在线英语听力室

VOA慢速英语2012 AMERICAN MOSAIC - Columbia Records Turns 125 With a New Book About Its Past

时间:2012-11-05 08:50:35

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

 

AMERICAN MOSAIC1 - Columbia Records Turns 125 With a New Book About Its Past

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

I’m June Simms.

On our show this week, we play some music from Columbia Records, which is celebrating its one-hundred twenty-fifth anniversary…

We also read some of your posts to our blog “Confessions of an English Learner.”…

But first, we report on the world of high school debate…

High School Debaters

Only a few days remain in the American election campaign. The recent presidential and vice-presidential debates were of special interest to high school debate teams.

Many debate teams compete locally and nationally for awards. The experience helps team members strengthen their skills in argumentation. It also makes them critics -- not only of the candidates, but of all the political talk they are hearing. Christopher Cruise has our story.

The high school debate team in the Texas community of Oakridge has won many awards.

Recently, some of its members argued for an extension of the federal ban on assault weapons. At the same time, other team members prepared to call for cancellation2 of the ban.

“This is a long-term ban, if you see before the ban…”

“So long will this ban have to go on? How long will we have to restrict people’s rights?”

Debaters make their presentation with evidence and reason, while questioning the arguments of their opponents.

“The biggest fallacy we can possibly talk about is the ‘slippery slope’ fallacy…”

Personal opinion has no place in debating. In competition, debaters must be able to argue either side of the question. This helps them understand both sides of any issue.

“So you’re saying that if we continue with what’s going on now, it’s going to cost more money?”

“Yes.”

“That, that’s good, but you have to give evidence.”

Deanne Christensen is the Oakridge High School Debate coach. She is in her eleventh year of helping3 young people learn how to argue effectively.

“And it’s great when they disagree with each other. It’s awesome4 to see them trying to defend their position.”

High school debaters can be very critical of candidate debates and political discussions among adults, in general. Debater Jonathon McClanahan thinks political partisanship5 can weaken civility.

“I don’t think we should have to hate the president to disagree with him – that’s why I honestly believe that with partisanship we need to be more respectful to each other. We need to have bi-partisan bills passed. We need to work together more.”

And debater Bryce Brady thinks high school debaters have a higher level of civility than many politicians.

“I definitely think politicians today could get a real lesson from a high school debate team.”

Deanne Christensen believes some of these award-winning debaters will be the leaders of tomorrow.

“They’re very smart and they want to see this country be successful because they are that future of our country.”

Your “Confessions”

We take a look now at some of the comments you shared with us on our blog, “Confessions of an English Learner.” Many of you provided advice about how you learned English. We welcome the helpful information. Thanks to everyone who has joined the discussion on the blog.

One web visitor described his difficulty with two English language words that sound similar but are very different in meaning. Moises wrote from his home in El Salvador. He described a mistake he made on his first visit to the United States.

At the time, Moises was working on a cruise ship. It was his second day. He was organizing some of his belongings6 when a co-worker came into the room they were sharing. The co-worker asked, “Hey, my friend, do you want soap?” Moises wrote that he was surprised by the question and excited to use his English. He answered, “No thanks. I am not hungry.”

Well, everyone in the room started laughing and Moises did not understand the joke. He said his new friends then explained that “soap” is something you use to wash yourself. “Soup” is what you eat.

Moises said this incident happened ten years ago. He added, “Do you imagine that I am an English teacher now?”

We also want to tell of a blog posting from Vietnam. Xuan Thanh wrote that she joined an English class two years ago to improve her skills in the language. Her teacher asked each student to write about something sad they had experienced. Xuan Thanh said that one of her classmates asked her how to write the name of a disease in English. She answered, “cancel.”

Later Xuan Thanh looked the word up and realized she had made a mistake. “Cancel” means to end or to stop something that is planned. The disease her classmate wanted to write about was “cancer.”

Thank you all again for the interesting posts. Please continue to share your English Learning experiences on our “Confessions” blog.

Columbia Records at 125

Columbia Records is turning one hundred twenty-five years old. Columbia is the oldest record label in the world. It became part of Sony Corporation in nineteen eighty-seven. 

On Tuesday, Columbia Records released a book about its history. Faith Lapidus has more about it and plays some of the music Columbia made famous.

The book is called “360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story.” It was written by historian Sean Wilentz. Most of his books have been political histories. He also has written about music and culture in magazines and newspapers for many years.

Critics praised one of his books, “Bob Dylan in America,” which was published in twenty ten. Bob Dylan is also a major part of the new book “360 Sound.” He recorded his first album, “Bob Dylan,” with Columbia in nineteen sixty-two. His thirty-fifth album, “Tempest,” was released in September of this year.

“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” was a hit from his nineteen sixty-three record “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.”

In nineteen forty-nine, Columbia Records released one of the first albums based on a musical play. “South Pacific” was a big hit on New York’s Broadway. Richard Rodgers wrote the music. Oscar Hammerstein wrote the words.

One of Columbia’s earliest stars was Bessie Smith.

Billy Joel was a successful artist for Columbia later. In nineteen seventy-seven, the record label released one of his biggest albums, “The Stranger.” Four of the songs were hit singles, including this one “Only the Good Die Young.”

Right now Adele is one of the major artists with Colombia Records. We leave you with her current hit, the theme from the new James Bond movie “Skyfall.”


分享到:


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 cancellation BxNzQO     
n.删除,取消
参考例句:
  • Heavy seas can cause cancellation of ferry services.海上风浪太大,可能须要取消渡轮服务。
  • Her cancellation of her trip to Paris upset our plan.她取消了巴黎之行打乱了我们的计划。
3 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
4 awesome CyCzdV     
adj.令人惊叹的,难得吓人的,很好的
参考例句:
  • The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
  • That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.
5 Partisanship Partisanship     
n. 党派性, 党派偏见
参考例句:
  • Her violent partisanship was fighting Soames's battle. 她的激烈偏袒等于替索米斯卖气力。
  • There was a link of understanding between them, more important than affection or partisanship. ' 比起人间的感情,比起相同的政见,这一点都来得格外重要。 来自英汉文学
6 belongings oy6zMv     
n.私人物品,私人财物
参考例句:
  • I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
  • Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。