VOA慢速英语2011--New Galleries for Islamic Art Open in New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - New Galleries for Islamic Art Open in New York City’s Metropolitan² Museum of Art

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
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I’m Doug Johnson. Today we hear new music from singer Demi Lovato. We also tell about some women who play American football.
But first, we go to New York to see the new huge space for Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Islamic Art Galleries at the Met
DOUG JOHNSON: Eight years ago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York began putting many of its Islamic art pieces into storage. The museum was launching a project to greatly expand the space for the collection. Now the new Islamic art galleries have opened, and June Simms has our report.
JUNE SIMMS: New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is a major holder³ of Islamic art. The collection includes Korans as well as paintings, floor coverings and other objects, many of them rare. The collection represents many cultures and covers a period of thirteen hundred years.
A room of beautiful carpets at the new space for Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
On Tuesday, the museum reopened its collection in fifteen new spaces. The greatly expanded space for Islamic art covers about eighteen hundred square meters. The rooms are grouped by region and period, from the seventh century to the end of the nineteenth century.
Sheila Canby is the museum’s chief curator of Islamic art.
SHEILA CANBY: "Our galleries are named the Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia. We have done that because that is the geographical⁴ region, area, spread that we cover.”
A prayer space from Iran, covered in tiles, was placed facing east, toward Mecca. Visitors can also find handmade carpets so large that a team of people had to carry them in.
Skilled workers from Morocco traveled to New York to help build one of the galleries. They spent eight months creating a traditional Moroccan courtyard inside the museum. It includes a fountain, columns and archways.
The new spaces include the Damascus Room. It was a room in a big Syrian house in the early seventeen hundreds. Workers took it apart and shipped it to New York, then rebuilt the room inside the museum. Experts repaired and restored each element of the carved and painted wood and the artistic⁵ tiles in the room.
Sheila Canby says the Damascus Room also includes writings, or inscriptions⁶.
SHEILA CANBY: "Inscriptions that are poetical⁷ inscriptions that praise the house, praise the owner and praise the prophet Mohammed."
This tenth century bowl in the Iran gallery is a favorite of Islamic Art curator Sheila Canby
One of Sheila Canby’s favorite pieces is a white bowl from the tenth century. Written on it is a saying: “Planning before work saves you from regret.”
SHEILA CANBY: “That’s a very charming statement, but the fact is the object itself, I think, is sublimely⁸ beautiful because of that purity of design.”
Twelve hundred works are shown in the new galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. However, that represents just one-tenth of the museum’s more than twelve thousand pieces of Islamic art.
Women’s Football
DOUG JOHNSON: American Football has replaced baseball as America’s favorite sport. Football has traditionally been played by men - big men who like to hit. However, in the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of women’s professional football leagues. Faith Lapidus has our story.
FAITH LAPIDUS: The women play by the same rules and with the same level of physical contact as the men’s sport. Tarsha Fain is team captain of the Baltimore Nighthawks.
TARSHA FAIN: “I feel women can do anything a man can do. The same way they get out there and hit, we get out there and hit too.”
Fain and team owner Tanya Bryan were part of the first ever women’s World Championship last year. The American team -- with Fain playing and Bryan serving as team manager -- won the gold medal.
TANYA BRYAN: “To be the first, the first time it was done, and be part of it, you know, no one else can ever say that. So it’s just a wonderful feeling and I’m so proud of that.”
About ten women’s professional football leagues have been formed in the United States in recent years. Many have either joined with other leagues or failed. But the sport continues to grow.
Ghoncheh Mossanen is an offensive specialist for the Nighthawks. She has played football for 28 years. Mossanen says the sport is her therapy. It is what she looks forward to the most.
GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: “I feel there’s a transformation⁹ when I go from putting on my gear and stepping on this football field. It’s a huge mental transformation.”
Mossanen moved to America from Iran as a child. She remembers the first time she ever played football – at a game in her neighborhood.
GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: “I remember getting the phone call from my cousin saying ‘come on out, we need one more person to play.’ I didn’t know what it was. I had never played the game and I remember going out there and just fell in love with it.”
Most of the other players on the Nighthawks have also played since they were children. Most played unofficially or in non-contact leagues. But for team owner Tanya Bryan, women’s football was a completely new experience.
TANYA BRYAN: “It’s funny. I didn’t even realize the sport existed for women. And I got a phone call from a friend of mine and she said there was an opportunity to own a team in Baltimore. And I thought it sounded really exciting and I said yes, and four years later here I am.”
The Baltimore Nighthawks line up against the Philadelphia Firebirds
When Bryan bought the team she did not expect to make money right away. After four years, she is no longer losing money. But Bryan says what was most important to her was giving young women a chance to play ball.
TANYA BRYAN: “Most of the time as women growing up we’re told, you know - not to be aggressive, and you know not to be assertive¹⁰. And it’s nice to have an outlet¹¹ where you can come somewhere and let all of that out. You know you can be loud. You can hit somebody. You can just let it all go. And you know I think it’s really, it’s really healthy, you know. Great athleticism¹² is required for football and the team camaraderie¹³ is just fantastic.”
The teamwork was great in the team’s recent game against the Philadelphia Firebirds. After a slow first half, the Nighthawks score … and hang on for an eight to nothing win.
GHONCHEH MOSSANEN: “Its elation¹⁴! I mean the team deserves it. We’ve been playing hard. It’s amazing. Now it’s our chance to make the championship.”
The Nighthawks did not win the championship. But, they say having a chance to play this traditionally men’s sport against other women is itself a victory. I’m Faith Lapidus.
Demi Lovato “Unbroken”
DOUG JOHNSON: Singer Demi Lovato has a new album. “Unbroken” comes after a difficult year for the former Disney star. Last November she left her show and her concert series to enter a treatment center. Bob Doughty¹⁵ has our story and plays music from the new record.
BOB DOUGHTY: Unlike so many young stars, Demi Lovato did not enter treatment to deal with a drug or alcohol problem. Lovato was suffering from an eating disorder¹⁶ and other self-destructive behaviors. After she left treatment last January, she was very open about what happened to her. She said she had been bullied¹⁷ since middle school, mostly about her weight. She said her unhealthy relationship with food resulted.
Now the nineteen year old says she feels like a different person. She told MTV that she is excited about her life now.
“Unbroken” seems to represent the new hope she has. The first single from the album was “Skyscraper,” a song about rising from ruins.
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Demi Lovato is an activist¹⁸ for efforts to end bullying¹⁹ in America’s schools. She also has advice for girls with eating disorders²⁰. She says to speak up and not to be afraid to get help.
The second single from “Unbroken” is “Who’s That Boy?” The teenager has described it as a fun and sexy song.
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We leave you with Demi Lovato performing, “Give Your Heart a Break.”
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DOUG JOHNSON: I’m Doug Johnson. Our program was written by June Simms and Caty Weaver²¹, who was also our producer.
If you have a question about American life, send it to www.tingroom.com/voa/. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English.
Join us again next week for music and more on AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA 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 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

