【每日阅读训练第四期——速度越障7系列】【7-8】文史哲

Threesu

速度

'Silent Spring' At 50; Confessions from English Learners; Janka Nabay Brings Bubu to Brooklyn

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JUNE SIMMS: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

I'm June Simms. This week, we play a modern form of traditional West African Islamic music, known as Bubu, from Brooklyn-based musician Janka Nabay.

We also look at some of your confessions...

But first, we talk about "Silent Spring," the book that launched the environmental movement in America fifty years ago.

Silent Spring: 50 Years Later

JUNE SIMMS: Fifty years ago, Rachel Carson helped launch the modern environmental movement with her book "Silent Spring." The book warned about the damage that pesticide products were doing to the natural world, including human health. Today, the battle for the environment continues. Shirley Griffith has more.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In the nineteen fifties, the United States Department of Agriculture was using more than two hundred fifty thousand kilograms of pesticides a year. "Silent Spring" warned readers that the chemicals were not only deadly for insects, but for all living things.

Linda Lear wrote a book called "Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature."

LINDA LEAR: "Silent Spring" essentially told the reading public that human beings could alter the natural world in ways that were quite deadly and that could be potentially lethal to human beings as well as to other parts of the natural world."

More than sixty million copies of "Silent Spring" have been sold in the United States since its publication in nineteen sixty-two. The book is considered one of the most important non-fiction works of modern time. It has been published in thirty languages. And it led to a ban on the pesticide DDT in the United States.
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However, Rachel Carson was not without critics. The American agricultural expert, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Norman Borlaug, led a defense of pesticides after "Silent Spring" was published.

NORMAN BORLAUG: "We're having troubles now feeding this hungry world. If you remove DDT with the hysteria that is present in the USA, the U.S. will be importing food, only there won't be anyplace from where to import it."

The DDT ban in farming went into effect in nineteen seventy-two. But thousands of new chemical products were in development. The United States Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee seeks to control the use of hundreds of chemicals in agriculture and other industries. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey is a committee member.

FRANK LAUTENBERG: "This committee heard from CDC officials who told us their scientists found two hundred and twelve industrial chemicals, including six carcinogens, coursing through Americans' bodies."

In two thousand six, the World Health Organization announced plans to use DDT indoors as part of its malaria campaign. The insecticide is very effective against mosquitoes, the carriers of malaria. Cases of the disease rose sharply after developing nations stopped using DDT in the early nineteen eighties.

The company Syngenta is a major producer of agricultural chemicals. It argues, as do others in the industry, that its chemicals are safe if used correctly. Tim Pastoor is Syngenta's lead scientist.

TIM PASTOOR: "We try and do every single study that is necessary to support the safety characteristics of the product."
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Fifty years after the publication of "Silent Spring," farmers continue to spray millions of kilograms of pesticides and other chemicals on their crops. And the environmental movement continues to fight against the practice.

Your Confessions

JUNE SIMMS: A few months ago we started a blog at 51voa.com called "Confessions of an English Learner." This blog is for you to share your stories about language misunderstandings, and to laugh, cry and sympathize with other people's stories. Thanks to all of you who have contributed so far, including Adam from Taiwan.

He writes that he was taking a tour with his son in Hawaii. His son had gone to the restroom. The tour guide asked where the boy was, and Adam answered "He is in the toilet."

In other countries, that answer might have made perfect sense. But in the United States most people would say "he's in the restroom" or "he's in the bathroom." To Americans, a "toilet" is what you find in a restroom rather than the name for the room itself. So you can see why saying that his son was "in the toilet" might have sounded funny.

Michele from France had a funny and maybe somewhat painful story to tell. She was visiting London and the weather was very cold and rainy. She went into an Indian restaurant and ordered a meal. The waiter asked if she wanted it "hot." She was surprised by the question and said, yes, "very, very hot."
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Michele says after she took her first bite she realized her misunderstanding. The food was very, very spicy. So the lesson there is be careful the next time someone asks if you want your food "hot." It can refer to either the temperature or the flavor.

Some of the English learners on our blog have advice for others. Hassan from Lebanon wrote that his English improved after he started watching movies in English and listening to English music. He advises listening to a song at least three times in a day so that the words stick in your mind.

Keep sharing your stories and your advice at 51voa.com -- click on Confessions of an English Learner. And check out our latest videos at the VOA Learning Channel on YouTube. They come with closed captioning, so you can watch them with or without captions. And -- we think this is really cool -- you can translate the captions into other languages. Try it and tell us what you think.

Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang

JUNE SIMMS: Have you ever heard Bubu music? If not, here's your chance. Christopher Cruise tells us about the new album, "En Yay Sah," by Brooklyn based Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Bubu is a traditional music from Sierra Leone. It has its roots in Islam of West Africa where special religious chants are used during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. It also involves wind instruments like bamboo flutes and metal pipes.

