AMERICAN MOSAIC

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹
By

Broadcast: Friday, January 09, 2004

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC -- a program in VOA Special English about music and American life. And we answer your questions.

(THEME)

This is Doug Johnson.

On our show today, we answer a question about a tall building in New York City, and play some music by a group nominated² for a Grammy Award.

But first, a report about a recent student science competition.

Siemens Westinghouse Competition

HOST:

 
Winners ring the closing bell at the New York Stock³ Exchange.
The winners of the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology were announced last month. The Siemens Foundation⁴ created the competition to improve mathematics and science studies among American high school students. The competition awards two top prizes of one-hundred-thousand dollars each to pay for college. The money goes to one individual and one team. Jim Tedder⁵ tells us about the top winners.

ANNCR:

Seventeen-year-old Yin Li of New York City received the individual award for his work in brain research. Mister⁶ Li did research on nerve⁷ cell activity in mice that could help improve understanding of the human brain.

Experts say his project represents progress in understanding how neurons communicate. Mister Li discovered a protein that could be linked to neurons. His project explores how nerve cells work and how the strength of their connections may be ruled by the action of local proteins.

Mister Li was born in Shanghai, China and came to the United States at the age of nine. He said that he has always been interested in the brain, especially since reading a speech given by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Eric Kandel. Mister Li did his award-winning research at Mister Kandel's laboratory⁸ at Columbia University.

The team award went to two brothers from the state of Connecticut. Eighteen-year-old Mark and sixteen-year-old Jeffrey Schneider studied the West Nile virus. They developed a model describing the spread of the virus in order to study ways to prevent and control it. Such models can help public health officials study different ways to stop the spread of viruses. The experts say the brothers' work may help public health professionals make better decisions about the growing threat of West Nile disease⁹.

The Schneider Brothers said they chose to study the West Nile virus as a result of personal experience with the problem in their home town of South Windsor, Connecticut. And they reportedly entered the science competition as a result of seeing the movie, "October Sky." In the movie, high school students in the state of West Virginia learn to build rockets and win a national science contest.

Empire State Building

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Ngoc Lien¹⁰ Nguyen would like to know about the Empire State Building.

 
Graphic¹¹ Image
That famous building has been an important part of New York City since it was completed in nineteen-thirty-one. It reaches more than four-hundred-forty-three meters into the sky. For many years, it was the tallest building in the world. That is no longer true.

Construction of the building began on March seventeenth, nineteen-thirty. It was completed in just one year and forty-five days. It has one-hundred-three levels and six-thousand-five hundred windows. Visitors can ride in one of seventy-three elevators that take them from the bottom to very near the top of the building. Some of these elevators are very fast, reaching the eightieth floor in only forty-five seconds.

The heads of government of almost every nation in the world have visited the Empire State Building.

These important people are just a few of the millions who have ridden to the observation area near the top of the building each year. From there, visitors can seen almost all of New York City. They can see across the Hudson River into the state of New Jersey¹². They can see ships in the East River.

People all over the world have also seen the Empire State Building in many movies. It has played an important part in at least three American movies. One is about a giant ape that escapes and climbs the building. That movie is "King Kong." It was made in nineteen-thirty-three.

Another movie is "An Affair to Remember," with Cary Grant¹³ and Deborah Kerr. It was made in nineteen-fifty-seven. In that movie, two people in love plan to meet at the top of the Empire State Building. But the woman is injured and is not able to go to the building. The man tries to find out what happened to her.

The end of the movie "Sleepless¹⁴ in Seattle" also takes place at the top of the Empire State Building. It was made in nineteen-ninety-seven. It involves a man and woman played by Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. They meet for the first time at the top of the famous building in New York. So if you can not get to New York and want to see the Empire State Building, you can watch one of these movies!

Fountains of Wayne

HOST:

Last month, the American music industry nominated artists for its yearly¹⁵ Grammy Awards. One of the groups nominated for Best New Artist is called Fountains of Wayne. Phoebe Zimmermann tells us about the group.

 
Graphic Image
ANNCR:

Fountains of Wayne is named for a store near the New Jersey home of group member Adam Schlesinger. He and Chris Collingwood started the group after they met at Williams College in Massachusetts.

Their first album was called "Fountains of Wayne." One of the songs on that album became a hit in Great Britain. It is "Radiation Vibe."

(MUSIC)

Fountains of Wayne was not a great success at first, and its members went on to do other things. But they re-formed and wrote more songs. These songs are on their new album, "Welcome Interstate Managers." One of these is about a high school football player. It is called "All Kinds of Time."

(MUSIC)

Another new song written by Schlesinger and Collingwood is about a friend's mother. This song already has become a top ten hit. We leave you now with the Fountains of Wayne performing "Stacy's Mom."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

This is Doug Johnson.

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Andrius Regis.

I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

Once again, here is the group "Fountains of Wayne" with one more song: "Hung Up On You."

(MUSIC)

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 nominated   

adj.被提名的，被任命的 动词nominate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She has been nominated for the presidency. 她已经获得了董事长职位的提名。
• The movie was nominated for an Oscar. 这部电影获奥斯卡金像奖提名。

3 stock   

n.存货，储备；树干；血统；股份；家畜；adj.存货的；平凡的，惯用的；股票的；畜牧的；vt.进货，采购；储存；供给；vi.出新芽；进货

参考例句：

• The shop takes stock every week on Friday mornings.这家商店每星期五早晨盘点存货。
• Experts have forecast an upturn in the stock market.专家已预测股票市场价格有上升趋势。

4 foundation   

n.[pl.]地基；基础；基金会；建立，创办

参考例句：

• The foundation of the university took place 600 years ago.这所大学是600年前创办的。
• The Foundation gives money to help artists.那家基金会捐款帮助艺术家。

5 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

6 mister   

n.(略作Mr.全称很少用于书面)先生

参考例句：

• Mister Smith is my good friend.史密斯先生是我的好朋友。
• He styled himself " Mister Clean ".他自称是“清廉先生”。

7 nerve   

n.神经；勇气，胆量，沉着，果断

参考例句：

• Did he have the nerve to say that?他竟有脸说这话吗？
• He never got up enough nerve to meet me.他从没有足够的胆量来见我。

8 laboratory   

n.实验室，化验室

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a laboratory.她捐款成立了一个实验室。
• Our laboratory equipment isn't perfect,but we must make do.实验室设备是不够理想，但我们只好因陋就简。

9 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

10 lien   

n.扣押权，留置权

参考例句：

• A lien is a type of security over property.留置是一种财产担保。
• The court granted me a lien on my debtor's property.法庭授予我对我债务人财产的留置权。

11 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

12 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。

13 grant   

vt.同意给予，授予，承认；n.拨款；补助款

参考例句：

• If you grant my request, you will earn my thanks.如果你答应我的要求，就会得到我的感谢。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

14 sleepless   

adj.不睡眠的，睡不著的，不休息的

参考例句：

• The situation gave her many sleepless nights.这种情况害她一连好多天睡不好觉。
• One evening I heard a tale that rendered me sleepless for nights.一天晚上，我听说了一个传闻，把我搞得一连几夜都不能入睡。

15 yearly   

adj.每年的，一年一度的；adv.一年一次地

参考例句：

• The flower show is a yearly event in our town.我们镇上的花展一年举行一次。
• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。