VOA慢速英语2010年-PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Doctor Seuss, 1904

MARY TILLOTSON: PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.

Today we tell about one of the most successful writers of children’s books. Sarah Long and Steve Ember tell about Doctor Seuss.

(MUSIC)

SARAH LONG: Doctor Seuss was the name used by Theodor Seuss Geisel. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine humorous words, funny pictures, and social opinion. Mister Geisel also illustrated¹ his books with pictures of funny creatures and plants. He did not receive training in art. Yet he created the pictures for most of his books.

"The Cat in the Hat", "Green Eggs and Ham" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" are among Dr. Seuss' most popular books.

The Doctor Seuss books are very popular with young readers. They enjoy the invented words. And they like to look at the pictures of unusual creatures such as the Cat in the Hat, Thing One, Thing Two, Little Cindy-Lou Who, and Sam-I-Am.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Theodor Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in nineteen-oh-four. He graduated from Dartmouth College in nineteen twenty-five. He spent a year studying literature at Oxford² University in England. Mister Geisel returned to the United States in nineteen-twenty-seven. He hoped to become a writer of serious literature.

During this time the United States was in an economic decline⁴ known as the Great Depression. This forced Mister Geisel to delay his dreams of becoming a serious writer. He found work as a creator of advertising⁵ campaigns designed to sell products. He also drew cartoons for popular magazines including Life and Vanity⁶ Fair. Cartoons are humorous pictures with words.

SARAH LONG: Doctor Seuss wrote his first book for children in nineteen thirty-seven. It is called "And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street." A number of publishers rejected it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years he wrote more than forty children's books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects including equality, responsibility and protecting the environment.

By the middle nineteen fifties, Doctor Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful children's book writers in the world. He had a strong desire to help children.

In nineteen fifty-four, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children's books were not interesting. Doctor Seuss decided⁷ to write books that were interesting and easy to read. He used rhyming words, words with the same ending sound, like fish and wish.

In the book "Hop³ on Pop," he presented two words. Then he used them in simple sentences like this. Day. Play. We play all day. Night. Fight. We fight all night.

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen fifty-seven, Dr. Seuss wrote "The Cat in the Hat." He used less than two hundred twenty-five words to write the book. This was an estimate of the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read.

The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It is more like a human. It walks on two legs instead of four. It wears a tall, red and white hat. A big red bow is around its neck. And it talks. As the cat entertains the children it creates complete disorder⁸ in the house.

The book was an immediate⁹ success. It was a fun story and easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best.

Listen as Ray Freeman reads from "The Cat in the Hat."

RAY FREEMAN:

The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play.

So we sat in the house all that cold, cold, wet day.

I sat there with Sally. We sat there, we two.

And I said, "How I wish we had something to do!"

Too wet to go out and too cold to play ball.

So we sat in the house. We did nothing at all.

So all we could do was to Sit! Sit! Sit! Sit!

And we did not like it. Not one little bit.

And then something went BUMP¹⁰!

How that bump made us jump!

We looked!

Then we saw him step in on the mat!

We looked!

And we saw him! The Cat in the Hat!

And he said to us, "Why do you sit there like that?

I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny.

But we can have lots of good fun that is funny!"

Dr. Seuss' widow Audrey poses¹¹ with The Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, all characters from his books.

SARAH LONG: Doctor Seuss was very concerned that some children were not learning to read. The success of the Cat in the Hat made him want to write more books for children. He started a series called Beginner Books. Beginner Books remain well liked among children today. The series includes such titles as "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories," "Fox in Socks" and "The Lorax."

In nineteen sixty Doctor Seuss was urged by a book publisher to write a book using less than fifty words. And he did. The book is called "Green Eggs and Ham." It is one of Doctor Seuss' most popular books. In the book a creature named Sam-I-Am tries to get another creature to eat an unusual meal, green eggs and ham.

Here is part of the story read by Miko Prescott.

(SOUND)

STEVE EMBER: In nineteen sixty, Doctor Seuss wrote the story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It is about an extremely unkind man called the Grinch. He tries to stop Christmas from arriving in a village called Whoville. He steals all the Christmas gifts and food in the village while everyone is sleeping. Yet Christmas comes anyway. The people of Whoville are happy although they have no gifts. By the end of the story, the Grinch becomes a kind person. In this story Doctor Seuss gives the message that Christmas is about more than receiving gifts.

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" was later produced for television. It first was shown in nineteen sixty-six. It continues to be a very popular holiday program. Here is a song from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It is called "You're a Mean One Mister Grinch."

(MUSIC)

SARAH LONG: In nineteen eighty-four, Mister Geisel won a Pulitzer Prize for children's literature. At that time he had been writing children's books for almost fifty years. He was honored for the education and enjoyment¹² his books provided American children and their parents.

In nineteen eighty-six, Doctor Seuss wrote "You're Only Old Once." It was his first book written for adults. It talks about getting old. His last book was written in nineteen ninety. It was called "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

STEVE EMBER: Theodor Seuss Geisel died in nineteen ninety-one. He was eighty-seven years old. Doctor Seuss's influence remains¹³ through the books he wrote and illustrated. Millions of copies of them have been sold worldwide.

Experts say his books helped change the way American children learned to read. Yet, his books are loved by people of all ages. Doctor Seuss once said "I do not write for children. I write for people."

People continue to honor Doctor Seuss. Theodore Seuss Geisel was born on March Second. Each year on that day the National Education Association calls for every child and every community in America to celebrate reading. This program is called "Read Across America."

(MUSIC)

MARY TILLOTSON: This Special English program was written by Lawan Davis. It was produced by Paul Thompson. Your announcers were Sarah Long and Steve Ember. I’m Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

 

1 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

2 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

3 hop   

n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过

参考例句：

• The children had a competition to see who could hop the fastest.孩子们举行比赛，看谁单足跳跃最快。
• How long can you hop on your right foot?你用右脚能跳多远？

4 decline   

n.衰微，跌落，下降；vt.使降低，婉谢；vi.下降，衰落，偏斜

参考例句：

• I must decline to show favour to any of the candidates.我必须拒绝偏袒任何一位候选人。
• The birthrate is on the decline.出生率在下降。

5 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

6 vanity   

n.虚荣心，浮华，无价值的东西；adj.虚荣心的

参考例句：

• A man's vanity is actually in proportion to his ignorance.一个人的虚荣心实际上是和他的愚蠢程度成正比。
• Vanity and virtue do not go together.虚荣与美德不是共生物。

7 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。

8 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

9 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

10 bump   

v.（against,into）碰，颠簸；n.碰撞，隆起物

参考例句：

• I heard a bump in the next room.我听到隔壁房间传来“砰”的一声。
• He got a bad bump on his forehead.他碰得前额隆起一个大包。

11 poses   

使摆姿势( pose的第三人称单数 )； 以…身份出现； 招摇； 炫耀

参考例句：

• This poses a threat to agriculture and the food chain, and consequently to human health. 这会对农业和食物链造成威胁，由此而危及人的健康。
• The high cost of oil poses serious problems for industry. 昂贵的石油价格给工业造成了严重困难。

12 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。