VOA慢速英语20061124b

AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ - Mall of America Mixes Shopping With Everything Else Under the SunBy Caty Weaver²

Broadcast: Friday, November 24, 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 a popular American television show ...

Play some award winning hip-hop music ...

And report about a great place to shop.

Mall of America

Thursday was Thanksgiving in the United States. Most Americans got together with family members and enjoyed a traditional meal. The day after Thanksgiving is an important day for business owners. It is the start of the holiday shopping season. One place that is very busy today is a large shopping center in Bloomington, Minnesota. In fact, it is one of the largest shopping and entertainment centers in the world. Faith Lapidus tells about the Mall of America.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

Imagine a place where you can buy a wedding dress and ring, get married, and have a wedding party all in a day? The Mall of America offers all those goods and services.


A ride called 'The Mighty³ Axe⁴'

The huge shopping and entertainment center is the largest mall in the United States. It covers thirty-one hectares. It cost six hundred fifty million dollars to build. The Mall of America has more than five hundred stores including four large department stores. It has sixty eating places.

But, there is a lot more to do at Mall of America than shop and eat. Why not visit the mall's aquarium⁵? The ninety one meter long, glass tunnel holds thousands of sea animals. They swim, crawl and float in about four million liters of water. You can walk alongside the aquarium and watch sharks eat or see a Caribbean reef up close.

Young visitors to the Mall of America can also enjoy roller coasters, ferris wheels and other rides. It has the largest indoor amusement park in the United States. The mall also has a dinosaur⁶ museum, flight simulation center and fourteen movie theaters. And a place where people can get married.

More than eleven thousand employees keep the operation running smoothly⁷. During the summer and holidays, the mall employs thousands more people for temporary work. Mall spokesman Daniel Jasper says more than forty-five million people visit every year from all over the world. He says on any given day there are enough people at the Mall to make it the third largest city in Minnesota.

The Mall of America will be fifteen years old next year. The owners are planning a year of celebrations. They are also planning a major expansion. It will include hotels, a business center, water park and performing arts center. In September, the Mall of America was recognized in an unusual way. It was made a property on a new version of the famous American board game Monopoly.

'Prison Break'

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from China. Deng Yi wants to know about the television show Prison Break and two of the actors on the show. The Fox Broadcasting Company show Prison Break is in its second season in the United States. It is also popular around the world. There is no talk of canceling the show.

The last episode of the autumn season will be shown in the United States on Monday. A Fox representative, Scott Grogin, says the company has not announced the date when the show will return But he says it will be sometime in the spring.

Prison Break is about a man who believes his brother has been sent to prison for a crime he did not do. The man gets himself sent to prison so he can help his brother escape.

Michael Scofield is the character who tries to help his brother. The actor who plays
Michael Scofield

him is Wentworth Miller⁸. Miller was born in Britain but grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He is thirty-four years old and a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey⁹.

Wentworth Miller had first planned to work in the production side of television and movies. But in nineteen ninety-eight he appeared on the popular television show Buffy the Vampire¹⁰ Slayer¹¹. He found he enjoyed acting¹². Miller has also acted in films, including The Human Stain, with Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins. Prison Break, was Wentworth Miller's big break in show business. He describes the show as a great ride.

Actor Robert Knepper plays the character T-Bag on Prison Break. He was born in Ohio in nineteen fifty-nine. He became interested in acting as a result of his mother's involvement in community theater.

Knepper's first acting job was in nineteen eighty-six on the show The Paper Chase. He has worked on many other television shows, including, Star Trek¹³: Voyager and The West Wing. He has also worked in films, including a performance in last year's hit movie Good Night, and Good Luck.

Hip-Hop Awards

Last week, the American television company B.E.T. broadcast its first hip-hop awards. Some of the brightest stars in the entertainment industry attended. Barbara Klein tells about the ceremony and plays music by some of the winners.

BARBARA KLEIN:


Grandmaster Flash at B.E.T.'s awards ceremony

The ceremony honored rap music's old school artists and hip-hop's exciting new performers. Among the winners was DJ Grandmaster Flash. He has been making music since the nineteen seventies. B.E.T. awarded Grandmaster Flash with the I Am Hip-Hop Icon¹⁴ award. Listen now as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five perform their song Freedom.

(MUSIC)

The ceremony was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The southern city is home to some of those honored, including rapper T.I. B.E.T. presented him with three awards, including one called M.V.P. or Most Valuable Player. Here, T.I. performs, What You Know.

(MUSIC)

The award for best new hip-hop performer was called Rookie of the Year. It went to the artist Chamillionaire [pronounced kha-mil-yen-air). The rapper from Houston, Texas has said that his aim is to prove that the southern United States can produce good rap song writers.

You be the judge. Here is Chamillionaire performing, Rain.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

This show was written and produced by Caty Weaver. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, www.unsv.com.

Send your questions about American life to [email protected]. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, 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 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。

3 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

4 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。

5 aquarium   

n.水族馆，养鱼池，玻璃缸

参考例句：

• The first time I saw seals was in an aquarium.我第一次看见海豹是在水族馆里。
• I'm going to the aquarium with my parents this Sunday.这个星期天，我要和父母一起到水族馆去。

6 dinosaur   

n.恐龙

参考例句：

• Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击？
• He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。

7 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

8 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

10 vampire   

n.吸血鬼

参考例句：

• It wasn't a wife waiting there for him but a blood sucking vampire!家里的不是个老婆，而是个吸人血的妖精！
• Children were afraid to go to sleep at night because of the many legends of vampire.由于听过许多有关吸血鬼的传说，孩子们晚上不敢去睡觉。

11 slayer   

n. 杀人者，凶手

参考例句：

• The young man was Oedipus, who thus unknowingly became the slayer of his own father. 这位青年就是俄狄浦斯。他在不明真相的情况下杀死了自己的父亲。
• May I depend on you to stand by me and my daughters, then, deer-slayer? 如此说来，我可以指望你照料我和女儿了，杀鹿人？

12 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

13 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

14 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。