AMERICAN MOSAIC - Sports Mascots / Neil Armstrong / Music by

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Sports Mascots³ / Neil Armstrong / Music by Jen Chapin
By Caty Weaver⁴

Broadcast: Friday, April 02, 2004

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

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This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week: music by singer and songwriter Jen Chapin. We answer a question about a famous astronaut. And, we report about some wild creatures of the sports world...

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Sports Mascots

HOST:

The calendar says April, but March Madness continues in the United States. March Madness is the name for the yearly championship series in college basketball. And as the teams play, some strange looking creatures perform for the crowds. Gwen Outen explains.

ANNCR:

A diamondback turtle larger than a man runs across the basketball court. Really, a man dressed as a turtle. He is not one of the players. He is Testudo, the official mascot² of the Terrapins⁶, the team from the University of Maryland.

 
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A terrapin⁵ is a kind of turtle. There is a saying at the University of Maryland: "Fear the turtle." But basketball supporters love Testudo.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines mascot as a person, animal or object used to represent a group, especially to bring good luck. The word dates back centuries to masca, Latin for witch.

Many schools have mascots. For example, teams at Pennsylvania State University are called the Nittany Lions. Crowds try to make the sound of a mountain lion roar when the Nittany Lion mascot appears.

People get very attached to their mascots. Consider the case of Western Kentucky University. The school in Bowling⁸ Green, Kentucky, is taking international legal action to protect its mascot. Its mascot is a red, roundish creature called Big Red. It looks very much like a red, roundish creature called Gabibbo. Gabibbo appears on a television comedy in Italy. The university says the Italian media company that owns the show stole the idea.

That company, Mediaset, denies any wrongdoing. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi owns Mediaset. Western Kentucky wants two-hundred-fifty-million dollars for the use of Gabibbo -- or Big Red as the school sees it.

Neil Armstrong

HOST:

 
Niel Armstrong
Our listener question this week comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Trong Tuyen wants to know about the American astronaut Neil Armstrong and the famous words he spoke⁹ in nineteen-sixty-nine.

Neil Alden Armstrong was born in nineteen-thirty in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He became interested in flying when he was a young boy. He had his first airplane ride when he was six years old although he told a reporter he had no memory of it. Ten years later, Neil had learned to fly a plane and got his first pilot's license¹⁰. After high school, Neil joined the Navy and was accepted in a special program that paid for his college education. He went to Purdue University in Indiana. It had a strong flight engineering program. However, the start of the Korean War delayed his studies there. He fought in Korea and returned to complete his studies at Purdue after the war ended in nineteen-fifty-two.

Neil Armstrong was working as a test pilot when the American space agency chose him to become an astronaut. His first trip to space was with the Gemini program in nineteen-sixty-six. Three years later he was named commander of the Apollo Eleven flight. This was the first attempt to land humans on the moon. Apollo Eleven left Earth on July sixteenth, nineteen-sixty-nine.

A few days later, hundreds of millions of people around the world watched or listened to the Apollo Eleven landing on the moon. On July twentieth, the door of the lunar module¹¹ Eagle opened. There was Neil Armstrong with astronaut Buzz Aldrin behind him. Neil Armstrong stepped on to the moon. Here is what he said:

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Neil Armstrong later served as a NASA official, a college professor, a writer and speaker. He is considered an American hero of flight. In two-thousand-one, Neil Armstrong spoke with historians as part of NASA's Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. One of the reporters asked Mister Armstrong if he would like to return to space. He answered, with a laugh, that he would like to lead a mission to Mars. Neil Armstrong will be seventy-four in August.

Jen Chapin

HOST:

Jen Chapin is a singer and songwriter from New York City. She released her first album on a national record label in February. Shep O'Neal tells about the musician and plays some of the songs from her album, called "Linger."

 
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ANNCR:

Jazz Times magazine has called Jen Chapin an excellent story teller¹². Her songs discuss many different issues. They include political activism, the music business, and the busy but meaningless lives some people lead. But, of course, a number of songs also talk about love, like this one called "Me Be Me."

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Jen Chapin is a political and social activist¹³ as well as a musician. In this way she follows in the footsteps of her late father, singer and songwriter Harry¹⁴ Chapin. Jen Chapin is head of the board of directors of the non-profit group her father helped establish in the nineteen-seventies. World Hunger Year works to end hunger mainly through community-based solutions.

One of Jen Chapin's songs seems like an appeal for political and social activism. Here is "Passive People."

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Jen Chapin says she loves New York City and feels linked to its people. But she also says she sometimes desires a quieter life. We leave you now with the first song on "Linger." It is called "Little Hours."

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HOST:

This is Doug Johnson.

Our program was written by Caty Weaver. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our recording¹⁵ engineer was Audreus Regis.

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

n.福神，吉祥的东西

参考例句：

• The football team's mascot is a goat.足球队的吉祥物是山羊。
• We had a panda as our mascot.我们把熊猫作为吉详物。

3 mascots   

n.吉祥物( mascot的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the mascots was the platypus. 吉祥物一是鸭嘴兽。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Information on all things Olympic, including logos, mascots, venues,and bid candidates. 所有事情奥林匹克，包括的标识语，吉祥物，地点，和出价候选人的信息。 来自互联网

4 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。

5 terrapin   

n.泥龟；鳖

参考例句：

• The diamondback terrapin in this undated photo has two heads.这张未标日期的图片上的钻纹龟有两个头。
• He also owns a two-headed goat,a two-headed terrapin and the world's only living three-headed turtle.他还拥有双头山羊、淡水龟，以及世上现存唯一的三头乌龟。

6 terrapins   

n.（北美的）淡水龟( terrapin的名词复数 )

参考例句：

7 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。

8 bowling   

n.保龄球运动

参考例句：

• Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
• Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？

9 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。

10 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

11 module   

n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱

参考例句：

• The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
• Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。

12 teller   

n.银行出纳员；(选举)计票员

参考例句：

• The bank started her as a teller.银行起用她当出纳员。
• The teller tried to remain aloof and calm.出纳员力图保持冷漠和镇静。

13 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

14 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

15 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。