VOA慢速英语2010年-American Mosaic - 23 Win MacArthur 'Ge

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to American Mosaic¹ in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m Doug Johnson.

Today, we report on this year’s MacArthur Fellowship winners ...

Answer a question about a huge and beautiful park in the nation’s capital ...

And play music from jazz pianist Vijay Iyer.

(MUSIC)

2010 MacArthur Fellows

DOUG JOHNSON: Receiving a telephone call from the MacArthur Foundation can lead to a big surprise. This week, the Chicago-based organization told twenty-three people that they had received a MacArthur Fellowship. Winners of this yearly honor receive five hundred thousand dollars with no conditions. The MacArthur Foundation says the program honors explorers and risk-takers doing interesting and inventive work. Mario Ritter tells us more.

MARIO RITTER: This year’s winners include scientists, artists, historians and language experts. Two MacArthur fellows pay special attention to letters. Matthew Carter is a type designer who creates letterforms for printed texts as well as computer screens.

Biophysicist John Dabiri is the youngest MacArthur Fellow this year at 31 years old

He thinks about the way a letter’s design can be useful and also look good.

Nicholas Benson is a skilled stone carver. Much stone carving² of letters is done by machines today. But Mr. Benson’s artistry can be seen on buildings around the United States.

The youngest MacArthur fellow is thirty-year-old John Dabiri. He is a biophysicist who studies the special movement of jellyfish. His research is helping³ scientists understand evolution as well as the physics of fluids.

Entomologist Marla Spivak studies small creatures. Her work with bees is helping to protect these important insects.

Language is very important to both Jessie Little Doe Baird and Carol Padden. Ms. Baird has helped to bring back the language of the Wampanoag Indian tribe of Massachusetts. She has started a dictionary and an educational program to revive this language among her tribe members.

Nicholas Benson in his studio in Newport, Rhode Island

Carol Padden is a linguist⁴ who studies the organization and evolution of sign language. She has studied the social meaning of American Sign Language as well as the Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language in Israel. She is the first deaf person to be named a MacArthur fellow.

Three fellows are interested in telling stories. David Cromer is a Broadway theater director who is presenting well-known twentieth century American plays in new and inventive ways.

David Simon is a television writer and producer whose programs explore the complex realities of city life. He is best known for his work on the shows “The Wire” and “Treme."

The writer Yiyun Li tells stories that take place in the United States and China. Her novel “The Vagrants” tells about life in a small Chinese town during the period after the death of ruler Mao Zedong in the nineteen seventies.

To learn more about the work of this year’s MacArthur fellows, look for a link on our website, voaspecialenglish.com.

(MUSIC)

National Arboretum⁵

DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Kazakhstan. Gennadiy Bydzan wants to know about the National Arboretum.

Many people who come to Washington are surprised when they first visit the United States National Arboretum. The Arboretum is only a short drive from the center of the city. But visitors often feel like they are far from the busy American capital. The National Arboretum is an active center for both scientific research and public education.

Magnolias blooming in spring at the National Arboretum

The Arboretum covers one hundred eighty hectares of green space in the northeast part of Washington. It is famous for its beautiful flowers, tall trees and other plants. About nine thousand different kinds grow there.

An arboretum is a place where trees and other plants are grown for scientific and educational purposes.

The National Arboretum was established by an act of Congress in nineteen twenty-seven. Today, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service operates the Arboretum.

Its goal is to carry out studies and provide education in an effort to improve the environment. This goal includes protecting trees, flowers and other plants and showing them to the public.

As many as six hundred thousand people visit the Arboretum's grounds each year. Hundreds of thousands also visit with the help of computers. They use the Arboretum’s Internet website to learn about current research programs and how to care for plants.

For several years, the National Arboretum has been collecting financial donations for an addition to the grounds. American and Chinese designers plan to build a traditional Chinese garden. The garden will cover an area of almost five hectares. It is a joint⁶ project between the United States Department of Agriculture and China’s Academy of Forestry⁷.

The China Garden will include a lake, several smaller areas of fresh water and some traditional Chinese structures. The garden design is based on the traditional gardens in Yangzhou. China has agreed to provide the structures, artwork, rocks and other objects. It also plans to send experts to Washington to help build the structures. China says the garden will be a gift to the American people from the Chinese people.

(MUSIC)

Vijay Iyer

DOUG JOHNSON: Vijay Iyer is a jazz pianist, composer, producer and bandleader who has received much critical praise. Although he is under forty years old he has already released fourteen albums. Barbara Klein tells about the artist and plays some of his music.

BARBARA KLEIN:Vijay Iyer was born in nineteen seventy-one in Rochester, New York and grew up there. His parents had come to the United States from India. He started violin lessons at age three but he taught himself to play the piano.

Jazz pianist Vijay Iyer

That worked out well. Here is an example from his first album, “Memorophilia.” This song is called “Stars Over Mars.”

(MUSIC)

Vijay Iyer graduated from Yale University with a degree in mathematics and physics when he was only twenty years old. He continued at the University of California, Berkeley, where he got a Ph.D in physics. He has spoken highly of his experiences playing jazz on the West Coast.

But he is based in New York City now. He performs all over the world and works with many different kinds of musicians and artists. In two thousand four he worked with poet Mike Ladd to make the album “In What Language?” It is a mix of spoken word and music. Here is “The Density⁸ of the Nineteenth Century.”

(MUSIC)

Vijay Iyer is a professor at New York University, Manhattan School of Music and the New School. He also writes for music publications. His latest album, “Solo,” was released a few weeks ago. We leave you with Iyer’s version of Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature” from “Solo.”

(MUSIC)

DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Dana Demange and Caty Weaver⁹, who also was the 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 carving   

n.雕刻品，雕花

参考例句：

• All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻。
• He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺。

3 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。

4 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

5 arboretum   

n.植物园

参考例句：

• We can go to the arboretum in the southern suburb.我们可以去南郊的植物园。
• The arboretum is full of exotic flowers and rare herbs.植物园里长满了各种奇花异草。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

7 forestry   

n.森林学；林业

参考例句：

• At present, the Chinese forestry is being at a significant transforming period. 当前, 我国的林业正处于一个重大的转折时期。
• Anhua is one of the key forestry counties in Hunan province. 安化县是湖南省重点林区县之一。

8 density   

n.密集，密度，浓度

参考例句：

• The population density of that country is 685 per square mile.那个国家的人口密度为每平方英里685人。
• The region has a very high population density.该地区的人口密度很高。

9 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。