VOA慢速英语20060929b

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Making Memories for Orphaned² Children Around the WorldBy Brianna Blake and Dana Demange

Broadcast: Friday, September 29, 2006

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We answer a question about the Warner Brothers ...

Play some music from Regina Spektor ...

And report about the Memory Project.

The Memory Project


A picture made for the memory project



A young American man is giving children around the world a special gift to remember their childhood. Mario Ritter tells us about the Memory Project.

MARIO RITTER:

Ben Schumaker graduated from the University of Wisconsin in two thousand three. Then he traveled to Guatemala. He worked in a home for children who do not have parents. The conditions at the orphanage³ were poor. Schumaker wanted to do something to help. But he did not know what he could do.

After returning home, he remembered a story that a young Guatemalan man told him. The young man had also been raised in a children's home because he had no parents. He told Schumaker about one thing that was missing from his life. He had no pictures of himself during his childhood. The man said he had no memories of what he looked like as a child. The man told Schumaker that he wished he could remember more about what he was like as a boy. The man's story gave Ben Schumaker an idea.

Schumaker began taking photographs of young people in orphanages⁴ all over the
Ben Schumaker

world. Then he brought the photographs back to high schools in America. There, the best art students used the photographs as models to draw or paint pictures of the children's faces. The finished portraits were then sent back to the children for them to keep. The students who created the pictures also included a photograph of themselves.

The Memory Project began in October of two thousand four. Since then, it has spread to hundreds of schools across the United States.

Ben Schumaker's project has touched the lives of thousands of children who now have beautiful portraits of themselves. Schumaker hopes the Memory Project will also affect the lives of the American high school students. He says he hopes the project will help the students connect with children in poor countries. He also hopes the students will better understand the lives of people in need around the world and will want to work for change.

So far, portraits have been given to children in twenty-five countries. They include India, Mozambique, Lebanon, Haiti, Honduras and Romania.

Ben Schumaker estimates that four thousand high school students will take part in the program this year. To learn more about the Memory Project, visit www.thememoryproject.org.

The Warner Brothers

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Burma. Ko Maw Gyi asks about the Warner Brothers.


Earlier this year, Warner Brothers opened its first studio store in mainland China, in Shanghai

Warner Brothers is an American company that produces movies and television shows. It started as a small family business operated by four brothers 鈥?Harry⁵, Albert, Sam and Jack⁶ Warner. In nineteen-oh-three, the brothers began their business by traveling throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania showing movies using a projector⁷. By nineteen-oh-seven, they opened a movie theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Two of the brothers sold tickets. Another operated the projector. And the youngest, Jack, sang songs between the films. Within ten years, the Warner brothers started producing movies, and moved that part of the business to California.

In nineteen eighteen, their first complete picture was called My Four Years in Germany. The film was based on a book by the United States' ambassador to the court of Kaiser Wilhelm. In nineteen twenty-five, Sam and Harry Warner heard the first experimental movies with sound in a laboratory in New York City. They immediately went to work to include the technology for sound in their movies.

Two years later, Warner Brothers Pictures released the first major movie with sound, or talking picture. It was called The Jazz Singer and it was a huge success. In the nineteen thirties, the company made several films that were highly praised. These included movies about criminals such as Little Caesar, The Public Enemy and musicals like The Gold Diggers and Forty-Second Street.

The Warner Brothers' success continued in the nineteen forties with movies like The Maltese Falcon⁸, and Casablanca. Movies during this time starred popular actors like Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Gary Cooper and Bette Davis. The company continues to produce popular movies today.

By the nineteen seventies, the Warner Brothers studios had also become well established in television. In nineteen ninety, Warner Communications combined with Time Incorporated to form Time Warner Incorporated.

In two thousand one, the company combined with America Online. The company now includes film production, cable television networks, music and publishing. This year, the company announced a deal with the CBS Corporation to form a new television broadcast network. The CW began broadcasting this month.

Regina Spektor

HOST:

Regina Spektor is a singer with a story and personality as interesting as her music.
'Regina

This young Russian-American musician has been playing since she was a child. Spektor has just released her second major record. Begin to Hope is an album full of playful and imaginative songs. Shirley Griffith tells us more.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Regina Spektor makes music that is hard to define. She combines wildly poetic⁹ words with unusual music. In some songs, she plays the piano. Other songs have more of a rock music sound. Some songs are happy and fun while others are sad and intense. Listen to Regina Spektor's clear and strong voice singing On the Radio.

(MUSIC)

Regina Spektor was born in Russia. She started to play classical piano music when she was very young.

At the age of nine, Regina and her family immigrated¹⁰ to the United States. They settled in the Bronx area of New York City. Regina started taking music lessons again. But her family did not have enough money to buy a piano. So she would play songs by pressing her fingers on her knees.In this love song called Samson you can hear Spektor performing on the piano.

(MUSIC)

After college, Regina Spektor started playing her music in clubs in New York City. She soon became popular and started selling CD's she made at home. Later, a well-known producer helped her record her first major album. Critics say her second record, Begin to Hope, is strong and expressive¹¹. Regina Spektor proves she can make many kinds of music. We leave you with the dreamy sound of Fidelity¹².

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.This show was written by Brianna Blake and Dana Demange, who was also the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, www.unsv.com. Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

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 orphaned   

[计][修]孤立

参考例句：

• Orphaned children were consigned to institutions. 孤儿都打发到了福利院。
• He was orphaned at an early age. 他幼年时便成了孤儿。

3 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

4 orphanages   

孤儿院( orphanage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It is Rotarians running orphanages for children who have no homes. 扶轮社员们为没有家的孩子办孤儿院。
• Through the years, she built churches, hospitals and orphanages. 许多年来，她盖了一间间的教堂、医院、育幼院。

5 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

6 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

7 projector   

n.投影机，放映机，幻灯机

参考例句：

• There is a new projector in my office.我的办公室里有一架新的幻灯机。
• How long will it take to set up the projector?把这个放映机安放好需要多长时间？

8 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

9 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

10 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句

11 expressive   

adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的

参考例句：

• Black English can be more expressive than standard English.黑人所使用的英语可能比正式英语更有表现力。
• He had a mobile,expressive,animated face.他有一张多变的，富于表情的，生动活泼的脸。

12 fidelity   

n.忠诚，忠实；精确

参考例句：

• There is nothing like a dog's fidelity.没有什么能比得上狗的忠诚。
• His fidelity and industry brought him speedy promotion.他的尽职及勤奋使他很快地得到晋升。