AMERICAN MOSAIC

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹
By Mario Ritter and Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Friday, December 17, 2004

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

This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

 
Kanye West has 10 Grammy nominations³, the most of any artist this year.
Music from this year's top Grammy nominees⁴ …

And a question from China about the meaning of a "hat trick."

But first -- a little lesson in astronomy.

Winter Solstice

Next Tuesday is the December solstice. At twelve hours forty-two minutes Universal Time, the sun will reach the point farthest south on its path. Winter will officially begin for people in the northern half of the world, and summer for those in the south. Jim Tedder⁵ has more.

JIM TEDDER: We do not usually think of the sun moving north to south in the sky, only east to west. But the movement northward⁶ and southward marks the change of seasons.

The word solstice comes from Latin. It means that the sun is standing⁷ in place.

The December solstice takes place when the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn. Sao Paulo, Brazil, is along this southern latitude⁸. The June solstice takes place when the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. That is about the same northern latitude as Havana, Cuba. On that day, around June twenty-first, the sun appears at its northernmost position in the sky.

People who live at or near the equator are said to live in the "tropics." That is, the area between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. These are simply lines drawn⁹ on a map to mark the area that receives sunlight directly overhead during the year. The distance between them is about two thousand five hundred kilometers.

People who live along the equator experience fairly equal days and nights all year.

Next Tuesday, here in Washington, we will have about nine and one-half hours of daylight. The farther north you travel, the longer the nights are. Reykjavik, Iceland, will have less than four hours of daylight.

But in Murmansk, Russia, the sun will not rise at all on the day of the solstice. In fact, people there last saw the sun on December third. And they will not see it again until January seventh.

Hat Trick

DOUG JOHNSON: Our question this week comes from a listener in China named Reed. He often hears the expression "hat trick" used about football. He would like to know what this means.

Football? We thought it came from ice hockey!

Well, we discovered that the term "hat trick" really came from the British sport of cricket in the eighteen hundreds.

The Oxford¹⁰ English Dictionary says a hat trick is when one bowler¹¹ in cricket takes three wickets by three balls, usually one after another. Players often received a new hat from their team as a reward.

The expression "hat trick" in cricket first appeared in print by the late eighteen seventies. Over the years, the term spread to other sports. For example, in horse racing¹², a hat trick is when a jockey wins three races in one day. In hockey and soccer football, a hat trick is when a player scores three goals in a single game.

And just recently we saw the term used in a headline on a story about a game in American football. It was about a player who scored -- you guessed it -- three touchdowns.

Hat trick is sometimes used in baseball when a player hits a single, double, triple and home run in one game. Yes, that is four things, but who's counting?

Today people use "hat trick" to mean just about anything that comes in threes. Examples might include a lawyer who wins three cases one after another. Or a politician who has won three elections.

So if you know someone who has made three victories of any kind, you can say that he or she has scored a hat trick. But there is another term we hear nowadays, a play on the word repeat: "Three-peat."

Grammy Nominations

The National Academy of Recording¹³ Arts and Sciences has just announced the nominations for its yearly Grammy awards. The awards will be presented in February. The Grammys recognize excellent musical recordings¹⁴ and those who create them. Faith Lapidus tells us who has the most nominations this year.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The artist with the most nominations for Grammy Awards this year is Kanye West. He is nominated for ten awards, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Song of the Year. That nominated song is on the nominated album, "College Dropout¹⁵." Here it is: "Jesus Walks."

(MUSIC)

Usher¹⁶ has eight Grammy nominations. His best-selling album is the nominated "Confessions¹⁷." It has sold about seven million copies. Here is the top song from that album, "Yeah".

(MUSIC)

Another artist with eight Grammy nominations is Alicia Keys. Her Best Album nomination² is for "The Diary of Alicia Keys." We leave you now with Alicia Keys singing a song from that album. It is nominated for best song: "If I Ain't Got You."

(MUSIC)

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

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

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 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

3 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

4 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

5 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

6 northward   

adv.向北；n.北方的地区

参考例句：

• He pointed his boat northward.他将船驶向北方。
• I would have a chance to head northward quickly.我就很快有机会去北方了。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

8 latitude   

n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区

参考例句：

• The latitude of the island is 20 degrees south.该岛的纬度是南纬20度。
• The two cities are at approximately the same latitude.这两个城市差不多位于同一纬度上。

9 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

10 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

11 bowler   

n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手

参考例句：

• The bowler judged it well,timing the ball to perfection.投球手判断准确，对球速的掌握恰到好处。
• The captain decided to take Snow off and try a slower bowler.队长决定把斯诺撤下，换一个动作慢一点的投球手试一试。

12 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

13 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

14 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

15 dropout   

n.退学的学生；退学；退出者

参考例句：

• There is a high dropout rate from some college courses.有些大学课程的退出率很高。
• In the long haul,she'll regret having been a school dropout.她终归会后悔不该中途辍学。

16 usher   

n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员

参考例句：

• The usher seated us in the front row.引座员让我们在前排就座。
• They were quickly ushered away.他们被迅速领开。

17 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》