VOA慢速英语2012 THIS IS AMERICA - Website Links People Across Continents Through Books

THIS IS AMERICA - Website Links People Across Continents Through Books

BOB DOUGHTY¹: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week on our program, we tell you about a website that connects people around the world through books. Then, we look back at the lives of two people from the book world. Jan Berenstain was a children's author and illustrator. Barney Rosset was an independent publisher who fought against censorship to publish books like "Lady Chatterley's Lover."
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.
Members go on the site and register books they own that they would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identifying number to stick inside the book. Then the person "releases" the book by leaving it in a public place. The hope is that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.
Bruce Pederson is the chief executive of BookCrossing. He and his wife Heather launched the site with Ron Hornbaker in two thousand one.
BRUCE PEDERSON: "One of the founding principles was the two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read."
BookCrossing, Mr. Pederson says, combines both.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. BookCrossers, as they are known, hope that whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.
People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.
BRUCE PEDERSON: "BookCrossing is a tool that allows you to uniquely identify your book and follow it on its journey. We all have this life-changing literature that we tend to keep on our shelf and BookCrossing encourages its members to read and release and not be 'shelf-ish.'"
BOB DOUGHTY: The read and release idea of BookCrossing has spread. The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.
Among them is Mona Orvig of Hillsboro, Texas, a city of eight thousand people. She joined the site in two thousand two. Since then she has exchanged more than two hundred books, including one that made its way around the Americas.
MONA ORVIG: "I left it here in Texas and it went to Los Angeles and then Miami and then it went to Guatemala and El Salvador and Cuba and the last report I heard it was in Canada. Those are places I will never see. And it just fascinates me that a book that was in my house and that I read and enjoyed has gone to all those places."
FAITH LAPIDUS: The BookCrossing website also allows people to search in their area for places where books are being released. There is no cost to join or use BookCrossing, but users can pay to get additional services.
Andy Johns is a BookCrossing member from Alexandria, Virginia.
ANDY JOHNS: "There was a paperback² Star Trek³ novel that I left on an ATM [automated teller⁴ machine] near my office and six months later it popped up in a train station in Beijing. I know I’ve had one that I left by a fountain in Alexandria that showed up in South Africa."
Mona Orvig says what she likes most about BookCrossing is the people. Andy Johns agrees.
ANDY JOHNS: "I've become friends with people literally⁵ around the world. I've got some really great friendships with people as far away as Canberra, Australia, and Cardiff, Whales.”
Ms. Orvig says she too has made friends throughout the world on BookCrossing. Friends from Australia have even stayed at her home in Texas.
MONA ORVIG: "I think it's made the world smaller. I'm not a traveler, I don't go many places but since BookCrossing I have learned so much about the world and people, and this sounds cliche⁶, but we're so much alike.
"Before, when I heard of something happening somewhere in the world an earthquake or a tragedy, I'd think, 'Oh, those poor people,' and I'd move along. And now when something happens, I'm thinking, 'Oh, how's Debbie? How's Linda? How's my other friends that happen to live in that town.'"
Ms. Orvig says she has also gotten her grandchildren involved in BookCrossing.
MONA ORVIG: "They love it and it kind of points out that I think books are valuable and that’s not a bad lesson for a small child to be learning.”
BOB DOUGHTY: Co-founder Bruce Pederson says BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the "real" and not the virtual, or electronic.
BRUCE PEDERSON: "There is this constant battle for our minds' share of screen time and there's always another app, but there's just something basic and foundational about reading."
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Jan Berenstain died last month after a stroke. She was eighty-eight years old. Her husband, Stan Berenstain, died in two thousand five. Together they created more than three hundred picture books for young readers.
Their first book was released in nineteen sixty-two. Since then the Berenstain Bears series has sold more than two hundred sixty million copies. The books have been translated into other languages and are one of the best selling children's series ever.
BOB DOUGHTY: Before the Berenstains became known for children's books, they were known for their cartoon for adults. Their series "It's All in the Family" appeared in popular magazines for more than thirty years.
Their early books for children were edited by Theodor Geisel -- better known as Dr. Seuss. He wrote "The Cat in the Hat" and other children's classics.
The popularity of the Berenstain Bears led to animated⁷ television shows based on the books.
Many of the stories aim to help guide children through common problems and bring comfort to new experiences, like visiting the dentist. Some people consider the books too simple in their life lessons and too traditional in their family values. But as Jan Berenstain told the Associated Press in twenty-eleven, "Family values is what we're all about."
She pointed⁸ out that while jokes may not travel well, everyone can understand family humor.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The Berenstain Bears are Mama Bear, Papa Bear and their three little bears. They live in a treehouse in -- wait, someone out there surely knows the answer. They live in a treehouse in Bear Country.
Eleven year-old Grace Deibert of Raleigh, North Carolina, remembers enjoying the books when she was about four or five.
GRACE DEIBERT: "They’re really easy to read and there’s always a lesson."
She says her favorite book in the series was "The Bear Detectives: The Case of the Missing Pumpkin⁹."
GRACE DEIBERT: "They were missing this pumpkin and they had to go find it and they had funny poems and misconceptions and stuff.”
The lesson of the book, she says, was to think before you act.
After Stan Berenstain's death, Jan Berenstain continued to write books with their son, Michael. She was still illustrating¹⁰ until the day before she died on February twenty-fourth.
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Barney Rosset died on February twenty-first, just three months before his ninetieth birthday. He was an independent publisher and free-speech activist¹¹ during the middle of the twentieth century.
He fought for the right to publish works that are now considered classics. These include books by D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller¹², William S. Burroughs and many other authors.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Barney Rosset was born into a wealthy family in Chicago in nineteen twenty-two. He was raised and schooled in a progressive social environment. He became something of a rebel who challenged traditional beliefs.
He attended four colleges before finally graduating. During World War Two, he served in the Army as a photographer in China. After the war he produced a nineteen forty-nine film called "Strange Victory." It was about black soldiers who returned from the war, only to face racism¹³ at home in the United States.
After the war, Barney Rosset lived in Greenwich Village in New York City. The culture was bursting with new ideas in music, art and literature.
BOB DOUGHTY: In nineteen fifty-one, he bought Grove¹⁴ Press, a very small publisher. He welcomed writers whose works did not appeal to the big publishing houses.
In nineteen fifty-nine, Grove Press released the full version of "Lady Chatterley's Lover" by D.H. Lawrence. Britain had banned the book for its sexual content. The American edition led to a legal battle over the constitutional right to free expression. Barney Rosset finally won that fight in nineteen sixty-one.
Next he faced a similar legal battle over the book "Tropic of Cancer" by Henry Miller. That case led to a major ruling about free speech by the United States Supreme¹⁵ Court. In nineteen sixty-four, the justices decided¹⁶ that "Tropic of Cancer" was not obscene. They said its "redeeming¹⁷ social value" outweighed¹⁸ its sexual content.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Barney Rosset said literary value -- as opposed to shock value -- was always his main reason for publishing a book. But he admitted that he also enjoyed a chance to assert the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of the press and freedom of speech.
BARNEY ROSSET: "I feel that if people don't have the right to express themselves, first of all, they are not going to be happy, and secondly¹⁹, they aren't going to develop the creative abilities they have, as scientists, as bankers, as anything."
He said his fighting spirit dated back to his high school years.
BARNEY ROSSET: "I was a cross-country runner. And I didn't get tired very easily. That was my whole thing; it was endurance. It was a similar kind of thing, actually. I believed in freedom of speech. It never entered my head to quit."
BOB DOUGHTY: In recent years, an organization called the National Coalition²⁰ Against Censorship recognized Barney Rosset's efforts. And the National Book Foundation honored him as a "tenacious²¹ champion for writers who were struggling to be read in America."
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake, with reporting by Adam Philips. I'm Faith Lapidus.
BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty.

