ＶＯＡ慢速英语 每日更新!

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= 推荐最佳听力练习方法：
= ㈠下载听力MP3/RM。先不看原文，听写；
= ㈡参照原文纠正自己听写中的错误
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英语是我们新移民抵达加国后最大的问题,如果有好的英语可以很快的溶入当地的社会中.
即使是研究生也常常是哑巴英语,只会看专业文章,而听不懂别人讲的英文,也无法用嘴巴表达自己的想法.
而语音是非常重要的,它是记忆的一个重要环节.
扩大词汇量:它对于单词的记忆,也是非常有用的.因为根据单词的读音,很容易得到单词的拼写的.
学会表达的方式:学习一些常用的表达方式,句型.
而我们在国内常常抱怨没有好的英语环境来学习.其实这只是只是一个借口,因为你只要按照我现在提供的方法,就会有效的提高你的听力,纠正你的语音.
来!让我们一起每天
VOA慢速英语

推荐播放 软件 暴风影音 ,我以前用RealPlay,总是觉得不太爽，现在用暴风影音, 就可以播放所有格式的音频和视频文件。

下载地址比如:
http://www.skycn.com/soft/98.html
http://down1.tech.sina.com.cn/downlo...-16/5162.shtml

听写过程中,只能暂停,不许倒回. 比如,遇到不会的词,不要倒回去,比如'Cyber Monday' Cyber 是什么,我不知道啊,没关系, 记录成 'syber' ,'s...ber M..doy' 哪怕只记录音节's...b..',都是可以的.That's OK!
听写一遍后再听一遍,将听懂的部分 补充完整,例如 'M..day' 补充成'Monday'.
最后再对比原文.

推荐几个英语网站:
http://www.listeningexpress.com/
http://www.52en.com/
http://www.voanews.com/

顶！！献花支持！

Economics Report - Holiday Shopping on the Job? Call It 'Cyber Monday'

Economics Report - Holiday Shopping on the Job? Call It 'Cyber Monday'
Written by Mario Ritter
02 December 2005

I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report.



For Americans, the traditional season to buy winter holiday gifts begins on the last Friday in November. "Black Friday" is the name for the day just after Thanksgiving Day. But lately there is a term for another popular shopping day that follows Black Friday: "Cyber Monday."

The term Cyber Monday comes from an observation made by people who study the holiday buying season. That is, lots of people may have gone into stores over the Thanksgiving weekend to look for gifts. But many wait until they return to work on Monday to buy online. Many people have faster Internet connections on the computers at their jobs than at home.

An Internet research company, comScore Networks, says Americans spent more than nine hundred million dollars online from Thanksgiving through Sunday. Then they bought four hundred eighty-five million dollars in goods over the Internet on Monday. The company says both amounts were twenty-six percent higher than last year.

What were the most popular sites for online shoppers? EBay is said to have had almost twelve million visitors on Monday. EBay is a site on which people sell goods to each other. Next were the Web sites of Amazon and Wal-Mart Stores.

Consumer spending represents two-thirds of all economic activity in the United States. And about one-fourth of all personal spending takes place during the holiday season. There are gifts to buy for Christmas, Hanukkah and the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa.

The day after Thanksgiving got the name Black Friday from the tradition of recording profits in black ink and losses in red ink. Black Friday may be a profitable time for sellers, but it is no longer the biggest shopping day of the year. Now the busiest day usually falls just before Christmas on December twenty-fifth.

Still, the National Retail Federation says more than sixty million people visited stores last Friday, eight percent more than a year ago.

The industry group says its expects holiday sales to increase by six percent over last year. There are concerns that high energy prices could cut into holiday spending, but those prices are down from their recent highs.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Internet users -- when they're not shopping -- can read and listen to our reports at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

National Women's Hall of Fame Adds New Members, Including Hillary Clinton

National Women's Hall of Fame Adds New Members, Including Hillary Clinton

Written by Mario Ritter
02 December 2005
(MUSIC)

HOST: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We hear music by Neil Young ‿/P>

Answer a question about open-source software ‿/P>

And report about new members of the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

National Women's Hall of Fame

The National Women’s Hall of Fame is the oldest organization that recognizes and honors important American women. The non-profit educational organization was established in nineteen sixty-nine with headquarters in Seneca Falls, New York. That is the town where the first Women’s Rights Convention was held in eighteen forty-eight. The National Women’s Hall of Fame recently honored ten more outstanding American women. Pat Bodnar tells us about them.

