VOA慢速英语20061103b
时间：2018-12-07 作者：英语课 分类：2006年慢速英语(十一)月
AMERICAN MOSAIC 1 - A Million People Get a Life -- a Second Life, in a World Like No OtherBy Brianna Blake, Sarah Randle and Nancy Steinbach
Broadcast: Friday, November 03, 2006
HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:
We answer a question about the American political party symbols...
Play some music about American states...
And report about a chance for a Second Life!
Second Life
HOST:
Did you ever wish you could be somebody else? Now you can, within the growing online community of Second Life. Barbara Klein tells us about it.
BARBARA KLEIN:
Into the world of Second Life
Second Life is a three-dimensional, online world in which computer users can create a new self and live a different life. Second Life is one of the most popular new online games called massively 2 multiplayer online role playing games. These games are also called MMOs, for short.
But unlike the other MMOs, Second Life is not about winning or losing. Second Life is technically 3 a computer game. But people involved in it do not consider it a game because the players create everything. Second Life is more for socializing and creating communities.
Users of Second Life are called residents. To take part, they must create an avatar, or an electronic image of themselves. Some avatars look like humans, while others look like animals or imaginary creatures.
Inside the Second Life world, residents live different versions of themselves. They build homes, run businesses, buy and sell things, work, play, and attend school. They even have relationships and get married.
Second Life was created in two thousand three by Linden Lab in San Francisco, California. Linden Lab controls the Web site where the ever-changing world is being created. There are now about one million people around the world who are active in Second Life. The number has grown quickly since the beginning of the year when there were about one hundred thousand users.
The average age of people involved with Second Life is about thirty. However, Linden Lab recently created Teen Second Life for younger users. Second Life has its own economy and its own money, called Linden dollars.
Millions of dollars are made and spent each month in Second Life. Users can enter Second Life for free. But they must pay for a membership 4 if they want to own land or buy and sell goods and services.
Recently, several major companies have become involved with Second Life. They wanted to be part of the growing business world that exists within the made-up reality. The car maker 5 Toyota, music producer Sony BMG, and even Reuters news agency are among businesses now existing within Second Life.
Political Party Symbols
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Bangladesh. Shafiqul Islam asks which animals represent the two major American political parties.
That is a good question to answer now because midterm elections in the United States will be held Tuesday, November seventh. Voters will be choosing among members of different political parties to fill local and national offices, but not the presidency 6.
The two major political parties are the Democrats 7 and the Republicans 9. The donkey represents the Democratic Party. The elephant represents the Republican 8 Party.
One of Thomas Nast's cartoons
The reason comes from political cartoons created many years ago. Perhaps the most famous political cartoonist in American history was Thomas Nast. He lived more than one hundred years ago.
Thomas Nast used his drawings to show dishonesty and the illegal use of power in government. His cartoons helped create public pressure on elected officials to make government more honest.
In eighteen seventy, newspapers supporting the Democratic Party denounced 10 a former Republican cabinet member. Thomas Nast drew a cartoon in protest. He called it A Live Jackass Kicking A Dead Lion. The dead lion represented the cabinet member who was no longer in power. The jackass represented the Democratic Party. Jackass is an old slang 11 word for someone who is stupid or foolish. It is also another word for donkey.
The image of the donkey had been used many years earlier. Democratic President Andrew Jackson used it as his personal political symbol in the eighteen thirties. He did so after his opponents called him a jackass. Later it was used at times to mean the whole Democratic Party. It became established as the party symbol when Thomas Nast used it to represent the Democrats.
Thomas Nast was a member of the Republican Party. He chose the elephant as a symbol for his own Party. He first used it in a political cartoon in eighteen seventy-four. And he continued to use the elephant to represent the Republicans in many other cartoons. Soon, it became the Republican Party symbol.
Sufjan Stevens
Most people know that the United States is made up of fifty states. However, few people know a lot about all fifty of them. Sufjan Stevens is a young American musician. He wants to change this situation. Faith Lapidus has more.
FAITH LAPIDUS:
Sufjan Stevens plans to make an album about each of the fifty American
Sufjan Stevens
states. During college he played in several musical groups and recorded an album of his own music. However, he wanted to be a writer, not a musician. So after college he moved to New York City to study writing.
In New York, Stevens had trouble writing stories. He discovered that he missed music. He also discovered that most of the stories he did write were about his home state of Michigan. So, Sufjan Stevens decided 12 to make an album of songs about Michigan.
Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State was released three years ago. Here is the song Say Yes to Michigan.
(MUSIC)
The album was a big success. Many young people and music critics liked it. Before long, Stevens announced that he wanted to make an album for every state. He called it his fifty states project.
Stevens chose Illinois as his next state. He read many books about Illinois. He studied police documents and old newspapers. He talked to people who live in the state. The CD Illinoise was released last year. Critics loved the album. It won many awards. Illinoise became popular at colleges throughout the United States. People said the CD sounded different from anything else they had ever heard. Here is a song called Chicago.
(MUSIC)
Sufjan Stevens is keeping his next state a secret from reporters. People have said that he is writing about Oregon, Rhode Island, or Minnesota. However, no one but Stevens knows for sure. We leave you with the song Decatur, or Round of Applause 13 For Your Stepmother, from the CD Illinoise.
(MUSIC)
HOST:
I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
This show was written by Brianna Blake, Sarah Randle and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver 14 was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to www.unsv.com.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.
- 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。
- With the development of network game,Massively Multiplayer Online Games(MMOG) requires ever-higher levels of the servers. 随着网络游戏的迅猛发展，大型多人在线网络游戏(Massively Multiplayer Online Games,MMOG)对服务器的要求越来越高。
- He gingerly touched his right ankle; it was swelling massively. 他小心翼翼地碰了碰右踝，肿得很厉害。
- Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
- The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。
- I must renew my membership of the sailing club.我必须延续我的航海俱乐部会员的资格。
- He made up his mind to apply for membership in the Party.他决心申请入党。
- He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
- A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
- Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
- Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。
- The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
- The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Some families have been republican for generations.有些家庭世代都支持共和党。
- A third candidate has entered the contest for the Republican nomination.第三个候选人已经加入角逐共和党提名的行列。
- The Republicans got shellacked in the elections. 共和党在选举中一败涂地。
- The latest poll gives the Republicans a 5％ lead. 最近的民意调查结果表明共和党领先了五个百分点。
- She publicly denounced the government's handling of the crisis. 她公开谴责政府处理这场危机的方式。
- He was denounced as a foreign spy. 有人告发他是外国间谍。
- The phrase is labelled as slang in the dictionary.这个短语在这本字典里被注为俚语。
- Slang often goes in and out of fashion quickly.俚语往往很快风行起来又很快不再风行了。
- 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。