VOA慢速英语2012 AMERICAN MOSAIC - Giants, Patriots: Rematch at the Super Bowl

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Giants, Patriots²: Rematch at the Super Bowl

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
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I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we report all about the Super Bowl, the national championship for American professional football.
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Superbowl XLVI
FAITH LAPIDUS: Sunday is a big day for sports lovers³ in America. That is when the National Football League holds its forty-sixth Super Bowl game. This year, the New England Patriots and the New York Giants will battle for the championship at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. Christopher Cruise⁴ has more on the teams, the tensions⁵ and the halftime show at Super Bowl forty-six.
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The New England Patriots won thirteen of their sixteen games in the regular season. This Sunday marks their seventh Super Bowl. Only two other teams have taken part in more. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys have gone to the Super Bowl eight times each.
The Patriots have won three Super Bowls and lost three. But, a win in this championship game could be especially sweet. The Patriots lost in their most recent Super Bowl appearance to the very team they will meet Sunday, the New York Giants.
For the Giants, this will be Super Bowl number five. Their record is three wins and one loss. But the Giants are one of the most winning teams in the history of the NFL. They have been around a lot longer than either the Super Bowl or the Patriots.
The Giants were one of the first teams to join the newly⁶ formed National Football League in nineteen twenty-five. They won their first NFL championship in nineteen twenty-seven and three more before the Super Bowl even existed.
The current New York Giants team is led by quarterback Eli Manning. He comes from a football family. His older brother Peyton Manning is a Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. His father, Archie Manning, also played in the NFL.
Eli Manning won his first Super Bowl in the two thousand eight. He was named most valuable player of that game.
Quarterback Tom Brady leads the Patriots. He has had an extremely successful career in the NFL. In his ten years as New England’s top quarterback, he has taken the team to the Super Bowl five times. He is one of two quarterbacks in history to win the Super Bowl and the NFL most valuable player awards more than once. He also holds many NFL records, including most touchdown passes in a season.
Manning and Brady faced each other at the Super Bowl in two thousand eight. The Giants victory came as a huge surprise. The team had entered the NFL playoffs as a wild card. In other words, New York did not win its division⁷ championship. But, it did well enough during the season that the team was chosen to compete in the playoffs.
Four years ago, the Patriots had not lost a game during the season. They were expected to defeat the Giants by more than twelve points. But, in the end, the Giants beat the Patriots by three points, seventeen to fourteen. New York became the first wild card team in its football conference to win a Super Bowl.
The Giants did win their division this time. They finished the regular season with nine wins. One of those wins was against -- you guessed it -- the New England Patriots.
Commercials: $3 Million and Up
FAITH LAPIDUS: The Super Bowl is the most watched television program of any in the history of TV. Last year, more than one hundred million people watched the game. This represents big business for advertisers. Shirley Griffith tells us about some of the commercials and halftime entertainment for Sunday’s game.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Super Bowl ads are famously funny, inventive and artistic⁸. And they cost a lot. Thirty seconds of television advertising⁹ during the game costs more than three million dollars. Super Bowl forty-six broadcaster NBC expects to receive up to three hundred million dollars from advertisers. Several of the ads have already been released¹⁰ on the Internet.
Car commercials take a major share of the advertising action. In one, an overweight dog spends months exercising so he can chase¹¹ a new Volkswagen successfully. Another commercial shows an Eskimo leaving his home on a sled pulled by dogs. He returns with a new automobile¹², a Suzuki, with his dogs enjoying the ride.
Some of the advertising this year is filled with sexy images. Actor John Stamos and a beautiful woman fight over yogurt in one ad. In another, race car driver Danika Patrick and fitness¹³ trainer Jillian Michaels team up to paint the body of a supermodel. And you can see soccer star David Beckham -- a lot of him -- in an underwear¹⁴ ad for a clothing store.
Madonna at a Super Bowl press conference
But what will Madonna wear, is the question on many people’s minds. The singer will perform during the game’s halftime show. Madonna has said she is nervous about the performance. She told talk show host Anderson Cooper that the Super Bowl is the “holy of the holies.” She said “I have to put on the greatest show on earth in the middle of the greatest show on earth.”
Anderson asked her for details on what she would be doing. “I’ll be singing,” she said.
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Madonna will share the halftime show with Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. The two pop stars performed on Madonna’s album “M.D.N.A,” which is expected to be released next month.
Madonna praised Minaj and M.I.A. for their independence and spirit. This week, M.I.A. released a new single called “Bad Girls.”
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Madonna has not said which songs she will perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. But many reports say one of her most famous songs, “Vogue,” will be among them.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: This week we launched¹⁵ a new relationship advice blog for English learners. So who gives the advice? You do. Our blog combines writing practice with crowd sourcing -- having a large group of people work on a solution together.
Our new blog is a way for people to improve their English and help others solve a relationship problem. It could be a personal or professional relationship. In some cases we also plan to get advice from experts about how they would deal with the situation.
The blog is divided into sections about dating, marriage, family, friends, work and school.
In the dating section, for example, an eighteen-year-old woman in Russia has been getting a lot of advice. She wrote that she is "disappointed in love and guys" after a bad experience.
In the family section, a medical chemistry student in South Korea is having a problem with his mother back home in China. The son is twenty-five and in a graduate study program. His mother is threatening to stop supporting him if his girlfriend from back home joins him at his university. Some of you have been advising him to respect his mother's wishes. Others are suggesting ways to get her to change her mind. Still others think he should lie to his mother -- or marry his girlfriend. You can read his problem for yourself and offer your own advice.
In the family section, an eighteen-year-old woman from Kyrgyzstan would like some ideas about how to improve her relationship with her younger sister. And in the work section, one of the problems is from a forty-year-old man in Iran. He wants to know how to build effective relationships at work so he can get a promotion¹⁶.
Every few weeks we plan to read some of the blog postings here on our program. So we need you to keep sending us your problems. Think of this as a way to ask others for advice without everyone you know having to see it on your Facebook page.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: I’m Faith Lapidus. This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁷. 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 patriots   

爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Abraham Lincoln was a fine type of the American patriots. 亚伯拉罕·林肯是美国爱国者的优秀典型。
• These patriots would fight to death before they surrendered. 这些爱国者宁愿战斗到死，也不愿投降。

3 lovers   

爱好者( lover的名词复数 )； 情人； 情夫； 情侣

参考例句：

• They were off-screen lovers. 他们是真实生活中的情侣。
• Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet 罗密欧和朱丽叶这一对莎士比亚笔下命运多舛的恋人

4 cruise   

v.巡航，航游，缓慢巡行；n.海上航游

参考例句：

• They went on a cruise to Tenerife.他们乘船去特纳利夫岛。
• She wants to cruise the canals of France in a barge.她想乘驳船游览法国的运河。

5 tensions   

（情绪上的）紧张( tension的名词复数 )； 张力； 紧张的状态； （作家或电影导演制造的）紧张气氛

参考例句：

• Social tensions were manifested in the recent political crisis. 最近的政治危机显示了社会关系的紧张。
• These disagreements are symptomatic of the tensions within the party. 出现意见分歧表明该党内部的关系紧张。

6 newly   

adv.新近，最近；重新，再度；以新的方式

参考例句：

• Have you reviewed for this newly published novel?你给这本新出版的小说写书评了吗？
• It is a newly planted tree and it has not established yet.这是一颗新栽的树，还没有扎下根来。

7 division   

n.区分，分开，除法，公司，部门，师(军队里)

参考例句：

• Have you learnt division?你学会除法了吗？
• The division commander ordered that we start the attack before dawn.师长令我们在拂晓前发起攻击。

8 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。

9 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

10 released   

v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他，这倒容易。

11 chase   

vt.追逐，追赶，追求；n.追赶

参考例句：

• The police grabbed the robbers after a long chase.警察经过长距离追赶后逮住了抢劫犯。
• Would you chase me if I did?如果我逃开了，你会来追吗？

12 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

13 fitness   

n.适合，适当，健康，健身

参考例句：

• They're doing exercises to improve their fitness.他们为增强体质而做体操。
• No one questions her fitness for the job.没人怀疑她能胜任这项工作。

14 underwear   

n.衫衣，内衣，贴身衣

参考例句：

• He had removed his underwear.他已脱去了内衣。
• They left off their woollen underwear when the weather got warm.天气转暖的时候，他们不再穿羊毛内衣。

15 launched   

v.发射( launch的过去式和过去分词 )；[计算机]开始（应用程序）；发动；开展（活动、计划等）

参考例句：

• He launched a bitter diatribe against the younger generation. 他对年轻一代发起了猛烈的抨击。
• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide. 这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。

16 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

17 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。