VOA慢速英语20061020b

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - 'Nine Parts of Desire': Actress Brings to Life Stories of Iraqi WomenBy Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Friday, October 20, 2006

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We answer a question about the American word OK ...

Play some music from a group called TV on the Radio...

And report about a new play called Nine Parts of Desire.

Nine Parts of Desire

HOST:

A new play is being performed at Arena² Stage, a theater in Washington, D.C. The play is about the lives of Iraqi women. Barbara Klein has more.

BARBARA KLEIN:


Heather Raffo in Nine Parts of Desire

An Iraqi-American woman named Heather Raffo wrote Nine Parts of Desire. She also is the only performer. She acts the parts of nine Iraqi women. They are of different ages, education, religious and political beliefs.

They include an old woman in Baghdad, a doctor, a young Iraqi girl, a political refugee³ living in London and a young Iraqi-American woman in New York City. All of them tell how their lives have been affected⁴ by repression⁵, violence and war. Heather Raffo brings each part to life with small changes in her voice and clothing. The stories of the women are separated by music and the sounds of gunfire and bombings.

Heather Raffo says the play is a celebration of women searching for personal freedom. Critics and other people alike have praised the play as powerful and emotionally moving. The name of the play comes from the teachings of an ancient Muslim religious leader. He wrote: God created sexual⁶ desire in ten parts; then, he gave nine parts to women and one part to men.

Heather Raffo is the daughter of an Iraqi man and an American woman. As a child, she had visited family members in Iraq. She was a student at the University of Michigan in nineteen ninety-one during the Gulf⁷ War. She was angry about the war and concerned about her family members in Iraq.

In nineteen ninety-three, Miz Raffo visited her family in that country. She says what she discovered there had a powerful effect on her. The visit helped her understand her culture and celebrate the women in her family. She collected the stories of family members and other Iraqi women.

Later, she used some of these experiences to write her play, Nine Parts of Desire. She wanted people to know more about the Iraqi people than what the news media showed. The first version of the play was performed three years ago in Edinburgh, Scotland. It later was performed in London and New York City.

Heather Raffo changed the version playing in Washington to include the current war in Iraq. She says she believes strongly in performing this play in Washington. She says the play unites people in considering the humanity⁸ of the Iraqi people at a time when important decisions are being made about their country.

OK

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from France. Herve Acard asks about the American word okay. Where did the word come from and how did it become part of the language?

OK means all right or acceptable⁹. It expresses agreement or approval. Millions of people all over the world use the word okay. In fact, some people say the word is used more often than any other word in the world. Still, language experts do not agree about where it came from.

Some say it came from the native American Indian tribe¹⁰ known as the Choctaws. The Choctaw word okeh means the same as the American word OK. Experts say early explorers in the American West spoke¹¹ the Choctaw language in the nineteenth century. The language spread across the country.

But many people dispute this. Language expert Allen Walker Read wrote about the word OK in articles published in the nineteen sixties. He said the word began as a short way of writing a different spelling of the words all correct. Old stories say some foreign-born people would write all correct as o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t but speak it as OK.

Others say OK was a way to shorten¹² Greek words that mean everything is fine. Still others say a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word. They say he put the first letters of his names -- O and K -- on each object people gave him to place on the train.


Martin Van Buren

Another explanation is that OK was invented by a political organization that supported Martin Van Buren for president in the eighteen hundreds. They called their organization the OK Club. The letters O and K were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born 鈥?Old Kinderhook, New York.

Not everyone agrees with this explanation either. But experts do agree that the word is purely¹³ American and has spread to almost every country on Earth. Yet in the United States, it is used mostly in speech, not in writing. Serious writers would rather use such words as agree, approve or confirm instead.

We hope this is OK with you!

TV on the Radio

TV on the Radio makes music filled with energetic beats and dissident sounds. This art-rock band of five men is based in Brooklyn, New York. Their new album, Return to Cookie Mountain, is full of experimental energy. Critics say it might be one of the most strangely beautiful records of the year. Faith Lapidus has more.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS:

I Was a Lover is a song with unusual and poetic¹⁴ words. Like many of TV on
TV On The Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain"

the Radio's songs, it describes a world of destruction and change. The song has many sounds. You can hear two voices above layers of guitar, piano, drum, and machine noises.

TV on the Radio's music is not easy to define¹⁵. The group combines many kinds of music. Each song is very different from the next. And this album is very different from their past albums. The band members like being free to try new sounds. Here is the song Hours.

(MUSIC)

The members of the band say the feeling they want to express is connection. They see their music as expressing emotions that other people can identify with. Some songs express their unhappiness with current politics in the United States. For example, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the band immediately wrote a song. It told about working together for a better future with wiser leaders.

We leave you with Province. If you listen carefully, you can hear the voice of famous singer David Bowie. The song talks about bravely loving someone in a dark, changing world.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

Our show was written by Dana Demange, Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver¹⁶ was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, www.unsv.com.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

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 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

3 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

6 sexual   

adj.性的，两性的，性别的

参考例句：

• He was a person of gross sexual appetites.他是个性欲旺盛的人。
• It is socially irresponsible to refuse young people advice on sexual matters.拒绝向年轻人提供性方面的建议是对社会不负责任。

7 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

8 humanity   

n.人类，[总称]人(性)，人道[pl.]人文学科

参考例句：

• Such an act is a disgrace to humanity.这种行为是人类的耻辱。
• We should treat animals with humanity.我们应该以仁慈之心对待动物。

9 acceptable   

adj.可接受的，合意的，受欢迎的

参考例句：

• The terms of the contract are acceptable to us.我们认为这个合同的条件可以接受。
• Air pollution in the city had reached four times the acceptable levels.这座城市的空气污染程度曾高达可接受标准的四倍。

10 tribe   

n.部落，种族，一伙人

参考例句：

• This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
• Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 shorten   

vt.弄短，缩小，减少

参考例句：

• Minor accidents can shorten the life of a car.小事故会缩短汽车寿命。
• My dress is too long I must shorten it.我的连衣裙太长了，我得把它截短些。

13 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

14 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

15 define   

vt.解释，下定义，阐述，限定，规定

参考例句：

• Please define the words.请解释这些字的意义。
• It's hard to define exactly what has changed.很难解释清楚到底发生了什么变化。

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。