AMERICAN MOSAIC

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹
By

Broadcast: Friday, June 18, 2004

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(THEME)

This is Doug Johnson.

 
Graphic² Image
On our show this week, we remember Ray Charles and his music.

And we answer a question about Father's Day.

But first, we connect you with something called the Payphone Project.

Payphone Project

HOST:

The use of wireless³ telephones has reduced the demand for public pay phones. Yet these coin-operated phones have helped one man find a calling to serve other people. Faith Lapidus has more.

ANNCR:

Mark Thomas has been interested in pay phones since he was a child. Now, he has created a site on the Internet that lists the telephone number and location of pay phones around the world. He calls it the Payphone Project.

Mister⁴ Thomas says he is far from having a list of all the public pay phones in the world. But he does have more than five-hundred-thousand numbers already. These include a pay phone at the Vatican and another in Vietnam, at Tan⁵ Son Nhat International Airport. There is even a number listed for a pay phone in Uganda powered by the sun.

Mark Thomas started his Web site in nineteen-ninety-five. He wanted to give strangers a way to talk to each other just by calling pay phones across the United States. But now most pay phones block incoming calls. In time, he recognized another purpose for his site.

Some people know the number of a pay phone, through caller identification⁶ devices⁷, but they need to know the location. The Payphone Project once helped the parents of a teen-age girl who ran away from home. It has also helped people find where threatening calls came from.

Mark Thomas is an artist who lives in New York City. He plays piano in concerts. He does not have time anymore to call number after number, in the hope to connect with someone somewhere.

But he wants his pay phone list to continue to grow as a public service. Telephone companies are not required to provide this kind of information. But many other pay phone number collectors have sent in listings. Some people include pictures and comments about the phone.

So the next time you see a public pay phone, you might want to write down the number and location. Then, visit the Web site to see if the phone is listed. You might be able to add another number to the list.

The site is payphone-dash-project-dot-com. Again, that address is payphone-hyphen-project-dot-com (payphone-project.com)

Father's Day

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Baltchik, Bulgaria. Boyan Mitev asks about Father's Day in the United States.

In nineteen-oh-nine, a woman named Sonora Dodd was listening to a speech in church. The speech was about Mother's Day. Missus Dodd thought about her father, William Smart. He had fought in the American Civil War. Later, his wife died while giving birth to their sixth child. Mister Smart raised the baby and his five other children. They lived on a farm in Washington state, in the Pacific Northwest.

Sonora Dodd wanted a special day to honor⁸ men like her father. He was born in June. So she decided⁹ to hold the first Father's Day celebration in Spokane, Washington, in June of nineteen-ten.

Fourteen years later, in nineteen-twenty-four, President Calvin Coolidge gave his support to the idea of a national observance. In nineteen-seventy-two, finally, President Richard Nixon signed a law to establish Father's Day.

An old tradition on Father's Day was for people to wear a flower. Red roses honored¹⁰ fathers who were living. White flowers honored those who were dead.

Father's Day is observed on the third Sunday in June. This Sunday, some families will go out for a special meal or prepare one at home. Many dads will get clothes or maybe some electronic gift. Or they might simply get a card with a message of thanks.

Ray Charles

HOST:

Ray Charles was one of America's most influential¹¹ musicians. He died last week at the age of seventy-three. Jim Tedder¹² looks at the life of this showman who crossed the lines of jazz, blues¹³, country and rock.

ANNCR:

Ray Charles Robinson was working as a musician by the age of fifteen. This was after he studied music at a school for the blind. Ray Charles developed glaucoma as a young child. The eye disease¹⁴ blinded him at age seven.

His first hit record was a song he wrote with a mix of black church music, blues and rock and roll. He sang it and played it on the electric piano. The song is called "What'd I Say."

(MUSIC)

Ray Charles became one of the top singers of rhythm¹⁵ and blues. Then he decided to record an album of country songs. Record company officials did not think it would be very successful. They were wrong. This song earned a Grammy Award.

(MUSIC)

Over the years, Ray Charles won thirteen Grammy awards. He was one of the first artists honored in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He made more than sixty albums.

Ray Charles was preparing to begin a new series of concerts this month. But he had health problems recently. We leave you with another of his best known recordings¹⁶, "America the Beautiful."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

This is Doug Johnson.

This program was written by Jill Moss¹⁷ and Nancy Steinbach. Paul Thompson was the producer. And our engineer was Zenab Abdulrahman. 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 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。

3 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

4 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”。

5 tan   

n.鞣制革，黄褐色；adj.黄褐色的，鞣皮的；vt.晒黑，鞣(革)，鞭打；vi.晒成棕褐色

参考例句：

• She had gotten a good tan after the holiday at the sea.在海边度假之后，她的皮肤晒得黑黑的。
• His arms and legs had a dark tan.他的手臂和腿晒得黑黑的。

6 identification   

n.视为同一，证明同一，确认

参考例句：

• He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
• We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。

7 devices   

n.设备；装置( device的名词复数 )；花招；（为实现某种目的的）计划；手段

参考例句：

• electrical labour-saving devices around the home 节省劳力的各种家用电器
• modern labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers 诸如洗衣机和洗碗机之类的现代化省力设备

8 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。

9 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。

10 honored   

adj.光荣的：荣幸的v.尊敬，给以荣誉( honor的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I hope to be honored with further orders. 如蒙惠顾，不胜荣幸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is a time-honored custom. 这是一个古老的习俗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

12 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

13 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。

14 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。

15 rhythm   

n.韵律；节奏

参考例句：

• He has an ear for the rhythm of Irish speech.他对爱尔兰语的节奏很敏感。
• His poem has a pleasing rhythm.他的诗有和谐的韵律。

16 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

17 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。