VOA慢速英语2014 American Teenagers Making a Difference

 

American Teenagers Making a Difference

Welcome to American Mosaic¹ from VOA Learning English.  I’m June Simms.

Today on the show, we tell about some unusual young people who work to make a difference in the world.

Most teenagers in the United States spend their time trying to make time for school, family and friends. But some choose bigger goals. Christopher Cruise² tells us about three American teens working to make a difference in the world.

At age 15, Winter Vinecki has already had more successes than most people have in their lifetime.

“I recently completed a marathon on all seven continents and became the youngest person in the world to do so. And, I was really doing this for my dad.”

Doctors discovered Winter’s father had a rare and aggressive form of prostate cancer when she was nine years old. He died 10 months later.

“When he was first diagnosed³ I immediately knew I had to do something to help him. That’s when I formed Team Winter for prostate cancer research and awareness⁴.”

Through Team Winter and social media, Winter Vinecki has raised almost 500,000 dollars.  She has taken prostate cancer education worldwide from Kenya to Mongolia through foot races called marathons, on seven continents.  In the United States she travels continually to talk about prostate cancer and urge others to act.

Winter Vinecki spoke⁵ recently at a conference in Los Angeles, California. She was one of several teenagers who spoke about young people who are living extraordinary lives.  

“So prostate cancer is much more common but the men don’t want to talk about it. So that’s why a nine-year-old girl had to go out there and start talking about it for them.”

Another speaker was Jack⁶ Andraka.  He invented an inexpensive sensor⁷ that identifies cancers of the pancreas, ovaries and lungs.  He was 15 at the time.

“Without Google, Wikipedia, I would have never been able to learn all this stuff I needed for this project. I mean I didn’t even know what a pancreas was before developing my test for pancreatic cancer.”

Jack is now 17 and seeking patents for his latest inventions.  He has developed low-cost water quality devices. They help identify and remove heavy metals and poisonous chemicals from water.

“I hope to see them employed in the developing nations such as Bangladesh and parts of China and India, especially as well as in parts of Africa, where these heavy metal and pesticides⁸ and other industrial effluents are a major problem.”

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 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。

3 diagnosed   

诊断( diagnose的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Some foetal malformations cannot be diagnosed until late in pregnancy. 有些胎儿的畸形部位得等到妊娠后期才能诊断出来。
• He diagnosed the trouble that caused the engine to knock. 他找出了引擎咔咔响的毛病所在。

4 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

7 sensor   

n.传感器，探测设备，感觉器（官）

参考例句：

• The temperature sensor is enclosed in a protective well.温度传感器密封在保护套管中。
• He plugged the sensor into a outlet.他把传感器插进电源插座。

8 pesticides   

n.杀虫剂( pesticide的名词复数 )；除害药物

参考例句：

• vegetables grown without the use of pesticides 未用杀虫剂种植的蔬菜
• There is a lot of concern over the amount of herbicides and pesticides used in farming. 人们对农业上灭草剂和杀虫剂的用量非常担忧。 来自《简明英汉词典》