VOA慢速英语20060728b

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Four Internet Magazines for Young Professionals Connect With Readers Near and FarBy Karen Leggett, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver²

Broadcast: Friday, July 28, 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 women's rights activist³ Betty Friedan ...

Play some music from Los Lonely Boys ...

And report about some young people who reach out to the world through the Internet.

The CulturalConnect

HOST:




Three young professional people recently started four magazines on the Internet. They expected other young professional people in the United States to read their magazines. But now there are readers in more than ninety-five countries. Barbara Klein tells us about The CulturalConnect.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Sumaya Kazi is twenty-three years old. She is an American whose family
Sumaya Kazi

comes from Bangladesh. Miz Kazi works for Sun Microsystems, a big technology company in California. Raymond Rouf and Kaiser Shahid are both twenty-five years old. They also work for technology companies.

Miz Kazi, Mister Rouf and Mister Shahid started an organization called The CulturalConnect. Their Internet magazines are for young people in their twenties and thirties whose families come from Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia.

The magazines tell about successful young people and organizations that help people or work to solve social problems. For example, The DesiConnect told about the Alliance⁴ of South Asians Taking Action. This group works on issues important to immigrants in San Francisco, California.

The LatinConnect told about the Latin American Folk Institute, which organizes music celebrations in Washington, D. C. In the magazine AsiaConnect, there is a story about a group called ASPIRE⁵, which means Asian Sisters Participating in Reaching Excellence⁶.

The MideastConnect told about Nihad Dukhan, a Palestinian American who teaches engineering at the University of Detroit in Michigan. He is also an artist who creates designs using Arabic words and letters.

Readers of CulturalConnect magazines learn about people like Max Ramirez of New York City. Mister Ramirez is twenty-eight years old. He has become very successful helping⁷ companies sell their goods to people in the United States who speak Spanish. Each magazine tells readers how to contact the individuals and the organizations.

Sumaya Kazi says the magazines have grown very big very fast. She says many college students want to learn about the kinds of jobs they could have when they graduate. She also says the magazines build bridges between people of different ethnic⁸ groups and professions. Young adults around the world are learning about each other in meaningful and helpful ways, says Sumaya Kazi.

The magazines are on the Internet at www.theculturalconnect.com.

Betty Friedan

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Japan. Motoji Okamoto asks
Betty Friedan

about women's rights activist Betty Friedan.Fifty years ago, many Americans said, A woman's place is in the home. Parents often urged their daughters to get married and let a man take care of them. Few girls studied science, law or engineering.

Betty Friedan was born in nineteen twenty-one in Peoria, Illinois. She graduated from Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts. Later she moved to New York City and worked for labor⁹ union newspapers.

But she stopped working when she had children. As a young wife and mother, Betty Friedan was dissatisfied with her life. She wondered if her former college classmates felt the same way. So she studied the opinions of other Smith College graduates during the nineteen fifties and early sixties. The study showed that other women also wanted to be more than homemakers.

Her research led her to write The Feminine¹⁰ Mystique in nineteen sixty-three. She wrote that women suffered from feelings of lack of worth. She said women felt that way because they depended on their husbands for economic, emotional and intellectual support.

Millions of people read The Feminine Mystique. It became one of the most influential¹¹ books of the twentieth century. It helped more women seek higher education and better jobs.

In her long life, Betty Friedan did much more than write an important book. In nineteen sixty-six she helped establish NOW, the National Organization for Women. She served as its first president. Four years later she led a march of one-half million women in New York City. The event was called Women's Strike for Equality.

A year later, she helped establish the National Women's Political Caucus¹². She said America needed more women in public office if women were to gain equal treatment. She also worked hard for an Equal Rights Amendment¹³ to the Constitution.

Betty Friedan wrote more books as she grew older. One of these, Life So Far, was published when she was almost eighty. By that time, she had become deeply involved in the struggle for the rights of old people.

Betty Friedan died earlier this year, on her eighty-fifth birthday. You can hear more about her life and work Sunday on the Special English program People in America.

Los Lonely Boys

HOST:

The group called Los Lonely Boys has a new record called Sacred. Mario Ritter tells about the album and plays a few songs.

MARIO RITTER:


Sacred

Critics say Sacred is a lively combination of dance songs and love songs that have great guitar playing and rich vocals¹⁴.

The three Garza brothers in Los Lonely Boys are from Texas. Their father, Enrique Garza, taught the boys how to play all their instruments. He also let them play in his band while they were growing up.

The boys honor their father on the album with a special guest appearance in this song, Outlaws¹⁵. The famous singer Willie Nelson also joins in.

(MUSIC)

The Garza brothers say their father taught them to always help each other while performing on stage. If one is having trouble with an instrument or makes a mistake, the other two just have to play harder. The main guitarist, Henry Garza, also says his father used to say, If one string breaks, you still have five others.

Here is a hit single from Sacred called Diamonds.

(MUSIC)

A music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle called Henry Garza, the ball of fire at the center of Los Lonely Boys. We leave you now with the band and its burning hot guitar sound in another song from Sacred, Living My Life.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

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

This show was written by Karen Leggett, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver, who was also 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 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 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

4 alliance   

n.同盟，同盟国，结盟，联姻

参考例句：

• China will not enter into alliance with any big power.中国不同任何大国结盟。
• The new alliance was very much in evidence.新的联盟上星期很引人注目。

5 aspire   

vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于

参考例句：

• Living together with you is what I aspire toward in my life.和你一起生活是我一生最大的愿望。
• I aspire to be an innovator not a follower.我迫切希望能变成个开创者而不是跟随者。

6 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

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 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 feminine   

adj.女性的，女子气的

参考例句：

• He has a very feminine voice.他的声音非常像女人。
• She was a very feminine person.她是个很有女性气质的人。

11 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

12 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

13 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

14 vocals   

（乐曲中的）歌唱部份，声乐部份( vocal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Also look out for soaring vocals on The Right Man. 另外，也可留意一下《意中人》中的那高亢的唱腔。
• Lazy bass line, lazier drums, lush violins, great piano and incomparable vocals. 懒惰的低音线，较懒惰的鼓，饮小提琴，棒的钢琴和无比的声音。

15 outlaws   

歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯

参考例句：

• During his year in the forest, Robin met many other outlaws. 在森林里的一年，罗宾遇见其他许多绿林大盗。
• I didn't have to leave the country or fight outlaws. 我不必离开自己的国家，也不必与不法分子斗争。