PAT BODNAR: A national committee of judges chose the honorees from the arts, science, government, education and other areas. They join two hundred seven other women honored by the National Women’s Hall of Fame since nineteen seventy-three.



Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the newest Hall of Fame members. The wife of former President Bill Clinton is the first female United States senator from New York State. She is also the first former First Lady elected to the Senate.

The other living honorees are peace and health activist Betty Bumpers, architect Maya Lin and scientist Rita Rossi Colwell. Betty Bumpers helped establish the first national campaign to give children medicine to prevent disease. Maya Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., at the age of twenty-one. Rita Rossi Colwell was the first woman and the first biologist to head the National Science Foundation.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame also honored six women who are no longer living. Blanche Stuart Scott was a pilot in the early days of the airplane. Mother Marianne Cope was a Roman Catholic religious worker who cared for patients with Hansen’s disease, or leprosy. Patricia Locke worked to keep Native American languages from being forgotten.

Mary Burnett Talbert was active in the struggle for voting rights for women and civil rights for African-Americans. Ruth Fulton Benedict studied social sciences. She wrote the book “Patterns of Culture‿in nineteen thirty-four. That same year, Hall of Fame honoree Florence Ellinwood Allen became the first female judge of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals.

Open-Source Software



HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. Semako Fasinu asks about open-source software.

Open-source software is a way in which businesses and individuals can offer the source code of a computer program to the general public. If a person has enough knowledge about computers and computer programming, he or she can change the program’s source code. The source code is like a set of directions that show the program how to operate.

People change the codes so that the program will operate in a way that will meet their needs. Sometimes changing the code will make the program run faster. Or it will take problems out of the program. These problems are called “bugs‿ and can cause a computer program to shut down.

People who change the source code of a computer program share these programs with each other on the Internet. Programmers enjoy being able to improve computer programs on their own. They enjoy being able to ask other people on the Internet for help with their programs. Working together, people can improve computer programs for the good of the group.

However, some computer software companies worry about open-source software. They think that if people are able to create and change their own software, they will not want to buy the companies‿products.

Many people say that open-source software is bad because the programs do not include security measures. They say that any person who is smart enough can change the programs in bad ways.

The people who support open-source software say that all computer programs should be free and ideas should be open to the public.

The Open-Source Initiative is a group that supports software sharing. The group says is it is hard to count the number of people who use open-source software because there are no sales of it. Linux is one of the most popular open-source operating systems. The Open-Source Initiative says Linux has between four million and twenty-seven million users.

The group says everyone who sends e-mail or uses the Web is using open-source software. Internet mail transports, Web servers, FTP servers and our own VOA mail system all use open-source software.

Neil Young

Neil Young has been writing and performing his music since the nineteen sixties. He formed two famous rock bands: Buffalo Springfield and, later, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. More recently, Young has been performing on his own. His latest album is called “Prairie Wind.‿Faith Lapidus tells us more.



FAITH LAPIDUS: Neil Young was preparing to record songs for his new album in March. Then his doctor told him he had an aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel in his brain. He wrote and recorded all the songs for the album during the week before he had an operation to fix the problem.

The songs on “Prairie Wind‿are influenced by country music. They are about change and the passage of time. Young sings about family, home, nature, religion and his childhood in Canada.

Four of the ten songs contain the word “prairie.‿nbsp; A prairie is an extensive area of flat grassland, like in the middle of North America. This song is called “Far From Home.‿/P>

(MUSIC)

Neil Young has performed many kinds of rock and blues music. He says country music has been his most successful communication with a lot of people. And he says his songs speak for themselves. Here is another song from “Prairie Wind.‿nbsp; It is called “Here for You.‿/P>

(MUSIC)

Some experts say Neil Young is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. They say his songs last through time. We leave you now with the title song from “Prairie Wind.‿/P>

(MUSIC)

HOST: I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program.

