THIS IS AMERICA - Winter Olympic Games

THIS IS AMERICA -January 28, 2002: Winter Olympic Games

By George Grow

VOICE ONE:

The American state of Utah is busy making final preparations for the Winter Olympics. The Olympic Games will
open early next month. I’m Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Bob Doughty¹. The story of the Olympics is our report today on the VOA Special English program,

THIS IS AMERICA.
((OLYMPIC FANFARE² INSTEAD OF THEME)
)
VOICE ONE:
Athletes from around the world will compete for medals at the Nineteenth Winter Olympic Games. The Winter

Games will open in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February eighth. They will continue until February twenty-fourth.
An estimated three-thousand-five-hundred athletes and officials from about eighty countries will take part in the
games.

The athletes will compete to win medals in seventy-eight events testing their skill in
seven winter sports. The sports include skiing, ice skating, sledding and ice hockey.
Thousands of people will attend the events. Millions more around the world will
watch the Olympics on television.

VOICE TWO:

Salt Lake City, Utah is in the Rocky Mountains of the American West. Most of the state is dry. Average yearly
rainfall is thirty centimeters. Yet, a lot of snow falls in the mountains in winter.

The United States last held the Winter Olympic Games twenty -two years ago. The Nineteen-Eighty Games were
in Lake Placid³, New York. They were among the most exciting in history. American Eric Heiden won all five
speed-skating races. He became the first athlete to win five individual gold medals at one Olympics. Also, the
American ice hockey team won an unexpected gold medal at the Lake Placid games.

VOICE ONE:

The modern Olympics are named after games held in ancient times. The games are said to have started in the
ancient Greek city of Olympia, about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago.

The first thirteen Olympic games were foot races during celebrations to honor the Greek god Zeus. Winners were
honored with a crown of olive⁴ leaves placed around their head. Greece continued to hold the games every four
years for the next one-thousand years. The ancient Romans finally banned them in the fourth century when they
ruled Greece. They destroyed the Olympic centers and sports fields.

VOICE TWO:

The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, in Eighteen-Ninety-Six. A French diplomat⁵, Baron⁶
Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a world celebration of sports like the ancient games of Greece. He believed the
international event would provide a way for athletes of all nations to become friends.

Today, the Olympics are the world’s most famous sports event. The five rings of the Olympic sign represent
this athletic⁷ friendship. They represent the linking, through sports, of five parts of the world: Europe, Asia,
Africa, Australia, and the Americas.


The Olympics have many traditions. For example, a special Olympic flame always burns at the games. The
Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece. Runners are carrying it across the United States to Utah. The Olympic
flame will arrive in Salt Lake City on the day of the opening ceremonies.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE ONE:

Utah is a popular holiday area. The state earns hundreds of millions of dollars from visitors each year. Many
visitors travel there to take part in winter sports.

Utah is one of the best places in the United States for skiing. Many skiing events at the Olympics will be held at
the Utah Olympic Park, high in the Wasatch Mountains, about forty kilometers east of Salt Lake City. It is about
two-thousand-two-hundred meters above sea level. The mountains receive an average of seven-and-one-half
meters of snow each winter.

VOICE TWO:

The Utah Olympic Park has five areas for ski jump competitions. An Olympic-size track was built for bobsled
and luge competitions. It is one of only three such tracks in North America. The track is close to the ground and
has fifteen turns. Its path is similar in shape to the land.

The Utah Olympic Park will hold four major events during the Winter Games. They are the Nordic skiing,
bobsled, luge and skeleton⁸ competitions. The skeleton event has not been seen at the Olympics since Nineteen-
Forty-Eight. Officials expect it to be extremely popular. Athletes competing in the skeleton ride down the track
on a luge sled. But they ride head first on their stomachs, instead of feet first on their backs.

VOICE ONE:

One of the world’s top skeleton riders is Jim Shea of the United States. He is the first American to win a
skeleton world championship. He also is the third member of his family to compete in the Winter Olympics. Jim
Shea’s father, James, competed in three events at the Nineteen-Sixty-Four games in Innsbruck, Austria. James
Shea’s father, Jack⁹, won two speed-skating races at the Nineteen-Thirty-Two Games in Lake Placid, New York.

Jack Shea was to have been honored at the Olympics opening ceremony as the oldest American to have won a
gold medal at the Winter Olympics. But he died last week of injuries suffered in a car accident. He was ninety-
one years old.

