VOA慢速英语2016--奥巴马夫人在白宫为学生诗人颁奖

White House Celebration¹ Honors³ Student Poets 奥巴马夫人在白宫为学生诗人颁奖

The American poet Carl Sandburg once said, “Poetry is an echo⁴, asking a shadow to dance.”

Recently five young people were named to lead that dance for the next year. They are the National Student Poets. They recently enjoyed a ceremony in their honor² at the White House.

President Barrack Obama and his wife, Michelle, created the program to honor student poets from five areas of the country.

The first lady said that they felt the program was necessary to prevent the arts from becoming lost in schools.

“What we knew is that loss⁵ was pretty devastating⁶ because we all know what the evidence⁷ shows is that when kids are involved in arts, they do better in school and in life. They have higher grades. They have fewer behavioral problems. We talk about this at almost every event. They are more likely to go to college, to graduate, and go on and do wonderful things.”

About 70,000 young people apply to the program each year. A team of poets and artists choose the winners.

This year’s student poets include 17-year-olds Stella Binion of Illinois, Maya Eashwaran of Georgia, Gopal Raman of Texas, and Joey Reisberg of Maryland.

Sixteen-year-old Maya Slameh is from California⁸. The Lebanese American read her poem “Sacrilege Incorporated” at the event held in the White House.

Maya said she wanted to write to express her feelings about being Arab-American. She wanted to show how that identity⁹ was not always a comfortable one.

Maya Eashwaran is Indian American. Her poem “Linguistics” is about losing some of her Indian identity to American culture.

Maya says the poem was written at a time when she began to realize that she was losing some of her culture, some of her history.

"I was writing the poem after I had realized that I was speaking more English than my mother tongue."

Each National Student Poet spends a year attending poetry classes. They also go to art festivals and do a community service project.

Some of the past winners have taught poetry to women prisoners¹⁰, worked with veterans¹¹, and helped people with Alzheimer’s.

Stella Binion is from Chicago. She says that her dream is to work with and inspire other students, especially African American girls.

"My dream would be to work with young girls of color, specifically¹² black girls, to, like, empower their voices and (make them) feel like their voices are important and heard through the lines of poetry because that's what poetry has been for me, in terms of, like, my experience as a young black woman."

Joey Reisberg of Towson, Maryland, says he hopes to help develop poetry workshops in Baltimore. Rioting¹³ broke out in that city last year, in connection with the arrest and death of an unarmed black man named Freddy Gray. Reisberg says he wants to show that there is much more to Baltimore than the recent unrest¹⁴.

"I'm thinking less in terms of my own work, and more in terms of, like, leading workshops for Baltimore poets to show that the city isn't as divided as it seems. We're all still people."

At the ceremony, Michelle Obama said she could not have been prouder of all the student poets – from 2016 and earlier years.

Words in This Story

echo – n. the repeated sound that is heard when sound waves bounce¹⁵ off of distant object

shadow – n. a dark area of blocked light that appears when something blocks a light source¹⁶

devastating – ?adj. causing great damage or harm?

comfortable – adj. not painful

inspire – v. to make (someone) want to do something?

1 celebration   

n.庆祝，庆祝会；典礼

参考例句：

• The celebration passed off successfully.庆祝活动圆满结束。
• The celebration of Christmas is a custom.庆祝圣诞节是一种习俗。

2 honor   

n.光荣；敬意；荣幸；vt.给…以荣誉；尊敬

参考例句：

• I take your visit as a great honor.您的来访是我莫大的光荣。
• It is a great honor to receive that prize.能拿到那个奖是无上的光荣。

3 honors   

n.礼仪；荣典；礼节； 大学荣誉学位；大学优等成绩；尊敬( honor的名词复数 )；敬意；荣誉；光荣

参考例句：

• He aims at honors. 他力求名誉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We did the last honors to his remains. 我们向他的遗体告别。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 echo   

n.回音，共鸣；vi.发出回声；vt.模仿，附和

参考例句：

• She shouted on the mountaintop and listened for the echo.她在山顶上大声喊着，然后聆听着回声。
• I should like to echo the words of the previous speaker.我想重复前面一位发言者的话。

5 loss   

n.损失，遗失，失败，输，浪费，错过，[军]伤亡，降低

参考例句：

• His death was a great loss to the country.他的逝世对这个国家是一大损失。
• Because of the continued loss,the factory closed down.由于连续亏损，工厂关闭了。

6 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

7 evidence   

n.明显，显著，明白，迹象，根据，[物]证据，证物

参考例句：

• The first signs of spring are in evidence.春天的最初迹象已显然可见。
• From the evidence I must conclude that you are wrong.从证据看，我敢断定你错了。

8 California   

n.加利福尼亚(美国)

参考例句：

• He was elected governor of the state of California.他当选为加州州长。
• We were driving on a California freeway.我们正沿着加利福尼亚的一条快车道驾车行驶。

9 identity   

n.身份，本体，特征；同一(性)，一致

参考例句：

• He never revealed his identity.他从未暴露过自己的身份。
• He showed his identity card and went in.他把工作证亮了一下就进去了。

10 prisoners   

n.囚徒( prisoner的名词复数 )；俘虏；被夺去自由的人[动物]等

参考例句：

• The president granted a general amnesty for all political prisoners. 总统大赦了所有的政治犯。
• The prisoners were living in appalling conditions. 囚犯的居住条件极为恶劣。

11 veterans   

经验丰富的人，老兵( veteran的名词复数 )； 退伍军人

参考例句：

• Some veterans of the two world wars gathered to celebrate their victory. 一些经历了两次世界大战的退伍军人欢聚庆祝胜利。
• Seasoned veterans were picked to storm the difficult enemy position. 有经验的老兵被挑选出来去突袭难攻的敌军阵地。

12 specifically   

adv.明确地，具体地；特别地，特意

参考例句：

• The book was written specifically for children.这本书是特地为儿童编写的。
• I told you specifically not to do that.我明确地告诉你不要那样做。

13 rioting   

暴乱，骚乱

参考例句：

• There were ugly scenes in the streets last night as rioting continued. 昨晚暴乱持续之际，街上险象环生。
• They are rioting in the streets. 他们在街上闹事。

14 unrest   

n.不安的状态，动荡的局面

参考例句：

• People are predicting civil unrest in the area.人们预言该地区将发生动乱。
• There was a faint feeling of unrest at the table.餐桌上稍微有一种不安的气氛。

15 bounce   

n.弹，反弹；冲劲，冲力；v.(使)弹起(跳起)

参考例句：

• She's got a lot of bounce.她浑身都是劲。
• The ball gave a high bounce.那球弹得很高。

16 source   

n.来源，水源；原始资料

参考例句：

• They mentioned you as a good source of information.他们说你消息灵通。
• All works of art have life as their source.一切文艺创作都来源于生活。