VOA慢速英语2012 THIS IS AMERICA - Theater for the Blind; Suzuki Method; Gluten-Free Foods

 

THIS IS AMERICA - Theater for the Blind; Suzuki Method; Gluten-Free Foods

JUNE SIMMS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm June Simms.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise. This week on our program, we visit a theater that has special performances for the blind. Then, we get a lesson in the Suzuki method for teaching young children to play musical instruments. And, later, we look at the growing demand for gluten-free foods in the United States.

(MUSIC)

JUNE SIMMS: "You Can't Take It With You" is a funny play from nineteen thirty-six. But on this day, the people who have come to the Everyman Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, are not here for a traditional performance. Marcus Kyd is the education director for the theater.

MARCUS KYD: "We are here to take you on an experience through 'You Can't Take It With You.'"

The visitors are all visually impaired². Many theater companies offer wireless³ earpieces for blind people to hear descriptions of the action on stage. But Everyman Theatre goes a step further. It offers special performances for people with little or no eyesight to experience theater in a different way.

Visually-impaired theatergoers touch the skull⁴, a prop⁵ in Everyman Theatre's production of "You Can’t Take It With You." 

MARCUS KYD: "We don't believe that just because they can't see a play they can't enjoy a play."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The visitors get a chance to go on the stage and touch the things on the set. Not every play includes a touch tour. But Marcus Kyd says "You Can't Take It With You" was a natural choice.

MARCUS KYD: "The great thing about the play is almost everything in the play that has to be on stage ends up affecting the story. From the minute you open the script you get the description of the typewriter, the skull that is holding jellybeans."

Everyman Theatre has been doing touch tours for several years, usually for one play each season. 

Roger Williamson regularly attends the theater's touch tours.

ROGER WILLIAMSON: "Because we don't see, we only get to form images of what we think is going on. This will enhance the performance greatly to know what things they are using as props⁶."

Maurice Peret attended the play before taking the touch tour.

MAURICE PERET: "It brought the play that much more alive knowing what the set looked like. I can recall seeing the play and seeing where some of the performers were sitting. We see more with our brains than with our eyes. It's not a question of seeing things, but assimilating visual information."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Playwrights⁷ George S. Kaufman and Moss⁸ Hart wrote “You Can’t Take It With You.” It won a Pulitzer Prize. The play was made into a movie in nineteen thirty-eight, starring Jean Arthur and Jimmy Stewart.

The film was a hit, It won the Academy Award for best picture. And Frank Capra was honored with an Oscar for best director.

(SOUND)

JUNE SIMMS: With the Suzuki method, a child first learns to play music by hearing it rather than reading musical notes.

Five-year-old Hannah Mei Steury recently started violin lessons with the Suzuki method. Her teacher, Stephanie Flack, says "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" is the first song children learn to play. 

STEPHANIE FLACK: "It's a very simple tune⁹ that's easy to learn by ear. And then they learn the elements of how to hold the violin, the bow. We put it together slowly and then they're playing music right away."

Hannah Mei's mother, Judy Steury, says she is amazed at her daughter's progress. 

JUDY STEURY: "I think it's great, and she does love it, and she's humming it in the car."

Stephanie Flack says she is not surprised. She was a Suzuki student herself as a girl.

STEPHANIE FLACK: "Our method teaches pieces from the beginning."

Her daughter Shannon plays more advanced pieces, and likes classical music.

SHANNON FLACK: "In classical, you can change things up and play it how you want to play it. I usually change the tempos¹⁰ just a tiny bit and the loudness."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki developed the Suzuki method more than fifty years ago. He believed all children could learn to play music. His method was later was adapted for other instruments. Shinichi Suzuki died in nineteen ninety-eight.

Rhonda Cole became one of the first Suzuki teachers in the United States about forty years ago. She trains violinists to become Suzuki instructors¹¹, but says teaching children to play is inspiring.

RHONDA COLE: "They're more sensitive to musical sounds."

JUNE SIMMS: Over time, children learn to read musical notes and later perform complex music. Divya Kumaran remembers how her early training opened a new world for her.

DIVYA KUMARAN: "It feels good after you've completed a song and after it's perfect." 

The Suzuki method discourages competition among children. Instead, it encourages them to play together, including public performances. 

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Kathy Adams joins her son Jared on the piano as he practices each day.

KATHY ADAMS: "I have such an appreciation¹² for what it is to listen, to truly listen to the music. Jared's a great example. He has an amazing violin ear."

Jared says he was excited when he recently got an autograph from Joshua Bell, one of the world's top violinists.

JARED ADAMS: "I think he's absolutely brilliant. This is the first time I've actually walked up to him. I'm not sure if I said hello or not, but it was just amazing."

JUNE SIMMS: Stephanie Flack has been teaching for nine years and says she is still excited to see her students' progress.

STEPHANIE FLACK: "Their love of music and seeing how much they enjoy it is just really is rewarding for me." 