Our show was written by Shelley Gollust, Katherine Gypson and Jerilyn Watson. Caty Weaver was our producer. And our audio engineer was Darryl Smith.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

up! enjoy it together!

太好了，顶一下，

谢谢，楼主

It is too long and too difficult for me,but I must work hard on it.
Thanks and flower!

!

Not Just Child's Play: The World of Video and Computer Games

Not Just Child's Play: The World of Video and Computer Games
Written by Jerilyn Watson
04 December 2005

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week our subject is video and computer games in the United States.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Millions of Americans play video and computer games. The reasons are no mystery. The games can provide fun, action and, in some cases, education.

Players can lead their favorite sports team to victory. They can imagine they are secret agents like James Bond. They can form a nation and lead it through thousands of years of war and peace. They can develop their skills at card games like poker.

Game players may improve their reaction time and thinking skills. They may improve their ability to direct their thoughts, or learn word and number skills.

VOICE TWO:


Boy playing video game


Some experts worry about the possible harm to children who play video games that contain a lot of sex and violence. Yet some young people now study electronic games in college. In Los Angeles, for example, the University of Southern California has classes in game design. Other students there can learn about games as part of modern culture.

Industry officials say the United States had more than seven thousand million dollars in sales of video and computer games last year. It was an increase of four percent from the year before.

VOICE ONE:

Electronic games will be a popular gift during the winter holidays this month.

One recent night, some people lined up at stores at midnight. They waited to buy the new Xbox Three-Sixty game system by Microsoft. The Xbox Three-Sixty can play digital video discs and music. It can even handle conference calls.

Some players have returned the new system because of technical problems. But Microsoft said the rate of return was below the three to five percent that is normal with electronic products.

Sony leads the industry in worldwide sales of game systems. Microsoft is second, followed by Nintendo.

But Microsoft is the first to release its next-generation game system. Sony announced in May that it was preparing to launch its PlayStation Three in the spring of two thousand six. Next year is also when Nintendo plans to release its new system, called Revolution.

VOICE TWO:

Children are not the only ones who play electronic games. The Entertainment Software Association says almost one-fifth of Americans over the age of fifty played video games last year.

In fact, it says the average player is thirty years old. The players who buy the most games are an average age of thirty-seven.

The group also reports that forty-three percent of players are women.

VOICE ONE:

Some people play games on a personal computer. They use the keyboard to play. Or they connect a guiding device called a joystick.

Other people play on a video game system called a console which they connect to their television. Still others like to play games on small, handheld devices. Or they go to arcades to play on free-standing game machines.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The world of video games combines special effects, music, language and images. The best games have clear, colorful graphics. The images move at high speed with a depth similar to real life. Some have first-person perspective. This means you experience the action as though living it yourself.

Some people play games online. They might compete over the Internet against players on the other side of the world.

Some people play electronic games for money. More than seven hundred international gamers recently took part in the final competition of the World Cyber Games in Singapore. They played for a share of the four hundred thirty-five thousand dollars in prize money.

VOICE ONE:

Many players like games based on sports. The Madden series, for example, is very popular. These are named for television football commentator John Madden, a former coach.

And players have been known to spend hours playing games developed from spy films like the James Bond movies.

People who like frightening movies may also like a game series called “Resident Evil.‿nbsp; Players say the games make them feel like they are living inside their own horror film. In fact, two films have already been based on the series. "Resident Evil" became popular with a storyline about a company that makes a virus. Victims infected with the virus turn into the undead and eat other people.

VOICE TWO:

Many gamers are buying the newly released “Peter Jackson’s King Kong." In this game, the huge gorilla terrorizes humans just as he will in the new "King Kong" movie directed by Peter Jackson. It opens nationwide on December fourteenth.

