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voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇一：VOA慢速英语原文
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Recently the United States Supreme Court decided a big case about political speech. The question was this: With political speech, do corporations have the same rights as people?By a vote of five to four, the conservative majority on the court decided yes. Companies, labor unions and other organizations may now spend as they wish on independent efforts to elect or defeat candidates.The ruling is based on the idea in the United States and many other countries that a corporation is a legal person.Historian Jeff Sklansky says a slow shift to personhood for American companies began with the Supreme Court ruling in eighteen nineteen. It said states cannot interfere with private contracts creating corporations.In the ruling, Chief Justice John Marshall described a corporation as an "artificial being" that is a "creature of the law."The ruling was unpopular. It came as Americans resisted big corporations like the First Bank of the United States, chartered by Congress. Some states passed laws permitting themselves to change or even cancel corporate charters.After the Civil War in the eighteen sixties, the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. It provides that no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law ... " If a corporation is legally a person, then states cannot limit corporate rights without due process of law either.At first, corporations were not fully
recognized as persons. But Jeff Sklansky at Oregon State University says that changed.JEFF SKLANSKY: "The general direction of the Supreme Court and the federal courts in general was to recognize corporations as persons with the same Fourteenth Amendment rights as individuals."Yet
corporations have a right that real people do not: limited liability. For example, a corporation can face civil or criminal fines and individual lawbreakers can go to jail. But limited liability means the actions of a corporation are not the responsibility of its shareholders.Jeff Sklansky says the nineteenth century development of limited liability helped shape the modern corporation.JEFFREY SKLANSKY: "That is also crucial to allowing corporations a kind of independent personhood and separating ownership from control or ownership from management. So that
[the idea is] I can invest in a corporation without becoming liable and for all its debts. That's a really big deal. Without it, anything like the modern stock market, I'd say, is impossible."
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Next week, more on corporations and the law. I'm Steve Ember
voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇二：VOA慢速英语 听力原文
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
Americans are considering national education standards recently developed by teachers and other education experts. The National
Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers led the effort.
The United States, unlike other nations, has never had the same school standards across the country. The reason? Education is not discussed in the Constitution. That document limits the responsibilities of the federal government. Other responsibilities, like education, fall to the individual states.
Local control of education probably was a good idea two hundred years ago. People stayed in the same place and schools knew what students needed to learn. But today, people move to different cities. And some people work at jobs that did not exist even twenty years ago.
Many American educators say that getting a good education should not depend on where you live. They say that some states have lowered their standards in order to increase student scores on tests required by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Kara Schlosser is communications director for the Council of Chief State School Officers. She says the new standards clearly state what a student should be able to do to be successful in college and work.
The standards deal with language and mathematics in every grade from kindergarten through high school. For example, in first grade, students should be asking and answering questions about something they read.
In mathematics, students should be working with shapes in kindergarten and angles in fourth grade.
Forty-eight states have already shown approval for the standards. Two states reject the idea. Critics say that working toward the same
standards in every state will not guarantee excellence for all. Some educators in Massachusetts say adopting the proposal will hurt their students because the state standards are even higher. Others say the change will be too costly, requiring new textbooks and different kinds of training for teachers. Still others fear federal interference or control.
Supporters say the standards are goals and do not tell states or teachers how to teach. They also say the federal government is not forcing acceptance. However, approving the standards will help states qualify for some federal grant money.
And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember
voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇三：VOA 慢速英语 科技报道 原文及翻译
A Victory For Computers as Watson Wins „Jeopardy‟
By June Simms
2011-2-27
Photo: AP
'Jeopardy!' champions Ken Jennings, left, and Brad Rutter, right, look on as an IBM computer called 'Watson' beats them to the buzzer to answer a question during a practice round.
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. An IBM super computer named Watson has won the latest battle of man versus machine.
Watson won the first ever "Jeopardy!" quiz show competition starring a computer as a player. The show was broadcast on American television February sixteenth. The super computer defeated former "Jeopardy!" champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter during the three-day competition. The two men had been the show's most successful players until then.
The IBM computer proved to be more knowledgeable in every category, including the arts, popular culture and science. The human contestants spoke about their loss after the show.
KEN JENNINGS/BRAD RUTTER: "I think that we both got a taste of what it might have been like to play against us."
Roger Norton is dean of the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The school held a Watson watch party on the final day of the "Jeopardy!" competition. They compared it to a Super Bowl for the information technology industry. Roger Norton says everyone was amazed by Watson's performance.
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ROGER NORTON: "It was very impressive in a number of ways. One is its ability to understand natural language."
In "Jeopardy!" players are given information in the form of an answer. They must give an answer in the form of a question. Roger Norton says the very nature of the game makes Watson's performance even more extraordinary.
ROGER NORTON: "The ambiguity that's in those answers is very, very difficult for humans to understand, never mind a computer to understand. And then to be able to take that, try to understand it, then go off and search its vast amount of data that it has and do the appropriate analytics and come up with not only an answer but also a confidence level associated with that answer – very, very impressive."
Watson was given the answer clues by electronic texts. It then searched through some fifteen trillion bytes of information stored in its database. That is equal to about two hundred million pages of text. The machine is able to perform up to eighty trillion operations per second.
And its ability to understand language is more advanced than any other computer ever developed. This opens the door to a whole new world of computer applications. From business and investment, to medicine and healthcare, the possibilities are endless.
Watson is now going to medical school. It is part of an agreement among IBM, Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and the University of Maryland's School of Medicine. The researchers will help IBM identify the best way that Watson can be used to help the healthcare industry.
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports at 51voa.com. I'm Steve Ember.
超级计算机沃森在“危险边缘”节目人机对战中获胜
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. An IBM super computer named Watson has won the latest battle of man versus machine.
这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。一台名为“沃森”（Watson）的IBM超级计算机在最近的一次人机对战中获胜。
Watson won the first ever "Jeopardy!" quiz show competition starring a computer as a player. The show was broadcast on American television February sixteenth. The super computer defeated former "Jeopardy!"
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champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter during the three-day competition. The two men had been the show's most successful players until then.
沃森以计算机选手身份，有史以来首次赢得了“危险边缘”（Jeopardy）智力竞赛节目。该节目2月16日在美国电视台播出。这台超级计算机在为期三天的比赛中，击败了“危险边缘”节目前冠军肯·詹宁斯（Ken Jennings）和布拉德·鲁特（Brad Rutter）。这两人此前一直是该节目最成功的参赛选手。
The IBM computer proved to be more knowledgeable in every category, including the arts, popular culture and science. The human contestants spoke about their loss after the show.
