谁会当选为时代年度人物？

Katie Couric: In 1927, Time magazine put Charles Lindbergh on the cover of its final edition of the year, called him their "Man of the Year", and a tradition was born. Since then the honor has been bestowed¹ on leaders, presidents and peacemakers. Jim Kelly is Time's Managing Editor and he's here to reveal this year's finalists for "Person of the Year".

Matt Lauer: You get nervous since you are gonna say, reveal the actual winner.

Jim Kelly: Exactly, when I went here, I didn't sign up for this.

Katie Couric: Nice to see you. Listen. I know you've got six finalists and they represent sort of a wide variety of potential people. Let's start with the world of politics. You have two. You have President Bush and Valerie Plame.

Jim Kelly: Right, we put President Bush who hasn't had a very good year. But this would not be the first time we put the president on with a bad year. Lyndon Johnson was on in '67 with the war in Vietnam and slab² of bad opinion polls. Valerie Plame really interests me because without Valerie Plame there is no Patrick Fitzgerald, there is no Karl Rove in trouble. And I met Valerie Plame for the first time a few months ago. She is an absolutely charming, really interesting person. And that would be an interesting way to tell the story of this year.

Matt Lauer: But, but wouldn't it be kind of different? I mean, she didn't do anything on purpose to be put in that position. And shouldn't someone have to initiate³ some kind of behavior or some kind of action?

Jim Kelly: Well, that's fair enough. You could do Patrick Fitzgerald, I suppose. I was just struck by just how unlikely a...a person like Valerie Plame is to be in the part of this whole investigation⁴.

Katie Couric: Because she really opened up the floodgates.( Exactly, right.) Speaking of that, Katrina,(Katrina. Yes.) and opening up the floodgates, I mean, I know that obviously, was the domestic story of the year, if not, the decade. (Exactly.) Um, and...and you have put in animated⁵ objects on the cover before,(Yes, we have, the computer.) I guess twice, right? The computer.

Jim Kelly: Yeah, the computer, I mean we put the planet of earth once on the cover of "Time of the year".

Matt Lauer: And when we talk about Katrina, we're talking about the Mother Nature.

Jim Kelly: Yes, exactly, exactly, or, also, if you do Mother Nature that you'll also get the tsunami⁶ which was of technically⁷ late last year but obviously its effects are so felt, to get the terrible earthquake in Pakistan. And on an online poll, most people have voted for Mother Nature. The problem which we're, you know, have struggled with is how do you illustrate⁸ Mother Nature for the cover.

Katie Couric: You do. You also talk about possibly the...the refugees that resulted from, (Yes.) but, they weren't called refugees (Kind of victims. (Right..) except for that, at the very beginning. But really I guess the homeless and displaced individuals from Katrina.

Jim Kelly: Exactly, exactly. And now they spread still all across the country, and there is, as you know, there is hundreds of thousands of them, and it's likely they won't return to New Orleans for months and months.

Matt Lauer: And yet we'd like to prognosticate it, (OK) and without Mother Nature you don't have their story, (yes, exactly) so again, I am, well, I'm leaning toward Mother Nature here.

Jim Kelly: I see where you are going. (Yeah, right.)

Katie Couric: And, and then there are two other personalities⁹. I guessed Oprah is a possibility.

Jim Kelly: Well, Oprah is supposed a possibility mostly frankly¹⁰ because the way she responded to Katrina which obviously was very effective. And some leaders have reckoned in and nominated Bono for his work on debt relief.

Matt Lauer: Who's gonna be? (....)

Katie Couric: Matt Lauer, I nominate Matt Lauer.

Matt Lauer: Matt Lauer as Mother Nature. How about that? I tell you can illustrate that on the cover.

Jim Kelly: We're gonna use (inaudible), but you would do if you like. (Hey. Jim) (Matt)

Matt Lauer: It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature(inaudible).

Katie Couric: Anyway, thanks, Jim, we are gonna see you on Monday. ( you bet ) and you actually will reveal your Person of the Year, right here on today. (Yes. I'll be here with Mother Nature.)

1 bestowed   

赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was a title bestowed upon him by the king. 那是国王赐给他的头衔。
• He considered himself unworthy of the honour they had bestowed on him. 他认为自己不配得到大家赋予他的荣誉。

2 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

3 initiate   

vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入

参考例句：

• A language teacher should initiate pupils into the elements of grammar.语言老师应该把基本语法教给学生。
• They wanted to initiate a discussion on economics.他们想启动一次经济学讨论。

4 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

5 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

6 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

7 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

8 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

9 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

10 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。