VOA慢速英语2011-The People’s Choices? Johnny, Taylor, T

I'm Doug Johnson.

This week we play music by America’s Ambassador of jazz Billy Taylor who died last week in New York.

We also answer a question about business leader and aid donor¹ Bill Gates.

But first a report on the People’s Choice Awards held Wednesday in Los Angeles.

(Music)

People’s Choice Awards

DOUG JOHNSON: Stars of music, movies, and television appeared Wednesday night for the thirty-seventh yearly People’s Choice Awards in Los Angeles. It is the only major awards event in America where fans decide who takes home a prize. Chris Cruise tells about the show and some of the winners.

CHRIS CRUISE: The first People’s Choice Awards show was in nineteen seventy-five. The Gallup Company decided² the winners by public opinion studies. For thirty years, the People’s Choice Awards were decided this way. But the Internet has brought the awards ceremony into the modern age. The “people” began making their “choices” directly on the Web in two thousand five.

Robert Pattinson, Kristin Stewart and Taylor Lautner accept the award for Favorite Movie at the People's Choice Awards Wednesday night

Actress Lisa Edelstein playfully honored that process in her acceptance speech at the awards ceremony. She won for Favorite TV Drama Actress for her role as Dr. Cuddy on the show “House.” She thanked, by name, Twitter voters whose Twitter names she really enjoyed. All included “Lisa” or “Cuddy” or “Stein” in some part of their online name.

Conan O’Brien expressed true thankfulness to the fans who voted him Favorite Talk Show Host. He said they made what could have been a terrible year the best one of his life. Last year, NBC television officials dismissed O’Brien from his new job as host of the Tonight Show so that former host Jay Leno could return to it. Now, O’Brien has a new show on the cable television station TBS.

Johnny Depp won Favorite Movie Actor for the second straight year. However, the real win for him seemed to be receiving the award from country music star Taylor Swift. He told the singer: “My daughter said if I didn’t say ‘hi’ to you I’d be in trouble, so ‘hi’ from my daughter.” Swift immediately waved back.

Taylor Swift won an award herself. She was voted Favorite Country Artist.

“The Twilight³ Saga⁴: Eclipse” did very well at the People’s Choice Awards. It won the Favorite Movie and the Favorite Drama Movie awards.

The three main actors won Favorite On-Screen Team. And Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, won Favorite Movie Actress. Stewart received cheers when she noted⁵ that she and her co-stars were currently shooting another “Twilight” movie. But she said it was a little strange to be at the awards ceremony. “I was a vampire⁶ this morning in Baton⁷ Rouge,” she said.

Bill Gates

DOUG JOHNSON: This week our listener question comes from Cambodia. Yin Chao wants to know how Bill Gates became so rich and successful.

Bill Gates is one of the founders⁸ of the software company Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world. He was born in nineteen fifty-five in Seattle, Washington. He attended Harvard University in Massachusetts. But he left after three years without graduating.

In nineteen seventy-four, while he was still at Harvard, he started Microsoft with his friend Paul Allen. It would become the largest software company in the world and one of the most powerful and influential⁹ companies in history.

Microsoft invented many computer programs that have been used in homes, offices and schools around the world. They include the MS-DOS operating system, the Windows operating system and the Internet Explorer browser¹⁰. These programs revolutionized the way people use computers and search for information on the Internet.

Bill Gates made many smart business decisions. One of the best decisions was to keep ownership of the software he had written. Many computer experts believed that hardware was more important than software, but Gates did not agree. And time has proven him correct.

Bill and Melinda Gates at the World Economic Forum¹¹ in Davos, Switzerland last year

Bill Gates was Microsoft’s largest shareholder¹². At the age of thirty-one, he became a billionaire. By nineteen ninety-nine, reports said he was worth about one hundred billion dollars. But by two thousand two, the price of his Microsoft stock had dropped. He was worth “just” fifty-three billion dollars. However, that was still enough to keep him at the top of Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people.

Many people respect Bill Gates but some do not like him. They believe he hurt other businesses so he could be successful. The United States government and the European Union believed Microsoft had too much power and too large a portion of the software market. The United States brought legal action against the company. The EU fined the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

In two thousand eight, Bill Gates stopped running Microsoft but remained as chairman. He continues working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has given billions of dollars for health and education programs around the world.

Bill Gates has been described as demanding, competitive and aggressive. He said he became successful because he worked hard to make his dreams come true. He also said it is important to work with smart people and to think about where you want to be in a few years. And, he said, you should never stop learning.

Billy Taylor

DOUG JOHNSON: America lost one of its greatest jazz musicians last week. Pianist, composer and educator Billy Taylor died of heart failure December twenty-eighth in New York City. He was eighty-nine. Faith Lapidus has more about the man and his music.

(Music)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Billy Taylor played jazz and wrote jazz. He taught about it in classrooms and to audiences live, and on television and radio broadcasts. He was also known as an international ambassador of jazz. He traveled around the world setting up jazz workshops, programs and shows.

But Billy Taylor also made simply great music. Here is a Billy Taylor Trio performance recorded in nineteen eighty-eight in the former Soviet¹³ Union. It is from the album “White Nights and Jazz in Leningrad.” The song is called “C-A-G.”

(Music)

Billy Taylor was born in Greenville, North Carolina, but grew up in Washington, D.C. He considered the city his hometown. He heard great music in his own neighborhood at places like the former Howard Theater. He started playing piano when he was seven.

After college in Virginia, Billy Taylor moved to New York City in nineteen forty-four. He began playing music with many jazz greats, including Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday and John Coltrane.

Here is Billy Taylor performing “I’ll be Seeing You” with singer Nancy Wilson.

(Music)

In nineteen sixty-four Billy Taylor was worried about the state of jazz. He did not think enough young people were hearing it, playing it or learning about it. He thought some free concerts around the Harlem area of New York City would help. So, he set up Jazzmobile.

More than forty-five years later, Jazzmobile concerts continue in New York City, Washington, D.C. and in New Jersey¹⁴, Virginia and Maryland.

Duke Ellington, left, shakes hands with Billy Taylor in New York City's Harlem area in this picture from the early 1970s

Billy Taylor received many awards during his more than seventy years in music. They include the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor the American government gives to artists.

Billy Taylor said playing piano and performing were most important to him.

BILLY TAYLOR: “Everything that I’ve done stems from those two things; the fact that I love to play the piano and I love to perform for people.”

(Music)

DOUG JOHNSON: I’m Doug Johnson. Our program was written by Chris Cruise and Caty Weaver¹⁵, who also was our producer.

If you have a question about American life, write to [e-mail]">[email protected]. We might answer your question on this show. So please include your name and country.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

1 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

2 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。

3 twilight   

n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期

参考例句：

• Twilight merged into darkness.夕阳的光辉融于黑暗中。
• Twilight was sweet with the smell of lilac and freshly turned earth.薄暮充满紫丁香和新翻耕的泥土的香味。

4 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 vampire   

n.吸血鬼

参考例句：

• It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆，而是个吸人血的妖精！
• Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说，孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。

7 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

8 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

9 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。

10 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

11 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

12 shareholder   

n.股东，股票持有人

参考例句：

• The account department have prepare a financial statement for the shareholder.财务部为股东准备了一份财务报表。
• A shareholder may transfer his shares in accordance with the law.股东持有的股份可以依法转让。

13 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

14 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

15 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。

16 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。