IBM电脑被证明在各个科目中超越人类，包括艺术、流行文化和科学。节目后，人类选手谈到了他们的失败。
KEN JENNINGS/BRAD RUTTER: "I think that we both got a taste of what it might have been like to play against us."
詹宁斯/鲁特：“我认为我们都尝到了此前和我们对战的选手的滋味。”
Roger Norton is dean of the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The school held a Watson watch party on the final day of the "Jeopardy!" competition. They compared it to a Super Bowl for the information technology industry. Roger Norton says everyone was amazed by Watson's performance.
罗杰·诺顿（Roger Norton）是位于纽约波基普西的马里斯特学院计算机科学和数学系的系主任。该校在“危险边缘”节目最后一天比赛日举办了一个沃森观摩会。他们把这比作是信息技术产业的超级杯。诺顿表示，每个人都对沃森的表现感到惊讶。 ROGER NORTON: "It was very impressive in a number of ways. One is its ability to understand natural language."
诺顿：“沃森在很多方面都令人印象深刻，其中一点就是它能理解自然语言。”
In "Jeopardy!" players are given information in the form of an answer. They must give an answer in the form of a question. Roger Norton says the very nature of the game makes Watson's performance even more extraordinary.
在“危险边缘”节目中，选手获得一个答案形式的信息，他们必须回答出符合这个答案的问题。诺顿表示，比赛的性质让沃森的表现更加不同凡响。
注：“危险边缘”节目形式是这样，主持人说：384000公里。选手则必须回答“月球到地球的距离是多少？”。和咱们通常看到的智力节目恰恰相反。
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ROGER NORTON: "The ambiguity that's in those answers is very, very difficult for humans to understand, never mind a computer to understand. And then to be able to take that, try to understand it, then go off and search its vast amount of data that it has and do the appropriate analytics and come up with not only an answer but also a confidence level associated with that answer – very, very impressive."
诺顿：“这些答案的多义性人类理解都非常非常困难，更别说让计算机来理解。计算机在获得答案形式的信息后，首先尝试理解，然后搜索其庞大的数据，做出适当分析，并给出与（答案形式的）问题高度契合的（问题形势的）答案--让人印象非常深刻。
Watson was given the answer clues by electronic texts. It then searched through some fifteen trillion bytes of information stored in its database. That is equal to about two hundred million pages of text. The machine is able to perform up to eighty trillion operations per second.
沃森以电子文本方式获得答案线索。然后搜索储存在数据库中的近15万亿字节信息，这大约相当于2亿页内容。该计算机可以每秒执行高达80万亿次操作。
And its ability to understand language is more advanced than any other computer ever developed. This opens the door to a whole new world of computer applications. From business and investment, to medicine and healthcare, the possibilities are endless.
而沃森的语言理解能力比此前开发的任何计算机都更先进。这将打开计算机应用另一全新世界的大门。从商业到投资，到医学和卫生保健，各类应用的可能性无止境。
Watson is now going to medical school. It is part of an agreement among IBM, Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and the University of Maryland's School of Medicine. The researchers will help IBM identify the best way that Watson can be used to help the healthcare industry.
沃森即将前往医学院。这是IBM、哥伦比亚大学医学中心以及马里兰州大学医学院的协议的一部分。研究人员将帮助IBM寻求沃森应用于医保行业的最佳方式。
How Can a Country Disconnect Itself From the Internet?
By June Simms
2011-2-20
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Photo: AP
Anti-government protesters use internet on a laptop in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Monday, February. 7, 2011
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
A five-day Internet shutdown in Egypt failed to stop the protests that forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign. But it raised a technical question. Just how were Egyptian officials able to shut down Internet service in their country?
Craig Labovitz is chief scientist at Arbor Networks, an Internet security company in the American state of Michigan. Mr. Labovitz says the Internet is not as indestructible as people might think. He says there are points where the flow of computer traffic can be restricted.
CRAIG LABOVITZ: "From a technical standpoint, the popular imagination of the Internet is as a network that can survive nuclear wars, can't be stopped, is everything, everywhere. But the engineering realities are a lot more prosaic. In many countries there are a few natural bottlenecks, whether it be large data centers or right-of-ways."
Mr. Labovitz says his researchers tracked the Internet shut down in Egypt as it was being carried out. He explains that in Egypt, Internet users connect to the outside world through a small number of providers with international links.
CRAIG LABOVITZ: "Although there are a hundred or more providers within the country -- domestic providers -- there really are only four providers that maintain external links to the external world. And there's an even a smaller number of data centers where the fiber optics cross Egypt. So you really just need to turn off a handful of machines to have this type of disruption."
News reports suggested that the fiber optic links for those networks are even all housed in the same building.
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voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇四：VOA慢速英语听力原文
美国劳动之歌
Most of the world observes Labor Day on May 1. Butthe United States has its workers holiday on the firstMonday in September. Steve Ember and BarbaraKlein have a few songs from the history of theAmerican labor movement.
Labor songs are traditionally stories of struggle andpride, of timeless demands for respect and the hopefor a better life.
Sometimes they represent old songs with new words. One example is "We Shall Not Be Moved."It uses the music and many of the same words of an old religious song.
Here is folksinger Pete Seeger with "We Shall Not Be Moved."
Many classic American labor songs came from workers in the coal mines of the South. Mineowners bitterly opposed unions. In some cases, there was open war between labor activistsand coal mine operators.
Once, in Harlan County, Kentucky, company police searched for union leaders. They went to oneman's home but could not find him there. So they waited outside for several days.
The coal miner's wife, Florence Reece, remained inside with her children. She wrote this song, "Which Side Are You On?"
Again, here is Pete Seeger.
Probably the most famous labor songwriter in America was Joe Hill. He was born in Sweden andcame to the United States in the early 1900s. He worked as an unskilled laborer.
Joe Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World, known as the Wobblies. More than any otherunion, they used music in their campaigns, urging members to "sing and fight."
One of Joe Hill's best-known songs is "Casey Jones." It uses the music from a song about atrain engineer. In the old song, Casey Jones is a hero. He bravely keeps his train running in verydifficult conditions.
In Joe Hill's version, Casey Jones is no hero. His train is unsafe. Yet he stays on the job afterother workers have called a strike against the railroad company.
Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers sing "Casey Jones (The Union Scab)."
