VOA慢速英语 2008 1228

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we remember five interesting people who died this year. We begin with the writer David Foster¹ Wallace. His inventive stories and books explored human emotions and the complexities² of modern American culture.

VOICE ONE:
　

David Foster Wallace

Wallace's first novel, "The Broom of the System," was published in nineteen eighty-six. He was twenty-four years old at the time.

David Foster Wallace is probably best known for the novel "Infinite³ Jest" published ten years later. This book was over a thousand pages long. It is an intelligent and darkly humorous description of American society. Wallace was known for using footnotes to explain details in his stories. He experimented with unusual ways to structure stories.

The book "Consider the Lobster⁴" is a collection of Wallace's many intelligent essays. They are about subjects including food, politics, and literature. His sharp observations make readers think about common subjects in new ways.

VOICE TWO:

David Foster Wallace grew up in Champaign, Illinois. He studied philosophy and English at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He later taught creative writing at Illinois State University, then at Pomona College in California.

Wallace suffered from severe depression for many years. He committed suicide⁵ in September. He was forty-six years old.

One literary⁶ critic called David Foster Wallace one of the most influential⁷ writers of the past twenty years. He said Wallace brought experimentation⁸ of form and a sense of play to the American novel.

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VOICE ONE:
　

Odetta

That was "Jack⁹ O Diamonds" by the folk and blues¹⁰ singer known as Odetta. She was an important performer during the American civil rights movement of the nineteen fifties and sixties. She sang a wide range of musical notes with her powerful voice.

Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has said that he first became interested in folk singing after listening to the album "Odetta Sings Ballads¹¹ and Blues." Dylan said there was something alive and very personal about her songs.

Odetta Holmes was born in the southern state of Alabama in nineteen thirty. She grew up listening to prison and work songs from the rural south. Odetta described these songs as freedom songs. She said the people in the songs were trapped by society and they could either lie down and die or insist upon life.

Odetta went to music school and trained in classical music. But she said this music had nothing to do with her life. She said folk music taught her about the human spirit.

VOICE TWO:

Odetta became very active in the civil rights movement for racial equality. In the nineteen sixties, she performed alongside¹² Martin Luther King, Junior at major political events. Later in her career, she made albums honoring the jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald and the blues guitarist Leadbelly.

Odetta died in December of heart disease. She had been sick for several years. She had been hoping to sing during President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony next month.

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VOICE ONE:

For many people, the name Baskin-Robbins is linked to sweet memories of eating ice cream. Irvine Robbins, who helped create this famous company, died in May at the age of ninety. His life's work of making fun and exciting ice cream flavors changed the way Americans enjoy this food.

Irvine Robbins opened his first ice cream store in nineteen forty-five in California. At the time, there were no stores that sold only ice cream. His sister's husband, Burton Baskin, also opened his own ice cream stores.

In nineteen forty-eight, they combined their six stores into one business. Baskin and Robbins realized that they were too busy to operate each store well. So, they decided¹³ to sell part of each operation to the manager of that store. This permitted the company to grow quickly.

By nineteen fifty-three, they renamed their company Baskin-Robbins. They advertised that they sold thirty-one kinds of ice cream to show the many choices buyers had. There was one flavor for every day of the month.

VOICE TWO:

Robbins and Baskin had fun inventing wild new ice creams. They sold "Lunar Cheesecake" the day after astronauts landed on the moon in nineteen sixty-nine. Other flavors included "ChaChaCha," for cherry chocolate chip, and Robbins' personal favorite, "Jamoca Almond Fudge." They said: "We sell fun, not just ice cream."

By nineteen sixty-seven there were five hundred Baskin-Robbins stores in the United States. The business partners sold their company that year. Today, there are more than five thousand eight hundred Baskin-Robbins stores around the world.

Irvine Robbins never went long without his favorite food. He started every day with a breakfast meal of cereal¹⁴ topped with Baskin-Robbins banana ice cream.

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VOICE ONE:
　

Cyd Charisse

Cyd Charisse was a dancer known for her beautiful legs and beautiful moves. She starred in famous Hollywood musicals alongside the great dancers Fred Astaire and Gene¹⁵ Kelly. Astaire once described Charisse as "beautiful dynamite¹⁶."

Cyd Charisse was born Tula Ellice Finklea in nineteen twenty-two. She grew up in Amarillo, Texas where she started dance lessons at a young age. Her brother was unable to pronounce the"sister" so he called her "Sid" and the name stuck. As a teenager, she went to California to train as a professional dancer. She became a member of the traveling dance group called the Ballet Russe of Monte Carlo and performed under the name Felia Sidorova. She married her first husband, the dance teacher Nico Charisse, when she was eighteen years old.

VOICE TWO:

Cyd Charisse's role in the movie "Singin' in the Rain" first brought her wide public attention. It was released in nineteen fifty-two. Her sexy dance with Gene Kelly in this musical is hard to forget.

She also starred in other movies including "The Band Wagon¹⁷", "Brigadoon" and "Silk Stockings." Later in her career, Cyd Charisse performed song and dance acts with her second husband, Tony Martin. She died in June of a heart attack at the age of eighty-six.

