高级英语听力 lesson 19

 Lesson Nineteen

 Section One: News in Br

 Tapescript

 1. Soviet 1 Foreign Minister Eduard Stievardnadze said today that

 some Soviet troops will begin pulling out of Aflghanist n witl-iiii a

 few days.  The remarks came during a news conference held in

 Ottawa.  Shevardnadze told reporters, "We would like to see our

 boys back home as soon as possible." Shevardnadze is now in

 Mexico where he will meet up with top government officials over the

 weekend.

    The next space shuttle mission is planned toi- I'ft--ofl'or,, F'ebi'Ll rN

 18, 1988.  To(-Iiy NASA alinouncel its schedule of Ltuiich.,:s lol- the

 next 7 years.  NPR's D@ti-tiel Zwerdliiig reports: " The iie@k, launch

 schedule is pi-ettv much what NASA@s been predicting since shortlv

 after the Challenger exploded, NASA administratoi- James Fletcher

 said the igencv Aill slioot for oniv five shuttle launches the first v-,ai-,

 1988, and that's less than half the number that NASA had been

 planning for this year until the accident happened.  Fletcher said

 NASA will slowly work its way up to 16 launches a year in the ear!v

 1990s.  And as administration officials have been predicting, those

 shuttles will carry a much different niix of cargoes 3 than the shuttles

 of the past, For at least the first three years. militarv projects will fill

 more than half the fli(yhts.  The Pentagon is way be]-iiiid launching se-

 cret Star Wars tests and inilitai-v comii-iuiiication satellites.  NASA

 space exploration PrQjects will get next priority, such as the Cialileo

 and Ulysses satellites to study Jupiter and the sun.  And commercial

 business satellites, which wer@ originally supposed to be the financial

 backbone of the shuttle program, will get only a si-nall fraction of the

       The Associate([ Press amd

 ljnited Press International quote a source close to a criminal investi-

 gation of'Zaccai-o, s@iying the indictment 4 is the result of @i probe of

 bribery allegations in the awarding of cable television contracts.  The

 cyrand 'ury tias been investigating the activities of Zaccaro and

 Michael Nussbaum, Campaign Manager of the late Queens Borough 5

 President, Donald Maniiis.

 Section Two: News in Detail

 Tapescript

      If you want to watch the next space shuttle take-off, mark you

 calendar for February 18th, 1988.  That is according to NASA's offl-

 cial,new 7-year space shuttle schedule announced today.  NPR's

 Daniel Zwerdling reports:

      "During the first year, 1988, the agency plans to launch only 5

 shuttles, less than half the number they'd been planning to launch

 this year until the Challenger accident happened.  In 1989, they'll

 launch 10 shuttles, and then slowly work their way up to 16 flights a

 year in the early '90s.  By then, the Agency officials said today, they'll

 have built the new 4th safer shuttle although they don't know yet ex-

 actly where they'll get the money and they'll start building a perma-

 nent station.  The new shuttle program looks a lot more sober than

 the previous one did.  'No," said NASA administrator 6 James Fletch-

 er,,'there are no specific plans to send up another teacher orjournal-

 ist.  Until the Challenger exploded, of course, NASA was holding a

 widely publicized competition to send a reporter into space.'

      "There/s a lot of opposition 7 from some quarters to flying any

 so-called civilians 8 in space, but my bias 9 is, that yes, in time, civilians

 will be flying again back in space, but certainly not in the first year.  I

 think we want to get our act together first before we start taking a

 risk of that sort.  And as administrative 10 officials have been

 predicting, the shuttles will carry a much different mix of cargoes

 than NASA had been planning until the accident.  The military will

 be much more prominent than ever before.  For at least the first two

 years, the Pentagon will fill more than half the shuttle flights with se-

 cret Star Wars tests and military communication satellites.  NASA

 space exploration projects will get next priority, such as the Hubble

 Telescope, which will see closer to the edges of the universe than any

 telescope in the past.  As for commercial business satellites, which

were originally supposed to be the          ial    kboni of the

program, most of them will be bumpe         lack of space. Under

President Reagan's orders, all commercial space cargo 2 launched in

the US will eventually have to fly on private industries' own rockets.

I'm Daniel Zwerdling in Washington.'

 Section Three: Special Report                      

 Tapescript

     Forbes magazine yesterday published its annual list of the 400

 wealthiest people in America.  Sam Moore Walton, founder 11 of the

 Wal-Mart Department Store chain heads the list for the second year

 in a row with a total worth of 4.5 billion dollars.  Other familiar

 names on the list include chicken producer Frank Perdue; fashion

 designer Ralph Lauren, and TV producers Merv Griffin and Dick

  Clark, each worth more than the minimum $ 180,000,000 needed to

  get on the list.  That minimum figure was up from 150,000,000 last

  year.  Also the number of billionaires jumped from 14 to 26.  We

  asked Forbes' Editor Harry 12 Seneker to help us interpret those

  figures.

       "Well, it shows that the rich do get richer, and it also shows that

  we've been doing a little more of our homework each year.  It's quite,

  a lot of work to refine your estimates of what people's assets are

  worth when they are not very eager to co-operate with you.  And

  each year we get a little better.  Each year we find a few new ones that

  we'd missed before."

       'And some people are left off this list because they don't co-op-

  erate, Malcolm Forbes, for one."

       'Oh no, he's in there.  It's just that we wouldn't, for, the life of us,

  say exactly where.'

       'You started this list about 5 years ago.  Why did it start?  Why

  do you continue to do it?"

       "Why?  Well, it started... the short answer for why it started is

  that Malcolm Forbes thought that people would be interested in it

  and insisted on us doing it and doing it right.'

       "But he didn't want to co-operate himself.'

       "Well, you run into certain problems with the IRS and inherit-

  ance taxes if you put a number on yourself.  You want to negotiate

  that figure, or your heirs do."

       'Is there any commonality to how these people have achieved

  such wealth?  Did they earn it the old-fashioned way?'

       "Well, at some point, everybody, every fortune had to be earned

  the old-fashioned way.  And the old-fashioned way is, you set up a

  business that can be multiplied indefinitely beyond the limitations of

  your own personal efforts.  It can be an oil business, like John D.

  Rockefeller did with the Standard Oil Trust.  It could be, you know,

  an organization that can produce dozens of game shows like Merv

  Griffin."

       "But of most of them that are on the list , say, this year, are they

  new to the list, new wealth, or is this mostly inherited fortunes?"

       'There's a mix of both.  You know, the new arrivals are mostly

  new wealth.  Every once in a while, we find a branch of an old family

  that we really should have included.  And this year we found a few

  Melons out there in Pittsburgh.'

       "Who's the youngest on the list this year?"

       'One of those.  His name is Michael Cqrrier.  But, you know, he

  goes back to the Melons on his mother's side.'

       *And he is how old?'

       *He's twenty-five.'

       *And how much is he worth?'

       * On the order of a couple of hundred million dollars.  You

  k should understand with people like the Melons, it is enormously

  hard to get a sense of just how much is out there.  We think we're be-

  ing conservative with that figure.'

       'What about the oldest?  Who's the oldest on the list?"

       "The oldest is a lady named Dorothy Stimson Builit.  And she's

  known out in the Washington state.  She has some radio stations and

  real estate out there.  The lady is ninety-four.'

       'Do you get any mail response from this?  People write in and

  have comrhents about it?'

       ' We get people writing in saying.  ' Gee 13, you missed

  so7-and-so.' Once in a while, we get somebody who writes in and

  says, 'You missed me.' He's usually exaggerating.'

       Harry Seneker, Senior Editor of Forbes magazine.