AMERICAN MOSAIC

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹
By Brian Kim and Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Friday, November 19, 2004

(MUSIC)

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

 
Graphic² Image
New music by John Fogerty ...

A question from China about Thanksgiving ...

And a way to make friends online.

Friendster

Social networking has become popular on the Internet. A network is a system of connections. The idea of social networking is to connect people. And, as Faith Lapidus reports, one way many people do that is through friendster.com.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Jonathan Abrams began Friendster in two thousand two. Last year, investors³ put fourteen million dollars into his company in Silicon⁴ Valley, California.

Mister Abrams thought of a way for people to meet on the Web. Friendster links not only friends but also friends of friends. It shows people how they are connected. Friendster is a free service that sells advertising⁵. The company says thirteen million people have joined.

There are two ways to begin creating a social network on Friendster. One way is to receive an e-mail invitation from a friend already on the service. The second way is to sign up at friendster.com. Once registered, users must describe themselves. They list things like their location, schools they attended, and favorite books and movies. They can also add pictures to their profile.

When their profile is complete, users can search other profiles to find some sort of connection to other people. Users may leave messages for each other.

Some people use Friendster to renew old friendships. Others make new friends, or use the site as an online dating service.

Friendster has been especially popular among college students. Many use it to reconnect with old classmates. Jennifer is a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She says Friendster has helped her keep in touch with her high school friends. In fact, she has even found some of her friends from elementary school.

But Friendster is not for everyone. A forty-three-year-old lawyer in Washington says people his age were not on the social network homepage. He had no luck finding anyone he knew. Instead, he says he will leave it to his two children to use Friendster.

The site has added a bulletin board where friends can share announcements. People can also receive a reminder⁶ when a friend is having a birthday.

Friendster calls itself "the fun and safe way to organize your social life." So now people have a new way to make friends -- or, in this case, "friendsters."

Two Thanksgivings

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Fujian, China. Chunfu Zheng asks about the difference between Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada.

Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday on the second Monday in October.

There are stories that the English explorer Martin Frobisher held the first Thanksgiving celebration in Canada in fifteen seventy-eight. But a researcher at York University in Toronto found that these stories are false.

Peter Stevens gives credit for the holiday to Protestant Christian⁷ leaders in Ontario province in the nineteen century. Mister Stevens says they took the idea of the American celebration and created a version for Canada, although they did not just copy it.

He says the observance became an expression of Canadian nationalism. He says it lost its Protestant religious meaning in the early twentieth century, and Canadians created their own traditions. The government established the holiday in October because it was early enough in the year for people to spend the day outdoors.

Thanksgiving in the United States developed from a celebration of English settlers known as Pilgrims. They are believed to have held the first Thanksgiving meal in sixteen twenty-one. They had arrived in what is now the northeastern United States a year earlier. Soon, more than half had died of disease or lack of food.

Those who survived thanked God. They also thanked the Native Americans who showed them how to fish and plant crops. The Pilgrims and the Indians celebrated⁸ together for about three days. Within a few years, though, the Indians and the growing number of settlers were at war.

Today a Thanksgiving celebration might last three hours. Americans traditionally prepare some of the same foods eaten at that first Thanksgiving. This includes turkey, sweet potatoes, squash, corn, cranberries⁹ and pumpkin¹⁰ pie. And this is similar to what Canadians eat on their day for giving thanks.

John Fogerty's New Album

DOUG JOHNSON: Creedence Clearwater Revival¹¹ was a band with hits like this one from nineteen sixty-nine, "Proud Mary."

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Singer John Fogerty led Creedence Clearwater Revival and wrote many of its songs. The band broke up in nineteen seventy-two. Since then, John Fogerty has been working alone. Now, Shep O'Neal tells us about his newest album.

ANNCR:

The album is called "Deja Vu All Over Again." Deja vu is a French expression. It means experiencing something that you feel you have experienced before. The title song is a commentary on the Vietnam War and, now, the war in Iraq.

(MUSIC)

But the album is not all about sadness and war. The songs mix all kinds of music: rock, folk, country, bluegrass and punk. In fact, John Fogerty says the album shows how happy he is these days.

We leave you with one of those happy songs from John Fogerty's newest album. This one is called "Sugar-Sugar (In My Life.)"

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DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC.

This program was written by Brian Kim and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Efeem Drucker.

Send your questions about American life to [email protected]. Be sure to include your full name and postal¹² address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, USA.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, 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 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。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

5 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

6 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

7 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。

8 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

9 cranberries   

n.越橘( cranberry的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The tart flavour of the cranberries adds piquancy. 越橘的酸味很可口。
• Look at the fresh cranberries. 你看这些新鲜的蔓越橘。 来自无师自通 校园英语会话

10 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！

11 revival   

n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振

参考例句：

• The period saw a great revival in the wine trade.这一时期葡萄酒业出现了很大的复苏。
• He claimed the housing market was showing signs of a revival.他指出房地产市场正出现复苏的迹象。

12 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。