VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-05-12 Bollywood Turns 100

 

AS IT IS 2013-05-12 Bollywood Turns 100

Hi again! Nice to have you with us here on As It Is. 

We are celebrating this week. Here in the United States, Sunday is Mother’s Day. The Census¹ Bureau² reports that about 80 percent of American women are mothers. This is good news if you own a flower shop or perfume³ business. Flowers, perfume and jewelry⁴ are popular gifts for moms on Mother’s Day.

And if you are a woman in western India, you might get a very unusual gift this year. More iron in your diet!

Indian Farmers Fight “Hidden Hunger” 

Sunil Gandham of a company called Nirmal Seeds partnered with an American-based group to provide what he calls the new direction of agriculture.

“So this is the only way – a cheap way – with less cost, how to increase their vitamins, irons, all these micronutrients which are needed for the health of the body.”

His company is providing millet⁵ seeds that have extra iron. VOA reporter Aru Pande says that more than 60 percent of women in India do not have enough iron in their bodies. The lack of iron leads to problems in pregnancy⁶, childbirth, and development in young children.

Parwath Pokharkar has seen the effects of low iron levels on women in her village. She says the women bleed a lot and are too tired to do their work.

She and others welcome the effort to add iron and vitamins to crops. In the case of millet, the grain is made into a flat bread, called roti, that some families eat every day. The extra-strength millet can provide 30 percent of the mean daily iron requirement for women and children.

Bollywood Turns 100

We are also celebrating an anniversary⁷ in India. Bollywood celebrated⁸ its 100th birthday earlier this month. You probably know Bollywood films. The actors usually speak Hindi, and the movies often include a lot of singing and dancing. Many tell dramatic⁹ stories. But Bollywood is now developing new kinds of cinema. Christopher Cruise¹⁰ explains.

Ekta Kapoor is having a special day. She is getting ready to watch a new Bollywood movie, called Bombay Talkies. The movie celebrates 100 years of Bollywood. She says she can’t think of life without Bollywood.

Bollywood is India’s main movie industry. And that is saying something because India produces more than 1,000 movies and sells three billion movie tickets each year.

Bollywood began a century ago with a black and white film. It told a story about a king from Hindu mythology¹¹.

Today, Bollywood is known for its singing and dancing. The movies often tell similar stories. Many times, they are romantic stories that have a happy ending. 

Anupama Chopra is a film critic in Mumbai.

“It is the sort of family values, the song and dance, the stars, the kind of un-ironical optimism¹², it is all very cheerful and it is very sort of sweetly optimistic and I think that that is something that travels very well.”

Anupama Chopra adds that Bollywood’s image is changing slowly. New stories are replacing more traditional ones. And a different generation of filmmakers is making a difference.

The new filmmakers are directors like Dibakar Banerjee, who tells one of the stories in Bombay Talkies.

Mr. Banerjee says Bollywood has space for new ideas. But he says it is not going to be easy to make a lot of untraditional films. Mr. Banerjee explains that rich or middle class people are the main reason for Bollywood’s success. He says new films increasingly¹³ challenge the old social order—and some audiences might not like the change.

But Bollywood films are popular not just in India. People in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia also love them. Dibakar Banerjee explains why people across Asia often connect with Bollywood movies. He says:

“The concerns of the average Indian people were the concerns of these people, which was one of the preservation¹⁴ of family, the preservation of tradition, a certain way of life, under the fearsome assault¹⁵ of Western values. These films told us, we are all right, we are all there.”

Movies are likely to remain popular in India -- even more popular than entertainment channels on television. The government has created measures to make it easier to raise money for film production. And, India has permitted foreign film studios, such as America’s Warner Brothers, to invest¹⁶ in the country. 

But film critic Anupama Chopra says it is mainly the Indian love for movies that ensures the industry’s future.

“My longstanding belief is that films are a religion in this country. This is sort of the second golden age of Bollywood.”

People like Ekta Kapoor hope that the movie industry will continue to grow in India. They want Bollywood to try new ideas, but never lose its glamor¹⁷.

I’m Christopher Cruise.

And I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.

We leave you with a few more facts about mothers in the United States from the Census Bureau. About 4 million women gave birth in the past 12 months. Almost 90 percent of children live with their mothers. And about 1 percent of children live with a step-mother.

The average age of a woman when she has her first baby is 25. And about a third of the women who had babies in the last year were not married.

Finally, what are women naming their children? In the past few years, Aiden and Jacob are popular names for boys, Sophia and Emma for girls.

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 bureau   

n.提供或收集消息的机构；局，司，处；署

参考例句：

• The weather bureau makes daily reports on weather conditions.气象局每天报告天气状况。
• The Tourist Bureau arranged everything for our journey to Rome.旅游局已为我们去罗马旅行准备了一切。

3 perfume   

n.香水(料，气)；vt.使充满芳香；洒香水

参考例句：

• The air was heavy with the perfume of the flower.空气中充满了花香。
• Those roses perfume the whole garden.那些玫瑰花使满园飘香。

4 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

5 millet   

n.小米，谷子

参考例句：

• Millet is cultivated in the middle or lower reaches of the Yellow River.在黄河中下游地区，人们种植谷子。
• The high quality millet flour was obtained through wet milling.采用湿磨法获得了高品质的小米粉。

6 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

7 anniversary   

n.周年(纪念日)

参考例句：

• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。
• Today is my parents'30th wedding anniversary.今天是我父母结婚30周年纪念日。

8 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

9 dramatic   

adj.引人注目的；戏剧的；演戏的

参考例句：

• She plays a very dramatic woman with flashing eyes.她饰演一位双眼闪光的引人注目的妇人。
• His speech was dramatic.他的演说激动人心。

10 cruise   

v.巡航，航游，缓慢巡行；n.海上航游

参考例句：

• They went on a cruise to Tenerife.他们乘船去特纳利夫岛。
• She wants to cruise the canals of France in a barge.她想乘驳船游览法国的运河。

11 mythology   

n.神话，神话学，神话集

参考例句：

• In Greek mythology,Zeus was the ruler of Gods and men.在希腊神话中，宙斯是众神和人类的统治者。
• He is the hero of Greek mythology.他是希腊民间传说中的英雄。

12 optimism   

n.乐观，乐观主义

参考例句：

• Don't pour cold water on their optimism.别给他们的乐观态度泼冷水。
• Optimism made him alive through the hard days.乐观主义使他在艰难的岁月里活了下来。

13 increasingly   

adv.逐渐地，日益地，逐渐增加地

参考例句：

• Rivers are being increasingly made use of by man. 河流正在日益为人类所利用。
• I find it increasingly difficult to live within my income.我发现靠收入过日子越来越难了。

14 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

15 assault   

v.猛烈地攻击，袭击；n.突然而猛烈的攻击

参考例句：

• She appeared in court on charges of kidnapping and assault.她因受到拐骗和侵犯人身的指控而出庭。
• The trainees were put through an assault course.受训人员接受了突击训练课程。

16 invest   

v.投资；投入(时间等)；授予，赋予

参考例句：

• I have decided to invest in a new car.我已经决定买一辆新汽车。
• The best time to invest is now.现在是投资的最佳时机。

17 glamor   

n.魅力，吸引力

参考例句：

• His performance fully displayed the infinite glamor of Chinese dance.他的表演充分展示了中华舞蹈的无穷魅力。
• The glamor of the East was brought to international prominence by the Russion national school.俄罗斯民族学派使东方的魅力产生了国际性的影响。