California

By Frank Beardsley

Broadcast: December 26, 2003
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
People have been following a dream to California for more than one-hundred-fifty years. Around thirty-six-million people live there now, more than in any other state. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, from VOA Special English. This week -- California and its people.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
At first, the dream was to find gold. In eighteen-forty-eight, a man named James Marshall was working at a 1)sawmill. It was on the American River, about one hundred kilometers northeast of San Francisco. He found a piece of bright metal where the river flowed through the sawmill. It was gold.
People who rushed to California the following year, eighteen-forty-nine, became known as "forty-niners." A few found gold and became rich. Others found jobs and stayed in California.
In eighteen-fifty California became a state.
VOICE TWO:
As years passed, more and more people came to the Golden State. There was lots of sunshine. The weather was warm most of the year. Ocean beaches and mountains were nearby. Jobs could be found in the cities and on farms. Going to California became a dream of many people in the cold, crowded cities of the East and Middle West.
Some of the newcomers dreamed of Hollywood. They came to find a job in the movie capital of the world. But these young men and women were like the early settlers who searched for gold. Only a few became stars or successful Hollywood movie writers.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
The newcomers in California found that nature put some problems in their dream. One of them is earthquakes. In nineteen-oh-six an earthquake destroyed the city of San Francisco. It killed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people.
Most recently, a powerful earthquake in Southern California in nineteen-ninety-four killed about sixty people in the Los Angeles area. It caused twenty-thousand million dollars in damage to buildings and roads.
Fires are another problem. In late autumn, dry winds race across the desert into Southern California. Any fire can suddenly become a major wildfire.
In late October, major wildfires burned across areas of San Diego, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. More than three-thousand homes were destroyed. More than twenty people were killed.
VOICE TWO:
California is more than one-thousand kilometers long and four-hundred kilometers wide. Mount¹ Whitney, in the Sequoia² National Park, is the highest mountain in the forty-eight connected states. It is more than four-thousand-four-hundred meters high.
California also has the lowest place in the United States. It is in Death Valley National Park, in the eastern desert near the border with Nevada. The place is called Badwater Basin. It is eighty-six meters below sea level. In fact, it is the lowest place anywhere in the Americas.
The coastline of California begins at the border with Mexico. It extends one-thousand-three-hundred-fifty kilometers north, to the state of Oregon. The central and southern California coast has many beautiful, sandy beaches. The big waves of the Pacific make these areas great places to surf.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
The first Europeans to see the California coast were explorers from Spain and Portugal almost five centuries ago. The 2)peninsula that extends into Mexico made them think it was an island. In fifty-thirty-nine a member of one sailing party recorded the name as "California." California was the name of an imaginary island in a book, a romance³ novel, that was popular in Spain.
Spain claimed the new land and later built religious settlements to spread Christianity among the native people. Mexico won its independence from Spain in the eighteen-twenties. But Mexico lost California in a war with the United States about twenty-five years later.
The discovery of gold in California soon followed.
VOICE TWO:
Today, California has the largest economy of all the fifty states. In fact, it has one of the largest economies in the world.
In the area of education, California has more state colleges and universities than any other state. The California State University system has more than twenty colleges and universities. The University of California, another system, has schools in nine cities.
California also has more than one-hundred community colleges. These offer two-year study programs to any student who completes high school.
California is rich in natural resources. It has wide areas of farmland. It has large forests. And it is has oil, natural gas and other valuable minerals.
California gets most of its water from rain and snow that fall in its northern and central mountains. But much of its best farmland is dry. So the state sends water from the mountains through pipelines⁴ and canals to farms and also to cities along the coast.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
America's largest city is New York. After that is Los Angeles, with about four-million people. San Diego, on the border with Mexico, is the second largest city in California. It has one-million-two-hundred-thousand people. San Jose and San Francisco are the third and fourth largest cities. San Jose is near the so-called Silicon⁵ Valley, home to many high technology companies.
The state capital is Sacramento.
VOICE TWO:
In October, voters in California dismissed their state governor, Gray Davis, a Democrat⁶. To take his place, they elected Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star and former champion bodybuilder. Mister Schwarzenegger is a Republican⁷ who was born in Austria. He took office last Monday.
Mister Davis had been elected for a second term last November. But Republicans⁸ used a recall law passed almost one-hundred years ago to call for a vote to remove him. Many Californians were angry at Mister Davis because he raised taxes.
Mister Davis said the state did not have enough money to pay for important government services. He blamed an economic 3)recession⁹ and an energy crisis¹⁰ for a 4)budget 5)deficit¹¹ of thousands of millions of dollars.
Many people were especially angry at a big increase in the vehicle tax. Governor Schwarzenegger, as his first official act, cancelled that increase.
VOICE ONE:
California lawmakers passed the recall law in nineteen-eleven. The law permits people to recall elected officials even without any charges of wrongdoing. Now, for the first time, the law has been used to remove the governor.
Some other states also have recall laws, but make the process more difficult.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Many famous Americans were born in California. Here are a few of them: President Richard Nixon. Poet Robert Frost. Writers Jack¹³ London and John Steinbeck. Guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia. Movie maker¹² George Lucas. Actors Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio. Actress Mariel Hemingway. Astronaut Sally Ride. Tennis players Serena and Venus Williams. And golfer Tiger Woods.
VOICE ONE:
People continue to follow their dreams to California. The State Department of Finance¹⁴ expects the population to grow by nearly six-hundred-thousand this year. About half the population growth is from people who arrive from other countries and states.
The Department of Finance says about seventy percent of these new arrivals come from other countries. The largest number is people from Mexico. Almost eleven-million people of Mexican ancestry¹⁵ live in California.
Asian-Pacific ties are also strong. San Francisco, for example, has one of the largest Chinese populations outside Asia. Chinese 6)immigration to California began in large numbers after the Gold Rush. In the eighteen-sixties, thousands of Chinese worked on the first railroad across the state. But there also were anti-Chinese riots¹⁶.
VOICE TWO:
Twelve percent of people in the United States live in California.
California's population is expected to reach thirty-six-million-five-hundred-thousand next year. At the current growth rate, California will reach fifty-four-million people in just over twenty years.
With so large a population, some fear what may happen to the California dream.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁷. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more about life in the United States, on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.
注释：
1) sawmill [5sC:mil] n.锯木厂
2) peninsula [pi5ninsjulE] n.半岛
3) recession [ri5seFEn] n.不景气
4) budget [5bQdVit] n.预算
5) deficit [5defisit] n.赤字
6) immigration [7imi5^reiFEn] n.外来的移民

