VOA慢速英语2011--Black Friday, MREs and Rihanna's 'Talk That Talk'

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Black Friday, MREs and Rihanna's 'Talk That Talk'

 

MARIO RITTER: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I’m Mario Ritter. Today we play new music from Rihanna ...

We also ask some Americans what they like to do on the day after Thanksgiving.

But, first, we tell about some foods specially² prepared for American troops around the world.

(MUSIC)

Food for Troops

MARIO RITTER: Many people across the United States are enjoying the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Thanksgiving dinner is a big event for Americans, both at home and overseas. The United States military is responsible for feeding troops not only on Thanksgiving Day, but throughout the year. Recently, the military has been taking steps to improve the meals it serves troops. Shirley Griffith has more.

Shoppers camped outside a Best Buy electronics3 store in Pembroke Pines, Florida, on Wednesday, waiting for specials on Black Friday

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Since the early nineteen eighties, American troops have been given MREs, or Meals, Ready to Eat. For years, troops called MREs “Meals Rejected by Everyone” or “Meals Rejected by the Enemy.”

But the Department of Defense⁴ has made changes to MREs. Among the changes is meat with caffeine added, and a more-nutritious applesauce it calls “Zapplesauce.” Some of the new meals were recently shown to reporters at the National Archives building, in Washington, DC.

Gerald Darsch is the Director of the Defense Combat⁵ Feeding Directorate in Natick, Massachusetts. He says the troops of today want to eat different foods than those provided⁶ ten or twenty years ago. He says modern soldiers like a variety of foods.

GERALD DARSCH: “A lot of Mexican food, a lot of Chinese food, there’s a lot of interest in Mediterranean⁷ cuisine⁸ that historically we haven’t seen a lot of. Now there’s obviously⁹ there’s going to be that passion for fast food. But our job is to take fast food, make it look like it but make it nutritionally sound and we’ve had some pretty good luck in doing that.”

MREs come in different packages

Current MRE choices even include vegetarian¹⁰ or holiday meals. Mr. Darsch says the goal of the effort is to make American troops the best-fed fighting forces in the world.

The Combat Feeding Directorate says it attempts to provide the best possible nutrition value to the troops. It says food affects the health, efficiency¹¹ and morale¹² of the troops.

Mr. Darsch says the current MREs are much improved because the military listened to American soldiers.

GERALD DARSCH: “What we’re doing is we’re going to the field every year and we’re evaluating the MRE with the prototype¹³ test items.”

Mr. Darsch says a single MRE costs the American taxpayer¹⁴ about seven dollars and twenty cents; that includes development costs and the cost of the food and packaging. He says MREs that the troops like can save lives and money. That is because large numbers of vehicles are not needed to transport hot meals to troops in the field. MREs have self-contained heaters – just add water and a special container heats the meal.

Gerald Darsch says American soldiers have liked the changes. But his research laboratory¹⁵ has yet to be completely successful. It has attempted, but failed to produce a pizza that can be put in an MRE. Yet, says Mr. Darsch, MRE no longer means “Meals Rejected by Everyone.” Today’s MREs, he says, are “Meals Relished¹⁶ by Everyone.”

Black Friday

MARIO RITTER: Our question this week comes from Kazakhstan. Stanislav Ukiyev wants to know about Thanksgiving holiday traditions in the United States.

Thanksgiving is observed on the fourth Thursday in November. The day usually involves family gatherings¹⁷ leading up to a big dinner. The main dish is often turkey with stuffing¹⁸. After dinner, sweet treats are usually offered. Pumpkin¹⁹ pie is a popular choice.

Many Americans also have customs for the day after Thanksgiving, which has come to be known as Black Friday. Probably the one custom you have heard of is shopping. Many stores have big sales. Store owners lower prices to help increase business at the start of Christmas shopping season.

We talked to people around Washington to see if shopping was the tradition they followed on Black Friday. It is decidedly not the activity of choice for Amy Sosin of Arlington, Virginia.

AMY SOSIN: "Well, we don’t have a specific tradition except that we make it a point not to go shopping on Black Friday. Because it scares all of us. We usually just do family time. We might watch a movie or play games together.”

Megan Wright is of the same opinion. She is from Santa Monica, California.

MEGAN WRIGHT: "I prefer not to shop. Usually we go to the movies and, perhaps, out to coffee.”

The stars arrive for the premiere of "The Muppets" movie in Los Angeles

Megan Wright says she plans to see the new movie “The Muppets” on Black Friday.

The Flores family is from Orlando, Florida. They are spending this Thanksgiving in Washington. Jose Flores says his children love to study American history at school. So they decided²⁰ to come to the nation’s capital this holiday. They are visiting monuments, government buildings and other historical places.

But Mrs. Flores says there will be some shopping Friday on the drive back to Florida. She plans to stop at some stores along the way.

Helen Zinner is from San Antonio, Texas. She describes her traditional Thanksgiving Friday.

