VOA慢速英语2012 AMERICAN MOSAIC - Hits From Usher, Rush and Josh Turner; Celebrating Vinyl; Your English Confessions

 

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Hits From Usher², Rush and Josh Turner; Celebrating Vinyl; Your English Confessions³

JUNE SIMMS: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

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I’m June Simms. This week on our program, we play some music from hit records on Billboard⁴ Magazine’s Top 200 Albums Chart.

We also read from our new blog, Confessions of an English Learner.

But first we go to a fair near Washington, DC, that celebrates an old form of music recordings⁶.

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DC Record Fair

JUNE SIMMS: When Americans buy music today, it is usually in the form of MP3s or CDs. But years ago, record albums were made on black circles made of the plastic material called vinyl. Christopher Cruise⁷ tells about a recent event near Washington that celebrated⁸ the vinyl recording⁵ media of the past.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Until about thirty years ago, record albums were made of pressed vinyl about thirty centimeters across. They were not nearly as transportable as today’s recordings. And you needed a large turntable device on which to play the records.

In the nineteen eighties, cassette tape recordings began to outsell vinyl records. Cassettes were smaller and easier to carry around. They could be played on smaller devices as well.

Then, a few years later, music CDs were developed for mass market. Even later came the MP3. By this time most music lovers had stored or thrown away their vinyl albums.

But vinyl records are now making something of a comeback. Their biggest fans can be found among young people. There were many of them at a recent DC Record Fair held in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Tens of thousands of vinyl recordings were on sale at the Record Fair. And, hundreds of people were waiting to buy.

Chenae Brown is a nineteen-year-old college student. She bought ten albums for about twenty dollars at the fair. She told us she did not even have a turntable for playing them.

CHENAE BROWN: “I like the idea of buying something older. You know, instead of just going on iTunes and buying it. I like this, it’s exciting to find records that, you know, came out twenty years ago and you can buy it for two dollars.”

Tim Harris is among about forty sellers at the DC Record Fair. Mr. Harris worked for a reggae music record label for fifteen years. After it closed, he began selling used records to make a living.

He says he loves the element of surprise connected to the used records market.

TIM HARRIS: “The randomness⁹ and the, ah, you know the fact there’s a lot of obscure¹⁰ things you were never gonna be able to find on a CD that you could find on vinyl. And it just led to people trying to investigate and actually listen to stuff so instead of being sort of, ah, force-fed things through radio or by the major labels on CD it was more of an organic process of discovery of things from the fifties or the sixties or the seventies.”

Chenae Brown agrees.

CHENAE BROWN: “Yes, I bought a couple of albums today that I wasn’t expecting to buy, but they were, they called to me. You know, you just, you see an album, and you’re like ‘I really need that album,’ and so you buy it.”

Forty-five-year-old Jon Meyers has worked in the music industry for years. He started his career as an employee at a record store just as vinyl recordings were falling from favor.

He began to help organize vinyl record fairs in the Washington, DC, area about three years ago. Now, he puts together about three fairs a year. Jon Meyers says music sounds better on vinyl.

JON MEYERS: “There is a palpable audio difference. Vinyl tends to be warmer and richer and CDs are colder and more brittle¹¹, in a sense. But, that said, I mean I really think it comes back to a tangibility¹² factor.”

Interested in learning more about vinyl? John Meyers has the blog for you. He created thevinyldistrict.com several years ago. Now, there are blog contributors from fifteen American cities. You can find a link on our website.

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Confessions of an English Learner

JUNE SIMMS: Thanks to all of you who have shared your experiences on our new blog Confessions of an English Learner. We would like to tell about one of the new additions.

Mohn-Duh from Taiwan wrote about something funny that happened to him in Australia. He said he had visited there to improve his English ability. He says he was very embarrassed by one mistake he made.

While in Australia, Mohn-Duh went to see koalas at a protection center in Brisbane, Queensland. It is called The Koala Sanctuary¹³. Later, he writes:

I decided¹⁴ to share this wonderful experience with some of my friends who I met in Australia. And because we all come from different countries around the world, English is the common language for us to communicate with each other.

I told them: ‘Hi, guys, you know what? Yesterday, I went to the Korea Sanctuary to take pictures with them.’

Mohn-Duh says his friends looked at him wih confused and astonished expressions.

Finally, they asked me -- why did you want to go to the Korea Sanctuary to take pictures with Koreans? Then I knew that I made a big mistake that is because the pronunciation of Koala and Korea are quite similar and it always confuses me a lot.

But Mohn-Duh found the happy ending. The good thing is, he writes, I would never, never confuse Koala with Korea again.

You can find more stories about misunderstandings and share your own. Go to www.voanews.cn and "Confessions of an English Learner." Or write to [email protected] and type "confessions" in the subject line, and please tell us where you are from.

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Usher, Rush and Josh Turner

JUNE SIMMS: Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart is an interesting mix this week. It seems like almost every music style is represented in the top ten. Barbara Klein plays a few songs with differing sounds.

BARBARA KLEIN: Usher is back on top of the Billboard chart this week with “Looking 4 Myself.” His last album to hit number one was “Raymond vs. Raymond” in two thousand ten.

Usher’s silky-smooth voice brought “Climax” to number one on the R&B singles chart back in April. It has remained at the top for the last nine weeks.

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However, another single from “Looking 4 Myself” is also climbing the singles charts. Here is the energetic “Scream.”

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The hard rock band Rush has waited a lot longer than Usher for a top ten album. Its new record, “Clockwork Angels,” is currently¹⁵ number two on the Billboard album chart. The last time Rush was in the top ten was in two thousand two. But, the album, “Vapor Trails,” only went to number six.

Here is the title track from “Clockwork Angels.”

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Country star Josh Turner released his fifth studio album earlier this month. “Punching Bag” entered Billboard’s Top Two hundred albums this week at number four. Turner is no stranger to the Top 200. In fact, this is his fourth album to reach the top ten.

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JUNE SIMMS: I’m June Simms. This program was written by Christopher Cruise and Caty Weaver¹⁶, who also was our producer.

You can find our stories, and download pdfs and audiofiles at our website www.voanews.cn. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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 usher   

n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员

参考例句：

• The usher seated us in the front row.引座员让我们在前排就座。
• They were quickly ushered away.他们被迅速领开。

3 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

5 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

6 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

7 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。

8 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

9 randomness   

n.随意，无安排；随机性

参考例句：

• The randomness is attributed to the porous medium. 随机性起因于多孔介质。 来自辞典例句
• Einstein declared that randomness rather than lawfulness is the characteristic of natural events. 爱因斯坦宣称自然现象的特征为不可测性而不是规律化。 来自辞典例句

10 obscure   

adj.微暗的，难解的，不著名的，（语音学）轻音的；vt.使...阴暗，隐藏，使...含糊，成为含糊的元音；n.暗淡，模糊

参考例句：

• The point of his speech is obscure.他发言的要点模糊不清。
• The joke did not obscure the underlying seriousness of his point.玩笑并没有掩盖他的观点隐含的严肃性。

11 brittle   

adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的

参考例句：

• The pond was covered in a brittle layer of ice.池塘覆盖了一层易碎的冰。
• She gave a brittle laugh.她冷淡地笑了笑。

12 tangibility   

n.确切性

参考例句：

• But that very tangibility can lead to reckless speculation. 但这种资产有形性导致过度投机。 来自互联网
• The lovely baby in her dream somehow have no tangibility. 她梦中的那个可爱的婴儿不知为什麽不可触知。 来自互联网

13 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

14 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。

15 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

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。