THIS IS AMERICA - Memorial Day: Honoring America's War Dead

THIS IS AMERICA - Memorial Day: Honoring America's War Dead
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, May 30, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Memorial Day is a national holiday observed on the last Monday in May. Memorial Day honors the men and women who have died in military service to the United States.

VOICE ONE:

This week on our program, we describe several military memorials that people often visit when they come to the nation's capital.

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VOICE TWO:

Part of the tradition of an American military funeral is the playing of a bugle¹ call known as taps. On Memorial Day, taps is played at military burial grounds throughout the country.

Many cities and towns hold Memorial Day parades in which soldiers march. These parades also include high school marching bands and local leaders.

Many events will honor members of the armed forces now in Iraq and Afghanistan. This year, observances in San Francisco, California, and other places will also honor those killed in World War Two. This year is the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the war.

And, for San Francisco, this is the one hundred thirty-seventh Memorial Day observance.

VOICE ONE:

Memorial Day honors those who died in all of America's wars. But the holiday began as a way to honor soldiers killed during the Civil War between the North and the South. On May thirtieth, eighteen sixty-eight, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery².

Today, more than two hundred sixty thousand men and women are buried there. Some fought in the Revolutionary War in the seventeen hundreds. The eighty-hectare cemetery is in Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

 
 
Up and down rolling hills, lines of simple white headstones mark the graves.

Others buried at Arlington National Cemetery include government officials and Supreme³ Court justices. Presidents John F. Kennedy and William Howard Taft are buried there.

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VOICE TWO:

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the idea of a former soldier named Jan Scruggs. He fought in the Vietnam War. The war ended in nineteen seventy-five. Many soldiers came home only to face the anger of Americans who opposed the war. So Jan Scruggs organized an effort to remember those who never returned.

In nineteen eighty, a group of former soldiers announced a competition to design a memorial. The winner, Maya Lin, was twenty-one years old. She was studying architecture at Yale University in New Haven⁴, Connecticut. She designed a memorial made of two black stone walls.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in nineteen eighty-two.

VOICE ONE:

The black stone walls are set into the earth. They are about seventy-six meters long. They meet to form a wide V. Cut into the walls are the names of more than fifty eight-thousand Americans killed or missing-in-action.

 
 
Nearby is a statue of three soldiers. They are looking in the direction of the names. Another statue honors the service of women in the war.

Now there are plans for an underground educational center. It will inform the public about the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Vietnam War.

VOICE TWO:

Each year about one-and-a-half million people visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is one of the most-visited places in Washington.

Almost any time of day, you can see people looking for the name of a family member or friend who died in Vietnam. Once they find it, many rub a pencil on paper over the letters to copy the name.

VOICE ONE:

After the success of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Congress approved a memorial to veterans of the Korean War. The Korean War Veterans Memorial opened in July of nineteen ninety-five near the Vietnam memorial.

The Korean War lasted from nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty-three. The memorial honors those who died, as well as those who survived.

VOICE TWO:

The memorial includes a group of nineteen statues of soldiers. These soldiers appear to be walking up a hill, toward an American flag. The Korean War has been called "the last foot soldier's war."

 
 
Artist Frank Gaylord created the statues from steel. Each is more than two meters tall. People who drive along a road near the memorial sometimes think the statues are real.

On one side of the Korean War Veterans Memorial is a stone walkway. It lists the names of the twenty-two countries that sent troops to Korea under United Nations command. On the other side is a shiny stone wall. Sandblasted into the wall are images from photographs of more than two thousand five hundred support troops.

VOICE ONE:

The last part of the memorial is the Pool of Remembrance. This round pool shows the numbers of American and United Nations forces killed, wounded, captured or missing. The total is more than two million. Cut into the wall above the pool is a message: "Freedom is not free."

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VOICE TWO:

One of the least known memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is often called "The Temple." It is a round stone structure, partly hidden behind trees. It honors troops from the District of Columbia who died in World War One.

