VOA慢速英语2012 AMERICAN MOSAIC - Ani DiFranco Is Back With 'Which Side Are You On'

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Ani DiFranco Is Back With 'Which Side Are You On'

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Faith Lapidus. Today on our show, we play music from Ani DiFranco's new album ...
We also tell about a sportswriter who fought cancer and continues in his dream job ...
But first, some Golden Globe award winners.
(MUSIC)
Golden Globes
Movie and television stars gathered earlier this week for the Golden Globe Awards. The ceremony in Beverly Hills, California, is organized by the ninety or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press. They honor the movies, actors, directors and others in the industry whose work they considered the best of the year. Christopher Cruise² has more.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The top prize for movies went to "The Descendants³" for best drama and "The Artist" for best musical or comedy. "The Artist" is an unusual film for the twenty-first century. It is mostly silent. French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius explores that time period in film. Jean Dujardin stars in "The Artist," as a silent film star whose career is ending. His performance won him a Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy.
George Clooney starred in "The Descendants." He won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama. He plays a man whose wife goes into a coma⁴ following a boating accident. Shailene Woodley plays his teenaged daughter who informs her father of a painful truth about her mother.
MATT: "I have to go around and tell people what's happening … family and a few close friends."
ALEX: "I don't want to talk about Mom with anyone."
MATT: "Look, whatever you two fought about, you have to drop it. Grow up."
ALEX: "You really don't have a clue, do you? Dad, Mom was cheating on you."
Clooney praised "Descendants" director Alexander Payne for his ability to guide actors.
GEORGE CLOONEY: "When you see the film, the thing that is Alexander's specialty⁵ is his ability to switch on a dime⁶ from funny to really sad. It's really hard to do well. And it's hard as an actor to judge that. Only he knows where he wants it to be so you really just have to go 'you tell me when I've gone too far or not far enough."
The Hollywood Foreign Press honored Meryl Streep with an eighth Golden Globe at this year's ceremony. She won the best actress in a drama award for her performance in "Iron Lady." She portrays⁷ former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher⁸ in the film. Michelle Williams also earned a Golden Globe for her performance of a historical character. She starred as Marilyn Monroe in the film "My Week With Marilyn."
The Hollywood Foreign Press also names a best foreign film of the year. This year's winner was from Iran. "A Separation" tells about an unhappy married couple. The wife wants to leave Iran with their daughter for a better life. The husband wants to stay in Iran to care for his father who has Alzheimer's disease. The complexities⁹ deepen¹⁰ when the husband hires a young pregnant¹¹ and very religious caretaker for his father.
Director Asghar Farhadi has made four other films. This is his first Golden Globe award although he has won many other international film honors. In "A Separation" he cast his own daughter Sarina to play the couple's conflicted eleven year old daughter. The movie has received a huge amount of critical praise. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Tribune called in an enduring masterpiece.
British comedian¹² and actor Ricky Gervais led the Golden Globes ceremony again this year. It was broadcast in more than one hundred sixty countries. The American movie industry has increased its respect for the Golden Globes over the years. Most people in the business place the honors second in importance only to the Academy Awards. Many also believe the Golden Globes are a good predictor of who and what will win Oscars.
Sports Journalist
FAITH LAPIDUS: Getting a job as a sports journalist is a difficult thing to do in the United States. Many people are interested in the work – few positions are available. Sports journalists get to meet and interview athletes, coaches and others in the industry. June Simms tells about one man who would not let anything, even cancer, block his career path.
JUNE SIMMS: The profession of sports journalist remains¹³ only a dream for most people. But Arash Markazi has realized his dream as a writer for the sports television network ESPN.
ARASH MARKAZI: "I love writing. I always loved to write. And when I was younger I loved to play sports, too. And then obviously at a certain point of time I realized I wasn't going to be much taller than five feet six inches (1.7 meters). And then I realized I wasn't going to play sports, I could write about sports."
But the road has not been smooth for Mr. Markazi, who is now thirty-one. More than ten years ago, while working for his college newspaper, he was given the worst news possible.
ARASH MARKAZI: "I had done a story about a basketball player that had Hodgkin's. I didn't even know what it was. I had to do research. The parents were crying and I said 'This is exactly why I got into sports journalism¹⁴ so I wouldn't have to cover stories like this.' I didn't want to talk about kids getting cancer or anything like that. And then lo and behold¹⁵, like a year later I get the same kind of cancer."
Cancer did not stop him. After he recovered, Mr. Markazi landed his dream job with Sports Illustrated¹⁶ magazine in New York City. Then, his cancer came back. He spent his recovery time making plans.
ARASH MARKAZI: "When I was in the hospital I made a list of the games I wanted to go to and the events that I wanted to cover because I couldn't just think about my current situation."
Now, he has attended all of the events he put on his list. When he is not traveling the world, he writes about teams in Los Angeles, California. But at this point in his career and after recovering from cancer twice, he looks at sports and his job in a different way.
ARASH MARKAZI: "I remember when I was younger I would cry when my team lost. But now, it really doesn't matter to me who wins the game. I just want a good story. When I'm at a game I'm rooting for the guy who never played to get in the game and to write about him."
He says cancer helped him value what is really important.
ARASH MARKAZI: "It made me appreciate life a lot more. I think the one thing when people meet me, they say 'You are really happy. Why are you always so happy?' And I say, 'Because I woke up this morning. And I'm living and I'm breathing and I'm talking to you right now.' It's odd for someone in their twenties to be happy because they woke up in the morning and they're alive."
Ani DiFranco
FAITH LAPIDUS: Folk singer Ani DiFranco just released her first record album in more than three years. It was an unusually long break between albums. For a long time, DiFranco was known as an album a year musician. Barbara Klein tells about her new release, "Which Side Are You On."
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BARBARA KLEIN: That is Pete Seeger performing a protest song that he made famous. "Which Side Are You On" was written in nineteen thirty-one by Florence Reese, an activist¹⁷ for the safety and rights of mine workers.
Pete Seeger is a major influence on Ani DiFranco. She describes him as her "forefather¹⁸ in folk music and political song." DiFranco says she felt moved to record this song after she was invited to perform at his ninetieth birthday celebration a few years ago. Here is their recording¹⁹ of "Which Side Are You On." Several children’s music groups took part in the production.
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Ani DiFranco has good reason for slowing down the studio productions. In two thousand seven, she had a baby girl, her first child. She married the father and her professional partner Mike Napolitano in two thousand nine.
DiFranco has been able to find success in writing and singing about issues of importance to her. One of the songs on "Which Side Are You On" is "Lifeboat," a song about the pain of homelessness.
(MUSIC)
"Which Side Are You On" also has some beautiful love songs. We leave you with one. This is "Albacore."
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FAITH LAPIDUS: I’m Faith Lapidus. This program was written by Christopher Cruise and Caty Weaver²⁰, who was also our producer. We had additional reporting from Tala Hadavi, Penelope Poulos and Alan Silverman.
If you have a question about American life, please email us.
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 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。