Janka Nabay is from Sierra Leone. He fled to the United States during Sierra Leone's civil war. He settled in the Brooklyn area of New York City.
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Janka Nabay says Bubu music is hundreds of years old. But he has made the sound modern, adding electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards and drums. The Bubu Gang players are all local musicians who also perform for other bands.

Among them is Syrian born singer Boshra al-Sahdi. Here she and Nabay sing "Eh Mane Ah," or "Take This Advice."

Janka Nabay is popular in Sierra Leone. He sings in the country's main language, Krio, as well as his own tribal language, Temne, and several others. Nabay says his work has made it pleasant for people to return to their culture and to love it.

Supporters in the Sierra Leonean community in New York were more difficult to find. Nabay sings about that in "Kill Me With Bongo," from "En Yay Sah."

Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang have some love songs too. In one, Nabay sings "I need somebody to sit by me, I need somebody kiss me, I need somebody to hold me tight, I need somebody to love me."

Music critics have mostly praised "En Yay Sah." Bubu music may not be well known among them but one critic wrote of the album, "the unfamiliar has never been so inviting."

We leave you now with another song from En Yay Sah." Here is Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang performing "Feba," or "Look-Alike"

JUNE SIMMS: I'm June Simms. This program was written and produced by Caty Weaver. Zulima Palacio provided additional reporting.

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越障

Strained relations between Japan and South Korea

Lame ducks and flying feathers



IN RECENT administrations in South Korea a pattern has emerged for how presidents treat Japan. For the first three of their five years in office, they are in a friendly swoon, focusing firmly on the future. Then, as if rudely awoken, they remember that Japan was once a brutal coloniser, and things go swiftly downhill.

Lee Myung-bak, in his last few months as South Korea’s president, is following the same script, but with a twist. On August 10th he made an unexpected visit to an islet that South Korea, which occupies it, calls Dokdo, and that Japan, which covets it, calls Takeshima. That suddenly upset the diplomatic limbo in which the territorial dispute had lain for years. A South Korean president had never set foot on the island before. A few days later Mr Lee added what the Japanese saw as insult to injury, by saying that if the emperor, Akihito, were to visit South Korea, he should first apologise for Japan’s wartime sins. Then followed a Dokdo nonsense, in which the South refused to receive a diplomatic letter and Japan refused to take it back. Even Japan’s relations with North Korea appear to have more scope for improvement.

The question is why Mr Lee, who must leave office shortly after elections in December, is going out of his way to be so provocative. Now that Park Geun-hye, no friend of the president, has become the ruling party’s candidate to contest the elections, Mr Lee looks like a lame duck. His brother, who wielded influence over his administration, was indicted in July on kickback charges, joining other former presidential aides accused of corruption. In a country where ex-presidents’ families and friends are often hounded by their enemies, Mr Lee’s visit to the island can best be explained as a way of shoring up his defences before he goes.

The trouble is, he is not the only diminished leader in the neighbourhood. In late August Yoshihiko Noda, the Japanese prime minister, was defeated in an opposition censure in the upper house, in effect killing his chances of pushing legislation through both houses of parliament during this session.


The immediate consequence is that his government is running out of cash. On September 4th it postponed ¥4.1 trillion ($52.4 billion) in tax grants to towns and cities, following its failure to pass a bill to issue bonds to help fund this year’s budget. Soon, though, the censure motion may leave Mr Noda no choice but to dissolve parliament, pushing him into an autumn election that polls suggest his ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will lose. The fight is likely to be liveliest on the nationalist right, where some of the DPJ’s most potent challengers include people spoiling for a verbal confrontation with South Korea. That will make the bilateral tensions even harder to diffuse.

Pundits are struggling to understand how matters deteriorated so swiftly. They are mystified as to why Mr Lee brought the emperor into the fray. The 78-year-old has worked hard to improve relations with South Korea, as with all neighbours who suffered under Japanese imperialism. He is not shy of apologising.

As for the surprise visit to the island, Mr Lee has broken what the Japanese see as a diplomatic taboo. And he has sought to aggravate the thorny territorial issue with the emotive issue of “comfort women”, South Koreans press-ganged during the second world war, along with other nationalities, to provide Japanese soldiers with sex.

A year ago South Korea’s Constitutional Court compelled Mr Lee’s government to take steps to address the grievances of some of the victims who every week hold protests outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. Park Cheol-hee of Seoul National University reckons that Mr Lee decided to go to the island partly out of frustration, because his government was unable to persuade Mr Noda’s administration to offer compensation to the comfort women, along with profounder apologies than Japan had issued to date.

In South Korea the blame for this fell largely on Mr Noda. However, Hitoshi Tanaka, a Japanese foreign-policy expert who has taken part in comfort-women negotiations in the past, says it was long ago agreed between the two countries that Japan could not offer state handouts to individuals, however much they suffered, on the (admittedly curious) ground that the demands would be endless. He says the Lee administration ignores numerous past apologies, as well as indirect compensation payments.