Another American labor song is called "Bread and Roses." That term was connected with thewomen's labor movement.
The song was based on a poem called "Bread and Roses" by James Oppenheim. The poem waspublished in The American Magazine in December of 1911.
The following month there was a famous strike by textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts.They won higher pay and better working conditions. Oppenheim's poem gained more attention.
At that time, conditions in factories were already a national issue. In 1911, a fire at a clothingfactory in New York had taken the lives of 146 people. The victims were mostly
immigrantwomen.
Here is Pat Humphries with "Bread and Roses."
Union activists know that labor songs can unite and help people feel strong. This can be trueeven when the music has nothing to do with unions.
"De Colores" is a popular Spanish folksong. It talks about fields in the spring, little birds,rainbows and the great loves of many colors.
This song is popular with supporters of the United Farm Workers union. We listen as BaldemarVelasquez leads the band Aguila Negra in "De Colores."
For many years, folksinger Joe Glazer was a union activist with a guitar. He was also a laborhistorian. Labor's Troubadour was the name of a book he about his life. He believed inorganized labor and preserving the musical history of the American labor movement. JoeGlazer died in 2006 at the age of 88.
Here is Joe Glazer with "Solidarity Forever," written by Ralph Chaplin.
From VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。
Today, we take you to a small banana plantation near Kampala. The trees are healthy and green, but Andrew Kiggundu does not like what he sees.
今天我们带你到坎帕拉附近的一个小香蕉园。这些健康的香蕉树一片翠绿，但安德鲁·基冈度（Andrew Kiggundu）对他看到的却不满意。
"The disease on the leaves you see right now is not the wilt, it is a different disease called black sigatoka. It is just killing off the leaves and causing significant yield loss. This is a big problem, although of course not as much as the wilt, because the wilt just destroys the whole plant."
他说，“你现在看到的叶子所患的病不是香蕉枯萎病，它是一种不同的疾病，被称为香蕉叶斑病。它正在杀死香蕉叶子，并造成重大的产量损失。这是一个大问题，虽然其危害尚不及香蕉枯萎病，因为香蕉枯萎病会破坏整颗植株。”
Andrew Kiggundu works with the National Agricultural Research Organization, also known as NARO. The Ugandan government agency is developing genetically engineer bananas. The new plants are meant to resist black sigatoka and banana bacterial wilt, which has been destroying a large amounts of the country's banana crop.
基冈度就职于乌干达国家农业研究组织（简称NARO）。这家乌干达政府机构正在开发转基因香蕉。这种新作物是为了对抗香蕉叶斑病和香蕉细菌性枯萎病，这两种病害已经摧毁了乌干达大量的香蕉作物。 Uganda is the world's top consumer of bananas. NARO Research Director Wilberforce Tushemereirwe says this is why it is so important to produce healthy plants.
乌干达是全球最大的香蕉消费国。乌干达国家农业研究组织的研究总监Wilberforce Tushemereirwe表示，这就是生产健康作物如此重要的原因。
"The disease keeps on moving around wiping out garden after garden, so you will go to areas where you find they have changed from banana to annual crops. That has already introduced food insecurity, because they are not used to handling annual crops."
他说，“这种疾病四处肆掠，挨个消灭香蕉园，所以你在一些地方会发现，它们已经从香蕉变成了一年生作物。这已经引发了粮食不安全，因为它们不是用来对付一年生作物。”
The central African nation already permits testing of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. Lawmakers are considering a bill that would permit the development and distribution of such organisms through out the country. But some activists say genetically modified organisms would be dangerous to human health and the environment.
乌干达这种中非国家已经允许转基因生物实验。立法者正在筹备一项允许这类生物在全国开发和扩散的议案。但一些活动人士表示，转基因生物对人类和环境有害。
Giregon Olupot is a soil biophysicist at Makerere University in Kampala.
Giregon Olupot是坎帕拉市马凯雷雷大学的一位土壤生物物理学家。
"There are a range of options that risk to be wiped [out], just by this technology. With bananas, tissue culture has worked well to engineer healthy plants. You then take these plants to a clean garden and maintain field hygiene. Why are we not giving emphasis to that technology?"
他说，“通过这项技术可以消除很多类的风险。在香蕉方面，植物组织培养在改造健康植株基因方面效果很好。然后我们把这些植株移入无病害的香蕉园里并保持田间卫生。为什么我们不重视这种技术？”
Most genetically modified seeds are patented, this means farmers must purchase them after each planting. Mr Olupot says, this might be possible for profitable farmers, but smaller farmers depend on their own seeds. In his opinion, selling genetically modified seeds to small farmers could trap them.
大多数转基因种子具有专利，这意味着农民们每次播种后都要再次购买种子。Olupot先生说，这对效益好的农民来说没问题，但规模较小的农民都依赖自己的种子。在他看来，销售转基因种子会使小农户陷入困境。
"If you are to go commercial, it has to be on a large scale. Now the farmers we are talking about, on average, have 0.4 hectares of land. It is simply not suitable for our farmers." 他说，“如果你要商业化就必须大规模。我们现在谈论的这些农民平均只有0.4公顷土地，所以它根本不适合我们这些农民。”
A public institution is developing Uganda's genetically modified bananas. NARO says no patent laws will restrict their use. But Mr Olupot says this would probably not be true with genetically modified crops introduced to Uganda in future. Mr Kiggundu says opponents of genetically modified plans have been strong in their criticisms. He says many farmers are now afraid of GMOs.
一家公共机构正在开发乌干达的转基因香蕉。乌干达国家农业研究组织表示，没有专利法会限制它们的使用。但Olupot表示，这对未来引入到乌干达的转基因作物来说是不可能的。基冈度先生说，转基因计划反对者的批评声一直很大。
The Ugandan parliament is expected to pass the Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill before the end of the year.
乌干达议会有望在今年年底之前通过生物技术和生物安全法案。
voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇五：文本(精选版) voa 美国之音 慢速英语
China Wages Diplomatic Offensive With Arab Countries
At a regular briefing Wednesday, spokesman Hong Lei gave details of phone conversations Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has had in recent days with the head of the Arab League, as well as counterparts from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Algeria.
He says Syria was the main topic of discussion.
Hong says the Chinese foreign minister urged the international community to create favorable conditions to provide humanitarian assistance to Syria.
He adds that Beijing values the role of the Arab League in resolving the crisis in Syria and is, in his words, "ready to work with Arab countries" to push for a peaceful settlement of the crisis as soon as possible.