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The smell of freshly baked cookies fills Lucy's bakery in Norfolk, Virginia. They look like the usual sweets you would find in any store, but owner Lucy Gibney says these are special. 

LUCY GIBNEY: "Especially special because I don't use typical ingredients."

Lucy Gibney is an emergency room doctor. 

LUCY GIBNEY: "Most cookies are made from wheat flour, butter, eggs, and none of those are in our recipes."

Lucy's cookies also do not contain gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley¹³ and rye. Some people are sensitive to gluten.

LUCY GIBNEY: "I made cookies with these recipes at home for my son who has food allergies¹⁴ and can't eat gluten, milk or egg, peanuts and tree nuts."

JUNE SIMMS: What began as tasty recipes for her son developed, in four years, into a company with five million dollars in expected sales this year. Many people came to the Lucy's booth at the recent Fancy Food Show in Washington.

MARILYN KLEMM: "I liked what I saw on her website."

Marilyn Klemm owns retail¹⁵ stores in New Hampshire, and is a possible buyer.

MARILYN KLEMM: "I thought I would come and try because my customers are asking more and more for gluten free."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Nearby is Ted¹ Vogelman, from Sticky Fingers Bakeries, a twenty-five-year-old company in the state of Washington. The company offers gluten-free scones¹⁶.

TED VOGELMAN: "We just started producing gluten free for this show. Basically because of the request of our customers that we carry gluten free."

Show official Louise Krammer says Sticky Fingers and Lucy's were among three hundred companies presenting gluten-free products at the show.

LOUISE KRAMMER: "That is way up. We saw it began a few years ago with maybe twenty to forty companies with gluten-free products. And we are seeing a lot of better products now coming out, not only more but better."

JUNE SIMMS: A market survey shows that sales of gluten-free products topped six billion dollars in two thousand eleven.

Alessio Fasano is the director of the Center for Celiac Research at the University of Maryland. He is not surprised at the growing interest in gluten-free diets.

ALESSIO FASANO: "One of the reasons is that celiac disease, the most known and studied condition that is related to gluten, is much more frequent than we believed before. Besides celiac disease, there is gluten sensitivity that seems to affect many more people, something like six percent of population or eighteen million people."

Alessio Fasano says gluten intolerance, which has a number of symptoms from headaches to infertility¹⁷, was originally identified in Europeans. But he says it is now seen more often in North Africa, the Middle East and China.

Even people who can tolerate gluten sometimes choose not to eat it.

Vinnie Pamula was a visitor to the food show.

VINNIE PAMULA: "I don't have gluten intolerance, no. But I feel better when I eat gluten-free food sometimes." 

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Our program was produced by Brianna Blake, with reporting by Susan Logue, Deborah Block and June Soh. I'm Christopher Cruise.

JUNE SIMMS: And I'm June Simms. You can read and listen to our programs and find videos for all three of our stories at www.voanews.cn. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

4 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

5 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

6 props   

小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The government props up the prices of farm products to support farmers' incomes. 政府保持农产品价格不变以保障农民们的收入。

7 playwrights   

n.剧作家( playwright的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We're studying dramatic texts by sixteenth century playwrights. 我们正在研究16 世纪戏剧作家的戏剧文本。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hung-chien asked who the playwrights were. 鸿渐问谁写的剧本。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

8 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

9 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

10 tempos   

乐曲的速度或拍子( tempo的名词复数 )； （运动或活动的）速度，进度

参考例句：

• The tempos of income refer to real tempo, The price factor is taken out. 收入发展速度为扣除物价因素后的实际发展速度。
• Contrasting tempos and the restraining influence of synchronism serve to produce effects of scattering and tightening. 不尽相同的曲调形成调式、速度上的对比，它们由“合头”拉扯着，形成分散、聚合的效果。

11 instructors   

指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份，被邀请到主席台上。

12 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

13 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

14 allergies   

n.[医]过敏症；[口]厌恶，反感；（对食物、花粉、虫咬等的）过敏症( allergy的名词复数 )；变态反应，变应性

参考例句：

• Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms. 食物过敏会引发很多不同的症状。 来自辞典例句
• Let us, however, examine one of the most common allergies; hayfever. 现在让我们来看看最常见的变态反应的一种--枯草热。 来自辞典例句

15 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

16 scones   

n.烤饼，烤小圆面包( scone的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• scones and jam with clotted cream 夹有凝脂奶油和果酱的烤饼
• She makes scones and cakes for the delectation of visitors. 她烘制了烤饼和蛋糕供客人享用。 来自辞典例句

17 infertility   

n.不肥沃，不毛；不育

参考例句：

• It is the Geneva, Switzerland-based Biotech Company's second recombinant infertility drug. 它是瑞士生物技术公司在日内瓦的公司生产的第二种重组治疗不孕症的药。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术制药疫苗
• Endometritis is a cause of infertility. 子宫内膜炎是不育的原子。 来自辞典例句