3 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

4 geographical   

adj.地理的；地区(性)的

参考例句：

• The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
• These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。

5 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

6 inscriptions   

（作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记

参考例句：

• Centuries of wind and rain had worn away the inscriptions on the gravestones. 几个世纪的风雨已磨损了墓碑上的碑文。
• The inscriptions on the stone tablet have become blurred with the passage of time. 年代久了，石碑上的字迹已经模糊了。

7 poetical   

adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的

参考例句：

• This is a poetical picture of the landscape. 这是一幅富有诗意的风景画。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• John is making a periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion. 约翰正在对陈腐的诗风做迂回冗长的研究。 来自辞典例句

8 sublimely   

高尚地，卓越地

参考例句：

• In devotion woman is sublimely superior to man. 怜悯是女子胜过男子的德性之一。
• She was sublimely unaware of how foolish she looked. 她根本不知道她的样子多愚蠢。

9 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

10 assertive   

adj.果断的，自信的，有冲劲的

参考例句：

• She always speaks an assertive tone.她总是以果断的语气说话。
• China appears to have become more assertive in the waters off its coastline over recent years.在近些年，中国显示出对远方海洋的自信。

11 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

12 athleticism   

n.运动竞赛，崇尚运动，竞技热

参考例句：

• He brings defense. He brings talent. He brings athleticism. That's a lot. “他带来的防御，他带来了人才，他带来了身体，这是很多”。 来自互联网
• Each of these sports isn't won through sheer athleticism alone. 每个体育项目无法凭借纯粹的运动能力而获胜。 来自互联网

13 camaraderie   

n.同志之爱，友情

参考例句：

• The camaraderie among fellow employees made the tedious work just bearable.同事之间的情谊使枯燥乏味的工作变得还能忍受。
• Some bosses are formal and have occasional interactions,while others prefer continual camaraderie.有些老板很刻板，偶尔才和下属互动一下；有些则喜欢和下属打成一片。

14 elation   

n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意

参考例句：

• She showed her elation at having finally achieved her ambition.最终实现了抱负，她显得十分高兴。
• His supporters have reacted to the news with elation.他的支持者听到那条消息后兴高采烈。

15 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

16 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

17 bullied   

adj.被欺负了v.恐吓，威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My son is being bullied at school. 我儿子在学校里受欺负。
• The boy bullied the small girl into giving him all her money. 那男孩威逼那个小女孩把所有的钱都给他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

19 bullying   

v.恐吓，威逼( bully的现在分词 )；豪；跋扈

参考例句：

• Many cases of bullying go unreported . 很多恐吓案件都没有人告发。
• All cases of bullying will be severely dealt with. 所有以大欺小的情况都将受到严肃处理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 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》

21 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。