AMERICAN MOSAIC - Songs by the late Peggy Lee/A question abo

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ -February 8, 2002: Songs by the late Peggy Lee/A question about Valentine's

Day/Ways animals help people
HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC
—
VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today we:
play some songs recorded by Peggy Lee ..
.
answer a question about the holiday called Valentine ’s Day ..
.
and report about ways animals help people.

Pet Therapy

HOST:

Last September, trained dogs provided emotional support for some of the families of victims of the terrorist²
attacks on the United States. The dogs also helped people who escaped from the World Trade Center in New
York City. Such dogs also aid patients in hospitals and nursing centers. Shep O ’Neal has more.

ANNCR:

Jean Owen of New York City is a dog trainer. She and her two dogs belong to an organization called Therapy
Dogs International. On September Eleventh, Mizz Owen and her dogs helped people who had escaped the World
Trade Center attack. These people were running through the streets in terror. Many people were covered with
dust from explosions. Mizz Owen said they felt much calmer after holding and talking to her dogs.

Mizz Owen is among thousands of people in the United States who own animals trained to help
people feel better. Each year these teams of humans and animals give their time during
emergencies. They also visit millions of patients in hospitals and long-term care centers for old
people.

For many years, American hospitals and nursing homes banned animals. Doctors feared the
animals carried germs that would harm patients. Recently, however, scientific studies have
shown that playing with a pet animal can improve health. It can decrease high blood pressure. It
can lower heart rate. Spending time with a friendly animal also helps ease loneliness and sadness.

More than two-hundred American groups organize animal visits to sick people. One
of the largest is the Delta³ Society of Renton, Washington. Four-thousand-five hundred
human and animal teams belong to Delta. They visit almost one-million
people every year in the United States and five other nations. Most of the animals
are dogs. However, cats, pet pigs and even a small horse also visit patients.

All these animals are carefully examined before they enter hospitals and nursing
homes. They must be friendly. But they must not be too active. After acceptance
into the program, animals and their humans attend hours of training.

Many hospitals and nursing home officials praise these animal visits. They say seeing an animal helps patients
forget their troubles. They say these visits make the patients feel more like they are at home.

Valentine’s Day


HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about the holiday called
Valentine ’s Day.
Americans celebrate Valentine’s Day each year on February fourteenth. It is a holiday for lovers.

Valentine ’s Day is a good day for a man to ask his girlfriend to marry him. It is also a

good day for couples to get married. But most Americans do not go that far to celebrate
the day named for Saint⁴ Valentine. He was an early Christian⁵ churchman who reportedly
helped young lovers.

Valentine was executed for his Christian beliefs on February fourteenth, more than one thousand-
seven-hundred years ago. But the day that has his name is even older than that.

The ancient Romans celebrated⁶ a holiday for lovers more than two-thousand years ago. As
part of the celebration, girls wrote their names on pieces of paper and put them in a large
container. Boys reached into the container and pulled out the name of a girl. That girl became his girlfriend or
sweetheart for a year.

Lovers still put their names on pieces of paper. They send each other Valentine’s Day cards that tell of their
love. Sometimes they also send other gifts too, like jewelry⁷ or flowers or candy.

Americans usually send cards through the mail system or in a computer message. But there is another way many
Americans send messages of love on Valentine ’s Day. They pay to have them printed in a newspaper.

Some of the messages are simple and short: “Debby, I love you very much. From Bob.
”
Others say more:
“Dan, roses are red, violets are blue, I hope you love me as much as I love you. Forever, Mary.
”

There is only one problem in sending a Valentine ’s Day message this way. It will only reach the one you love if
he or she reads the Valentine Day messages in the newspaper that day.

Peggy Lee

HOST:

American singer Peggy Lee died last month of a heart attack. She was eighty-one years old. Critics called her one
of the most popular singers of the Twentieth Century. Steve Ember tells us about her.

ANNCR:

Peggy Lee was named Norma Egstrom when she was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. She said she always
wanted to become a singer. Peggy Lee sang with Benny Goodman’s band in the Nineteen-Forties. In the
Nineteen-Fifties, she appeared in several movies. She was nominated⁸ for an Academy Award for her work in the
film “Pete Kelly’s Blues⁹.
”
But she wanted to sing more than she wanted to act.

Peggy Lee wrote many of the songs she performed. In Nineteen-Fifty-Two, she
wrote songs for the popular Walt Disney cartoon movie about dogs called “Lady
and the Tramp¹⁰.
”
She sang some of the songs in the movie too, including this one,
“He’s a Tramp.
”

((CUT 1: HE’S A TRAMP))

Peggy Lee recorded songs written by other songwriters, too. In Nineteen-Sixty-
Nine, she won a Grammy Award for her recording¹¹ of this song written by Jerry

Lieber and Mike Stoller. It asks the question “Is That All There Is?
”

((CUT 2: IS THAT ALL THERE IS?))


Peggy Lee made hundreds of recordings¹² and fifty record albums. Yet she will probably be remembered best for
one song that she recorded in the Nineteen-Fifties. We leave you now with Peggy Lee singing that song,
“Fever.
”

((CUT 3: FEVER))

HOST:

This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. And I hope you will join us again next week for
AMERICAN MOSAIC
—
VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Jerilyn Watson. Our studio engineer
was Kevin Raiman. And our producer was Paul Thompson.

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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 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。

3 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

4 saint   

n.圣徒；基督教徒；vt.成为圣徒，把...视为圣徒

参考例句：

• He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
• The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。

5 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。

6 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

7 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

8 nominated   

adj.被提名的，被任命的 动词nominate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She has been nominated for the presidency. 她已经获得了董事长职位的提名。
• The movie was nominated for an Oscar. 这部电影获奥斯卡金像奖提名。

9 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。

10 tramp   

n.流浪者，步行，跋涉；v.步行，跋涉

参考例句：

• She wants to go for a tramp in the country.她想去乡间远足。
• A tramp came to the door and asked for food.一个流浪汉来到门前讨饭吃。

11 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

12 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