VOA慢速英语 2007 0420b

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC¹, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We answer a question about the Billboard² Hot One Hundred ‿/P>

Tell about an award that honors young people for social action‿/P>

And report about a historical museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

Douglass-Myers Museum

HOST:

The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime³ Park and Museum tells the history of the first railway and shipyard owned by African-Americans.  Museum visitors do not only see the exhibits.  They also learn by taking part in activities.  Barbara Klein tells us more.

BARBARA KLEIN:

The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum (pictured) is in Baltimore, Maryland, on the Chesapeake Bay.  It is named after two of the city’s greatest leaders who lived during the eighteen hundreds.  

Frederick Douglass was a former slave.  He went on to become one of the most important African-American leaders in American history.

Isaac Myers had a very different life.  His experiences tell the story of African-Americans who were not slaves. 

Mister Myers was a leading businessman in Baltimore.  In eighteen sixty-eight, he and fourteen other African-American businessmen founded the Chesapeake Marine⁴ Railway and Dry Dock⁵ Company.  The history of the dock and shipyard is the center of the Frederick Douglas-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum.

The Living Classrooms Foundation led the development of the project.  Dianne Swann-Wright is the director.  She says the museum is different from many others because it urges visitors to touch and take part in activities throughout the exhibit. 

Frederick Douglass worked for Isaac Myers at the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company.  Mister Douglass was a ship repairman.  The museum recreates the work area and tools Mister Douglass used to repair the ships.  He filled in spaces between the wooden parts of the ship with a material called oakum.  It stopped water from leaking into the large boats.

Visitors can use tools to strike a substance similar to oakum as if they too were repairing the ships.  Visitors also can build a large model ship. 

Objects throughout the museum are like those found in the old shipyard almost one hundred fifty years ago. Rare objects are protected in glass containers.  One is a small boat built in the early eighteen hundreds.  African American slaves used it to escape.  It was also used for transportation and fishing.

Dianne Swann-Wright says visitors to the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum experience a part of history that once had been lost.  She says she hopes they will say: “Wow.  I did not know that story at all.‿/P>

BRICK Awards

HOST:

The BRICK Awards are given each year to young people who make our world a better place. These youth service awards were presented last week to twelve young people for their community action projects. Faith Lapidus tells us more.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

For the first time, the BRICK Awards were presented on an American television show. The CW Network presented the award show last Thursday. Twelve people under the age of twenty-five from the United States and Canada won awards of ten thousand dollars to continue their work. 

They were honored for their projects in four areas: public health, community building, education and environment, and global impact. Young people voted online for the top four winners. These people received Golden BRICK Awards, worth a total of twenty-five thousand dollars.

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Jennifer Staple

One of these winners is Jennifer Staple of Newton, Connecticut. She created an organization called Unite for Sight. It provides eye care and education programs to more than four hundred thousand people around the world. The organization has provided more than six thousand sight-restoring operations. And it has provided thousands of people with treatment for infections, glaucoma and other eye disorders⁷.

Kimmie Weeks is another Golden BRICK Award winner. He survived the civil war in Liberia and later sought political protection in the United States. Now he lives in Newark, Delaware. He started Youth Action International, a group that helps children affected⁸ by war.  It operates humanitarian⁹ programs in several African nations.

Ashley Rhodes-Courter lived in fourteen different temporary homes before being adopted at the age of twelve. Now she lives in Crystal River, Florida. She works to improve the lives of children with no parents. 

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Divine Bradley

Divine Bradley is the fourth Golden BRICK Award Winner. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. As a teenager, he wanted to create a safe place where children could go after school. The result was Team Revolution, a community organization led by young people.  It has provided after-school programs to more than five hundred young people.

The BRICK Awards are given by a nonprofit organization in New York City called Do Something. It seeks to activate¹¹ young people to find an issue that is meaningful to them and do something to bring about social change.

Billboard Hot 100

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Simon Gondo in Zimbabwe. He wants to know what the Billboard Hot One Hundred music chart is all about.

Every week, Billboard Magazine publishes a list of the one hundred most popular singles in the United States. Billboard has a number of different charts for the music industry. Some list individual songs, others are for albums.

Most of the charts are based either on sales or on airplay by radio stations. But a few, including the Hot One Hundred, are based on a mix of sales numbers and airplay.

Billboard uses information collected by the Nielsen Company from radio broadcasts and music sellers. These include online stores like iTunes.

The song "Poor Little Fool" recorded by Ricky Nelson was the first number one single on the Billboard Hot One Hundred. That was back in August of nineteen fifty-eight.

(MUSIC)

The song that stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot One Hundred for the longest time was "Iris¹²" from the Goo Goo Dolls. It was number one for eighteen weeks in nineteen ninety-eight.

(MUSIC)

Billboard Magazine releases a new Hot One Hundred chart every Thursday. Each chart is dated for the Saturday of the following week.

Timbaland

We leave you with the song that tops the Hot One Hundred for the week ending April twenty-first. It jumped forty-one places from last week to number one. Here is "Give It to Me" by Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson.  I hope you enjoyed our program today.   It was written by Lawan Davis, Natella Konstantinova and Shelley Gollust. Caty Weaver¹³ was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. 

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 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

3 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

4 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

5 dock   

n.码头；被告席；vt.使(船)进港；扣；vi.进港

参考例句：

• We took the children to the dock to see the ships.我们带孩子们到码头去看轮船。
• The corrupt official stood in the dock.那贪官站在被告席上。

6 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

7 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

9 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。

10 divine   

adj.神的，上帝的，神圣的，如神的，非凡的

参考例句：

• Jesus is believed by Christians to have been divine.基督教徒们相信耶稣是神。
• The despot claimed to be the chosen instrument of divine providence.专制者声称自己是上天选定的统治工具。

11 activate   

vt.使活动起来，使开始起作用

参考例句：

• We must activate the youth to study.我们要激励青年去学习。
• These push buttons can activate the elevator.这些按钮能启动电梯。

12 iris   

n.虹膜，彩虹

参考例句：

• The opening of the iris is called the pupil.虹膜的开口处叫做瞳孔。
• This incredible human eye,complete with retina and iris,can be found in the Maldives.又是在马尔代夫，有这样一只难以置信的眼睛，连视网膜和虹膜都刻画齐全了。

13 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。