VOA慢速英语2012 AMERICAN MOSAIC - 'Silent Spring' At 50; Confessions from English Learners; Janka Nabay Brings Bubu to Brooklyn

 

 

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - 'Silent Spring' At 50; Confessions² from English Learners; Janka Nabay Brings Bubu to Brooklyn

JUNE SIMMS: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

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I’m June Simms. This week, we play a modern form of traditional West African Islamic music, known as Bubu, from Brooklyn-based musician Janka Nabay.

We also look at some of your confessions…

But first, we talk about “Silent Spring,” the book that launched the environmental movement in America fifty years ago.

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Silent Spring: 50 Years Later

JUNE SIMMS: Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson helped launch the modern environmental movement with her book “Silent Spring.” The book warned about the damage that pesticide³ products were doing to the natural world, including human health. Today, the battle for the environment continues. Shirley Griffith has more.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In the nineteen fifties, the United States Department of Agriculture was using more than two hundred fifty thousand kilograms of pesticides⁴ a year. “Silent Spring” warned readers that the chemicals were not only deadly for insects, but for all living things.

Linda Lear wrote a book called “Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature.”

LINDA LEAR: “Silent Spring” essentially⁵ told the reading public that human beings could alter the natural world in ways that were quite deadly and that could be potentially lethal⁶ to human beings as well as to other parts of the natural world.”

More than sixty million copies of “Silent Spring” have been sold in the United States since its publication in nineteen sixty-two. The book is considered one of the most important non-fiction works of modern time. It has been published in thirty languages. And it led to a ban on the pesticide DDT in the United States.

However, Rachel Carson was not without critics. The American agricultural expert, humanitarian⁷ and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Norman Borlaug, led a defense⁸ of pesticides after “Silent Spring” was published.

NORMAN BORLAUG: “We’re having troubles now feeding this hungry world. If you remove DDT with the hysteria that is present in the USA, the U.S. will be importing food, only there won’t be anyplace from where to import it.”

The DDT ban in farming went into effect in nineteen seventy-two. But thousands of new chemical products were in development. The United States Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee seeks to control the use of hundreds of chemicals in agriculture and other industries. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey⁹ is a committee member.

FRANK LAUTENBERG: “This committee heard from CDC officials who told us their scientists found two hundred and twelve industrial chemicals, including six carcinogens, coursing through Americans’ bodies.”

In two thousand six, the World Health Organization announced plans to use DDT indoors as part of its malaria¹⁰ campaign. The insecticide is very effective against mosquitoes, the carriers of malaria. Cases of the disease rose sharply after developing nations stopped using DDT in the early nineteen eighties.

The company Syngenta is a major producer of agricultural chemicals. It argues, as do others in the industry, that its chemicals are safe if used correctly. Tim Pastoor is Syngenta’s lead scientist.

TIM PASTOOR: “We try and do every single study that is necessary to support the safety characteristics of the product.”

Fifty years after the publication of “Silent Spring,” farmers continue to spray millions of kilograms of pesticides and other chemicals on their crops. And the environmental movement continues to fight against the practice.

Your Confessions

JUNE SIMMS: A few months ago we started a blog at voaspecialenglish.com called "Confessions of an English Learner." This blog is for you to share your stories about language misunderstandings, and to laugh, cry and sympathize with other people's stories. Thanks to all of you who have contributed so far, including Adam from Taiwan.

He writes that he was taking a tour with his son in Hawaii. His son had gone to the restroom. The tour guide asked where the boy was, and Adam answered “He is in the toilet.”

In other countries, that answer might have made perfect sense. But in the United States most people would say "he's in the restroom" or "he's in the bathroom." To Americans, a "toilet" is what you find in a restroom rather than the name for the room itself. So you can see why saying that his son was "in the toilet" might have sounded funny.

Michele from France had a funny and maybe somewhat painful story to tell. She was visiting London and the weather was very cold and rainy. She went into an Indian restaurant and ordered a meal. The waiter asked if she wanted it “hot.” She was surprised by the question and said, yes, “very, very hot.”

Michele says after she took her first bite she realized her misunderstanding. The food was very, very spicy¹¹. So the lesson there is be careful the next time someone asks if you want your food "hot." It can refer to either the temperature or the flavor.

Some of the English learners on our blog have advice for others. Hassan from Lebanon wrote that his English improved after he started watching movies in English and listening to English music. He advises listening to a song at least three times in a day so that the words stick in your mind.

Keep sharing your stories and your advice at voaspecialenglish.com -- click on Confessions of an English Learner. And check out our latest videos at the VOA Learning Channel on YouTube. They come with closed captioning¹², so you can watch them with or without captions¹³. And -- we think this is really cool -- you can translate the captions into other languages. Try it and tell us what you think.

JUNE SIMMS: Have you ever heard Bubu music? If not, here’s your chance. Christopher Cruise tells us about the new album, "En Yay Sah," by Brooklyn based Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Bubu is a traditional music from Sierra Leone. It has its roots in Islam of West Africa where special religious chants are used during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. It also involves wind instruments like bamboo flutes¹⁴ and metal pipes.

Janka Nabay is from Sierra Leone. He fled to the United States during Sierra Leone’s civil war. He settled in the Brooklyn area of New York City.

Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang 

Janka Nabay says Bubu music is hundreds of years old. But he has made the sound modern, adding electric guitar, bass¹⁵ guitar, keyboards and drums. The Bubu Gang players are all local musicians who also perform for other bands.

Among them is Syrian born singer Boshra al-Sahdi. Here she and Nabay sing “Eh Mane Ah,” or “Take This Advice.”

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Janka Nabay is popular in Sierra Leone. He sings in the country’s main language, Krio, as well as his own tribal¹⁶ language, Temne, and several others. Nabay says his work has made it pleasant for people to return to their culture and to love it. 

Supporters in the Sierra Leonean community in New York were more difficult to find. Nabay sings about that in “Kill Me With Bongo,” from “En Yay Sah.”

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Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang have some love songs too. In one, Nabay sings “I need somebody to sit by me, I need somebody kiss me, I need somebody to hold me tight, I need somebody to love me.”

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Music critics have mostly praised “En Yay Sah.” Bubu music may not be well known among them but one critic wrote of the album, “the unfamiliar¹⁷ has never been so inviting¹⁸.”

We leave you now with another song from En Yay Sah.” Here is Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang performing “Feba,” or “Look-Alike”

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JUNE SIMMS: I’m June Simms. This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁹. Zulima Palacio provided additional reporting.

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 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 pesticide   

n.杀虫剂，农药

参考例句：

• The pesticide was spread over the vegetable plot.菜田里撒上了农药。
• This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields.这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。

4 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

7 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。

8 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。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

11 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

12 captioning   

v.给（图片、照片等）加说明文字( caption的现在分词 )

参考例句：

13 captions   

n.标题，说明文字，字幕( caption的名词复数 )v.给（图片、照片等）加说明文字( caption的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• I stared, trying to grasp the point of the picture and the captions. 我目不转睛地看着漫画，想弄清楚漫画和解说词的意思。 来自辞典例句
• Indicates whether the user or the system paints the captions. 指示是由用户还是由系统来绘制标题。 来自互联网

14 flutes   

长笛( flute的名词复数 )； 细长香槟杯（形似长笛）

参考例句：

• The melody is then taken up by the flutes. 接着由长笛奏主旋律。
• These flutes have 6open holes and a lovely bright sound. 笛子有6个吹气孔，奏出的声音响亮清脆。

15 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。

16 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

17 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

18 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

19 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。