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VOA慢速英语 2007 0219b

时间:2007-07-07 06:22:26

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(单词翻译)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

Academy Awards ceremony, which takes place Sunday in Los Angeles, California. It is the most exciting event of the year for people who make movies and for people who love to watch them.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

On February twenty-fifth, actors, directors, producers and other filmmakers will gather in Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry. They will receive Academy Awards for the best acting1, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year.




The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. This statue is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The Oscar is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award is extremely valuable for the people who receive it. People who win an Oscar can become much more famous. They can get offers to work in the best movies. They can also earn much more money.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The musical Dreamgirls received eight Academy Award nominations3, the most of any movie released last year. Dreamgirls is a film version of a Broadway musical play. It tells about a group of three female singers who became famous during the nineteen sixties. The film's nominations include three for best song and two for acting.

VOICE ONE:

However, many people were surprised that Dreamgirls was not nominated for best motion picture. Five others were. They are Babel, The Queen, The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima and Little Miss Sunshine. The directors of the first four of these movies also received Academy Award nominations.

Babel received seven nominations. It tells three powerful stories that take place in Morocco, Mexico, the United States and Japan. The actors speak five languages. Babel shows the terrible results of people not being able to communicate with each other. It was directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.

The Queen, directed by Stephen Frears, received six nominations. It combines fact with fiction to tell the story about how the British royal family reacted to the death of Diana, the Princess of Wales, in nineteen ninety-seven.

VOICE TWO:

The Departed was also nominated for best picture. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it tells a violent story about men divided by power and loyalty4. Some of the characters are criminals and others are members of the police force.

Letters From Iwo Jima tells about the Japanese soldiers, and their commander, who tried to defend the island from the invasion by United States forces during World War Two. Clint Eastwood directed the Japanese actors, who speak in their native language in the film. Eastwood also directed a movie in English about the American forces fighting on that same island.

Little Miss Sunshine is the fifth nominated movie and is the only funny one. It tells about six members of a family with many problems. They travel from Arizona to California so that the seven-year-old daughter can compete in a beauty contest. The members of the family learn to support and trust each other along the way.

A movie about the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States, called United Ninety-three, was not nominated for best picture. But its director, Paul Greengrass, did receive a nomination2.

VOICE ONE:

Five actors were nominated for best performance in a leading role. Forest Whitaker was nominated for playing Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Leonardo DiCaprio played a man searching for a rare gem5 in Africa in Blood Diamond. Ryan Gosling was a teacher with a drug problem in Half Nelson.

In the movie Venus, Peter O'Toole played a very old actor interested in a very young woman. And Will Smith was a homeless father who gets a job in the financial industry in The Pursuit of Happyness, a movie based on a true story.

VOICE TWO:

Five actresses were nominated for best performance in a leading role. For Meryl Streep, it was her fourteenth nomination. She is the most-nominated actor ever and is a two-time Oscar winner. She played a demanding magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada.

British actress Helen Mirren was nominated for her role as Queen Elizabeth in The Queen. Two other British actresses were also nominated. Judi Dench played a teacher in Notes on a Scandal. Kate Winslet was a woman who has a sexual relationship with a neighbor in Little Children. And Spanish actress Penelope Cruz was nominated for the Spanish-language movie Volver. She played a woman dealing6 with some unusual family crises.

VOICE ONE:

A total of twenty actors and actresses were nominated for leading and supporting roles. Among them are five black actors and actresses, two Hispanic actresses and one Japanese actress. Experts say this is the most ethnically7 diverse group ever nominated for Academy Awards.

In addition, critics highly praised three directors from Mexico. Their movies received a total of sixteen nominations. They are Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, who was nominated for directing Babel, Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron.

Del Toro directed the Spanish-language film Pan's Labyrinth8, which received six nominations. It deals with the political situation in Spain after that country's civil war. And it shows a young girl's fearful adventures with magical creatures. Cuaron directed Children of Men, a frightening vision of the future where women are unable to have babies.

All three movies deal with serious subjects in creative ways. The directors are very good friends and often work on each other's movies. One critic called the three directors the future of movies.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Five movies were nominated for best documentary feature, a movie about real people or events. They are about serious issues that have gotten a lot of media attention. Former vice9 president Al Gore's film about global warming, An Inconvenient10 Truth, was one of the movies nominated.

Two of the others are about the war in Iraq: My Country, My Country and Iraq in Fragments. Another nominated documentary is Jesus Camp, a close-up look at a summer camp for Christian11 children. And the last nominated documentary is Deliver Us From Evil. It is about a former priest found guilty of sexually abusing children.

VOICE ONE:

More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented Sunday night.

The people who wrote the best screenplays and did the best film and sound editing will receive awards. So will the people who designed the best costumes, makeup12 and special effects. The composers who wrote the best song and music from a movie will also be honored.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the Academy. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards from their own professions.

For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote to choose the final winners.

VOICE TWO:

The Academy Awards are presented in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Important people in the movie industry attend the ceremony. Crowds of people wait outside the theater. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive.

The women wear beautiful dresses and costly13 jewelry14 provided by famous designers. Camera lights flash. The actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras.

During the Academy Awards ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the nominees15 and the winners. Then the winners go up onto the stage. They thank all the people who helped them win their golden Oscar. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch them on television Sunday night.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver16. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. You can read our scripts and download audio on our Web site, www.unsv.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
2 nomination BHMxw     
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 b4802078efbd3da66d5889789cd2e9ca     
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 loyalty gA9xu     
n.忠诚,忠心
参考例句:
  • She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
  • His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。
5 gem Ug8xy     
n.宝石,珠宝;受爱戴的人 [同]jewel
参考例句:
  • The gem is beyond my pocket.这颗宝石我可买不起。
  • The little gem is worth two thousand dollars.这块小宝石价值两千美元。
6 dealing NvjzWP     
n.经商方法,待人态度
参考例句:
  • This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
  • His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
7 ethnically 5cad57d992c22d4f4a6ad0169c5276d2     
adv.人种上,民族上
参考例句:
  • Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
  • Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句
8 labyrinth h9Fzr     
n.迷宫;难解的事物;迷路
参考例句:
  • He wandered through the labyrinth of the alleyways.他在迷宫似的小巷中闲逛。
  • The human mind is a labyrinth.人的心灵是一座迷宫。
9 vice NU0zQ     
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
参考例句:
  • He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
  • They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。
10 inconvenient m4hy5     
adj.不方便的,令人感到麻烦的
参考例句:
  • You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
  • Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗?
11 Christian KVByl     
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。
12 makeup 4AXxO     
n.组织;性格;化装品
参考例句:
  • Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
  • Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗?
13 costly 7zXxh     
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的
参考例句:
  • It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
  • This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用,左不过贵了些。
14 jewelry 0auz1     
n.(jewllery)(总称)珠宝
参考例句:
  • The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
  • Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。
15 nominees 3e8d8b25ccc8228c71eef17be7bb2d5f     
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
16 weaver LgWwd     
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。

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