AMERICAN MOSAIC

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - September 27, 2002: George Catlin's Indian Paintings / Football Great Johnny Unitas
Dies / Question About (and Music by) Pink Floyd

HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play music by Pink Floyd ..
.
Report about the death of an American football hero.
And tell about an American artist who painted Native Americans of the Old West.

George Catlin Exhibit

HOST:

The Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. has opened an exhibition of four-hundred
paintings and other objects by American artist George Catlin. Shep O’Neal tells us about him.
ANNCR:
George Catlin was born in the eastern state of Pennsylvania in seventeen-ninety-six. He went to school to learn to

be a lawyer. But he always wanted to be an artist. He soon quit the legal profession and became a painter.

In the early eighteen-twenties, George Catlin saw a delegation² of American Indians
on their way to Washington, D.C. He was extremely interested in them. He decided³
to paint as many of the tribes⁴ of Native Americans as he could find.

From about eighteen-thirty to eighteen-thirty-six, George Catlin traveled deep into
areas of the country where few white people had ever been. He traveled thousands
of kilometers and painted almost everything he saw. He painted pictures of the land.
He painted men, women, children, clothing and animals. He painted religious
ceremonies, dances and ball games. He often painted as many as three pictures a

day.

George Catlin visited as many as fifty different tribes of American Indians. His paintings show a people and
culture that were very difficult for many white people of the time to accept. His paintings show an intelligent
people who had a highly developed culture. Few white people understood this.

George Catlin displayed his paintings for several years. He took them to Britain and
France. But he was never very successful. Late in his life he was forced to sell his Indian
paintings. Later, they were given to the Smithsonian Institution.

Elizabeth Broun [pronounced brune] is the director of the Smithsonian American Art
Museum. She says Catlin’s paintings add to our understanding of Native Americans.
She also says they show Catlin’s deep feelings for the rich culture of the tribes he
visited.

If you have a computer and can link with the Internet’s World Wide Web you can find
more information about George Catlin and his paintings. Type the letters N-M-A-A in a search. Or type the
letters C-A-T-L-I-N. Enjoy the paintings.


Johnny Unitas

HOST:

One of the best American football players of all time died of a heart attack earlier this month in Baltimore,
Maryland. He was sixty-nine years old. His name was Johnny Unitas. Mary Tillotson tells us about him.

ANNCR:

Johnny Unitas was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He played football in college at the University of Louisville.
The experts said he was too small to play the game professionally. But he proved them wrong. Johnny Unitas
played professional football for eighteen years, seventeen of them with the Baltimore Colts.

Unitas was a quarterback. That is the leader of the team’s offense⁵. The quarterback tells the other players what
to do each time their team has the ball. He receives the ball as the two teams line up facing each other. Then the
quarterback either hands the ball to another player, throws it to another player or runs with the ball himself.

Johnny Unitas was the first quarterback to throw the ball for more than forty-thousand yards. He set twenty-two
National Football League records. These include most passes attempted and completed, most yards gained
passing, most touchdown passes and most years leading the league in touchdown passes. He completed at least
one touchdown pass in forty-seven games without interruption between nineteen-fifty-six and nineteen-sixty.

Johnny Unitas led the Baltimore Colts to the National Football League championship three times. He also led the
team to a Super Bowl victory in nineteen-seventy-one. He was named most valuable player three times. Unitas
also was chosen as a member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame. He retired⁶ from football after the
nineteen-seventy-three season.

Johnny Unitas has been called the greatest quarterback of all time. But people said he was much more than that.
More than two-thousand people attended his funeral in Baltimore, Maryland last week. Family members and
friends talked about his life and his love of football. Football fans said they wanted to honor the man who brought
sports excellence⁷ to their city and who always treated everyone like they were his friends.

Pink Floyd

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. Arash Abedi asks about the rock group Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd is a British rock band famous for its use of electronics⁸ and special effects. It began recording⁹ in the
nineteen-sixties. Yet its music continues to be extremely popular all over the world.

The group took its name from the first names of two American blues¹⁰ musicians,
Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. At first, the band played rock, and rhythm and
blues music. But it quickly began to experiment with electronic sounds, and used
lights in its stage performances.

Its first real international hit album was “Dark Side of the Moon” in nineteen-
seventy-three. It is still one of the most popular rock albums around the world. Here
is a song from that album, “Money.
”

(MUSIC)

Another extremely popular album by Pink Floyd is “The Wall.” The songs are about the kinds of walls modern
people build around themselves for survival¹¹. One of the hits from “The Wall” is this song, “Another Brick in
the Wall.
”

(MUSIC)

Pink Floyd was named to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in nineteen-ninety-six. The group released a greatest


hits album last year called “Echoes¹²: The Best of Pink Floyd.
”
We leave you now with the title song from that
album, “Echoes.
”
(MUSIC)

HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for
AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer
was Audrius Reegus. And our producer was Caty Weaver¹³.

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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 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 tribes   

n.部落( tribe的名词复数 )；（动、植物的）族；（一）帮；大群

参考例句：

• tribes living in remote areas of the Amazonian rainforest 居住在亚马孙河雨林偏远地区的部落
• In Africa the snake is still sacred with many tribes. 非洲许多部落仍认为蛇是不可冒犯的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

6 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

7 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

8 electronics   

n.电子器件，电子学，电子技术

参考例句：

• About 45000 people worked in electronics in Scotland.苏格兰约有4.5万人在电子行业工作。
• He wants to brush up his knowledge of electronics.他想温习他的电子学知识。

9 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。

10 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

11 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

12 echoes   

回声，共鸣( echo的名词复数 )； （言语、作风、思想等的）重复； 重复者； [无线电]回波

参考例句：

• The sound echoes back from the walls. 这声音从墙壁发出回声。
• I could hear the echoes in this temple. 我在这座庙里能听到回声。

13 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。