A popular shooting-game series called “Doom‿led to an action film that opened in November. The movie "Doom" stars Dwayne Johnson, the professional wrestler and actor known as “The Rock.‿nbsp;


Grand Theft Auto video game

But the video game that sold best in two thousand four was “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.‿nbsp; It was strongly criticized, however, because of hidden sexual images. Stores temporarily removed the game from sale. Now only adults can buy the version that still has those images, but not many stores are selling it.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The National Institute on Media and the Family is a private research group. Several years ago, it found that almost eighty percent of American children played video games. Research last year found that girls played video games an average of about five hours weekly. Boys played an average of thirteen hours.

Another group, Children Now, says almost half of video games contain serious violence. And it says about half the violence shown in the games would injure or kill people in real life.

VOICE TWO:

Many doctors, educators and policy makers express concern about the effects of violent games. They point to studies that show that playing games with repeated violence is often linked to increases in aggressive thoughts, feelings and actions.

Where are the parents? The Entertainment Software Association says parents are present ninety-two percent of the time when games are bought or rented.

Even so, the group just announced that the Sony PlayStation Three will include parental controls. These controls let parents limit the kinds of games their children can play. The PlayStation Portable system released earlier this year already has that technology.

So does the new Xbox Three-Sixty from Microsoft. And Nintendo recently announced that its new system will also include parental controls.

The technology is based on ratings by the Entertainment Software Rating Board. This group has rated games for families since nineteen ninety-four. The industry says eighty-three percent of all games sold last year were rated "E" for Everyone or "T" for Teen.

But some critics argue that self-rating by the industry is far from satisfactory.

VOICE ONE:

Some states want to stop sales of violent games to people seventeen and younger. On November ninth, a federal judge in Detroit blocked an attempt by the state of Michigan, at least temporarily. The judge acted on a request by the Entertainment Software Association.

Opponents of sales restrictions say the measures violate free speech rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

All this action and debate shows how important electronic games have become.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Some games developed from traditional board games like backgammon or chess. Others grew from word games or from card games like solitaire and bridge. In eighteen eighty-nine, a playing-card company opened in Japan. The company led to Nintendo.

In nineteen fifty-eight, a scientist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York State developed a game he called "Tennis for Two." William Higinbotham played it on a scientific device called an oscilloscope. The scientist did not see that such a game could become widely popular. But others did.

By the early nineteen seventies, people were playing a video game called “Pong.‿nbsp; Two people would sit at a game machine and control a paddle to hit an electronic ball back and forth. Soon millions of people were playing "Pong." Many other games followed.

VOICE ONE:

Today, as computers keep improving, people keep designing new games. And the public keeps buying them. As games become more and more realistic, we can only imagine what the future will look like in this electronic world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

多好的铜子啊！向你学习！

楼主辛苦了~~谢谢

The Internet and Its Future

The Internet and Its Future
Written by Jill Moss
06 December 2005

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

I’m Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:


The Internet links people to information and businesses.

And I’m Faith Lapidus with Explorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Internet computer information system and its progress and problems.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Last month, thousands of government representatives and information experts met in Tunis, Tunisia to discuss the future of the Internet. The United Nations organized the World Summit on the Information Society to discuss Internet growth in developing nations. But the three-day meetings also developed into a struggle over who controls the Internet.

The Internet grew out of research paid for by the United States Defense Department in the nineteen sixties and seventies. As a result, the United States government still has some control over it. In nineteen ninety-eight, the Commerce Department set up a non-profit organization to supervise the domain name system of the Internet’s World Wide Web. The Web is a major service on the Internet. The group, based in California, is called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

VOICE TWO:

A domain name is a series of words separated by dots. It identifies an Internet Web site. ICANN also operates a list of Web site owners and approves new endings for Web addresses, such as dot-com, dot-net or dot-gov. The group guarantees that Internet users around the world do not visit different Websites using the same Web address.

For example, thanks to ICANN, a person in Cuba will see the same voaspecialenglish.com Website as someone in Belarus. ICANN also has some Internet policy powers. It can remove Web sites from the Internet. It also decides who can sell and list domain names.

VOICE ONE:

The European Union, China, Brazil, India and other countries want the United States to release at least some control over the World Wide Web. They believe that the Internet is an international resource that should be supervised by the United Nations or some other independent organization. The Bush Administration disagrees. It says that ICANN is the best way to guarantee an open, secure and dependable online environment. Heavy governmental controls, it says, would suppress Internet growth and development.