HELEN ZINNER: “It’s probably resting and relaxing from eating too much and spending time with family until late into the night before.”

Rihanna "Talk That Talk"

MARIO RITTER: The singer Rihanna was a winner at the recent American Music Awards. Her album “Loud” won in the soul/rhythm and blues²¹ category. Rihanna is currently²² performing in Europe as part of a campaign to advertise the album. On Monday, her new record, “Talk That Talk,” also came out. Jim Tedder²³ plays some of the songs.

(MUSIC)

JIM TEDDER: That was “You Da One” the first song on Rihanna’s latest album “Talk That Talk.” The record already has a number one single, “We Found Love.”

(MUSIC)

“Talk That Talk” is Rihanna’s sixth studio album. It was a surprise when she announced she was making it. She was travelling and performing shows for her album “Loud.” She also had worked on albums for other artists, including Coldplay.

Rihanna performing last month in London as part of her "Loud" tour

And she was busy creating a sexy line of clothing for the Italian designer Armani.

Maybe all this work is profitable²⁴, but Rihanna recently said it does not help her love life. She sings about being single in “We All Want Love.”

(MUSIC)

In her six year career Rihanna has had eleven number one hits on Billboard’s singles chart. But none of her albums have gone that high. Some critics say “Talk That Talk” will change that. We leave you with Rihanna performing “Farewell” from her new album.

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER: Finally we are pleased to tell you the results of a contest for VOA Special English listeners. Earlier this year, we asked listeners to answer four questions: where they live, how they listen to us, the best time for listening and how much news they would like to hear.

Many thanks to everyone who wrote to us. We were happy to hear from listeners from around the world -- about two hundred fifty in all.

The largest number, about forty percent, were in China. And the winner of the competition is in China’s capital, Beijing. Qingmao-Luo has won a radio that receives shortwave, medium wave and FM.

I’m Mario Ritter. Our program was written by Christopher Cruise²⁵ and Caty Weaver²⁶, who was also our producer.

Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA 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 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

3 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。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 combat   

n.战斗，斗争，格斗；vt.与...斗争，与...战斗

参考例句：

• The police are now using computers to help combat crime.警方现在使用电脑打击犯罪活动。
• A reporter interviewed the combat hero.记者访问了这位战斗英雄。

6 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。

7 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

8 cuisine   

n.烹调，烹饪法

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• This restaurant is renowned for its cuisine.这家餐馆以其精美的饭菜而闻名。

9 obviously   

adv.显然；明白地

参考例句：

• Obviously they were putting him to a severe test.显然他们是在给他以严峻的考验。
• Obviously he was lying.显然他是在撒谎。

10 vegetarian   

n.素食者；adj.素食的

参考例句：

• She got used gradually to the vegetarian diet.她逐渐习惯吃素食。
• I didn't realize you were a vegetarian.我不知道你是个素食者。

11 efficiency   

n.效率，效能，功效

参考例句：

• We were most impressed with your efficiency.你的效率给我们留下很深刻的印象。
• Our goal is to achieve the maximum of efficiency.我们的目标是取得最高的效率。

12 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

13 prototype   

n.原型，典型，范例

参考例句：

• This is the prototype for future school buildings.这是未来的学校建筑的蓝本。
• He was the prototype of the elder statesman.他是老一辈政治家的典型。

14 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

15 laboratory   

n.实验室，化验室

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a laboratory.她捐款成立了一个实验室。
• Our laboratory equipment isn't perfect,but we must make do.实验室设备是不够理想，但我们只好因陋就简。

16 relished   

v.欣赏( relish的过去式和过去分词 )；从…获得乐趣；渴望

参考例句：

• The chaplain relished the privacy and isolation of his verdant surroundings. 牧师十分欣赏他那苍翠的环境所具有的幽雅恬静，与世隔绝的气氛。 来自辞典例句
• Dalleson relished the first portion of the work before him. 达尔生对眼前这工作的前半部分满有兴趣。 来自辞典例句

17 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

18 stuffing   

n.填充物vt.填充(stuff的现在分词)

参考例句：

• We had a chicken and stuffing, and new potatoes from the garden. 我们吃了只百宝鸡，还有园子里种的新鲜马铃薯。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She had already mixed the stuffing for the dumplings. 她已经把饺子馅和好了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

19 pumpkin   

n.南瓜

参考例句：

• They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。
• It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你！

20 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。

21 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。

22 currently   

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。

23 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

24 profitable   

adj.有益的，能带来利益的，有利可图的

参考例句：

• That business became profitable last year.那项生意去年变得很赚钱。
• The convention business is very profitable for the hotel industry.承办会议业务能给旅馆业带来很高的利润。

25 cruise   

v.巡航，航游，缓慢巡行；n.海上航游

参考例句：

• They went on a cruise to Tenerife.他们乘船去特纳利夫岛。
• She wants to cruise the canals of France in a barge.她想乘驳船游览法国的运河。

26 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。