Cyd Charisse once said that she played a role in all of her dance performances . She said that dancing was about more than just steps.

GEORGE CARLIN: "Let's put it this way, there are things about the words surrounding football and baseball which give it all away. Football is technological¹⁸. Baseball is pastoral. Football is played in a stadium. Baseball is played in a park. In football, you wear a helmet. In baseball you wear a cap!"

VOICE ONE:

That was a live performance by the humorist George Carlin about the differences between American baseball and football.

GEORGE CARLIN: "The object in football is to march downfield and penetrate¹⁹ enemy territory and get into the end zone. In baseball the object is to go home."

VOICE ONE:
　

George Carlin

He performed it in nineteen seventy-five on the first broadcast of the television comedy show "Saturday Night Live."

George Carlin made fun of many things, including religion, politics, and language. He liked to investigate the funny side of subjects considered socially unacceptable to discuss. Sometimes his humor was angry, while other times it was very silly. He said it was the duty of the comedian²⁰ to test the limits of humor.

George Carlin was born in the Bronx area of New York City in nineteen thirty-seven. He dropped out of high school and joined the Air Force. He later worked as a radio announcer and had a late-night comedy act. In nineteen sixty, he moved to Hollywood and began performing on television.

VOICE TWO:

One of his most famous acts was about "seven dirty words." It was on his nineteen seventy-two album, "Class Clown." Carlin talks about the seven words that are illegal to say on American television. When performing the act, Carlin was arrested for using bad language in public. The next year, a radio station aired another version of Carlin's dirty word act. The Federal Communications Commission²¹ fined the radio station for using adult language and the case went to the Supreme²² Court.

During his long career George Carlin made twenty-two comedy records, wrote three books and appeared in movies and hundreds of television programs. He also won four Grammy Awards for his albums. This year he was awarded the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. But he did not live to receive it. George Carlin died in June at the age of seventy-one.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written and produced by Dana Demange. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein. You can learn about other famous Americans on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

1 foster   

vt.收养，培养，促进；adj.收养的，收养孩子的

参考例句：

• Nowadays young couple sometimes foster.现今年轻夫妇有时领养别人的孩子。
• The captain did his best to foster a sense of unity among the new recruits.队长尽力培养新成员之间的团结精神。

2 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。

3 infinite   

adj.无限的，无穷的，无边无际的

参考例句：

• The universe seems infinite.宇宙似乎是无限的。
• The war brought infinite harm to the nation.战争给这个国家带来了无穷的灾难。

4 lobster   

n.龙虾，龙虾肉

参考例句：

• The lobster is a shellfish.龙虾是水生贝壳动物。
• I like lobster but it does not like me.我喜欢吃龙虾，但它不适宜于我的健康。

5 suicide   

n.自杀，自毁，自杀性行为

参考例句：

• The number of suicide has increased.自杀案件的数量增加了。
• The death was adjudged a suicide by sleeping pills.该死亡事件被判定为服用安眠药自杀。

6 literary   

adj.文学（上）的

参考例句：

• Literary works of this kind are well received by the masses.这样的文学作品很受群众欢迎。
• The book was favourably noticed in literary magazines.这本书在文学杂志上得到好评。

7 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

8 experimentation   

n.实验，试验，实验法

参考例句：

• Many people object to experimentation on animals.许多人反对用动物做实验。
• Study and analysis are likely to be far cheaper than experimentation.研究和分析的费用可能要比实验少得多。

9 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。

10 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。

11 ballads   

民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴

参考例句：

• She belted out ballads and hillbilly songs one after another all evening. 她整晚一个接一个地大唱民谣和乡村小调。
• She taught him to read and even to sing two or three little ballads,accompanying him on her old piano. 她教他读书，还教他唱两三首民谣，弹着她的旧钢琴为他伴奏。

12 alongside   

adv.在旁边；prep.和...在一起，在...旁边

参考例句：

• There was a butcher's shop alongside the theatre.剧院旁边有一家肉店。
• Alongside of him stood his uncle.他的身旁站着他叔叔。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 cereal   

n.谷类，五谷，禾谷

参考例句：

• I have hot cereal every day for breakfast.我每天早餐吃热麦片粥。
• Soybeans are handled differently from cereal grains.大豆的加工处理与谷类的加工处理不同。

15 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

16 dynamite   

n./vt.(用)炸药(爆破)

参考例句：

• The workmen detonated the dynamite.工人们把炸药引爆了。
• The philosopher was still political dynamite.那位哲学家仍旧是政治上的爆炸性人物。

17 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

18 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。

19 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

20 comedian   

n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员

参考例句：

• The comedian tickled the crowd with his jokes.喜剧演员的笑话把人们逗乐了。
• The comedian enjoyed great popularity during the 30's.那位喜剧演员在三十年代非常走红。

21 commission   

n.委托，授权，委员会，拥金，回扣，委任状

参考例句：

• The salesman can get commission on everything he sells.这个售货员能得到所售每件货物的佣金。
• The commission is made up of five people,including two women.委员会由五人组成，其中包括两名妇女。

22 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。