AMERICAN MOSAIC

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹
By

Broadcast: Friday, March 19, 2004

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(THEME)

This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week, we have music from Nellie McKay. And we answer a question about the American dollar.

But first, some rare black-and-white animals are about to appear in color.

Artistic² Pandas

HOST:

More than one-thousand artists from around the country recently entered a competition in Washington, D.C. The winners will create artwork on one-hundred fifty plastic statues of pandas. As Gwen Outen reports, the animal art will appear on city streets and in other places.

ANNOUNCER:

 
The real thing.
The invasion of the capital is called "PandaMania. " The statues will be shown from May through September. Later, they will be sold to raise money for the arts. The statues will be at least one-point-three meters high. That is around the size of a real panda.

Washington artist Di Stovall (die STOW-vahl) designed a small panda to give ideas to other artists. Mizz Stovall also worked on an earlier showing of painted animal statues in Washington.

The event in two-thousand-two was called "Party Animals." It involved statues of donkeys and elephants. The donkey is the official animal of the Democratic Party. The elephant represents the Republican Party.

Mizz Stovall covered her statue with stars and stripes. Her "America the Beautiful" elephant brought the highest price. It sold for twenty-five-thousand dollars.

Anthony Gittens heads the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities. He notes that the city has a long history with pandas – real ones, that is.

In nineteen-seventy-two, China sent two pandas to the National Zoo in Washington. This followed the historic visit by President Richard Nixon to China. Those pandas lived until the nineteen-nineties.

Now, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang are on loan to the zoo for one-million dollars a year. People often wait a long time to see them. If the crowds get too large, visitors can look for the artistic pandas on the street.

United States Dollar

HOST:

 
Graphic³ Image
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Rodrigo Bueno Therezo asks about the history of the American dollar.

We found a good place to start: a book called "A History of Money," by Glyn Davies, a British professor who died last year. He wrote that during American colonial times, the British pound was in short supply. So the colonists⁴ had to find substitutes -- tobacco, for example, even foreign coins. Some colonies printed their own money. Britain was not happy. This became one of the causes of the American Revolution.

The colonists printed notes called Continentals⁵ to pay for the war. The value of some Continentals was based on the British pound. Others were based on the Spanish peso or dollar coin. The word dollar came from the German word "taler" (TAH-ler). That came from the name of a place where silver was mined and made into coins.

The United States declared its independence in seventeen-seventy-six. In seventeen-ninety-two, the nation chose the dollar as its unit of currency. One dollar equaled one-hundred cents. It still does.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to print money and set its value. In nineteen-thirteen, Congress created the United States central bank, the Federal Reserve, to supervise the money supply.

The Bureau of Engraving⁶ and Printing produces bank notes for the Federal Reserve System. The bureau began in eighteen-sixty-two as a six-person operation in the Treasury⁷ Department. Steam powered the presses. Today, money is printed twenty-four hours a day. Notes come in one, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one-hundred dollar amounts. Design changes have been made in recent years to improve security.

The United States Mint produces coins. The Associated Press reported just this week about a special coin. Coin collecting experts say they have identified a two-hundred-ten-year-old silver dollar. Some consider it the first silver dollar ever made by the United States Mint. The American Numismatic Association, a collectors group, says it plans to show the coin to the public as of next month.

Nellie McKay

HOST:

Nellie McKay (muh-KYE) is a nineteen-year-old singer and songwriter with a grown-up sense of music. Her first album is called "Get Away From Me." Shep O'Neal has more.

 
Graphic Image
ANNOUNCER:

"Get Away From Me" is unusual for a first album. It comes recorded on two compact discs. Nellie McKay wrote so many songs, they could not all fit on one CD.

She sings jazz, pop, even a little rap. She also plays eight musical instruments, including the glockenspiel.

Nellie McKay was born in London. Her mother brought her to New York City when she was two. This song, "Manhattan Avenue," is about the street where they lived.

(MUSIC)

Nellie McKay and her mother lived with a dog plus nine cats they rescued from the streets. One of her songs is about the death of a cat whose owner sounds just a little crazy. The song is called "Ding Dong."

(MUSIC)

Nellie McKay sings about many subjects in the eighteen songs on her first album. Her sense of humor comes through in most of "Get Away From Me." We leave you with a song called "Clonie."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

This is Doug Johnson.

Send us your questions about American life! Be sure to include your name and postal⁸ address. We'll send you a gift if we use your question.

Send e-mail to [email protected]. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA.

This program was written by Jill Moss⁹, Jeri Watson and Caty Weaver¹⁰. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Vosco Volarich.

I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA's radio magazine in 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 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

3 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

4 colonists   

n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 continentals   

n.（欧洲）大陆人( continental的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The English and the Continentals were already at odds. 英国人与大陆的伙伴已经不和。 来自辞典例句
• There is a big future for these crops once the Continentals resolve their farm strucure problem. 一旦大陆国家解决了他们的农场结构问题，这些作物有远大前途。 来自辞典例句

6 engraving   

n.版画；雕刻（作品）；雕刻艺术；镌版术v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的现在分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中）

参考例句：

• He collected an old engraving of London Bridge. 他收藏了一张古老的伦敦桥版画。 来自辞典例句
• Some writing has the precision of a steel engraving. 有的字体严谨如同钢刻。 来自辞典例句

7 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

8 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

9 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。

10 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。