VOA慢速英语2010-AMERICAN MOSAIC - Remembering Cherokee Na

I’m Doug Johnson. Today we tell about the first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, who died earlier this week.

We also answer a question about the great American writer Ernest Hemingway.

And we play music by a young jazz musician Esperanza Spalding.

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Wilma Mankiller

DOUG JOHNSON: This past Tuesday, the Cherokee Nation and the United States lost a powerful leader. Wilma Mankiller, former chief of the Cherokee Nation, died of cancer at her home in Adair, Oklahoma. She was sixty-four. Faith Lapidus tells about her life.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Wilma Mankiller was the first woman to lead the Cherokee Nation, based in Oklahoma. She served as principal chief from nineteen eighty-five to nineteen ninety-five. During that time, fifty percent more people registered as tribe¹ members. Miz Mankiller led efforts to build more houses and health care centers and expand educational possibilities for her tribe.

Wilma Mankiller and President Bill Clinton in 1998

Wilma Mankiller was born in nineteen forty-five in Oklahoma. She was one of eleven children. Her mother was Irish and Dutch. Her father was Cherokee. They lived on family land called the Mankiller Flats. Her last name was an old term of respect for Indian warriors² who guarded tribal³ villages.

In nineteen fifty-seven, the family moved to California under the Bureau of Indian Affairs Relocation Program. Wilma Mankiller lived in and around San Francisco for the next twenty years. She went to college and became an activist⁴ for Indian rights. She also studied community development. And she married and gave birth to two daughters.

In nineteen seventy-seven she separated from her husband and returned to Oklahoma to serve the Cherokee Nation. Wilma Mankiller faced many personal and health problems. In nineteen seventy-nine she was seriously injured in a car accident. She had seventeen operations during an eighteen-month recovery. Miz Mankiller also had a muscle disease called myasthenia gravis and fought breast cancer and lymphoma.

Carolyn McClellan is an associate director at the National Museum of the American Indian. She is also a Cherokee who grew up in Oklahoma. Miz McClellan praised Wilma Mankiller’s ability to lead and help others during such personal difficulties.

“I had tremendous respect for her,” Miz McClellan said. She said Wilma Mankiller meant so much to girls who had no power at that time.

Wilma Mankiller was known for her effort to return the balance of power of the sexes to the Cherokee Nation. She wrote about it in her book, “Every Day is a Good Day.” She said that women had played an important part in Cherokee government and tribal life in the past. But she wrote that women’s roles decreased over time as the Cherokee people accepted the values of the larger American culture. She said when she first sought political office in nineteen eighty-three it was as if “the strong role of women in Cherokee life had been forgotten by some of our own people.” She said that when she left office, that had changed.

Former President Bill Clinton awarded Wilma Mankiller the Presidential Medal of Freedom in nineteen ninety-eight. On Tuesday, President Obama expressed his sadness about her death. He said she transformed the nation-to-nation relationship between the Cherokee and the federal government.

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Ernest Hemingway

DOUG JOHNSON: Gennady Bydzan from Kazakhstan wants to know about the writer Ernest Hemingway.

Ernest Hemingway was one of the best known writers in American history. He was one of the twentieth century's most important and influential⁵ writers.

He wrote many famous books and earned millions of dollars from his writing. Among his best books are “The Old Man and The Sea,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “A Farewell to Arms” and “The Sun Also Rises.” Many of his most famous books were written before he was thirty years old. Several were made into movies. He won many prizes for his writing and influenced many writers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in nineteen fifty-four.

Ernest Hemingway’s writing style is very simple yet very powerful. It may have been influenced by his work as a newspaper reporter. Hemingway expressed little emotion in his writing. He said it would be too easy to do that. Instead, he tried to describe a situation so well that the reader would understand the emotion in it.

Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak⁶ Park, Illinois, near Chicago, in eighteen ninety-nine. He shot himself to death in nineteen sixty-one, just as his father had years earlier. Hemingway was sixty-one. He had lost the ability to write and was sick most of the time. He probably suffered from depression and drank too much alcohol.

Among the papers he left was one that described what he liked best: "To stay in places and to leave ,,, to trust, to distrust ... to no longer believe and believe again ... to watch the changes in the seasons ... to be out in boats ... to watch the snow come, to watch it go ... to hear the rain ... and to know where I can find what I want. "

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Esperanza Spalding

DOUG JOHNSON: Esperanza Spalding is a young jazz musician who sings, plays the bass⁷ and writes her own music. The twenty-five year old plays jazz that is influenced by the sounds of funk, soul, samba and blues⁸ music. She has performed all over the world, even for President Obama. Critics say Esperanza Spalding is one of the most interesting and gifted examples of today’s jazz music. Mario Ritter has more.

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MARIO RITTER: That was “Junjo” from Esperanza Spalding’s first album of the same name. Spalding grew up in Portland, Oregon. When she was about four years old, she heard her mother struggling to play a piece of music on the piano. After listening for a while, Esperanza was able to play the music by ear. She soon began writing music and by age five had started playing the violin.

Esperanza Spalding

By the age of fifteen, she was the head of her youth orchestra⁹. And by twenty, Esperanza Spalding had graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. She accepted a teaching position there. In her second album, “Esperanza,” she sings in English, Spanish, and Portuguese¹⁰. Here is “Samba Em Preludio.”

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Esperanza Spalding has played with some of the top jazz artists in the world. But she says the most important thing about jazz is that it is about right now. She says many people in the jazz world praise the music of fifty years ago. Esperanza Spalding has said that music and people change with the years. She says it is important to let jazz music breathe, and evolve in new ways. We leave you with the energetic sound of “She Got to You.”

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DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Chris Cruise¹¹, Dana Demange and Caty Weaver¹² who was also the producer.

Do you have a question about people, places or things in America? Or write to [e-mail]. We may answer your question on the show.

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

　
 

1 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。

2 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

3 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

4 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。

5 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。

6 oak   

n.栎树，橡树，栎木，橡木

参考例句：

• The chair is of solid oak.这把椅子是纯橡木的。
• The carpenter will floor this room with oak.木匠将用橡木铺设这个房间的地板。

7 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

8 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。

9 orchestra   

n.管弦乐队；vt.命令，定购

参考例句：

• He plays the violin in an orchestra.他在管弦乐队中演奏小提琴。
• I was tempted to stay and hear this superb orchestra rehearse.我真想留下来听这支高超的管弦乐队排练。

10 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。

11 cruise   

v.巡航，航游，缓慢巡行；n.海上航游

参考例句：

• They went on a cruise to Tenerife.他们乘船去特纳利夫岛。
• She wants to cruise the canals of France in a barge.她想乘驳船游览法国的运河。

12 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。

13 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。