VOA慢速英语 2008 0208b

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC¹ in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We play music from artists nominated for the two thousand eight Grammy Awards ...

And from some of very first Grammy Award winners, honored fifty years ago ‿/P>

And, we answer a listener’s question about the world’s tallest building.

Tallest Building

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Iran. Ali Barati wants to know about the tallest building in the world. The answer to this question is less clear than you might think.

Disputes over the answer to this question have to do with whether tall tower structures can be included as buildings. Is a communications tower a building? Do the metal antenna² devices on top of some buildings count as additional height? What about structures that are partly under water? Or, communication towers that are supported by metal wires? No matter the answer, a building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will be the tallest above-ground structure in the world when it is completed next year. 

The Burj Dubai is expected to measure six hundred ninety-three meters tall, not 
The Burj Dubai
counting a spire³ at the very top. The current height of the Burj Dubai is about six hundred meters.  Its more than one hundred sixty levels will contain homes, offices, shops, and a hotel. 

To make sure this building in Dubai will really be the tallest in the world, we checked with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. This organization is based in Chicago, Illinois.  It includes building designers, engineers and planning experts. The group’s aim is to provide useful information on planning and building tall buildings around the world.

The council says a building’s height is measured from the sidewalk level of the main entry to the structural⁴ top of the building. But the council says it looks at other ways to measure height as well. These include from the sidewalk to the highest floor of a building, to the top of the building’s roof covering, or to the top of the antenna or spire on the top of the building. Designers of the Burj Dubai have made sure that it is the tallest in all four ways of measuring.

Before the Burj Dubai, the tallest free-standing building in the world was the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. That tower measures five hundred fifty-three meters. And, the tallest structure in the world is currently a television transmission antenna in the American state of North Dakota. It extends six hundred twenty-eight meters into the sky. But it will not be the tallest structure for long.

Fiftieth Grammy Awards

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HOST: 
Photographers take pictures of country singer Taylor Swift with a large copy of a Grammy Award

That was the Champs performing their hit song “Tequila.‿nbsp; In nineteen fifty-nine the band was honored for that song at the first ever Grammy Awards ceremony.  This Sunday night, music makers⁵ will gather for the fiftieth yearly Grammy Awards.  Barbara Klein plays music from some of this year’s nominees⁶ as well those honored at the first Grammys.

BARBARA KLEIN:

The National Academy of Recording⁷ Arts and Sciences presents Grammy Awards for the best recordings⁸ of the year. The ceremony will be held at the Staples⁹ Center in Los Angeles, California.  The event will be broadcast live on television as it has been since nineteen seventy-one.

Some of the nominees will perform at the show, like the Foo Fighters. They are nominated for five awards including Record of the Year for this song, “The Pretender.‿/P>

(MUSIC)

Rolling Stone magazine made a list of which nominees it thought would win Grammys 
Feist
and which nominees it thought should win.  The magazine predicts that Christina Aguilera will win Best Female Vocal¹⁰ Performance for the song “Candyman.‿nbsp; But it says the singer Feist deserves the award for her performance of ‿234.‿

(MUSIC)

Ella Fitzgerald won that top prize at the first Grammy Awards.  It was for her album “Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book.‿nbsp; Here is “Puttin‿On the Ritz,‿from that album.

(MUSIC)

This year Amy Winehouse was nominated for six top Grammy Awards, including Best 
Amy Winehouse
New Artist, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Her album “Back to Black" was nominated for Album of the Year.  It includes this song, “Wake Up Alone.‿

(MUSIC)

At the first Grammy show, Perry Como won Best Male Vocal Performance for “Catch a Falling Star.‿/P>

(MUSIC)

 
Seal
This year, Seal is among the nominees in that category for the song “Amazing.‿

(MUSIC)

There are five nominees for the two thousand eight Grammy for Album of the Year.  They are a mixed group, including country, rock and roll and hip-hop.  However, the jazz album from Herbie Hancock captured our interest.  “River: The Joni Letters‿is a collection of songs made famous by Joni Mitchell.  Here Herbie Hancock performs “River.‿nbsp;

(MUSIC)

We leave you with the nineteen fifty-nine Grammy Album of the Year winner, Henry Mancini and “The Music From Peter Gunn.‿nbsp; We think this theme from the television series remains¹¹ one of the coolest tunes¹² ever.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

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

Our writers were Dana Demange and Caty Weaver¹³, who was also our producer.

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 antenna   

n.触角，触须；天线

参考例句：

• The workman fixed the antenna to the roof of the house.工人把天线固定在房顶上。
• In our village, there is an antenna on every roof for receiving TV signals.在我们村里，每家房顶上都有天线接收电视信号。

3 spire   

n.(教堂)尖顶，尖塔，高点

参考例句：

• The church spire was struck by lightning.教堂的尖顶遭到了雷击。
• They could just make out the spire of the church in the distance.他们只能辨认出远处教堂的尖塔。

4 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

5 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 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

9 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

10 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

12 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 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。