The spokesman says China is deeply worried about the escalating violence in Syria. He had strong and direct words for the Syrian government, which many in the international community blame for killing its own people.
He says the Chinese government calls on all parties in Syria to stop the violence, singling out the Syrian government specifically. He adds that Beijing calls on the Syrian government to heed what he described as the "reasonable appeals of the Syrian people for reform."
The Chinese comments come as members of the United Nations Security Council are drafting a resolution on Syria that focuses on seeking an end to the fighting so that humanitarian aid can get to besieged towns.
China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution on February 4 that would have backed an Arab League proposal for the Syrian president to step down.
At the time, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said Russia and China have lost diplomatic credit in the Arab world because of their vetoes. China defended its decision by saying it was aimed at avoiding more casualties in Syria, even though the death toll there has continued to mount.
The Chinese spokesman did not say Wednesday whether his government would support any new U.N. resolutions, but only that any action the world body takes must abide by its charter.
Popular Culture Inspires Top US Baby Names
here's a better-than-random chance that babies born in the United States last year, 2010, were named "Bella" or "Edward."
Those were among the 10 most popular girls' and boys' names, respectively, and it was more than a coincidence that they are also leading characters in the wildly popular "Twilight" series of young adult novels and films about vampires.
The choice of baby names, you see, can be somewhat faddish.
Certain ones, such as "Tiffany" and "Justin," which were popular in the 1980s, become the rage, then fall from fashion.
The other day, a VOA staffer met a little boy, age two, named "Aiden." Our colleague had never heard that name. Turns out, Aiden is the most popular boy baby's name this year, as reported by the website. For what it's worth, Aiden was a leading character on the highly-rated TV show "Sex and the City."
It certainly does appear that pop culture influences Americans' choice of baby names. Isabella, the third-most-popular girl's name, for instance, may be an adaptation of Bella, the vampire lover in the "Twilight" movies. "Jacob" is in the top 10, too. That's the good-looking shape-shifter who phases into a wolf in the same series.
Curiously, "Sophia" ranks first among this year's girl-baby names, and "Ava" is fifth. Sophia Loren and Ava Gardner were glamorous actresses on the silver screen half a century ago.
But, as another colleague, who follows romance novels, told us, "Old-fashioned names, especially for girls, are big."
We should point out that the top-10 list of boy and girl names refers almost exclusively to white, non-Hispanic babies. You won't find many "Aidens" or "Masons" on the African-American and Latino baby-name lists.
Chinese Symbols Prove Popular in US
From the moment Spaniards - or Vikings, some would say - first dropped anchor and encountered the natives whom the Spanish called "Indians" because they thought they had arrived in India - the land now known as "America" has been a multicultural place.
And of course it's much more so today. Just check out our faces and dialects and music.
Our signs are getting more multicultural, too. We see them in English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and more. Well, maybe it's Chinese.
Mandarin Chinese characters, called "Hanzi," are hot right now. They're a popular decoration on
clothing and artwork and tattoos.
（No doubt this boy or his parents thought this character translates as "samurai," but the character actually means "hemorrhoid" in English.）
Just ask Tian Tang, a 35-year-old Chinese-American engineer, who works for an Arizona company that makes electrical semiconductors. Since his graduate-school days, he has maintained a showing that an awful lot of the Chinese characters we see across America are just plain wrong.
Some are not even Chinese at all, but pretty little ink strokes that sort of look Chinese.
One of Tang's postings shows a colorful shirt decorated with a powerful, leaping tiger. Next to the beast are nine Chinese characters. But they translate into gibberish - words such as "unicorn" and "chicken." Not one of the characters has anything to do with tigers, or even cats.
Indeed, the characters on this sign do mean "blue bamboo," but they're upside down.
Other Hanzi, delicately tattooed onto a woman's back, translate as "crazy diarrhea." Surely this wasn't what she ordered from the tattoo artist.
So, America is a multicultural melting pot. But reading the signs doesn't always tell you who you're melting with.
"If people would stop making fools of themselves, my site would dry up," Tang says.
voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇六：慢速英语voa材料
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
Wisdom teeth are normally the last teeth to appear. This usually happens when people are in their late teen years or early twenties -- in other words, when they are older and wiser.
智齿一般是口腔中长出的最后一颗牙齿。通常在人越来越年长，越来越聪明的时候出现。也就是，大约在二十岁左右出现。
Wisdom teeth are molars, or chewing teeth, at the back of the mouth. The third set of molars, if you have them, are your wisdom teeth.
智齿是臼齿，或称咀嚼齿，位于口腔最里面。如果你长了第三大臼齿，它们就是智齿。
They can grow into place normally and never cause a problem. But often there is not enough room for them in the mouth. They might crowd other teeth. Sometimes they even push sideways through the gums.
他们一般长在比较正常的位置，通常不会造成什么问题。但是通常，口腔里没有足够的空间能够容得下臼齿。它们可能会挤压其他牙齿，有时甚至会冲破牙龈。
An impacted wisdom tooth is one that fails to completely rise through the gums -- the term is erupt. Wisdom teeth that only partially erupt can leave space for bacteria to enter around the tooth. Infection is a risk in these cases.
阻生智齿是指未能完全从牙龈中长出的智齿，术语称之为冒出。只部分冒出的智齿会在牙齿周围留下细菌进入的空间，这种情况下就有感染的风险。
Wisdom teeth that are not well aligned and become impacted are often removed.
排列不齐和阻生的智齿通常要拔掉。
People should have the placement of their wisdom teeth examined between the ages of sixteen and twenty. X-rays can show wisdom teeth that are below the gums.
人们应该在16到20岁期间检查确认智齿的位置。X光线可以显示出牙龈里的智齿。
The American Dental Association says removal is generally advised when wisdom teeth only partly break through the gums. Removal is also advised if there is a chance that poorly aligned wisdom teeth will damage other teeth. And removal is called for in cases where fluid collects around a wisdom tooth that is partly or fully below the gum.
美国牙科协会表示，当智齿只从牙龈中冒出一部分时，通常的建议是拔掉。如果排列不齐的
智齿有可能损害其它牙齿时，一般也会建议拔掉。当部分露出牙龈或完全未露出牙龈的智齿导致积液时，这种情况也要求拔掉。
But why do we have wisdom teeth if we often need to get them removed? One theory has to do with our diets. Scientists say the diet of prehistoric humans probably required more chewing teeth. Life was probably a little rougher on the teeth back then, too. So it was good to have extras.