VOICE TWO:

Hours before the start of the Tunis conference, negotiators agreed to leave day-to-day supervision of the Internet with ICANN. The compromise proposal from the European Union calls for the creation next year of an international governance committee.

Governments, businesses and organizations will be able to discuss public policy issues, including Internet crime, junk mail and viruses. The committee, however, will not have powers to make rules.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The World Future Society estimated last year that about nine hundred fifty million people around the world were using the Internet. That number is expected to rise to more than one thousand million people within the next two years.

Most Internet communication is business-to-business, instead of personal electronic mail. Buying and selling goods and services over the Internet is growing around the world. The World Future Society estimates that two-point-seven million million dollars was earned through Internet commerce last year. But, there are risks involved with this e-commerce.

VOICE TWO:

For example, the Federal Trade Commission estimates that more than fifty-two thousand million dollars in goods and services were purchased last year through identity theft. Identity thieves steal personal information from Americans. They collect Social Security numbers, banking records and telephone numbers. They use this information to request loans, or to get credit cards in the name of the victim.

Identity thieves often use computer viruses to collect a victim’s personal information. They may also use spyware. These are programs that are loaded onto a computer without the owner’s knowledge. Spyware follows the computer user’s online activities. Identity thieves also use another method called Internet “phishing.‿These e-mail messages attempt to collect an Internet user’s personal information, such as credit card numbers, by acting like a real business.

VOICE ONE:

People can protect themselves from identity theft in several ways. Anti-virus and anti-spyware computer programs can help. So can firewalls. These are programs or devices that limit information coming through an Internet connection. Banks and individuals can also use Fob technology. A fob is a small device connected to a computer.

Every sixty seconds it creates a special series of numbers, or a code. A computer user must type the code created at the exact minute that the user she wants to see his or her online financial information or bank records.

VOICE TWO:

Advertisers interested in selling products over the Internet may use adware to identify possible buyers. Adware is a software program sent with free files or programs to a computer. Once loaded onto a computer, adware can collect information about a person’s interests. Adware can use this information to provide targeted sales messages to the computer user.

These unwanted sales messages are sent through a person’s e-mail. They can also be a problem for people using an Internet browser to find information. In this case, pop-up blockers can help. A pop-up blocker is a computer program that prevents unwanted sales messages from opening.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

One of the most popular kinds of communication on the Internet in through personal Web sites called blogs. Blog is a shortened name for a Web log. Anyone can create his or her own blog. A blog may contain stories, pictures, links to other Web sites and comments from visitors. Some people add information to their blogs every day.

Blogs offer a way to present news and political or personal information. Blogs have become a place for public expression on many subjects. The Blog Herald estimates that there are more than sixty million blogs around the world. People who have blogs are called bloggers. In the United States, many well known people have blogs. So do many other Americans, including teenagers and college students.

VOICE TWO:

Even United States soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are blogging. Troops are using their milblogs to share opinions, emotions and memories of lost soldiers. The United States military restricts troops from writing personal information about other soldiers. It also restricts operational security information from being published in a blog.

You can find blogs about a subject by using a special search engine created by Google. The Web address is blogsearch.google.com. That is b-l-o-g-s-e-a-r-c-h-dot-g-o-o-g-l-e-dot-com. Google is one of the most popular “search engines‿for the Internet. People use a search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Web.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

There are many ways to link computers with other forms of communication. For example, mobile telephones can send voice messages, color photographs and written information called text messages. They can even receive electronic mail. Small hand-held computer devices can store and read electronic books.

Starting next year, the world’s largest software company -- Microsoft -- will offer one hundred thousand books from the British Library’s collection. People will be able to search and read the literature on the Internet for free. Amazon.com -- the largest online bookstore -- plans to sell individual pages or parts of books over the Internet.

