VOA慢速英语2013 AMERICAN MOSAIC - Grammy Organization Honors Bruce Springsteen with Humanitarian Award

 

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Grammy Organization Honors Bruce Springsteen with Humanitarian² Award

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

I’m June Simms.

It is February, you know what that means! Entertainment awards season has opened in the United States!

Today on the show, we have some a Grammy humanitarian story and music from a nominated group… That awards ceremony is Sunday…

But first we tell about some Academy Award nominations⁴…

Start making your lists. You have two more weeks to make predictions on which Hollywood stars and their movies will win Academy Awards this year.

One movie nominated for the Best Picture award is the Stephen Spielberg film Lincoln. It tells how the 16th president of the United States pushed to end slavery.

Daniel Day-Lewis was nominated for the Best Actor award for his role as Lincoln.

“Abolishing slavery by constitutional provision settles the fate for all coming time, not only of the millions now in bondage⁵, but of unborn millions to come.”

Sally Field is a nominee⁶ for Best Supporting Actress for playing the president’s wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.

“No one’s ever been loved so much by the people. Don’t waste that power.”

Recently, Sally Field spoke⁷ about playing an emotional first lady who lived in a time of national crisis.

“You don’t tap into any one emotion. You try to live in this place, these other people’s shoes that you create through the techniques of learning their history and everything about them, and then the era and the clothes and then the actual immediacy of that day.”

The movie Argo is also nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, or Oscars. Argo tells the story of six Americans who escape the unrest in Tehran during the 1979 Iranian revolution. They escaped with the help of American agents who make believe they are filming a science fiction movie. The unlikely story was based on real events. 

Actor and director Ben Affleck starred in the movie. Argo was named best dramatic film at the Golden Globes awards last month. The Directors Guild⁸ of America honored Ben Affleck, but he failed to win a nomination³ for best director Oscar. The actor says he is happy with seven other nominations, including one for best picture.

“I’m elated by that, truly, genuinely thrilled. And, like I said, there are nine amazing movies, any of which could win, any of which deserve to win if they did. So I don’t get into worrying too much about who got what and didn’t get what.”

Another nominated film, Zero Dark Thirty, tells the story of the hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin⁹ Laden¹⁰. The story involves an American intelligence agent, played by Jessica Chastain. She is a nominee for the Oscar for the Best Actress.

“For me, I feel like I’ve already won. And so, I never want to lose sight of what I feel right now and being in this business and being nominated.”

Other leading films include the musical Les Miserables and Life of Pi, the story of a boy trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.

The leading entry for best foreign film is Amour. The French-language film tells about aging and loss. It is a nominee for best picture.

A producer of the Oscar ceremony, Craig Zadan, says this has been a great year for movies, so the show should be exciting. Unlike other years, he says, a lot of people have seen many of the films. The awards will be presented on February 24th in Los Angeles.

Celebrations for the Grammy Awards start long before the actual event this Sunday. On Friday, singer Bruce Springsteen receives the 2013 MusiCares Person of the Year Award. Karen Leggett has more.

Each year, the National Recording¹¹ Association of Arts and Sciences presents the MusiCares Person of the Year Award.

Bruce Springsteen is being honored for his success as a musician and for his efforts to help other people. His shows have helped raise money for hundreds of causes, including campaigns for fighting Parkinson’s disease, hunger and homelessness.

The head of the MusicCares Foundation Board says Bruce Springsteen shows that we can all do our part to make the world a better place.

The Friday night event itself raises money for MusicCares. Since 1989, the group has helped people in need in the music industry. MusicCares provides emergency financial assistance and help for musicians with health or drug problems. It also organized a program to help music people affected¹² by Superstorm Sandy. The storm damaged many coastal¹³ communities in New Jersey¹⁴ and New York State last October.

The Bruce Springsteen celebration will include performances by Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Elton John, Neil Young and others. Every ticket was sold long before the day of the event.

As one person wrote on the grammy.com website, Bruce Springsteen “is that rare artist who not only speaks for us … but who cares deeply about what he represents. One can always find in his music the truth that we are not alone.”

At this Sunday’s Grammy Awards, many people will be watching and listening for a group that is now back together after a fifteen years out of the spotlight¹⁵. Jim Tedder¹⁶ has more about SWV.

We first heard from “Sisters With Voices” 20 years ago. The three women from New York City had a number of hits in the 1990’s including “I’m So Into You,” “Right Here,” “You’re the One,” and “Weak.”

But success was not enough to keep band together. They disagreed over many things, and then stopped performing in 1998.

"It was a tumultuous breakup, actually. And we spent years not even talking.”

That’s SWV’s Tamara Johnson George. She says, as time went by, she, LeeLee Lyons, and Coko Clemmons realized they needed each other. So in April of 2012, they came out with a new CD called “I Missed Us.” 

“And it is really and truly one of the best albums we’ve ever done.”

The people who vote for the possible Grammy winners must agree. They have nominated SWV and four other acts for the “Best Traditional Rhythm and Blues¹⁷ Performance.” SWV recorded their version of “If Only You Knew,” a song that Patti LaBelle sang nearly 30 years ago.

SWV was last nominated for a Grammy in 1993. But the music business has changed a lot since then. Tamara says that in the old days, the recording business did everything it could for the band. But now …

”In this new industry, you have to be well rounded. You can’t just be a pretty face anymore. That no longer floats.”

The three ladies of SWV say they have spent a lot of time this week selecting dresses, shoes, and the right make-up and hair styles for Sunday’s awards program. Winning a Grammy could be just what they need to help them achieve the fame they once enjoyed.

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 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

4 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

5 bondage   

n.奴役，束缚

参考例句：

• Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their way out of bondage.奴隶主们有时允许奴隶为自己赎身。
• They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。

6 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 guild   

n.行会，同业公会，协会

参考例句：

• He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
• You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。

9 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

10 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

11 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。

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

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 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

16 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

17 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。