但是，既然通常情况下都要将智齿拔掉，那么为什么还会长智齿呢？其中一个理论表示跟我们的饮食有关。科学家表示，史前人类的饮食习惯要求有更多的磨牙。那时候的生活可能也更艰难一些，所以，有更多的磨牙还是比较有利的。
The removal of wisdom teeth is performed by oral surgeons. They say if removal is advised, the best time to do it is before the teeth cause any problems or pain.
拔除智齿的一般都是口腔外科医生。他们表示，如果需要拔除智齿，最好的时机是在智齿产生任何问题或疼痛以前。
The American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons says young adults are the best candidates for wisdom teeth removal. The group says older patients may be at greater risk for disease in the tissue surrounding the molars.
美国口腔颌面外科医生协会表示，拔掉智齿的最佳时期是青壮年。该协会表示，老年患者臼齿周围组织病变的风险非常大。
Patients can have general anesthesia during the operation. Or they might choose to have a local painkiller and remain awake. It may depend on the condition of the wisdom teeth and the number to be removed.
在手术过程中病人可以采取整体麻醉。或者他们可以选择止痛药，可以保持清醒。这取决于智齿的状况和需要拔除的数量。
After surgery, there can be swelling of the gums and face and some pain. Both can be treated with cold wraps and medication.
手术过后，牙龈和面部可能会有些浮肿，也会有点疼痛，这都可以用冰袋或者药物治疗。
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
Steven Weinberger is the director of linguistics in the English Department at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Professor Weinberger says students in his beginning phonetics class are mostly interested in teaching English as a second language. They wanted to study how
non-native speakers pronounce different sounds.
史蒂文·温伯格（Steven Weinberger）是乔治梅森大学英语系语言学主任，该校位于弗吉尼亚州费尔法克斯县。温伯格教授表示，语言学入门班级中的的学生大多数有意教授非英语母语人士，所以他们想要研究非母语人士如何发音。
STEVEN WEINBERGER: "So we sent the students out to record non-native speakers, and we compared those speakers to each other and to native speakers of English."
温伯格：“于是我们派学生给非母语人士录音并相互比较，同时还和英语母语人士比较。”
Professor Weinberger wrote a paragraph for all of the speakers to read. The paragraph uses common words but contains almost all of the sounds used in English. Here is that sixty-nine-word paragraph read by our own Bob Doughty:
温伯格教授写了一段短文让所有人朗读。这段短文使用一些常用词，但却包含了英语使用的几乎所有的发音。以下是由我同事Bob Doughty朗读的这段69个单词的短文：
BOB DOUGHTY: "Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids.She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."
Bob Doughty：“请致电斯特拉，让她从商店购买这些东西：六匙新鲜荷兰豆，五大块蓝纹奶酪，有可能再给她弟弟鲍勃买点小吃。我们还需要给小孩们买一条塑料小蛇和一个玩具大青蛙。她可以把这些东西装进3个红色袋子里，我们周三将去火车站接她。”
In nineteen ninety-nine, Professor Weinberger put the recordings online. The Speech Accent Archive is for anyone who wants to compare and analyze the accents of different English speakers.
1999年，温伯格教授把这些录音放到了网上。这份语言口音档案提供给任何想对不同英语朗读者的口音做比较和分析的人士使用。
For example, here is a thirty-two-year-old Iraqi man:
例如，这是一位30岁伊拉克男子：
IRAQI MAN: "Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store."
伊拉克男子：“请致电斯特拉，让她从商店购买这些东西。”
And here is a twenty-three-year-old woman from Eritrea:
而这是一位23岁的厄立特里亚女子：
ERITREAN WOMAN: "Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob."
厄立特里亚女子：“六匙新鲜荷兰豆，五大块蓝纹奶酪，有可能再给她弟弟鲍勃买点小吃。”
Some people think the archive would be better if it included natural speech -- people talking freely, (not just reading the same words. )Professor Weinberger recognizes the strengths and weaknesses of his site.
有人认为如果这份档案包括人们自由交谈的录音，而不仅仅是朗读同一篇短文就更好了。温伯格教授知道他的网站的长处和弱点。
STEVEN WEINBERGER: "The biggest plus, of course, is that it is so uniform that you can immediately compare a Kiswahili speaker to a native English speaker. But the downside is that a less-than-skilled reader will have difficulties with the paragraph that might not demonstrate their true phonetic abilities."
温伯格：“最大的长处当然是这份档案如此统一，你可以立即对斯瓦希里语朗读者和英语母语朗读者做比较。但其短处是，缺乏训练的人对朗读这篇短文可能存在困难，可能无法表现出他们真正的语言实力。”
People often use sounds from their first language until they can reproduce the ones used in the language they are learning.
人们通常使用其母语的发音，直到他们能模仿正在学习的这门语言的正确发音。
Professor Weinberger says the site gets a million visits a month.
温伯格教授表示，这个网站每月访客高达1百万人次。
STEVEN WEINBERGER: "We get notices from speech pathologists, from computational engineers who do speech processing, from PhD students who want to do research on bias and accent judgments, from actors who need to learn a special part."
温伯格：“我们得到了来自语言病理学家，语音处理工程师，研究偏好和口音鉴定的博士生，以及需要学习特定地方口音的演员们的建议。”
The archive contains more than one thousand five hundred recordings. These can be searched many ways, including by place of birth and the age at which the speaker began to learn English.
这份档案包括1500多份录音，它们可以通过多种途径搜索，包括使用出生地和朗读者开始学习英语的年龄搜索。
Professor Weinberger would like more people to send in their own samples of the sixty-nine-word paragraph.
温伯格教授希望更多人给他发送自己朗读的这段69个单词的短文的录音样本。
STEVEN WEINBERGER: "Right now we only have samples from about three hundred fifty languages, including English. You know, there are six thousand languages in the world today, so we need lots more. That's why the archive work will never be finished."
温伯格：“当前我们只有来自以350种不同语言为母语的朗读者的录音样本，其中包括英语。而你知道当今世界上有6000种语言。因此我们需要更多录音样本，这就是为什么这项档案工作永远无法结束的原因。”
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
The World Health Organization is urging health officials to ban commonly-available blood tests for tuberculosis. W.H.O. officials made the call after two studies found that results from a commonly used test are undependable and misleading.
世界卫生组织敦促卫生官员禁止普遍使用的验血检测肺结核的方法。两项研究表明普遍使用的验血方法不可靠，具有误导性之后，WHO官员发出该呼吁。
The blood tests are low-cost and produce fast results. They are widely used in developing countries, especially India. The Indian government says the country has more than two million new cases of TB a year.
