art.
Now, a new museum has opened to share information that once was very secret. Bob Cohen tells us about the
new International Spy Museum.

ANNCR:

The International Spy Museum presents the stories of men and women who worked as spies for countries around
the world. The museum is careful to explain that a spy may be considered guilty of treason³ in one country and a
hero in another country.

The new museum opened a few weeks ago. It is already very popular. Visitors often must wait
for thirty minutes or more before they can enter the building.

The museum tells the stories of spies from ancient times to the present. There are photographs
of many famous spies.

More popular, however, are the hundreds of pieces of unusual equipment that were used by
spies. Visitors can see examples of radios that spies used to send and receive information
during World War Two. They can see some special cameras used to take secret photographs.
One special camera looks like a package of cigarettes.

The museum also has a collection of weapons used by spies. These include special pistols⁴ that
do not look like guns. One gun looks like a man’s leather glove that fits over the hand.

The International Spy Museum also tells what happens to people who were caught spying. One of these was a
woman known as Mata Hari. She was convicted⁵ of spying for the German government. She was executed⁶ during
World War Two. The museum makes sure visitors understand that spying is a very dangerous game.

The International Spy Museum is owned by a company that is building museums for profit. It costs eleven dollars
for an adult and eight dollars for a child to enter the museum. Critics say the price is too high. But the people
waiting in long lines outside the museum do not seem to care. They appear happy to pay the money for a chance
to enter the secret world of spies.

American Families


HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nepal. Sunil Dhungana asks about the different kinds of
families in America.

There have been many changes in American families in the past few years. So there are many different kinds of
families today. There are fewer traditional families in the United States today than in the past. The traditional
family includes a man and woman who are married and their children. Fewer than twenty-five percent of
American homes have these traditional families.

One major influence on families is the high number of marriages than end in divorce⁷. More single parents are
raising their children today. There is also a high rate of unmarried women having babies.

Research has found that the marriage rate in the United States is dropping. More men and women are choosing to
live together and have children, but not get married. Population experts say that the number of unmarried parents
in the United States increased more than seventy percent in the past ten years.

Another kind of American family is the stepfamily. A stepfamily includes a married man and woman and at least
one child from a former marriage or relationship. Many stepfamilies include children of both the man and woman
from earlier marriages and children from their current marriage.

Foster⁸ families are also a part of American life. A child who does not have parents is placed in the home of a
foster family until the child can be adopted. Adoption⁹ is the legal process by which a child becomes part of a
family. Many men and women who are not able to produce children will adopt a child instead. Some people who
have given birth to their own children choose to give a home to other children through adoption.

Studies also show an increase in the number of children who have parents of the same sex. Sometimes, one of the
adults is the biological parent of the child. Sometimes the children are adopted.

So, as you can see, the traditional family in the United States is changing. However, many Americans say it is not
important if family members are related¹⁰ through biology or not. The important thing in a family is love.

Alan Lomax

HOST:

Alan Lomax died last month in Florida. He was eighty-seven years old. He played an important part in
discovering and recording¹¹ traditional American songs. Shirley Griffith tells us about him.

ANNCR:

Alan Lomax traveled around the United States and the world recording the folk, blues and jazz music of common
people. His father, John Lomax, studied the music of the people in the American West and South. During the
nineteen-thirties, Alan Lomax joined his father in a trip across the South to collect American folk songs for the
United States Library of Congress¹².

They recorded many of these songs by men in prisons. One of these recordings¹³ is a song
called “Po
’
Lazarus”
by James Carter and the Prisoners. The song was included in the
very successful movie and album called “O Brother, Where Art Thou?
”

((MUSIC: "PO’
LAZARUS"))

John and Alan Lomax also recorded songs by another prisoner, Huddie (HUD-dee)
Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly. They helped him get released¹⁴ from prison. He became their driver. He also
became a very successful folk and blues singer. Here is a recording of Leadbelly
’
s song “Midnight Special.
”

((MUSIC: "MIDNIGHT SPECIAL"))

Alan Lomax recorded thousands of folk songs across the United States and in Britain, Italy,
Spain and the Caribbean. He developed a collection of folk songs from around the world in an


effort to increase understanding among people.

In the nineteen-forties, Alan Lomax recorded music by a guitar player named McKinley
Morganfield. He was a farm worker in Mississippi. Millions of blues fans around the world
would later know him as Muddy Waters. We leave you now with Muddy Waters’
recording
of “Take a Walk With Me.
”

((MUSIC: "TAKE A WALK WITH ME")
)
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 Jill Moss¹⁵, Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio
engineer was Curtis Bynum. And our producer was Caty Weaver¹⁶.

 

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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 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。

3 treason   

n.叛逆，通敌，背叛，叛国罪

参考例句：

• The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason.国会有权宣布如何惩罚叛国罪。
• She was arraigned for high treason.她被控叛国罪。

4 pistols   

n.手枪( pistol的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Meantime he was loading the pistols. 而同时他在往手枪里装子弹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Two strangers menaced him with pistols and forced him to give up his money. 两个陌生人用手枪威胁他并强迫他拿出所有的钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 convicted   

adj.已被判刑的，被宣布有罪的 动词convict的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• He was convicted of fraud. 他被判犯有诈骗罪。
• He was convicted at a court martial. 他在军事法庭上被判有罪。

6 executed   

v.执行（法令）( execute的过去式和过去分词 )；（按计划或设计）作成；履行；演（戏）

参考例句：

• He was executed for treason. 他因叛国罪被处死。
• He was executed in 1887for plotting to assassinate the tsar. 他因密谋暗杀沙皇在1887年被判处极刑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 divorce   

n.离婚；分离；vi.离婚；vt.离婚；脱离

参考例句：

• Did he divorce his wife or did she divorce him?是他要和妻子离婚，还是妻子要和他离婚？
• None of us like the divorce of word and deed.我们都不喜欢言行不一。

8 foster   

vt.收养，培养，促进；adj.收养的，收养孩子的

参考例句：

• Nowadays young couple sometimes foster.现今年轻夫妇有时领养别人的孩子。
• The captain did his best to foster a sense of unity among the new recruits.队长尽力培养新成员之间的团结精神。

9 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

10 related   

adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的

参考例句：

• I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。

11 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

12 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。

13 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

14 released   

v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他，这倒容易。

15 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

16 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。