1 mount   

n.山峰，乘用马，框，衬纸；vi.增长，骑上（马）；vt.提升，爬上，装备

参考例句：

• Their debts continued to mount up.他们的债务不断增加。
• She is the first woman who steps on the top of Mount Jolmo Lungma.她是第一个登上珠穆朗玛峰的女人。

2 sequoia   

n.红杉

参考例句：

• The sequoia national forest is at the southern end of the sierra nevada range.红杉国家公园位于内华达山脉南端尽头处。
• The photo shows the enormous general Sherman tree in California's sequoia national park.照片显示的是加利福尼亚州红杉国家公园内巨大的谢尔曼将军树。

3 romance   

n.恋爱关系，浪漫气氛，爱情小说，传奇

参考例句：

• She wrote a romance about an artist's life in Tokyo.她写了一个关于一位艺术家在东京生活的浪漫故事。
• They tried to rekindle the flames of romance.他们试图重燃爱火。

4 pipelines   

管道( pipeline的名词复数 )； 输油管道； 在考虑（或规划、准备） 中； 在酿中

参考例句：

• The oil is carried to the oil refinery by pipelines. 石油通过输油管输送到炼油厂。
• The oil carried in pipelines. 石油用管道输送。

5 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

6 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

7 republican   

n.拥护共和政体的人； adj.共和政体的，（Republican）共和党人，（Republican）共和党的

参考例句：

• Some families have been republican for generations.有些家庭世代都支持共和党。
• A third candidate has entered the contest for the Republican nomination.第三个候选人已经加入角逐共和党提名的行列。

8 republicans   

拥护共和政体者，共和主义者( republican的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Republicans got shellacked in the elections. 共和党在选举中一败涂地。
• The latest poll gives the Republicans a 5％ lead. 最近的民意调查结果表明共和党领先了五个百分点。

9 recession   

n.（工商业的）衷退（期），萧条（期）

参考例句：

• Manufacturing fell sharply under the impact of the recession.受到经济萧条的影响，制造业急剧衰退。
• A rise in interest rates plunged Britain deeper into recession.利率的提高导致英国经济更加萧条。

10 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

11 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

12 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

13 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。

14 finance   

n.财务管理，财政，金融，财源，资金

参考例句：

• She is an expert in finance.她是一名财政专家。
• A finance house made a bid to buy up the entire company.一家信贷公司出价买下了整个公司。

15 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

16 riots   

n. 暴乱, 骚乱, 暴动 vi. 骚乱, 闹事

参考例句：

• the instigators of the riots 煽动骚乱的人
• The riots are a clear manifestation of the people's discontent. 骚乱清楚地表明了人们的不满情绪。

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。