VOA慢速英语-THIS IS AMERICA - What Is Your Favorite Song About S

Hundreds of songs have been written about having fun in the summertime. Transcript 1 of radio broadcast:
20 July 2008

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember with Shirley Griffith. This week on our program, we play some of our favorite songs about summer.

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VOICE ONE:

If you ask most Americans, they would say their favorite season of the year is summer. The weather is warm. They do not have to wear heavy clothes to keep warm. Young people do not have to go to school. They can do many activities outside, like playing sports and swimming at the beach or the pool. They like the sunshine during the day and the warm summer nights. People have written and recorded hundreds of songs about summer. These are some of our favorites.

VOICE TWO:

One of the most famous songs about summer is from George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess." He wrote the music in nineteen thirty-five. The opera takes place in the southern United 2 States. It opens with these words: "Summertime and the livin' is easy. Fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high." Leontyne Price sings the song.

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Here is Billy Stewart's version 3 of the same song.

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VOICE ONE:

The nineteen fifties and sixties produced many songs about teenagers enjoying their summer vacation from school. The songs are about having fun, swimming in the ocean, driving in cars. This one is "Summertime, Summertime" by the Jamies.

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VOICE TWO:
　






Summer at the beach

It is summer almost all year long in California 4. And it was summer all the time for the Beach Boys. They sang about their favorite activities, like riding the ocean waves on surfboards. Here is one Beach Boy song, "All Summer Long."

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VOICE ONE:

However, for some teenagers, summer vacation was not all fun and games. Some of them had to work to earn money. Eddie Cochran sang about this in "Summertime Blues 5." Many other bands and artists later recorded this song, including the British rock band, the Who.

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VOICE TWO:

The Lovin' Spoonful 6 was a band that did not love summers in the city because of the heat. They sang: "Hot town, summer in the city. Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty." And: "All around, people looking half-dead, walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head." They liked the nighttime better when they could dance and have more fun. "Summer in the City" was released 7 in the summer of nineteen sixty-six and was one of the Lovin' Spoonful's greatest hits.

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VOICE ONE:

Even though it was hot, Sly 8 and the Family Stone still found ways to have fun in the summertime. This song is about the happiness that the season promises, including going to a "county 9 fair in the country sun."

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VOICE TWO:

In the nineteen nineties, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince produced this hip-hop song called "Summertime." It is about being with friends and having a good time.

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VOICE ONE:

We leave you with a song from the movie version of the musical "Grease 10." It is about two teenagers who meet during their summer vacation and fall in love. Back at school in the autumn, they tell their friends all about it. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John sing "Summer Nights."

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VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Caty Weaver 11. I'm Steve Ember with Shirley Griffith. Transcripts 12 and MP3s of our programs can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.