VOA慢速英语2011--Disabled Surfers Ride the Waves

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Disabled Surfers Ride the Waves

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I’m Steve Ember. Today, we play new music from jazz musician Trombone Shorty…
And answer a question about casinos…
But first, we ride the waves with some special surfers.
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Special Surfers
STEVE EMBER: Dana Cummings was in his thirties before he first went surfing. That is older than most first timers. But, even more interesting is that Dana Cummings chose to learn the sport after losing a leg in a car accident. Now, nine years later, he helps other disabled people learn how to ride the waves. Katherine Cole has our story about the organization AmpSurf.
KATHERINE COLE: Dana Cummings is on the coast of Maine. He is working with twenty-seven year old Matthew Fish, who is partly blind. Cummings takes hold of Fish and leads him into the ocean. The surfboard floats next to them.
Fish lies on the surfboard. He tries to stand up on it. After a few attempts he is up and riding all the way back to land. He is excited.
MATTHEW FISH: “That was a thrill.”
DANA CUMMINGS: “You the man, nice job, buddy².”
MATTHEW FISH: “Again! Again!”
DANA CUMMINGS: “Let’s do it again.”
Dana Cummings served two tours of duty as a Marine³ in Iraq during the nineteen ninety Gulf⁴ War. He returned home without injury. But a car accident in two thousand two took his leg. Dana Cummings says the crash changed him more than just physically⁵.
DANA CUMMINGS: “I was just existing, not living. It took me to lose my leg to realize how precious life is and get off the couch⁶ and start living. I do more things now than I ever did before. Next week I am going to compete in a contest in Hawaii.”
Dana Cummings formed AmpSurf in two thousand three. AmpSurf is a not-for-profit group that holds surfing classes and events for people with all kinds of disabilities. The group’s headquarters is in California.
Recently, AmpSurf took its training programs to the East Coast. Eleven students attended the class in Maine. They had come from all over the northeastern United States.
Fifty-seven-year-old Brian Foss is from New Hampshire. He has been disabled almost all his life.
BRIAN FOSS: “I had polio in nineteen fifty-five, when I was two years old, the year the vaccine⁷ came out, actually. I missed it by a little bit.”
Brian Foss’s legs are weak and he uses crutches⁸ to walk. But he loves skiing, riding a bicycle and, most recently, surfing.
BRIAN FOSS: “It’s a sense of being able to fly, and a sense of freedom. You’re not constrained⁹ by gravity, almost.”
Brian Foss praises the AmpSurf teachers.
BRIAN FOSS: “These guys just give you that confidence and make you believe you can do it. Encouragement, they’re strong so I know that I can hang on them if I need to when I’m walking out. I know that I’m not going to get in trouble.”
Shaun McLaughlin of Massachusetts was the youngest surfing student on a recent day. He is six years old. Shaun was born with only one foot. But he is ready to ride the waves.
SHAUN MCLAUGHLIN: “You got to, like, lay down and then do this and then you just gotta' stand up and that’s pretty much how you do it.”
Dana Cummings says AmpSurf can change the way a disabled person thinks.
DANA CUMMINGS: “Most people with disabilities their whole life everybody focuses on their disability, and we want them to see what they can do. Who cares, you lost your leg, you’re blind, whatever. Have fun. Just enjoy life. Take the most advantage of it you can.”
(MUSIC)
Casinos
STEVE EMBER: Our question this week comes from China. Jiaqi Huang wants to know about casino development in the United States.
A casino is a place where people can win -- or lose -- a lot of money. They do this by gambling¹⁰ -- playing cards, dice¹¹ or other games of chance. They could also win money by predicting the results of horse races, football games and other activities.
Gambling has a long history in the United States. Even in colonial¹² times, the government permitted lotteries¹³. In a lottery¹⁴ a person buys a chance to win money or other prizes. Money raised in this way helped support the development of the colonies.
Experts say the first casinos in America were saloons. People went to saloons to buy alcoholic¹⁵ drinks. But some of these businesses let people play card games or throw dice for money. Later, gamblers began to use riverboats, especially on the Mississippi River, to play games for money.
It seems that Americans have always had concerns about gambling. Some thought it was a sign of moral corruption¹⁶. Gambling was also often blamed for increasing crime. Others worried that the financial risks people took when gambling would ruin the economic future of the country.
There have been bans on gambling and periods of legal gambling in the United States. In the eighteen-hundreds, most states banned many kinds of gambling. However, the discovery of gold in the west renewed the activity. And many states eased their gambling laws during the Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties.
Today Hawaii is the only state to ban all forms of gambling. The most popular places for legal gambling are casinos. The most famous casino city is Las Vegas, Nevada. Illegal crime organizations from New York were responsible for developing much of Las Vegas in the early to middle twentieth century.
Now, Las Vegas is filled with casino/hotels of all sizes. Many are beautifully designed and offer many services. An example is the Luxor, a huge, black pyramid-shaped building. It is named for the ancient city in Egypt. The Luxor has thousands of gambling machines, four large swimming pools, almost thirty stores and a chapel¹⁷ where people can get married. A thirty-four meter tall reproduction of Egypt’s Great Sphinx of Giza stands in front of the pyramid.
The Bellagio in Las Vegas has even more to offer. The Bellagio has its own man-made lake, more than three hectares in size. Huge fountains light up the property. The water jumps up and down, and is programmed to move to music. The hotel is home to a big, beautiful chandelier. This special lighting¹⁸ fixture¹⁹ was hand-blown by the famous glass artist Dale Chihuly. The Bellagio also has its own art gallery and, for plant lovers, a botanic garden.
Many Las Vegas casinos also offer shows that have included famous singers like Celine Dion and Barbra Streisand. There are also other acts like Circque du Soleil. And visitors can even see Broadway musicals, like “The Lion King.”
(MUSIC)
Trombone Shorty “For True”
STEVE EMBER: Trombone Shorty is a jazz musician who is tall on skill. His new album “For True” includes guest performers from the worlds of country, rock and soul music. Faith Lapidus has our story.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Trombone Shorty has a sound he likes to call “supafunkrock.” It is a combination of rock, hip-hop, soul, funk and New Orleans jazz.
The twenty-five year old musician is from New Orleans. His real name is Troy Andrews. He grew up in the Treme neighborhood of the city.
He has played himself in “Treme,” an HBO cable television program. He says he met a lot of the guest musicians while working on the new album over the past two years. One was guitar great, Jeff Beck. Here they perform “Do To Me.”
(MUSIC)
“For True” is Troy Andrew’s second album. He and his back-up band, Orleans Avenue, released the first one, “Backatown,” last year. Here they perform with country music star Kid Rock on “Mrs. Orleans.”
(MUSIC)
Troy Andrews may be nicknamed²⁰ Trombone Shorty, but he is also an excellent trumpet²¹ player. That instrument can be heard on the new album. We leave you with Shorty Trombone performing “For True.”
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember. Our program was written and produced by Caty Weaver²², with additional reporting by Josie Huang. If you have a question about American life, send it to www.tinroom.com/voa or click on the Contact Us link at voanews.cn. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English.
Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA 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 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

