VOA慢速英语2012 Technology Report - Getting News From Around the World With Today’s Front Pages

 

Technology Report - Getting News From Around the World With Today’s Front Pages

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

We recently told you about a website called PastPages.org. It saves the homepages of seventy news websites from around the world every hour. That report led us to look for a website that saves images of newspapers from around the world.

We found Todays’ Front Pages, a site operated by The Newseum in Washington, DC. The Newseum is a museum that explores news reporting and the media. We visited The Newseum and spoke¹ with its Senior Vice² President, Paul Sparrow.

PAUL SPARROW: “I think one of the most interesting things about newspapers is that they are a snapshot in time. They capture a moment when the people in that organization, in that newspaper, say ‘these are the most important stories that are affecting our community.’ And what that does is that it gives you a lens in which you can look at history from a very specific point of view.”

Paul Sparrow says visitors to the website can choose to see all of its newspapers. Or they can look only at newspapers from one area of the world, such as Asia, Africa or South America.

PAUL SPARROW: “One of the things that we do is we allow for people to search by region, so we have a map interface³ so you can, you know, roll over different areas of the map and you’ll see the newspapers from that area. People are very interested in that. We get comments all the time, that ‘Oh its great – put your cursor over anyplace in the world and see the papers from that area.’ You can also, we also list them sort of alphabetically⁴ by state and then by country. And then we have a gallery layout where you can just look at all the thumbnails and pick the ones that you like based on their visual presentation.”

Todays’ Front Pages does not archive, or save, front page images. But it does archive newspapers from historically-important dates such as November fifth, two thousand eight. That was one day after Barack Obama was elected president. Again, The Newseum’s Paul Sparrow.

PAUL SPARROW: “When you look back at the historical newspapers in our collection, you see these amazing moments where the culture is revealed. If you look at like, in World War Two, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the headline is ‘Japs Attack.’ I mean, that’s a headline you would just never see in a paper today.

The website shows only the front pages of general-interest newspapers that publish daily. Student newspapers are not displayed. Some papers are not included because they do not have the technological⁵ ability to send their front pages electronically to the Newseum. And others simply choose not to do so.

The site displays the front pages of eight hundred thirty-six newspapers from ninety-three countries. It warns that “the front pages are in their original, unedited form, and some may contain material that is deemed objectionable to some visitors.”

We have placed a link to Todays’ Front Pages on our website, www.voanews.cn.

If you are in Washington, you can see many front pages from around the world on display inside and just outside The Newseum. Only about ten percent of the front pages the Newseum receives every day are displayed, but all eight hundred thirty-six are available online.

And that’s the VOA Special English Technology Report. I’m Christopher Cruise.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 interface   

n.接合部位，分界面；v.(使)互相联系

参考例句：

• My computer has a network interface,which allows me to get to other computers.我的计算机有网络接口可以与其它计算机连在一起。
• This program has perspicuous interface and extensive application. 该程序界面明了，适用范围广。

4 alphabetically   

adv.照字母顺序排列地

参考例句：

• I've arranged the books alphabetically so don't muddle them up. 我已按字母顺序把这些书整理了，千万不要再弄乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They are all filed alphabetically under author. 这些都是按照作者姓名的字母顺序归档的。 来自辞典例句

5 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。