VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-09-24 Honoring the Victims of the Birmingham, Alabama Church Bombing 50 Years Ago

 

 

AS IT IS 2013-09-24 Honoring the Victims of the Birmingham, Alabama Church Bombing 50 Years Ago

From VOA Learning English, welcome to As It Is!  I’m Steve Ember.

Today we remember a day 50 years ago this month when four African American girls were killed in the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama. 

Next, we tell about new research into a method that is helping¹ to control the disease malaria².             

And, finally, we remember the great American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.

But first, we go back to a Sunday in the American South.

Fifty years ago this month, four girls were killed in a bombing at an African-American church in the city of Birmingham, Alabama.  Racial hatred³ led to the attack, which took place on September 15th, 1963.  Anger over the crime helped build support for the equal rights campaign.

Students at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. recently observed the event with a staged reading at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.   Kelly Jean Kelly reports.

 Students performed songs in honor of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley. The girls were attending church school when the bomb exploded.

Duke Ellington student Jayme Lawson was one of the performers.

“I learned of the dreams that these girls had. They were each individually their own person, and they wanted to do different things.  They had aspirations⁴.”

The church where the children died was not only a religious center. It was also a gathering⁵ place for civil rights organizers. Whites who supported separation of the races were responsible for the bombing.  

Jeff Drew grew up in Birmingham. He says two of the victims were childhood friends.

“These little girls, my classmates, my friends whom I had grown up with, their lives were just snuffed (taken) away because somebody hated the color of their skin. How stupid!”

The attack took place not long after the huge March on Washington. At the march, Martin Luther King gave his powerful “I Have a Dream” speech. Less than three weeks later, the church was bombed.

Time has not healed the pain for Shirley Gavin Floyd. Half a century ago, she was in the same class at school with Addie Mae Collins. She remembers the sadness of other children.

“Kids in the auditorium⁶ just started crying.  And for a whole week, everywhere you went people were crying.”

President Obama has signed legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the four victims of the attack. To honor them, pieces of colored glass from the church were given to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History. The donors⁷ were children of Norman Jimerson, a white man and a Christian⁸ clergyman. He gathered up pieces of wreckage⁹ from the church as evidence hours after the bombing. Other white ministers criticized him for attending funerals for the girls. 

Now, Norman Jimerson’s son Randall says the objects his father took from the tragedy recall his family’s past. He says his father hoped that the objects could also be part of the healing process for both races.  I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.

You’re listening to As It Is from VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.       

Research in Malaria prevention…

Attacking mosquitoes early in their development may help with efforts to control malaria. The disease kills an estimated 660,000 people every year, mostly in Asia and in areas south of the Sahara Desert.

One way to prevent malaria is by using mosquito nets treated with long-lasting insecticides. Another way is to spray such chemicals inside buildings. Both methods target adult mosquitoes. However, the insects are developing resistance to the chemicals.

Another method targets mosquito larvae¹⁰, the young, not yet fully¹¹ developed mosquito. This method is called larval source management, or LSM.

Recently, researchers examined 13 studies of LSM from eight countries.

Lucy Tusting is with the London School of Hygiene¹² and Tropical Medicine. She says the new research is important because a number of African and other countries are using larval source management.  However, she says, opinions differ about the value of LSM and where it should be used.

“There’s a real lack of consensus¹³ on how effective the method can be and in which settings it’s appropriate.”                                                                                

Targeting mosquitoes early would seem to be a valuable addition to any control program. But Lucy Tusting says it is not easy to decide whether to use the method. 

“First of all, we do have very, very effective existing methods of malaria control.  Long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and indoor residual¹⁴ spraying are both highly effective.”

She says these methods have been a major reason for the successes in malaria control in recent years. But because of those successes, scientists believe there has been less need to look at other ways to fight the disease. Fewer studies have been organized. 

The World Health Organization has released guidelines, suggestions, on the use of LSM.  Currently the organization does not support of using larvacides in rural sub-Saharan Africa unless there are conditions that limit the habitats of mosquito larvae

It’s As It Is from VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

And now, meet a great American writer… 

[Tony Bennett sings “Tender is the Night"]

"Tender is the night, so tender is the night

There's no one in the world, except the two of us..."

That’s Tony Bennett with a song written for the 1962 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “Tender is the Night.”

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born on September 24th, 1896. We are remembering the anniversary of his birth because, many years after his death, he remains¹⁵ a major American writer.

Fitzgerald wrote books like “The Great Gatsby” and “Tender Is the Night.”  These books still sell many copies, and they are studied in schools and universities. All were made into Hollywood films, ‘Gatsby’ a number of times. 

Critics also praise Fitzgerald’s short stories. He often wrote about a new kind of American woman – the “flapper.” That name noted¹⁶ the beginning of a time of more independence for women. 

Fitzgerald gained great literary success and became rich when he just in his 20’s. But that success did not create a happy life for him and his wife, Zelda. They traveled the world, moving around continually, spending lots of money and attending party after party.

F. Scott Fitzgerald suffered from alcoholism and his wife from mental problems. In 1948, Zelda was killed in a fire in a hospital where she was a patient. Fitzgerald wrote films in Hollywood during his final years. But he did not experience anything comparable to the success of his youth as a writer of classic novels.

F. Scott Fitzgerald died in California of heart disease in 1940. He was 44 years old. 

As It Is is a production of VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.  Thanks for joining us. 

 

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

3 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

4 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

5 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

6 auditorium   

n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂

参考例句：

• The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
• The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出，伸入观众席。

7 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

9 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

10 larvae   

n.幼虫

参考例句：

• Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
• The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。

11 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

12 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

13 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

14 residual   

adj.复播复映追加时间；存留下来的，剩余的

参考例句：

• There are still a few residual problems with the computer program.电脑程序还有一些残留问题。
• The resulting residual chromatism is known as secondary spectrum.所得到的剩余色差叫做二次光谱。

15 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。

16 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。