VOA标准英语2012--Kenya's 'Slum Drummers' Make Beautiful Music With Scrapped Objects

Kenya's 'Slum¹ Drummers' Make Beautiful Music With Scrapped³ Objects

It's hard to imagine that this instrument, called a kalimba, is actually an old cooking pot, that has been fished out of this place.

But Nairobi’s "Slum Drummers" are masters at making beautiful music from less-than-beautiful objects.

Like these tubes that produce a distinctive⁴ twanging sound when hit.

“It is called the tubaphone, from the word “tube,” because it is made of the tube," said Joel Muiruri, a singer and percussionist⁵ with Slum Drummers. "You see, we use the recycled things. The tubes that are normally used in the sewages and everything, we recycle them and use them as a tubaphone. In our group, the tubaphone is like a piano: it gives us the pitch and the notes.”

Band members make all their instruments using materials they collect from dumpsites, metal scrap² yards, or even their neighbors. Muiruri says this differentiates⁶ Slum Drummers from all other bands and sends a powerful message to the poor.

“You cannot show them that we are buying instruments - how will they be able to buy instruments? We want to show them that, [by using] what you are living with, you can make a difference with that," said Muiruri.

Slum Drummers was formed last year as a community-based organization. Most of the members had several years of musical training from an earlier project. 

The group aims to reach out to the youth and others living in Nairobi’s teeming⁷ informal settlements, or slums⁸, with a message to stay away from drugs and to reject a life of crime.

“We give them the message of hope, and to encourage them, because some street children, some of them have already lost their hope," said Eunice Ruguru, a dancer and drummer with the group.

Band members themselves report experiencing a sense of hope and transformation⁹ in their own lives after joining Slum Drummers.

“Me, myself, I was in the street. I had been there for seven years, doing all this stuff, like stealing from people," said singer, dancer, and drummer Henry Kangethe. "I came to see that there is another life. You do not have to steal. You can maybe ask for something, like beg for a coin. Then from there, I thought again. I thought, instead of begging, can I do something? Now, I am not begging. I am selling you something. I am making something to sell to you.”

Slum Drummers plays for a variety of audiences, ranging from street children in informal settlements to international audiences at cultural centers. 

1 slum   

n.贫民窟，贫民区；vi.（因好奇而）逛贫民区

参考例句：

• These children came from a slum area.这些孩子来自贫民窟区。
• What a wretched existence the people in the slum lead!这个贫民窟里的人们过着多么令人悲惨的生活啊！

2 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

3 scrapped   

废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架

参考例句：

• This machine is so old that it will soon have to be scrapped. 这架机器太旧，快报废了。
• It had been thought that passport controls would be scrapped. 人们曾认为会放开护照管制。

4 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

5 percussionist   

n.打击乐器演奏者

参考例句：

• She overcame her deafness and eventually became a successful percussionist. 她克服了耳聋的毛病，最后当了打击乐队敲打手。 来自辞典例句
• For many years I practiced these techniques as a professional percussionist in jazz and new music. 许多年来作为一个职业的爵士乐和新音乐演奏者我不断实践着。 来自互联网

6 differentiates   

区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的第三人称单数 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征

参考例句：

• This genus of plants differentiates into many species. 这种植物可分为许多种类。
• Our fax machine differentiates between an incoming fax signal and a voice call. 我们的传真机能区分接收传真信号和语音信号。

7 teeming   

adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注

参考例句：

• The rain was teeming down. 大雨倾盆而下。
• the teeming streets of the city 熙熙攘攘的城市街道

8 slums   

n.贫民窟，贫民区( slum的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These slums are an epitaph to the housing policy of the 1960s. 这些贫民窟是20世纪60年代住房政策的遗迹。
• the poverty and squalor of the slums 贫民窟的贫穷和肮脏

9 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。