World Trade Center Memorial Competition

 

Broadcast: May 9, 2003
By Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver¹

HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC²--VOA's radio magazine in Special English.
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today,
We answer a listener's question about Mother's Day ...
Play music by the group Fleetwood Mac ...
And report about a contest for a September eleventh memorial in New York City.

World Trade Center Memorial Competition
HOST:
Officials in New York City have announced an international competition to design a memorial to honor³ those who died at the World Trade Center. The memorial is part of a larger plan for the rebuilding of the area.
ANNCR:
The seven buildings known as the World Trade Center complex in New York City were built between nineteen-sixty-two and nineteen-seventy-three. The buildings known as the Twin Towers were the tallest in the world at the time they were finished.
On February twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three, a terrorist⁴ bomb exploded1 in the parking area below the World Trade Center. Six people were killed. Thousands were injured2. The bomb damaged the buildings but people were able to return to work three weeks later.
On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, hijackers3 flew two passenger airplanes into the Twin Towers. The attacks caused huge explosions⁵ that started fires in the buildings. Pieces fell all over the area. The Twin Towers fell down.
Five other buildings in the World Trade Center were also destroyed. Almost three-thousand people were killed.
The international competition to honor those killed is open to anyone over the age of eighteen. The competition will be carried out in two parts. The first designs must be sent to the judging committee by June thirtieth4. The judges will select five to further develop their designs. The judges will announce a winner later this year. The fourteen judges on the committee include designer Maya Lin, architecture5 professor Enrique Norton, and Paula Grant-Berry. Her husband was among those killed.
Officials say they are seeking the most creative designs for the memorial to honor all those who died. Anyone seeking to take part in the competition must register⁶ by May twenty-ninth. The cost is twenty-five dollars. To register for the competition, you must use the form found on the Memorial Competition Web site. It provides all the necessary information about the contest and how to send in the design. That address is www.wtcsitememorial.org. Again, the address is wtcsitememorial -- that's all one word -- dot o-r-g.

Mother's Day
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from two different people. Nguyen Than Duc of Vietnam and Ibrahim Abdulkarim of Nigeria both ask about the American holiday, Mother's Day.
This Sunday, May eleventh, is Mother's Day in the United States. Mother's Day is celebrated⁷ in many countries around the world, but not always on the same day. Some history experts say the holiday comes from ancient spring festivals in Greece and Rome. A more modern Mother's Day began in the seventeenth century in Britain.
The writer Julia Ward⁸ Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother's Day in the United States. That was in eighteen-seventy-two. She said it should be a day to celebrate peace.
Mother's Day as it is celebrated today began with a woman named Anna Jarvis. In nineteen-oh-seven, she held a ceremony to honor her mother at a church in the state of West Virginia. She held the ceremony on the anniversary6 of her mother's death. Later, she and others wrote thousands of letters to public officials urging that the second Sunday in May be declared Mother's Day.
President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress⁹ finally agreed in nineteen-fourteen. The second Sunday in May became a day of public expression of love for mothers throughout the country. It became popular for people to send gifts of flowers and candy tot their mothers on Mother's Day.
Today, children of all ages still give their mothers special gifts on Mother's Day. Older children may travel to visit their mothers. If they cannot, they usually send a special card with a message of love. Or they send flowers.
They also usually call their mothers on the telephone to wish them a happy day. Mother's Day is one of the busiest days of the year for American telephone companies.

Fleetwood Mac
HOST:
You probably remember the band Fleetwood Mac from its hit records twenty years ago. Well, the band has released¹⁰ its first album of new songs in sixteen years. Steve Ember tells us about the album, called "Say You Will."
ANNCR:
Fleetwood Mac has produced a big album. There are eighteen songs on "Say You Will." Singer Stevie Nicks joked that a person needs two days to listen to it.
She and guitar7 player Lindsey Buckingham met as teenagers. They recorded an album together before joining Fleetwood Mac in nineteen-seventy-four. The two musicians are famous for the stormy love relationship they once had. The album closes with goodbye songs that they wrote about each other years ago. Hers is called "Goodbye Baby."
(MUSIC)
Nicks and Buckingham says they balance each other musically. However, part of the balance comes from much argument. Nicks says the music would be uninteresting if everything went smoothly¹¹. Here is another song Stevie Nicks wrote about her relationship with Lindsey Buckingham. It is called "Thrown Down."
(MUSIC)
Fleetwood Mac has sold more than seventy-million records since its creation¹². Mick Fleetwood is the only member who has been in the band from the beginning. He plays the drums. John McVie is also an early member. He plays bass¹³. We leave you now with the new album's title song, "Say You Will."
(MUSIC)
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC -- VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

1. explode [Iks5pl[ud] vi. 爆炸 / vt. 使爆炸
2. injure [5IndV[] vt. 损害，损伤
3. hijacker [5haIdVAk[] n. 强盗，劫持犯（尤指劫持飞机）
4. thirtieth [5W[:tIIW] num. 第三十，三十分之一
5. architecture [5a:kItektF[] n. 建筑，建筑学
6. anniversary [7AnI5v[:s[rI] n. 周年纪念
7. guitar [gI5ta:] n. 吉他，六弦琴

1 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。

2 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。

3 honor   

n.光荣；敬意；荣幸；vt.给…以荣誉；尊敬

参考例句：

• I take your visit as a great honor.您的来访是我莫大的光荣。
• It is a great honor to receive that prize.能拿到那个奖是无上的光荣。

4 terrorist   

n.恐怖主义者，恐怖分子

参考例句：

• Without the gun,I'm a sitting duck for any terrorist.没有这支枪，我就成了恐怖分子下手的目标了。
• The district was put on red alert during a terrorist's bomb scare.这个地区在得到恐怖分子炸弹恐吓后作了应急准备。

5 explosions   

爆炸( explosion的名词复数 )； 爆发； 激增； （感情，尤指愤怒的）突然爆发

参考例句：

• Soon afterwards five explosions were heard from the area. 此后不久从那个地方传来五次爆炸声。
• They were monitoring the upper air to collect evidence of atomic explosions. 他们正在检测高空空气以收集原子爆炸的证据。

6 register   

n.登记簿，花名册，注册员；v.登记，注册

参考例句：

• Please list your name in the attendance register.请在点名册上登记你的名字。
• He was looking over a hotel register.他正在仔细检查旅馆住宿登记表。

7 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

8 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

9 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。

10 released   

v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他，这倒容易。

11 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

12 creation   

n.创造，创造的作品，产物，宇宙，天地万物

参考例句：

• Language is the most important mental creation of man.语言是人类头脑最重要的产物。
• The creation of new playgrounds will benefit the local children.新游戏场的建立将有益于当地的儿童。

13 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。