VOA慢速英语20060407b

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Native Americans Explore the Life and Art of Their AncestorsBy Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver²

Broadcast: Friday, April 07, 2006

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

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I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week鈥?e play music by opera singer Anna Moffo鈥?nswer a question about the melting pot鈥?nd鈥?eport about a new exhibit³ of American Indian art.

Listening To Our Ancestors

The National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. is offering a new exhibit for its visitors. It shows the art and culture of the people who live on the Northwest coast of the United States and Canada. Barbara Klein tells us about it.

BARBARA KLEIN:

The exhibit is called Listening To Our Ancestors: The Art of Native Life along the North Pacific Coast. It includes more than four hundred objects from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Native people used the objects in the American states of Washington and Alaska and British Columbia in Canada. They used the objects in everyday life and for special ceremonies.


Detail of a ceremonial mask of Northwest Indians from about 1900 (Photo by NMAI Photo Services)

Representatives from eleven Native groups worked with museum officials to create the exhibit. The Native groups include the Coast Salish, Makah, Haida and Tlingit.

The representatives helped decide which objects would be displayed and how they would be presented. Part of the Coast Salish display from Washington State includes a carved wooden boat called a dugout. The Haida group lives in British Columbia and Alaska. Its display includes jewelry⁴ made from whale bone. The Heiltsuk group also lives in British Columbia. Its display includes beautifully painted masks that cover the face.

The group representatives also provided⁵ important information about the objects and how they are used. One example is the Makah tribe⁶ of Neah Bay, Washington State. The tribe has hunted whales for thousands of years. Boats, spears and other whale-hunting tools are included in its display.

One special area in the exhibit is the Family Activity Room. It is a place where children and their families can explore the cultures and traditions of the Native groups they are learning⁷ about. The students can learn more about the drawings and designs used by the different groups. They can also learn how the Native groups weave cloth. Preslie Handey and Taylor Bost are teenagers from South Carolina who recently visited the exhibit. They agreed that the Activity Room was the best part of the exhibit. It gave them a chance to learn more about the way Native Americans live.

Melting Pot

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Dang Van Khuong asks about the meaning of the term melting pot and why it is linked to many ethnic⁸ groups.

Melting pot means a place where people from many different ethnic groups or cultures form a united society. The idea comes from heating⁹ metals in a container. When they melt, the metals unite and become something new and stronger. The term has been used to describe the United States as a nation created from people who came here from many different countries.

A Frenchman who was living in America expressed the idea more than two hundred years ago. J. Hector de Crevecoeur published a book called Letters From an American Farmer in seventeen eighty-two. He wrote that America had people from many different countries. He said that they would become a new people whose work would one day change the world.

For many years, Americans generally accepted the idea of their country as a melting pot. They welcomed immigrants¹⁰ from many nations. Yet some of those immigrants criticized¹¹ the melting pot idea. They felt they were forced to lose their culture and language in order to be accepted in America. Other people also criticized the idea. They said the aim of the melting pot is to make different cultures disappear into the one representing the largest group.

New groups of immigrants from Asia and Latin¹² America are changing the United States today. Some are resisting learning American culture and language. Reports say some Americans fear that the nation is separating into many groups that have no shared purpose. Others say the melting pot is no longer changing the nation's immigrants, but the immigrants are changing America.

Some experts who study immigration say they now compare American society not with a melting pot, but with a salad bowl. A salad is made of many different foods. They each keep their own taste while being part of a successful product. In this way, cultural groups keep their customs and language and are still part of American society.

Anna Moffo

HOST:

Opera singer Anna Moffo died last month in New York City. She was seventy-three. Moffo was a star of the opera stage and also worked in television and in film. Faith Lapidus has our report on the singer and her music.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Anna Moffo was born in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Her beautiful soprano voice was discovered at a school music event when she was just seven years old.

Moffo was a very beautiful young woman. She was offered work in Hollywood movies right after she graduated from high school. But she wanted to sing. Moffo went to Philadelphia to study at the Curtis Institute of Music. Later she won a Fulbright Award to study in Italy. She performed in her first professional opera there in nineteen fifty-five.


Anna Moffo

Two years later, Anna Moffo sang professionally for the first time in the United States. She sang the role of Mimi in Giacomo Puccini's La Boheme. Here is a recording¹³ of Moffo in another Puccini opera, Madame Butterfly.

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Anna Moffo performed often at the Metropolitan¹⁴ Opera House in New York. She became famous singing the part of Violetta in La Traviata by Guiseppe Verdi.

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Anna Moffo's star in the opera world burned brightly but also briefly¹⁵. She said she worked too hard and traveled too much early in her career. It was mostly over by the nineteen seventies.

We leave you now with Anna Moffo singing in the opera Manon by Jules Massenet.

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HOST:

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

Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer.

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 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。

3 exhibit   

vt.展览，展出，陈列；n.展览品；陈列品

参考例句：

• Next week those goods will exhibit in that shop. 下个星期，这些货物将在那家商店展出。
• The economy continued to exhibit signs of decline in September.9月份，经济继续呈现出衰退的迹象。

4 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

5 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

6 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。

7 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

8 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

9 heating   

n.加热，供暖，暖气装置；adj.加热的，供暖的

参考例句：

• They will install a heating and lighting system in our house.他们将在我们家装上供热供电系统。
• If the pressure is too low,the heating system will act up.如果压力太低，供暖系统就会出毛病。

10 immigrants   

n.移民( immigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Illegal immigrants were given the opportunity to regularize their position. 非法移民得到了使其身份合法化的机会。
• Immigrants from all over the world populate this city. 这个城市里生活着来自世界各地的移民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 criticized   

vt.批评(criticize的过去式)v.评论，批评( criticize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The decision was criticized by environmental groups. 这个决定受到了环保团体的批评。
• The movie has been criticized for apparently legitimizing violence. 这部电影因明显地美化暴力而受到了指责。

12 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

13 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。

14 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

15 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。