It was completed in nineteen thirty-one. John Philip Sousa led the band at opening ceremonies for the memorial.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen eighty-six, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation⁵ to honor women in the military. Since nineteen ninety-seven, a memorial near the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia has done just that. It is called the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.

It recognizes the service of all the women who have taken part in the nation's wars. More than two million women have served or currently⁶ serve in the armed forces.

VOICE TWO:

Michael Manfredi and Marion Gail Weiss designed a place of glass, water and light. The memorial has a large wall shaped in a half-circle. In front, two-hundred jets of water meet in a pool.

Inside the memorial, the stories of women in wartime are cut into glass panels⁷. Information can also be found by computer. There are names, pictures, service records and personal statements of about two hundred fifty-thousand military women.

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VOICE ONE:

In Washington, the newest major memorial is the World War Two Memorial. It rises between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument on the National Mall. America entered the war after Japan bombed the Navy base at Pearl⁸ Harbor, Hawaii, on December seventh, ninety forty-one.

Sixteen million men and women served in the American military between nineteen forty-one and nineteen forty-five. More than four hundred thousand died.

VOICE TWO:

The World War Two Memorial stands in the open air. It is built of bronze and granite⁹. In the center, at ground level, is a round pool of water. Except in very cold weather, water shoots from a circle of fountains in the middle.

When the sun is just right, rainbows of color dance in the air. Fifty-six stone pillars rise around the pool. These represent each of the American states and territories, plus the District of Columbia, at the time of the war. On two tall arches¹⁰ appear the names of where it all took place. One says Atlantic; the other says Pacific.

Many older men and women who served during World War Two visit the memorial. One visitor, a former Navy man, once said: "The only good thing about my fighting in the war was that I was too young to be terrified."

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen eighty-six, Congress approved the idea for another memorial on the National Mall. This one is to be called the Black Revolutionary War Patriots¹¹ Memorial. The purpose is to honor about five thousand slaves and free black people who fought for American independence.

 
 
The Black Patriots Foundation has been collecting money to build the memorial. Its Web site says nine-and-a-half million dollars is needed by September fifteenth, or the group will lose control over the land.

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver¹². I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus.  Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 bugle   

n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集

参考例句：

• When he heard the bugle call, he caught up his gun and dashed out.他一听到军号声就抓起枪冲了出去。
• As the bugle sounded we ran to the sports ground and fell in.军号一响，我们就跑到运动场集合站队。

2 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

3 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

4 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

5 legislation   

n.立法，法律的制定；法规，法律

参考例句：

• They began to draft legislation.他们开始起草法规。
• The liberals band together against the new legislation.自由党员联合一致反对新的立法。

6 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

7 panels   

镶板( panel的名词复数 )； 面； （门、墙等上面的）嵌板； 控制板

参考例句：

• One of the glass panels in the front door was cracked. 前门的一块方玻璃破裂了。
• Make sure the panels are treated with a wood preservative. 确保镶板用木材防腐剂处理过。

8 pearl   

n.珍珠，珍珠母

参考例句：

• He bought his girlfriend a pearl necklace.他给他女朋友买了一条珍珠项链。
• The crane and the mother-of-pearl fight to death.鹬蚌相争。

9 granite   

adj.花岗岩，花岗石

参考例句：

• They squared a block of granite.他们把一块花岗岩加工成四方形。
• The granite overlies the older rocks.花岗岩躺在磨损的岩石上面。

10 Arches   

n.拱( arch的名词复数 )；拱门；拱形物；足弓v.（使）弯成拱形( arch的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Arches are built of wood, stone, brick or any other building material. 拱门是用木料、石块、砖头或其他建筑材料建成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cat arches its back when It'sees the dog. 猫看到狗，便把背拱起。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 patriots   

爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Abraham Lincoln was a fine type of the American patriots. 亚伯拉罕·林肯是美国爱国者的优秀典型。
• These patriots would fight to death before they surrendered. 这些爱国者宁愿战斗到死，也不愿投降。

12 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。