VOA慢速英语2009年-AMERICAN MOSAIC - A Contest to Capture Dem

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ in VOA Special English.

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I'm Doug Johnson. This week on our program:

We tell about this year's winners of the MacArthur Fellowships³.

We also report on the winners of a new international competition for videos that define⁴ democracy.

And we play music from a new album by jazz drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.

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Democracy Video Challenge

HOST:

Last year, the American State Department launched a worldwide video competition. It asked filmmakers to create short videos that completed the sentence "Democracy is ... " Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated the winners at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. Faith Lapidus has our story.

FAITH LAPIDUS:
　
Zambia's Chansa Tembo accepts an award from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The Democracy Video Challenge was launched last year at the United Nations on September fifteenth, International Democracy Day. Officials said the competition was designed to expand the discussion of democracy around the world.

Competitors had to be at least eighteen years old and could enter only one video each. The videos were to be no longer than three minutes. They were entered into competition on the Web site YouTube.

More than nine hundred people from ninety-five countries entered the Democracy Video Challenge. There were twenty top judges. They were from the democracy groups, universities, and media organizations that worked with the State Department to set up the contest. The judges chose a winning video from each of the six major areas of the world.

Chansa Tembo of Zambia is one of the winners. His video compares democracy to a drink called a smoothie. The drink is made by combining different fruits into a smooth and tasty thick liquid. Chansa Tembo explains:

CHANSA TEMBO: "I thought about democracy and I thought we all have to get along somehow. You might not like an orange by itself, you might not like a banana by itself, but if you combine different fruits together, you might be able to actually produce something which is consumable by the whole society."

Aissa Penafiel is a winner from the Philippines. Her video shows a man alone in the darkness. He speaks of the dangers of the abuse of democracy.

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READER:

"Democracy. Fueled by the voice of the masses. But what drives the masses to speak? Hunger. Fatigue⁶. Pain. Despair. Ambition. Money. Fear. Will you not vote for the killer⁷ if you already feel the cold steel of his gun against your head?"

FAITH LAPIDUS:

The other winners are from Poland, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Nepal. Along with the award, the winners also got a free trip to New York City and Los Angeles, California, to attend screenings of their videos. And they will meet with film industry leaders and democracy activists⁸.

The Democracy Video Challenge for two thousand ten has already begun.

MacArthur Fellows

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HOST:

Receiving a phone call from the MacArthur Foundation can change a person's life forever. Last month, the organization, based in Chicago, Illinois, told twenty-four people that they had been chosen for the yearly fellowship² award. Each winner receives five hundred thousand dollars over five years. The organization sees the award as an investment in that person's interesting work and future efforts.
　
Edwidge Danticat

Lawyers, doctors, writers and artists were among the winners of this year's MacArthur Fellowship. The Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat was one of the winners. Her books describe the experiences of Haitian immigrants. Mizz Danticat said the thing artists need most is time. She says the award money will give her a sense of security that will help her work greatly.

Several of this year's fellows are scientists. Peter Huybers is a scientist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He uses math, physics and statistics⁹ to study climate change patterns. Lin He at the University of California, Berkeley, is a molecular¹⁰ biologist. She has made valuable discoveries about cell behavior that could lead to future cancer treatments.

Artists who won the fellowship include thirty-five year old photographer Lynsey Addario. She takes powerful images of people living in war-torn countries. James Longley makes deeply personal movies about communities in the Middle East. His films help bring a wider understanding about the effects of conflict in the area.
　
Timothy Barrett

Timothy Barrett of Iowa City, Iowa, is both an artist and scientist. He is a paper maker⁵ and historian¹¹ who is helping¹² to document ancient paper traditions. He has also developed special kinds of paper to help people who work in the art and book industries.

Elyn Saks is a legal expert who works to expand the rights of people with severe mental illness. Her personal experiences influence her work. She has written a book about her struggles with schizophrenia.

The MacArthur Foundation says this fellowship is not just an award for past success. It says the money is aimed at ensuring that these experts will do even more creative things in the future.

Terri Lyne Carrington

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HOST:

Jazz musician Terri Lyne Carrington is one of the few women to be successful as a professional drummer. She has performed with some of the greatest jazz musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Hancock since she was very young. Shirley Griffith has more about Terri Lyne Carrington and plays music from her new album, "More to Say."

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:

Drummer, songwriter and producer Terri Lyne Carrington began playing the saxophone as a child. But the instrument became difficult to play after she lost her baby teeth. Then she discovered a set of old drums in her family's home and became interested in playing that instrument. The drums had belonged to her grandfather, jazz musician Matt Carrington.
　
Terri Lyne Carrington

By the time she was seven, Terri Lyne had become an extraordinary drummer.

Just three years later, she was performing with famous jazz and blues¹³ musicians including Clark Terry, Oscar Peterson and Joe Williams. At age eleven, the young drummer received a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Today she is a professor at Berklee.

Terri Lyne Carrington released her first album, "Real Life Story," in nineteen eighty-nine. It was nominated¹⁴ for a Grammy Award. Her new album, "More to Say," marks her twenty year anniversary as a solo¹⁵ performer. She wrote the song "Papa San" to honor her father, saxophone player Sonny Carrington. He performs the song with Terri on her new album.

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Terri Lyne Carrington also is recognized as a talented singer. She sings the soulful song "Hold Me Again" with jazz great Les McCann.

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Famous jazz singer Nancy Wilson also performs one of Terri Lyne Carrington's songs on "More to Say." Carrington described the experience as "a dream come true." We leave you with that song, "Imagine This."

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I'm Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange, and Caty Weaver¹⁶, who was also the producer. Our reader was Mario Ritter.

Do you have a question about people, places or things in America? You can send it to [email protected] .

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 fellowship   

n.伙伴关系，团体，奖学金，研究员职位

参考例句：

• You'll lose your fellowship if you do that.你如果做那件事就会丧失研究员职位。
• It looks that they'll be admitted to the fellowship.看来他们要被吸收入会了。

3 fellowships   

团体( fellowship的名词复数 )； 研究员职位； 伙伴关系； 学术奖金

参考例句：

• The ambassador has endowed a $1 million public-service fellowships program. 大使资助了一项100万美元的公共服务奖学金计划。
• We give three research fellowships a year. 我们每年给叁个研究生的奖学金。

4 define   

vt.解释，下定义，阐述，限定，规定

参考例句：

• Please define the words.请解释这些字的意义。
• It's hard to define exactly what has changed.很难解释清楚到底发生了什么变化。

5 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。

6 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

7 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

8 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 statistics   

n.统计，统计数字，统计学

参考例句：

• We have statistics for the last year.我们有去年的统计资料。
• Statistics is taught in many colleges.许多大学都教授统计学。

10 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

11 historian   

n.历史学家，编史家

参考例句：

• As a historian,he was most typical of the times in which he lived.作为历史学家，他是他所处时代最有代表性的人物。
• He calls himself a historian,but his books are a mere journalism.他自称为历史学家，但是他的书都是些肤浅的通俗作品。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 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。

14 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。

15 solo   

n.独奏，独唱；adj.单独的；adv.单独地；v.放单飞，单独表演

参考例句：

• Tara is currently working on a solo album.塔拉眼下正忙着制作个人专辑。
• There's wonderfully lyrical flute solo in the middle of this symphony.在交响乐中间有一段奇妙的抒情长笛独奏。

16 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。