VOICE TWO:

Google has started its own project. The company has put thousands of library books and documents on the Internet. Last month, Google gave three million dollars to help the United States Library of Congress create a World Digital Library on the Web. This will be a collection of rare books, documents, maps and other materials from America’s library and other national libraries. The head of the Library of Congress says people will be able to learn about other cultures without traveling farther than the nearest computer.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Jill Moss. It was produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Doug Johnson.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.

补充上语音。

Economics Report - Deep in the Heart of Texas, a Labor Union Expands

Economics Report - Deep in the Heart of Texas, a Labor Union Expands

Written by Mario Ritter
08 December 2005

I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report.


Striking janitors in Los Angeles in 2000

Labor unions in the United States have been losing members for years. Not all are shrinking, however. The nation's fastest-growing union has recently added thousands of members in Houston, Texas. The expansion is the result of an effort to organize the workers who clean buildings.

The Service Employees International Union has close to two million members. It organizes workers in a number of service areas. These include health workers, government and public service workers and workers in property services.

In Houston, janitors at four major companies have voted to unionize. The American Arbitration Association recognized the decision as official on November twenty-ninth. Four thousand seven hundred janitors in Houston have now joined the Service Employees International.

That number is more than sixty percent of the janitors in large buildings in the city. It could increase to over seventy percent if workers at another company are able to unionize.

The Houston janitors say they want the union to help them negotiate better pay. They also hope for some form of health plan and retirement savings.

Currently, the janitors receive about five dollars and thirty cents an hour. That is a little above the national minimum wage of five dollars and fifteen cents. The minimum wage is the lowest pay that workers can receive.

Unionized janitors in cities like Chicago, New York or Washington, D.C., earn eleven dollars or more. But most cleaning workers around the country do not belong to unions. Many workers in low-paying service jobs are recent immigrants. Some are in the country illegally.

The Houston area is not known for organized labor activity. The union did not even have offices there. Organizers from Chicago supervised the effort.

In July, the Service Employees International Union split with the A.F.L.-C.I.O. That came as part of a major division within the country's main labor alliance.

Andrew Stern is president of the service employees union. He says twenty-first century unions must organize by industry across borders, to deal with huge international companies.

Fifty years ago, about thirty-three percent of privately employed workers in America were in a union. By the early nineteen eighties it was twenty percent. Today about thirteen percent of American workers belong to unions.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

现提起英语我头都大，头大也的学．

谢谢幸苦的楼主！！！

Saddam Hussein Trial Suspended Until December 21st

Saddam Hussein Trial Suspended Until December 21st
Written by Nancy Steinbach
10 December 2005

I'm Steve Ember with IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

The trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in Baghdad has been suspended until after parliamentary elections. The elections will take place on Thursday. The trial is to continue on December twenty-first.



Saddam Hussein is on trial with seven other men. The charges involve the killing of more than one hundred forty people from the Shiite town of Dujail, north of Baghdad. They were executed after an attack directed at Saddam Hussein in nineteen eighty-two.

Gunmen from a Shiite party fired at a vehicle in which he rode through the town. The Iraqi leader was rescued after several hours of fighting. Later, his security forces attacked Dujail. They destroyed houses and businesses, and took away most of the men. Many never returned.

The trial began on October nineteenth. The seven other men charged include Saddam Hussein's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim. He was the Iraqi intelligence chief at the time of the killings. Another is Taha Yassin Ramadan. He was vice president from nineteen ninety-one to two thousand three. A third defendant is Awad Haman Bander Sadun. He was chief of Iraq's Revolutionary Court. He signed death sentences in connection with Dujail killings.

A group of five judges will decide the case. A chief investigating judge questions those who give evidence in the court. So far, those witnesses have described watching close family members being questioned, tortured and killed.

They have told how security forces destroyed crops and property in Dujail. And they have described being held for years in the Abu Ghraib prison. The men on trial, however, say the witnesses have not named them as connected in any way to these crimes.

Iraqi and American officials planned the trial after American troops captured Saddam Hussein in two thousand three. The officials say holding the trial in the country provides a good example for a democratic Iraq.

But violence has interfered with the trial. Two defense lawyers have been killed. Another has resigned. And officials have said they discovered a plot to attack the courtroom. Also, one of the judges left the trial when he learned that one of the defendants had signed an order for the death of his brother.