血液检测成本低，出结果快，被广泛应用于发展中国家，特别是印度。印度政府表示，印度每年有超过200万例结核病新案例。
But, researchers say the tests being sold are dangerously inaccurate. They say the results are wrong in fifty percent of patients.
但是，研究人员表示，他们使用的检测方法是非常不准确的。他们说，高达50%的病人使用验血检测的结果是不准确的。
David Dowdy studies infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. He led one of the studies.
David Dowdy在马里兰州巴尔的摩市约翰霍普金斯大学彭博公共卫生学院研究传染病。他领导了其中一项研究。
voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇七：VOA慢速英语
美国人全年都吃火鸡，虽然鸡肉、牛肉和猪肉仍然更受欢迎，但多年来美国吃火鸡越吃越多。美国火鸡联合会主席乔尔·布兰登贝格尔（Joel Brandenberger）表示，2012年火鸡养殖户的盈利能力可能不如过去两年。火鸡价格上涨的同时饲料成本也在涨。
"Corn is our number one feed ingredient, and the drought has obviously increased the price of corn dramatically and, frankly, the fact that an ever-increasing amount of the corn crop is being diverted to ethanol production also has increased the cost of corn. So that's created some difficulty for the industry this year."
“玉米是我们喂养火鸡的头号饲料原料，很明显干旱显著提升了玉米的价格，同时坦率地说，转向乙醇生产的玉米数量不断增加也提升了玉米的成本。今年这些因素给火鸡行业造成了一些困难。”
The Pilgrims' feast in sixteen twenty-one is often considered the nation's first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were early settlers of Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts. They held a three-day feast to celebrate a good harvest. However, other European settlers in North America also held ceremonies of thanks. These included British colonists in Virginia in sixteen nineteen.
1621年美国新移民的庆祝活动通常被认为是美国第一个感恩节。新移民是普利茅斯殖民地，也就是现在的马萨诸塞州的早期殖民者。他们举行了三天的庆祝活动欢迎丰收。然而，北美的其他欧洲殖民者也举行了感恩仪式，其中包括1619年弗吉尼亚州的英国殖民者。
In eighteen sixty-three, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. In nineteen thirty-nine, as the Great Depression was ending, President Franklin Roosevelt established the holiday on the fourth Thursday. He did not want to shorten the Christmas holiday shopping season in years when November has a fifth Thursday.
1863年美国内战期间，亚伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln）总统宣布11月的最后一个星期四为全国性的感恩节。1939年随着大萧条的结束，富兰克林·罗斯福（Franklin Roosevelt）总统将该节日确定到第四个星期四。他不希望那些11月有第五个星期四的年份圣诞假期购物季有所缩短。
The season traditionally begins with a busy shopping day on the Friday after Thanksgiving, although some stores are now opening on the holiday itself.
圣诞购物季通常在感恩节之后的星期五以一个繁忙的购物日开始，虽然现在一些商店感恩节当天就开放。 One of America's founders, Ben Franklin, thought the turkey would better represent the country as its official bird than the bald eagle. But Joel Brandenberger disagrees.
美国开国元勋之一的本杰明·富兰克林（Ben Franklin）认为火鸡比秃鹰（白头海雕）更能作为国鸟代表美国。但布兰登贝格尔对此不赞同。
"I think we're better off having the bald eagle on our coins and the Thanksgiving turkey on our dinner table."
“我认为最好还是让秃鹰留在硬币上，而感恩节火鸡留在餐桌上。”
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voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇八：VOA慢速英语
【VOA】American History: An Angry Nation Puts Its Hopes in
President Roosevelt
By David Jarmul
2011-3-16
Photo: fdrlibrary.marist.edu
Herbert Hoover, left, and Franklin Roosevelt in Washington on
Inauguration Day
STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember with Shirley Griffith. This week in our series, we begin the story of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
(MUSIC)
In nineteen thirty-two Americans were tired of the policies of Republican President Herbert Hoover. They thought Hoover had done too little to fight the depression that was crushing the economy.
They gave a big victory to Franklin Roosevelt and his Democrats in the elections that year. Roosevelt believed that the federal government should do more to help average Americans.
The election brought hope to many Americans in the autumn of nineteen thirty-two. But Roosevelt did not become president until March of nineteen thirty-three, four months after the election. And those months saw the American economy fall to its lowest level in the history of the nation.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: President Hoover tried to arrange a world economic conference. And he called on President-elect Roosevelt to join him in making conservative statements in support of business.
Roosevelt refused. He did not think it was correct to begin acting like a president until he actually became the president. He did not want to tie himself to policies that the voters had just rejected.
Congress, controlled by Democrats, also refused to help Hoover.
STEVE EMBER: It was a strange period, a season of uncertainty and anger. The economy was worse than ever. The lines of people waiting for food were longer than before. Angry mobs of farmers were gathering in the countryside. And the politicians in Washington seemed unable to work together to end the crisis.
Hoover said, We are at the end of our rope. There is nothing more we can do. And across the country, Americans waited -- worried, uncertain, afraid. What would the new president do?
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The new president was fifty-one years old. His family name was well-known to the American public. Theodore Roosevelt -- a distant family member -- had served as one of America's greatest presidents thirty years earlier.
Franklin Roosevelt was born to a rich and important New York family. He went to the best schools: Groton, Harvard and Columbia Law School. In nineteen ten, he won election to the New York State Legislature. He showed great intelligence and
political understanding as a state senator, and worked hard for other Democratic candidates.
Franklin Roosevelt next served as assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson. And in nineteen twenty, he was the Democratic Party's
unsuccessful candidate for vice president.
STEVE EMBER: The next year, Roosevelt suffered a personal tragedy. He was sailing during a holiday with his family. Suddenly, his body became cold. He felt severe pain in his back and legs. Doctors came. But the pain got worse. For weeks, Roosevelt was forced to lie on his back.
Finally, doctors discovered that Roosevelt was a victim of polio. He lost control of his legs because of the disease. He would never walk again.
Roosevelt had always been an active man who loved sports. But now he would have to live with a wheelchair. All of his money and fame could not get him back the strength in his legs.
fdrlibrary.marist.edu
President Roosevelt in 1933
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Many Americans thought the illness would end Roosevelt's political dreams. But they were wrong. He showed an inner strength that people had never seen in him before.
