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AMERICAN MOSAIC

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AMERICAN MOSAIC1
By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Friday, September 17, 2004

(MUSIC)

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

Music by the Fiery2 Furnaces3.

A question from a listener who wants to know how many languages are spoken in America.

And, a progress report on a huge memorial to Chief Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse Memorial

HOST:

On September sixth, a celebration took place in the state of South Dakota. September sixth is the anniversary5 of the death of the American Indian chief Crazy Horse. It is also the birthday of the artist who started work on a huge memorial. Shep O'Neal has more.

ANNCR:

In nineteen forty-eight, Korczak Ziolkowski began to cut a likeness6 of Crazy Horse into a mountain. The Polish-American artist was asked to carve the statue by Chief Henry Standing7 Bear of the Lakota Indians.

 
Model of Crazy Horse Memorial
Crazy Horse was a young leader of the Lakota. He was a hero to his people. He died in eighteen seventy-seven. Crazy Horse had gone to an Army commander to protest8 a broken promise by the government. The promise was to let his people choose where to live. Soldiers arrested Crazy Horse. A soldier stabbed9 him when he tried to escape.

Korczak Ziolkowski died in nineteen eighty-two. His wife, Ruth, and seven of their ten children have continued his work. Visitors pay to see the monument even before it is finished.

The huge statue is at the top of Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The head was completed in nineteen ninety-eight.

The Ziolkowski family says more than eight million tons of rock has been taken off the mountain. They are now working to carve the head of a horse on which the chief will sit. The family expects the finished statue to be more than one hundred seventy meters tall and one hundred ninety-five meters long. It is already considered the largest mountain sculpture in the world.

The family has established the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation10. This group is also working to improve the education of Native Americans. The foundation has completed a building to show Indian arts. Other plans include a university, medical center and history center to be built near the statue of Chief Crazy Horse.

HOST:

On Sunday at this time, learn about another Indian chief, Rain in the Face, on PEOPLE IN AMERICA. And listen Monday to THIS IS AMERICA. We tell about the opening in Washington of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Languages Spoken in the United States

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jijiga, Ethiopia. Abdikader Gahnug Muhumed asks about the number of languages spoken in the United States.

More than three hundred languages are spoken in this country. The most recent report comes from the Census11 count of the population in the year two thousand.

Of more than two hundred sixty million people over the age of five, eighty-two percent spoke4 only English at home.

Spanish is the most commonly spoken foreign language in the United States. The two thousand Census found that twenty-eight million people spoke Spanish or Spanish Creole at home. The second most commonly spoken foreign language is Chinese, with two million speakers.

More than one million six hundred thousand people said they spoke French at home. And more than one million three hundred thousand reported speaking German.

Italian, Tagalog and Vietnamese also have more than a million speakers each. More than half a million people reported speaking Arabic, Korean, Polish, Portuguese12 or Russian. Nearly five hundred thousand spoke Japanese at home. And more than four hundred thousand spoke African languages.

Persian and Hindi each had more than three hundred thousand speakers. There were two hundred sixty thousand speakers of Urdu.

Also in the last Census, close to four hundred thousand people reported speaking Native American languages at home. The largest number speak Navajo. Reports say more than one hundred fifty languages are still spoken by American Indians. Others include Ojibwa, Dakota, Choctaw, Apache, Cherokee and Yupik.

The Fiery Furnaces

HOST:

The Fiery Furnaces are out with their second album, to a lot of praise from music critics. Steve Ember has our report on this brother-and-sister group.

ANNCR:

 
Blueberry Boat
Eleanor and Matt Friedberger grew up near Chicago, Illinois. Matt is older than his sister. Their interest in music led them to perform and record together when they both moved to New York City. They got the idea for the name of their band from a Bible13 story and the movie "Chitty Chitty Bang14 Bang." The letters F.F. also represent their names: Friedberger and Friedberger.