3 descendants   

n. 后代，后裔 名词descendant的复数形式

参考例句：

• They were the direct descendants of the Dutch settlers. 他们是荷兰移民的直系后裔。
• They are the descendants of Queen Victoria. 他们是维多利亚女王的后裔。

4 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

5 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

6 dime   

n.（指美国、加拿大的钱币）一角

参考例句：

• A dime is a tenth of a dollar.一角银币是十分之一美元。
• The liberty torch is on the back of the dime.自由火炬在一角硬币的反面。

7 portrays   

v.画像( portray的第三人称单数 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The museum collection vividly portrays the heritage of 200 years of canals. 博物馆的藏品让运河200 年的历史再现眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The film portrays Gandhi as a kind of superman. 这部电影把甘地描绘成一个超人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 thatcher   

n.茅屋匠

参考例句：

• Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher. 汤姆 - 索亚和撒切尔法官同乘一条小艇。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. 撒切尔夫人几乎神经失常，还有波莉姨妈也是。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

9 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。

10 deepen   

vt./vi.加深，(使)变深，加重，加浓

参考例句：

• We'll have to deepen the well if we want more water.如果我们想要更多的水，就得把井加深。
• Her wrinkles deepen with age.她的皱纹随年龄增长而变深。

11 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

12 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

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。

14 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

15 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

16 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。

17 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。

18 forefather   

n.祖先；前辈

参考例句：

• What we are doing today is something never dreamed of by our forefather.我们今天正在做的是我们祖先所不敢想的。
• These are the customs of forefather hand down to us.这些都是先辈传给你们的习俗。

19 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

20 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。