Roosevelt ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of New York state in nineteen twenty-eight. He won by a small number of votes.
Two years later, the voters of New York re-elected Roosevelt. And they cheered his creative efforts to help citizens of the state who were suffering from the Great Depression.
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Franklin Roosevelt always appeared strong and friendly in public. He loved to laugh and enjoy life. But his happy face hid a strong will.
Throughout his life, Roosevelt worked to improve life for the common man. And he was willing to use the power of government to do this. He thought the government had the power and responsibility to improve the life of its citizens.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Roosevelt believed deeply in this. But he was less certain about the best way to do it. "Above all, we must try something," he said during the
presidential campaign of nineteen thirty-two. Roosevelt believed that the country demanded creative experimentation.
Americans in large numbers across the country voted for Roosevelt in nineteen thirty-two. They supported his calls for action to end the depression. But no one was really sure just what this new president from New York -- this man unable to walk -- would really do after he entered the White House.
loc.gov
President Roosevelt's inauguration ceremony in Washington
STEVE EMBER: Inauguration Day in nineteen thirty-three began with clouds and a dark sky. Roosevelt went to church in the morning. And then he drove with
President Hoover from the White House to the Capitol, the building where Congress meets.
Roosevelt tried to talk with Hoover as they drove. But Hoover said little. He just waved without emotion at the crowd.
The two men arrived at the Capitol. A huge crowd of people waited. Millions more Americans listened to a radio broadcast of the ceremony. The chief justice of the United States, Charles Evans Hughes, gave the oath of office to Roosevelt.
And then Americans waited to hear what the nation's thirty-second president would say.
He told them he was sure they expected him to speak openly and honestly about the situation facing the country. He told them that their great nation would survive as it had survived in the past. That it would recover and become rich again.
He talked about the danger of fear -- a nameless fear that blocked efforts to move forward. And he talked about Americans giving their support to honest, active leadership in every dark hour of their history.
Here is some of Roosevelt's inaugural address in his own words.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT: "This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Roosevelt's words caught the emotions of the crowd. He
seemed sure of himself. He promised leadership. His whole style was different from the empty promises of wealth offered by President Hoover.
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT: "Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days my friends will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves, to our fellow men."
voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇九：VOA慢速英语
This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.Anti-government protests continued this week in several countries across the Middle East and North Africa.In Bahrain, the crown prince went on television Friday and appealed for calm. Thousands of mourners tried to return to Pearl Square in Manama, the capital, after a funeral for an anti-government protester.Security forces fired on the mourners, who were disobeying a protest ban. Local officials and witnesses said at least twenty-three people were wounded. Later, angry protesters gathered next to a hospital. Many shouted "Down with Khalifa" -- Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.The military cleared Pearl Square of protesters during a raid on Thursday. The protests in Bahrain began on Monday.Seventy percent of Bahrain's population is Shi'ite, but Sunni Muslims lead the government. Bahrain is also home to the United State Navy's Fifth Fleet.In Yemen, demonstrators have been calling for more than a week for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. Thousands protested across Yemen on Friday. Protesters fought with security forces in Aden. Medical officials say four people were shot to death.At least one person was killed in the city of Taiz. A passenger in a car threw a grenade that exploded as a crowd demonstrated against the Yemeni government.In Amman, Jordan, witnesses say at least eight people were injured when government supporters used sticks to attack demonstrators. Jordan has had weeks of protests demanding constitutional changes and limits on the power of King Abdullah.In Libya, there were "Day of Rage" demonstrations Thursday against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Human Rights Watch says Libyan security forces killed twenty-four protesters.In Iran, thousands of government supporters shouted "Death to Moussavi! Death to Karroubi!" after Friday prayers in Tehran. Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi are leaders of Iran's opposition Green Movement.But a top Iranian religious leader told a prayer service at Tehran University that execution was needless. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the two men were, in a sense, dead already because they have lost their influence. Both men have been held effectively under house arrest this week.On Monday, the Green Movement held its first public protest in a year. The movement grew out of Iran's disputed presidential election in two thousand nine. Opposition websites have called for nationwide demonstrations on Sunday.In a separate development, Egypt approved a request for two Iranian navy ships to pass through the Suez Canal. Israel's Foreign Minister says the ships are expected to sail toward Syria. This is believed to be Iran's first naval mission into the Mediterranean in years.And in Cairo, thousands of Egyptians crowded into Tahrir Square on Friday for a day of celebration. They marked one week since President Hosni Mubarak resigned.And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
___Contributing: Lisa Bryant, Selah Hennessy and Brian Padden
voa慢速英语感恩节原文翻译篇十：voa慢速英语
2010.10 climbers break new reco
FAITH LAPIDUS: I'm Faith Lapidus.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about efforts to climb Mount Everest. In May, a
thirteen-year-old American boy became the youngest person to climb the tallest mountain on Earth.
(MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: Mount Everest is at the border of Nepal and Tibet. It was named for Sir George Everest, who recorded the mountain’s position in eighteen forty-one. Since nineteen fifty-three, more than ten thousand people have attempted to climb to the top of the world's highest mountain. The summit of Mount Everest is eight thousand eight hundred forty-eight meters high.
Climbers have reached the summit more than three thousand times. However, more than two hundred people died while attempting to get there. Most climbers make the trip in late April and May when weather conditions are the least severe.
All climbers battle extreme conditions: Low temperatures. Wind speeds of up to one hundred sixty kilometers an hour. Dangerous mountain paths. And they all risk developing a serious health disorder caused by lack of oxygen. All for the chance to reach the top of the world.
Jordan Romero speaks to reporters in Katmandu, Nepal, after becoming the youngest person to climb Mount Everest
STEVE EMBER: The first and most famous of the climbers to disappear on Mount Everest was George Mallory. The British schoolteacher was a member of the first three trips by foreigners to the mountain. In nineteen twenty-one, Mallory was part of the team sent by the British Royal Geographical Society and the British Alpine Club.
The team was to create the first map of the area and find a possible path to the top of the great mountain.
Mallory also was a member of the first Everest climbing attempt in nineteen twenty-two. But that attempt was canceled after a storm caused a giant mass of snow to slide down the mountain, killing seven ethnic Sherpa guides.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Mallory was invited back to Everest as lead climber of another expedition team in nineteen twenty-four. On June fourth, Mallory and team member Andrew Irvine left their base camp for the team's final attempt to reach the summit. The climbing team had great hopes of success for the two men. A few days earlier, expedition leader Edward Norton had reached a record height of eight thousand five hundred seventy-three meters before he turned back.