The Fiery Furnaces became well known in New York from performing in clubs. Then, last year, they recorded their first album, "Gallowsbird's Bark." Ten months later they released15 their second one. "Blueberry Boat" opens with a ten-minute song called "Quay16 Cur."

(MUSIC)

"Blueberry Boat" is currently17 the most popular record among American college students. Music critics say the Fiery Furnaces are unlike any other group performing today. Their songs are long and tell stories. Like this one, "My Dog Was Lost But Now It's Found."

(MUSIC)

Eleanor and Matt Friedberger are already working on a third album. Eleanor will sing with their eighty-year-old grandmother. For now, the Fiery Furnaces will perform across the country. We leave you with the title song from "Blueberry Boat."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

This is Doug Johnson.

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Rob McLean.

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


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 mosaic CEExS     
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 fiery ElEye     
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的
参考例句:
  • She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
  • His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。
3 furnaces 5c0530c0bfb530a3e89b54c1f739e7e1     
熔炉,火炉( furnace的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • We took turns stoking the furnaces. 我们轮番给锅炉添煤。
  • They cleverly hid small lumps of gold in their furnaces. 他们狡猾地将小块金子藏在炼丹炉里。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
4 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
5 anniversary Cw0zD     
n.周年(纪念日)
参考例句:
  • They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。
  • Today is my parents'30th wedding anniversary.今天是我父母结婚30周年纪念日。
6 likeness P1txX     
n.相像,相似(之处)
参考例句:
  • I think the painter has produced a very true likeness.我认为这位画家画得非常逼真。
  • She treasured the painted likeness of her son.她珍藏她儿子的画像。
7 standing 2hCzgo     
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 protest rRRxF     
v.反对,抗议;宣称;n.抗议;宣称
参考例句:
  • I can't pass the matter by without a protest.我不能对此事视而不见,我要提出抗议。
  • We translated his silence as a protest.我们把他的沉默解释为抗议。
9 stabbed 32240f3f621fe69088c6ee4da3a06cba     
adj. 刺中的, 中伤的, 刺穿的 动词stab的过去式和过去分词形式
参考例句:
  • He was stabbed to death in a racist attack. 他遭到种族主义者的袭击,被刺死了。
  • The woman stabbed at her attacker with a pair of scissors. 那个妇人手持剪刀向攻击者刺去。
10 foundation UijxD     
n.[pl.]地基;基础;基金会;建立,创办
参考例句:
  • The foundation of the university took place 600 years ago.这所大学是600年前创办的。
  • The Foundation gives money to help artists.那家基金会捐款帮助艺术家。
11 census arnz5     
n.(官方的)人口调查,人口普查
参考例句:
  • A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
  • The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。
12 Portuguese alRzLs     
n.葡萄牙人;葡萄牙语
参考例句:
  • They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
  • Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。
13 bible ZQzyQ     
n.《圣经》;得到权威支持的典籍
参考例句:
  • According to the Bible we are all the seed of Adam.根据《圣经》所说的,我们都是亚当的后裔。
  • This dictionary should be your Bible when studying English.学习英语时,这本字典应是你的主要参考书。
14 bang dPmyH     
n.巨响,猛击;vi.砰砰作响;vt.砰地敲,猛击
参考例句:
  • Pack it up, you kids;or I'll bang your heads together!住手,你们这些小孩,再弄就揍你们!
  • She fell and got a nasty bang on the knee.她摔倒了,膝盖猛撞在地上。
15 released 23690fd759f17135ec9879b56ff2600c     
v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 );放开;发布;发行
参考例句:
  • He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
  • With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他,这倒容易。
16 quay uClyc     
n.码头,靠岸处
参考例句:
  • There are all kinds of ships in a quay.码头停泊各式各样的船。
  • The side of the boat hit the quay with a grinding jar.船舷撞到码头发出刺耳的声音。
17 currently SvMzI2     
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。

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