3 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

4 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

5 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

6 couch   

n.睡椅，长沙发椅；vt.表达，隐含

参考例句：

• Lie down on the couch if you're feeling ill.如果你感觉不舒服就躺到沙发上去。
• The rabbIt'sprang from its grassy couch.兔子从草丛中跳出。

7 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

8 crutches   

n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑

参考例句：

• After the accident I spent six months on crutches . 事故后我用了六个月的腋杖。
• When he broke his leg he had to walk on crutches. 他腿摔断了以后，不得不靠拐杖走路。

9 constrained   

adj.束缚的,节制的

参考例句：

• The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服，他觉得不得不接受。
• I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。

10 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

11 dice   

n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险

参考例句：

• They were playing dice.他们在玩掷骰子游戏。
• A dice is a cube.骰子是立方体。

12 colonial   

adj.殖民地的，关于殖民的；n.殖民地，居民

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• The people of Africa have successfully fought against colonial rule.非洲人民成功地反抗了殖民统治。

13 lotteries   

n.抽彩给奖法( lottery的名词复数 )；碰运气的事；彩票；彩券

参考例句：

• Next to bullfights and soccer, lotteries are Spain's biggest sport. 除了斗牛和足球以外，彩票是西班牙最热门的玩意儿。 来自辞典例句
• Next to bullfight and soccer, lotteries are Spain's biggest sport. 发行彩票在西班牙是仅次于斗牛和足球的最大娱乐活动。 来自辞典例句

14 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

15 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

16 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

17 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

18 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

19 fixture   

n.固定设备；预定日期；比赛时间；定期存款

参考例句：

• Lighting fixture must be installed at once.必须立即安装照明设备。
• The cordless kettle may now be a fixture in most kitchens.无绳电热水壶现在可能是多数厨房的固定设备。

20 nicknamed   

vt.给…起绰号（nickname的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• 'The human sound-track' he nicknamed her in his own mind. 在心里他给她个绰号，就叫"人体录音带"。 来自英汉文学
• People said that he had jaundice and urchins nicknamed him "Yellow Fellow." 别人说他是黄胆病，孩子们也就叫他“黄胖”了。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

21 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

22 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。