STEVE EMBER: Mallory and Irvine were using bottles of oxygen. Mallory believed that was the only way they would have the energy and speed to climb the last three hundred meters to the top and return safely. Team member Noel Odell saw Mallory and Irvine climbing high on the mountain the following day.
Odell said they had just climbed one of the most difficult rocks on the northeast path. He said they were moving toward the top when clouds hid them. He never saw them again. The disappearance of Mallory and Irvine on Mount Everest remains among the greatest exploration mysteries of the last century.
In nineteen ninety-nine, climbers set off to search for the remains of Mallory and Irvine. They were hoping to find a camera that might contain a picture, which would prove whether or not the men reached the summit. They did not find a camera, but they found the body of George Mallory. The body gave many clues about how Mallory might have died. But the debate continues as to whether this famous team reached the top of Mount Everest. (MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: During the next twenty-nine years after Mallory and Irvine’s effort, teams from Britain made seven more attempts to climb Everest. Until the early nineteen fifties, British teams were the only foreigners given permission to climb Mount Everest.
On May twenty-ninth, nineteen fifty-three, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to reach the summit of Everest. The two were part of a British team lead by Jon Hunt. They had made a difficult climb from the southeast, through recently opened Nepalese territory.
Sardar Tenzing Norgay of Nepal and Edmund P. Hillary of New Zealand, left, were first to climb Everest
Edmund Hillary was a beekeeper from New Zealand. It was his second trip to Everest. He had been on the first exploratory trip to the mountain that
had mapped the way up from the southern side. Tenzing Norgay was a native Sherpa from Nepal. His climb with Hillary was his seventh attempt to reach the top.
STEVE EMBER: Hillary said his first reaction on reaching the summit was a happy feeling that he had “no more steps to cut." The two men placed the flags of Britain, Nepal, India and the United Nations. Hillary took a picture of Norgay. They looked out over the north side into Tibet for any signs that Mallory or Irvine had been there before them. Then they began the long and difficult trip back down. The success of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay led to many new attempts on the mountain. Today, Everest has been climbed from all of its sides and from most of its possible paths. (MUSIC)
FAITH LAPIDUS: In nineteen seventy-five, Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest.
Reinhold Messner of Italy and Peter Habeler of Austria made another historic climb three years later. The two men were the first to reach the summit without using bottled oxygen. Messner said when he reached the top he felt like a single giant lung.
At the time, scientists believed that a person at the top of the mountain would only have enough oxygen to sleep. Scientists believed that Messner and Habeler would die without oxygen. Scientists now know that two conditions make climbing at heights over eight thousand meters extremely difficult. The first is the lack of oxygen in the extremely thin air. The second is the low barometric air pressure.
STEVE EMBER: Today, scientists say a person dropped on the top of the mountain would live no more than ten minutes. Climbers can survive above eight thousand meters because they spend months climbing on the mountain to get used to the conditions.
Several things have made climbing Everest easier now than it was for the first climbers. These include modern equipment and clothing. They also include information gained from earlier climbs and scientific studies. Hundreds of people have reached the summit each year during the past few years. Some expert climbers have begun leading guided trips up the mountain.
Some people have paid as much as sixty-five thousand dollars for the chance to climb Everest. However, many of these people have little climbing experience. This can lead to serious problems.
FAITH LAPIDUS: In nineteen ninety-six, Everest had its greatest tragedy. Fifteen people died attempting to reach the top. This was the deadliest single year in Everest history. A record ten people died on the mountain in one day. Two of the world's best climbers were among those killed. Several books by climbers have described the incident and the dangerous conditions. The best known is “Into Thin Air,” a personal story about the disaster by Jon Krakauer. The book sold many copies around the world and increased the interest in climbing Mount Everest.
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STEVE EMBER: This year has been a successful one for Mount Everest climbers. The Website Everestnews.com says over four hundred forty people reached the top of the world's highest mountain.
Last month, thirteen- year-old Jordan Romero became the youngest person to reach the top of the mountain. He was influenced at the age of nine by a painting in his school of the highest mountains on the seven continents.
A photo from Team Romero showing, from left, Paul Romero, Jordan Romero and Karen Lundgren on the summit of Mount Everest in May. Three Sherpa guides were also among the group
FAITH LAPIDUS: The eighth grader from California climbed Everest with a team that included his father, his stepmother and three Sherpas. Jordan said that on the climb he began to have intense stomach pains. But as he reached the top, he said the pain went away and he only felt happiness. He said the feeling of accomplishment would be with him for the rest of his life. He even remembered to telephone his mother. He told her that he was calling from the top of the world.
Jordan’s next goal is to climb Vinson Massif in Antarctica. After that climb, he will have completed his goal of climbing the seven summits. STEVE EMBER: Another record was set last month. The Nepali mountain guide Apa is also known as “Super Sherpa.” He reached the summit of Everest for the twentieth time. He dedicated this climb to the effect of climate change on the Himalayan Mountains. He said he is upset by the many changes he sees caused by rising temperatures on Everest. He said the melting snow is making the climb much more dangerous.
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FAITH LAPIDUS: This program was written by Shelley Gollust and Dana Demange who was also the producer. I'm Faith Lapidus.
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember. You can comment about this story on our website, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and iTunes at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.
VOA慢速英语2011-Imaginations at Work: A Saddle
CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.
FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Some jobs require little or no creativity. Other jobs are all about creativity. This week on our program, we meet two Americans who put their imaginations to work in very different ways. One is a saddle maker. The other is a poet.
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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Nancy Martiny has worked with horses all her life. She learned riding and roping when she grew up on a cattle ranch.
NANCY MARTINY: "From whenever I was a little kid I was always doing what the men did. And then as I got older and rodeoed and into producing rodeos, I’ve always worked with men."
Ms. Martiny started making western saddles for fun as a hobby. Now, she has a waiting list. People have to wait up to three years to buy one of her saddles.
NANCY MARTINY: "I’ve had people ask me that they think you have to be big and strong and tough to build saddles, and you don’t. You have to have a sharp knife."
Carving patterns into the leather is a skill saddle maker Nancy Martiny first learned as a teenager, while watching her father tool leather. FAITH LAPIDUS: A sharp knife is just a tool. A good saddle maker also has to have an artistic sense for carving and shaping designs into leather. NANCY MARTINY: "Like here, at the start, I’ll hit it pretty hard and then I want that to look like there's some contour to that petal."