A big risk now is that the row could inflame anti-Korean sentiment in Japan. Charismatic right-wing politicians such as Toru Hashimoto, mayor of Osaka, who is preparing to launch a nationwide political party to take part in the elections, is one of several influential figures who have called for a review of the 1993 “Kono Statement”, named after the then chief cabinet secretary, which is Japan’s fullest apology for the incidents of sexual slavery. So has Shinzo Abe, a nationalist whose disastrous spell as prime minister has not snuffed out his ambitions. Such a review would infuriate South Koreans.

Deteriorating relations have already had material consequences. In June, and at the last moment, South Korea shelved a deal to share intelligence with Japan, mainly about North Korea. Military exchanges, which are encouraged by the United States, an ally of both countries, were suspended this week. Japan is mulling whether to renew a currency-swap agreement that expires in October. Politicians are even threatening to stop a Korean soap-opera star from visiting Japan, after he took part in a swimming relay to Dokdo. For Japanese women obsessed with the “Korean wave” of popular culture, that is extremely serious.

Five million tourists travel between the two countries each year, and the business ties are so thick that a huge incentive exists for South Korea and Japan to overcome their differences. It will not happen, however, before Mr Lee leaves office. By then, Mr Noda may be gone too.
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Maureen88

越障 6.42.8

a patten existed in K presidents.

try to explain this situation

fightfor700

谢谢Threesu辛苦整理的材料哈！


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spencerX

谢谢Threesu的分享！

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1.What do the presidents of South Korea do have a pattern They will have a good relationship with Japan in the first three years, but in the fourth years, they will do the opposite.
2.SK and J have a tension. L visited a disputed island. (first president of SK to do so) J even have a better relation with North Korea.
3.The reason why L visited the island He will retire from the position, and because former presidents of SK are always hounded by enemies, L just wants to protect himself.
4.The situation of the president of J.
5.Effect of the action of the president of J.
6.Another problem sex slaves during the war.
7.We don’t know why the relationship between these two countries has been deteriorated so swiftly.
8.People from SK think that J should apologize for what they do.
9.People from J think that S Koreans forget the agreement between two countries and indirect compensation.
10.J threaten the SK by three means 1) military;2)refuse to sign another currency-swap;3) refuse the actors from SK to arrive in J
11.SK and J depend on each other in business field, so they will try to overcome the difficulty between them.

bank11

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1. The president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak is taking aggressive steps before he leave his position in December. Some people say that he is shoring up his defence before he goes.
2. Discribe some situations in Japan: they are running out of cash ect
3. Lee began to be strict to Japan, trying to make them apologize for "comfort women". Some people say that Lee ignored some apologize that Japanese have made before.
4. These two countries are closely related to each other in term of economics, but situations may not change before Lee goes.

angela不怕孤单

thanks~Threesu
speed
02:57
published 50 years a,slient spring is a popular book about environment protection.
03:10
some scientists defensed pesticides and consider DDT ensure the production of food.after the government banned to use DDT, many other chemical products apeared and they would be safe if they are used in the right way.
02:00
we should say sb is in the bathroom/restroom,not in the toilet.
02:01
hot is equal to the spicy,when we talk about flavor.
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bubu traditional music become more modern and bring pleasant to people.

obstacle
11:56
1/it leads to territorial dispute that the korean leader went to a islet.
2/he wanted to show uo his defences.
3/japanese prime minister opposed censur and run out of cash. he also lost in the election.
4/they touched the diplomatic taboo which is about confort women.
5/the deteriorated diplomatic led to material results.

吉迈特

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莽莽要上7

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Obstacle: 6'37

我心匪席

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In South Korea an administrations pattern emerges for how presidents treat Japan. On the first three year in office, it is in a friendly way, and then, in a tough way.
Lee MB at his last few months as South Korea followed the same pattern. He set feet on Dokdo, which Japan covets, and refused to apologize.
The reason why Lee is so provocative is that he found a way to protect himself, and most ex-president’s families and friends may be hounded by their enemies.
YN, Japanese prime minister, is diminished in upper house.
YN’s government is running out of cash, and he has to dissolve parliament.
Lee’s activity is hard to understand to pundits, for he previously worked hard to improve relationship with Japan, aggravating the emotive issue of “comfort woman”.
Lee failed to persuade YN’s government to compensate for “comfort woman”, who were victims of Second World War.
Actually, Lee has made agreement with Japan that he ignores numerous apologies as well as indirect compensation payments. For Japan can not offer compensation from state handouts.
Due to Lee’s activity, anti-Korean sentiment in Japan arises.
And deteriorating relations have already impacted material consequences.
However, based on mutual economic development and incentive, South and Korea and Japan will find a solution to overcome their differences.

感谢楼主整理~

yqhpsyche

speed
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obstacle  5'48

没有静下心来读...脑子里一片浆糊，得坚持认真做了..