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 paperback   

n.平装本，简装本

参考例句：

• A paperback edition is now available at bookshops.平装本现在在书店可以买到。
• Many books that are out of print are reissued in paperback form.许多绝版的书籍又以平装本形式重新出现。

3 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

4 teller   

n.银行出纳员；(选举)计票员

参考例句：

• The bank started her as a teller.银行起用她当出纳员。
• The teller tried to remain aloof and calm.出纳员力图保持冷漠和镇静。

5 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

6 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

7 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 pumpkin   

n.南瓜

参考例句：

• They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。
• It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你！

10 illustrating   

给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明

参考例句：

• He upstaged the other speakers by illustrating his talk with slides. 他演讲中配上幻灯片，比其他演讲人更吸引听众。
• Material illustrating detailed structure of graptolites has been etched from limestone by means of hydrofluoric acid. 表明笔石详细构造的物质是利用氢氟酸从石灰岩中侵蚀出来。

11 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。

12 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

13 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

14 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

15 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。

16 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。

17 redeeming   

补偿的，弥补的

参考例句：

• I found him thoroughly unpleasant, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. 我觉得他一点也不讨人喜欢，没有任何可取之处。
• The sole redeeming feature of this job is the salary. 这份工作唯其薪水尚可弥补一切之不足。

18 outweighed   

v.在重量上超过( outweigh的过去式和过去分词 )；在重要性或价值方面超过

参考例句：

• This boxer outweighed by his opponent 20 pounds. 这个拳击选手体重比他的对手重20磅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She outweighed me by ten pounds, and sometimes she knocked me down. 她的体重超过我十磅，有时竟把我撞倒。 来自百科语句

19 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

20 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

21 tenacious   

adj.顽强的，固执的，记忆力强的，粘的

参考例句：

• We must learn from the tenacious fighting spirit of Lu Xun.我们要学习鲁迅先生韧性的战斗精神。
• We should be tenacious of our rights.我们应坚决维护我们的权利。