VOA慢速英语2010年-American Mosaic - New Website Gives Ki

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

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I’m Doug Johnson.

Today we listen to a new album of songs by Shel Silverstein…

And answer a question about dinosaurs³.

But first, we visit a website for children to explore the world of advertising⁴.

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Admongo

A look into the world of Amongo

DOUG JOHNSON: The United States government has launched a website to help children think critically about the advertising that is aimed at them. The new site is called Admongo. It claims to provide visitors with an “ad-ucation” through games and other entertainment. Barbara Klein has our report.

BARBARA KLEIN: A cartoon man dressed in old time pilot clothing greets visitors to Admongo. “Call me Haiz” he says upon arrival in a rocket ship that opens up with a crazy world inside it. Spacey dance music plays in the background as Haiz tells visitors that they need to learn about advertising. Why,he asks? Because, he says, advertising is everywhere -- online, on television, even outside on buses and billboards⁵.

Admongo's guide, Haiz

The Admongo website is aimed at children eight to twelve years old. Its inventors say that is the age kids develop their critical thinking abilities. Kids that age are also a big market for advertisers.

The idea behind Admongo is to teach children three things: To identify the advertiser. To know what the advertiser is really saying. And to know what the advertisement is trying to get the child to do.

Children learn these things through a video game. They create their own game character. They can choose different skin colors, hair styles, eye and mouth shapes. Then they begin a trip through ad-land. They take a walk through the neighborhood. They seek out the advertising and capture treasures. There are ads on buses and billboards. The players have to find all the marketing⁶ in the neighborhood before they can move on to the next level.

The Admongo game takes players inside a home, to the advertising studio and everywhere else ads can be found. It is a complete exploration of the world of marketing.

One such area is food marketing. The Federal Trade Commission says it is an especially big business. The F.T.C. estimates that food, drink and fast-food restaurants spent more than one and a half billion dollars on advertising to young people in two thousand six.

The F.T.C. says children are important for three reasons. They buy products. They influence parents and caregivers to buy. And they are the future adult buyers of the products.

A recent study says most advertising aimed at children is for foods of the lowest nutritional⁷ value.First Lady Michelle Obama has said she would like to see advertisers marketing healthy foods for children.

Dinosaurs

DOUG JOHNSON: Our listener question this week comes from Sarah Sun in China. She says she is nine years old and has liked dinosaurs since she was six. She wants to know the latest dinosaur² news.

We found an interesting story on the Discovery News website. It tells about how dinosaurs became such large animals. The simple answer is: they ate a lot of food. Some dinosaurs ate meat and some ate only plants. But scientists found that it is not just what they ate. Their large size was affected⁸ by how they ate it.

A woman works on repairing the jaw⁹ of an Allosaurus dinosaur

Dinosaurs died out millions of years ago. So we have only their bones, or fossils, to study. But there is one animal on Earth today that may help scientists learn about dinosaurs. That animal is the elephant.

The elephant needs to eat for about eighteen hours each day in order for it to grow as large as it does. Many dinosaurs were much larger than today’s elephant. How much time did they spend each day eating their food? Scientists think the largest dinosaurs would have to have spent thirty hours a day chewing and swallowing their food. And that is a problem since there are only twenty-four hours in a day.

So how could dinosaurs have been able to eat enough to stay alive? According to the journal Biological Reviews, most dinosaurs did not take the time to chew their food. They swallowed it whole. Their teeth were used to rip the meat or plants into mouth-sized pieces, but were not used for chewing. Chewing takes time and energy which a dinosaur could not waste.

But not all dinosaurs were huge like the famous Tyrannosaurus or Brontosaurus. Some were much more like birds. The idea that dinosaurs and birds were somehow related first was reported in the nineteenth century. But only recently has their relationship become clearer. There have been many new dinosaur discoveries in China and Mongolia. Many of these animals had feathers, much like our modern birds. But scientists think the dinosaurs developed feathers first, and then wings. If that is correct, the first bird-like dinosaurs did not fly. They soared or glided¹⁰ through the air.

“Twistable, Turnable Man”

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DOUG JOHNSON: That funny song is called “A Boy Named Sue.” Country singer Johnny Cash made it famous but he did not write it. Shel Silverstein did. He was a poet, writer, artist, musician and composer. Shel Silverstein died in nineteen ninety-nine but a new album of his songs will be released next week. Mario Ritter has more.

MARIO RITTER: Bobby Bare, Senior was a friend of Shel Silverstein for many years. The country singer recorded more of Silverstein’s songs than any other artist. When he and his son, Bobby Bare, Junior, decided¹¹ to make this album, they called on everyone they knew in the business who was a fan of Shel Silverstein. They permitted just one of them, singer Andrew Bird, to set one of Silverstein’s poems to music. Here Bird performs, “The Twistable, Turnable Man Returns.”

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Bobby Bare, Senior says Silverstein would have loved every part of “Twistable, Turnable Man.” Some songs are funny while others are edgy¹² or sad. “Queen of the Silver Dollar,” is performed by Sarah Jarosz and Black Prairie. It has a quality of deep loneliness.

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Other musicians on “Twistable, Turnable Man,” include My Morning Jacket, Nanci Griffith, Kris Kristofferson and John Prine. We leave you with Doctor Dog performing, “The Unicorn¹³.”

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DOUG JOHNSON: I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Jim Tedder¹⁴ and Caty Weaver¹⁵ who was also 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 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

3 dinosaurs   

n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西

参考例句：

• The brontosaurus was one of the largest of all dinosaurs. 雷龙是所有恐龙中最大的一种。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years. 恐龙绝种已有几百万年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 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。

5 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

6 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

7 nutritional   

adj.营养的，滋养的

参考例句：

• A diet lacking in nutritional value will not keep a person healthy.缺乏营养价值的饮食不能维持人的健康。
• The labels on food products give a lot of information about their nutritional content.食品上的标签提供很多关于营养成分的信息。

8 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

9 jaw   

n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训

参考例句：

• He delivered a right hook to his opponent's jaw.他给了对方下巴一记右钩拳。
• A strong square jaw is a sign of firm character.强健的方下巴是刚毅性格的标志。

10 glided   

v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔

参考例句：

• The President's motorcade glided by. 总统的车队一溜烟开了过去。
• They glided along the wall until they were out of sight. 他们沿着墙壁溜得无影无踪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 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。

12 edgy   

adj.不安的；易怒的

参考例句：

• She's been a bit edgy lately,waiting for the exam results.她正在等待考试结果，所以最近有些焦躁不安。
• He was nervous and edgy, still chain-smoking.他紧张不安，还在一根接一根地抽着烟。

13 unicorn   

n.(传说中的)独角兽

参考例句：

• The unicorn is an imaginary beast.独角兽是幻想出来的动物。
• I believe unicorn was once living in the world.我相信独角兽曾经生活在这个世界。

14 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

15 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。