VOA慢速英语2010-AMERICAN MOSAIC - Exhibit Recalls Differe

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m Doug Johnson. This week on our program, we answer a question about Oprah Winfrey. We also have new music from MGMT. But first, we tell you about a new exhibit remembering some Americans who fought for justice.

(MUSIC)

Civil Rights Exhibit

DOUG JOHNSON: In Washington, there is a new exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution. "The Struggle for Justice" explores American human rights movements through the activists³ and leaders who took part. Faith Lapidus has our report.

FAITH LAPIDUS: A sculpture shows Rosa Parks just after her arrest in nineteen fifty-five. The black civil rights activist² is in handcuffs. Two much larger white men stand beside her. Each has a huge hand around her thin arms.

One man is in a police uniform, the other in a blue suit. The men show little expression. Rosa Parks' eyes look off to the side and into the distance. Her mouth is set firmly.

Sculpture of Rosa Parks by Marshall D. Rumbaugh

On December first, nineteen fifty-five, Rosa Parks took a seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. At that time there were laws in the South that required blacks to give their seats on buses to whites. Rosa Parks refused to get up for a white man.

Police arrested and fined her. After that, she helped lead a city bus boycott⁴ that lasted more than a year. It ended after the United States Supreme⁵ Court ruled that such laws violated⁶ the Constitution.

Martin Luther King Junior also led the Montgomery bus boycott, along with many other civil rights demonstrations⁷. "The Struggle for Justice" exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery includes a nineteen sixty-three photograph of him. He is on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington speaking to demonstrators.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today."

A march on Washington had brought about two hundred fifty thousand people to demand racial equality and freedom. They heard what became one of the most famous speeches in American history.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: " ... when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty⁸ we are free at last!"

Another photograph in "The Struggle for Justice" exhibit is from eighteen seventy. It shows Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, leaders in the movement for voting rights for women.

Women were not guaranteed the right to vote until nineteen twenty. That came with passage of the nineteenth amendment⁹ to the Constitution. However, neither Elizabeth Cady Stanton nor Susan B. Anthony lived long enough to see that day.

In the photograph the two women sit at a table. An open book is before them. They wear the long, full dresses of their day. They look directly into the camera.

"The Struggle for Justice" exhibit also includes videos on the history of equal rights campaigns in America.

In all, the exhibit honors more than thirty individuals. Others include anti-slavery activist Frederick Douglass, birth control activist Margaret Sanger and Special Olympics founder¹⁰ Eunice Shriver.

The new exhibit joins the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

Oprah Winfrey

DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Brazil. Luciene wants to know more about Oprah Winfrey.

Andrew Van Wyngarden of MGMT

Oprah Winfrey is not only famous but powerful in the entertainment industry. Her TV talk show was first seen locally in Chicago in nineteen eighty-four. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" went national two years later and became a huge hit.

She has announced plans to end the show in September of two thousand eleven after twenty-five years.

This year's Forbes magazine list of the world's richest people estimated her wealth at almost two and a half billion dollars.

She founded the Oxygen media company, the Oprah's Angel Network charity and the Harpo film, television and radio production company. She also started O, the Oprah Magazine, and the list goes on. She has starred in several films and helped launch entertainment careers.

Oprah is getting more attention right now because of a new book. The writer, Kitty Kelley, is known for writing biographies¹¹ of famous people without their approval.

Oprah Winfrey was born in the small town of Kosciusko, Mississippi. She has said that her family was very poor and that she had cockroaches¹² for pets. Kitty Kelley says some family members have disputed both those statements.

Oprah Winfrey has not commented on the claims in the book.

As a teenager she went to live with the man she considers her father. Vernon Winfrey was supportive of her and her education. She became an excellent student and popular among her classmates.

Oprah Winfrey has said she is who she is today because of Vernon Winfrey. She went on to Tennessee State University where she earned a degree in speech and performing arts.

Oprah Winfrey became engaged to Stedman Graham in nineteen ninety-two but they have not married.

MGMT

DOUG JOHNSON: MGMT is a young two-man band from New York City. Rolling Stone magazine placed the group’s first album “Oracular Spectacular” eighteenth on a list of the top one hundred albums of the last ten years.

Now MGMT has released its second album. Barbara Klein tells about the band and plays some music from “Congratulations.”

Oprah Winfrey

BARBARA KLEIN: Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden formed MGMT in two thousand two. They were students at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

Both members play guitar, drums and sing. Ben Goldwasser also plays the synthesizer. He and VanWyngarden write the songs together. They decided¹³ not to release any singles from the new album. They want radio stations to choose what songs to play. Here is our first pick. It is called “Someone’s Missing.”

(MUSIC)

MGMT records with a major label, Columbia. However, the band is clear about staying pure in the music business. Goldwasser recently told a reporter that he and VanWyngarden oppose what some musicians do to get famous. He said they turn themselves into products. Goldwasser said he and his band partner are “one hundred percent about music.”

Listen now to “Flash Delirium,” from “Congratulations.”

(MUSIC)

MGMT is performing in Sydney, Australia on April sixth. Then the group will be performing shows in several American states, including an appearance at the Coachella festival in Indio, California.

We leave you with MGMT performing the title song from their new album, “Congratulations.”

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁴. For transcripts¹⁵, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook at VOA Learning English.

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 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。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 violated   

亵渎( violate的过去式和过去分词 )； 违反； 侵犯； 强奸

参考例句：

• Note that thick, strong angles of tibia are not violated. 注意肥厚、结实的胫骨成角部分未受损坏。
• The soldiers violated the church by using it as a stable. 士兵们把教堂当马厩，亵渎了教堂。

7 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

8 almighty   

adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的

参考例句：

• Those rebels did not really challenge Gods almighty power.这些叛徒没有对上帝的全能力量表示怀疑。
• It's almighty cold outside.外面冷得要命。

9 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。

10 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

11 biographies   

n.传记( biography的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are plenty of biographies for him to browse over. 有大量传记供他浏览。 来自辞典例句
• He likes to read biographies of great men to promote himself. 他喜欢读伟人传记来提高自己。 来自互联网

12 cockroaches   

n.蟑螂( cockroach的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At night, the cockroaches filled the house with their rustlings. 夜里，屋里尽是蟑螂窸窸瑟瑟的声音。 来自辞典例句
• It loves cockroaches, and can keep a house clear of these hated insects. 它们好食蟑螂，可以使住宅免除这些讨厌昆虫的骚扰。 来自百科语句

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 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。

15 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句