VOA慢速英语20060113b

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Lou Rawls: Remembering a Voice 'Soft as Velvet², Strong as Steel'By Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver³

Broadcast: Friday, January 13, 2006

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HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English. I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We honor singer Lou Rawls who died last week ...

Answer a question about a funny news service ...

And report about the historic birthday of a famous American.

Benjamin Franklin

This month is the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of the most important men in the history of the United States. Benjamin Franklin was born on January seventeenth, seventeen-oh-six. Faith Lapidus tells us about him.


Korean Benjamin Franklin

FAITH LAPIDUS: Benjamin Franklin was a writer, printer, inventor and diplomat⁴. He was the only person to sign four historic documents. They are the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain and the Constitution of the United States.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He left school at the age of ten because his parents could not pay for his education. He taught himself mathematics, science and five foreign languages. He moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of seventeen. He worked for several printers. Then he bought his own print shop. He wrote and published a newspaper called the Pennsylvania Gazette. He became well known as the paper became successful.

Franklin had even more success with a publication called Poor Richard's Almanac. It was famous for wise sayings that people still use today. Here is one: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

Benjamin Franklin wanted to improve life in Philadelphia. He served as its postmaster. He helped establish the first library and organized a fire department. He started a program to light city streets, gathered money to open a hospital and helped establish the city's first university.Benjamin Franklin was also a scientist. His experiments proved that lightning is a current of electricity. He invented the lightning rod to protect buildings from damage. He also invented a stove that heated a room more effectively than others.

Benjamin Franklin helped establish the United States government by helping⁵ to write the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Later, he served as a diplomat to France. He died in seventeen ninety, at the age of eighty-four.

The city of Philadelphia has launched a year-long celebration of the life of Benjamin Franklin. Libraries are honoring him with special readings. Writers are speaking about his influence. And musicians are honoring him with special performances. Philadelphia has also developed a traveling show explaining different parts of the life of this most interesting American.

The Onion

HOST: Our question this week comes from a listener in Turkey. Sibel Karaaslan asks about the American humor magazine called The Onion.


At theonion.com, the headline says: 'ESPN Courts Female Viewers With World's Emotionally Strongest Man Competition''

The Onion was started by two University of Wisconsin students in nineteen eighty-eight. They declared their paper America's Finest News Source. For the first few years it enjoyed local popularity. Then in nineteen ninety-six the weekly Onion entered cyberspace⁶. The humorous new online news magazine became very popular. The Web site says The Onion now has three million readers every week. The popularity of the online magazine led to increased interest in the print version. The Onion print magazine says it has almost one million readers each week.

The Onion covers all kinds of subjects 鈥?international, national, business, entertainment, politics and science. The Onion writers use a kind of humor called satire⁷. They use a serious, journalistic language and style to make fun of people's ideas and activities.

For example, a recent Onion online cover showed a picture of a dissatisfied young man in his disorganized home. The headline read, Plan to straighten out entire life during weeklong vacation yields mixed results. The report that followed was written in newspaper style. But, of course, this man's problems were not really worthy⁸ of newspaper coverage⁹!

The Onion includes features found in a real newspaper. For example, there is a section called American Voices. It includes photographs of several people who have been stopped on the street. They provide their opinions on whatever subject they are asked about. Those quotes are funny in themselves. But what is funnier is that The Onion uses the same photographs every week, but changes the names of the people. So, readers realize quickly that the joke is on them.

Onion Editor-in-Chief Scott Dikkers has published several books of collected Onion reports. The most recent is called Embedded¹⁰ in America. Not everyone likes The Onion. Some people find it offensive. Others do not recognize it as a humor magazine. And, sometimes an Onion story is reported by a real news organization as a real news report.

Lou Rawls

Last week, the famous singer Lou Rawls died of cancer in Los Angeles, California. He was seventy-two years old. Pat Bodnar remembers him and plays some of his music.


Lou Rawls sings the national anthem¹¹ at baseball's 2005 World Series in October

PAT BODNAR: Lou Rawls made more than sixty albums. He sang it all: rhythm and blues¹², jazz, soul and pop. But like many great American singers, he started singing Christian¹³ gospel music as a child in church. His grandmother raised him in Chicago, Illinois, and had a major influence in his gospel music beginnings.

As a teenager, Lou Rawls discovered jazz and doo-wop. He and a classmate, the future famous singer, Sam Cooke, sang doo-wop together. In nineteen fifty-eight, Lou Rawls was in a tragic¹⁴ car accident. One man died and Rawls came close to death. He later said the experience changed him for the better. He said he began to learn acceptance, direction and understanding.

Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke moved to Los Angeles to seek music careers. A few years later, in nineteen sixty-seven, Rawls won the first of three Grammy awards. Here is that hit song, Dead End Street.

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Lou Rawls' music was played in disco dance clubs in the nineteen seventies. In fact, he produced his biggest hit during that period. Here is You'll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine).

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Lou Rawls also worked as an actor in television, movies and theater. He was well known for his support of humanitarian¹⁵ groups. But he was best known for his voice. Critics called it sweet as sugar, soft as velvet, strong as steel and smooth as butter. We leave you now with Lou Rawls singing Natural Man.

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HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

Our show was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver, who also was our producer.

Send your questions about American life to [email protected]. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A.

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 velvet   

n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的

参考例句：

• This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
• The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。

3 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。

4 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。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 cyberspace   

n.虚拟信息空间，网络空间，计算机化世界

参考例句：

• She travels in cyberspace by sending messages to friends around the world.她利用电子空间给世界各地的朋友们发送信件。
• The teens spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.青少年花费在电脑上的时间比他们和真正的朋友及家人在一起的时间要多。

7 satire   

n.讽刺，讽刺文学，讽刺作品

参考例句：

• The movie is a clever satire on the advertising industry.那部影片是关于广告业的一部巧妙的讽刺作品。
• Satire is often a form of protest against injustice.讽刺往往是一种对不公正的抗议形式。

8 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

11 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

12 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。

13 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

14 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

15 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。