Another athlete to watch at the Olympics is Michelle Kwan. She has been the top American women’s figure

skater in recent years. Kwan has already won four world figure skating championships. She has been national
champion six times. Now, pressure is building on Kwan to win her first Olympic gold medal. She won a silver
medal at the Nineteen-Ninety-Eight Winter games in Nagano (NA-ga -no) Japan.

(MUSIC BRIDGE)

VOICE TWO:

Olympic athletes spend many hours training for the games. This can be very costly¹⁰. In many countries, the
government provides athletes with special trainers, equipment and economic support.

In the United States, athletes do not receive such support from the government. Instead, they depend on help from
private groups and companies, or from the United States Olympic Committee. The committee supervises¹² all
activities of the United States Olympic teams.

The United States Olympic Committee helps gain money to support American athletes who hope to compete in
the Olympics. It does this in several ways. The committee receives most of its money from private companies.
The companies pay the committee for the right to use the Olympic sign to help sell their products. The committee
also earns money by selling sporting goods, clothing and other products with the Olympic sign. Television
companies also pay the committee for the right to broadcast the Olympic games.


VOICE ONE:

The Salt Lake City Olympics had problems, long before the games were to open. Three years ago, an
investigation¹³ found that top officials of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee gave money and gifts to members
of the International Olympic Committee. The payments were reportedly made in an effort to win votes for the
city to hold the Winter Games.

The findings badly damaged the image of Salt Lake City and the Olympics. The Salt Lake City Olympic
Committee quickly re-organized and continued making plans for the games.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE TWO:

Security at the Olympics has been a major concern since the Nineteen-Seventy-Two Summer Games in Munich,
Germany. That is when eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team were killed in a terrorist¹⁴ attack. Six years
ago, a bomb exploded at the Summer Games in Atlanta, Georgia killing¹⁵ one person. Many people still have fresh
memories of the September eleventh terrorist attacks in the United States. Olympic organizers and Utah officials
recognize that the Winter Games could be a target for terrorists¹⁶.

Olympic officials say they are prepared for any security threat. The federal government, state of Utah and Salt
Lake City Olympic Committee are spending more than three-hundred-million dollars on security. That total is a
record for any sporting event in history. Thousands of federal, state and local law enforcement officials will be
protecting the athletes and people watching the events. Entrances to all events will be heavily guarded.

VOICE ONE:

Mitt¹¹ Romney is chairman of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee. Mister Romney says it is necessary to hold
the Olympics because of what they represent. He says the Olympics represent civilization and the family of
mankind. He says the Olympics are more important now than ever.

((OLYMPIC THEME INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME))

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by George Grow. It was produced by Caty Weaver¹⁷. Our studio engineer was Dwayne
Collins. I’m Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA
Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.

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1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 fanfare   

n.喇叭；号角之声；v.热闹地宣布

参考例句：

• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide.这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。
• A fanfare of trumpets heralded the arrival of the King.嘹亮的小号声宣告了国王驾到。

3 placid   

adj.安静的，平和的

参考例句：

• He had been leading a placid life for the past eight years.八年来他一直过着平静的生活。
• You should be in a placid mood and have a heart-to- heart talk with her.你应该心平气和的好好和她谈谈心。

4 olive   

n.橄榄，橄榄树，橄榄色；adj.黄绿色的，黄褐色的，橄榄色的

参考例句：

• Have you eaten a kind of fruit called olive?你吃过橄榄这种水果吗？
• She likes olive because It'symbolizes peace.她喜欢橄榄色因为它象征着和平。

5 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

6 baron   

n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王

参考例句：

• Henry Ford was an automobile baron.亨利·福特是一位汽车业巨头。
• The baron lived in a strong castle.男爵住在一座坚固的城堡中。

7 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

8 skeleton   

n.骨骼，框架，骨干，梗概，提要

参考例句：

• A long illness made a skeleton out of him.长期的卧病使他骨瘦如柴。
• Her notes gave us just the bare skeleton of her theory.她的笔记只给我们提供了她的理论的梗概。

9 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。

10 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

11 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

12 supervises   

v.监督，管理( supervise的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The group leader supervises a dozen workers. 组长管十二个工人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He makes the wines and supervises the vineyards. 他酿酒并管理葡萄园。 来自辞典例句

13 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。

14 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。

15 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

16 terrorists   

n.恐怖主义者，恐怖分子( terrorist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The terrorists have halted their bloody campaign of violence. 恐怖分子已经停止了他们凶残的暴力活动。
• They were finally forced to capitulate to the terrorists' demands. 他们最后被迫屈从恐怖分子的要求。

17 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。