The defendants have shouted at the judges and other people in the courtroom. Saddam Hussein has denounced the court and told the judge to "go to hell." On Wednesday he refused to attend the trial. It continued without him. He has promised to be in court when the trial begins again on December twenty-first.

The former president could be executed if found guilty of the Dujail killings. But Iraqi government lawyers are preparing twelve other cases that could be brought against him in the future.

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Nancy Steinbach. Our reports are on the Web at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

支持楼主的辛勤工作。

Percival Lowell’s Work Led to the Discovery of the Planet Pluto

Percival Lowell’s Work Led to the Discovery of the Planet Pluto
Written by Mario Ritter
10 December 2005

(THEME)


VOICE ONE:

I’m Mary Tillotson.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English program People in America. Today, we tell about Percival Lowell whose work led to the discovery of the planet Pluto. His efforts and imagination helped change the history of astronomy in America.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

Percival Lowell came from a New England family with a long history in America. The Lowell family first came to the colony of Massachussetts in sixteen thirty-nine. One of Percival Lowell’s ancestors, John Cabot Lowell, manufactured cloth. He became an important American industrialist in the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Centuries.


Percival Lowell

Percival’s father, Augustus Lowell, worked in the family cloth business. He settled his family in Boston, Massachusetts. Percival was born there in eighteen fifty-five. He had a younger brother, Abbott Lawrence, and a younger sister, Amy.

VOICE TWO:

Percival Lowell attended American and European private schools as a young man. He studied mathematics at Harvard University. After he finished his studies at Harvard in eighteen seventy-six, he traveled in Europe and the Middle East for a year. Then he worked as a financial officer in the cloth business of his grandfather. After several years, Percival realized he was not happy as a businessman. So he decided to travel to Japan to study its culture and language. While there, he was asked to go with a special trade group from Korea to establish trade relations with the United States.

VOICE TWO(cont):

In eighteen eighty-three, Mister Lowell traveled to Korea as a diplomat. He reported on a clash there between Korean and Japanese troops. Mister Lowell remained in East Asia for ten years. He returned home when each of his six books about East Asian subjects was published.

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VOICE ONE:

Percival Lowell also had an intense interest in astronomy and mathematics. In eighteen ninety-three he left Tokyo for the last time and returned to the United States. He decided to spend more time observing the planet Mars. He had studied observations by the famous Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli. He found notes that described markings on Mars that Mister Schiaparelli called “canali‿Mister Lowell came to believe that intelligent life created the markings on Mars.

VOICE ONE(cont):

In eighteen ninety-four, he built an observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona. He had the world famous telescope maker Alvan Clark and Sons make a telescope for his observatory. He began a program of observing not only Mars, but also Venus and Mercury.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Lowell published his first book about Mars in eighteen ninety-five. In it, he developed a theory that intelligent life had created waterways all over the surface of Mars. His theory was that Martians were trying to bring water to the warm areas near the equator of the planet.

Mister Lowell’s theories were based on what were serious scientific studies of that time. Yet his theories about life on Mars may have had more lasting influence on many writers of imaginary stories. Three years after Mister Lowell’s book was published, H-G Wells published his famous book “War of the Worlds.‿nbsp; Mister Wells‿story told of a Martian invasion of Earth. The Martians that he imagined lived on a dry and wasted planet. This is very similar to Mister Lowell’s description of Mars.

Mister Lowell’s theories about Mars also influenced Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mister Burroughs is best known for stories about “Tarzan.‿nbsp; He also wrote a series of books about an American who traveled to Mars and fell in love with a beautiful princess. The popular series began in nineteen twelve with “The Princess of Mars.‿nbsp;

VOICE ONE:

Mister Lowell’s book, “Mars and Its Canals,‿was published in nineteen-oh-six. In that book, he expanded his theory about Martian life. He said he could see changes in the seasons on the surface of Mars. He said the darkening of the Martian surface during some times of the year was caused by the growth of plants. His theory of Martian life became so complex that he made maps of cities and waterways on the planet.

Percival Lowell did not know that his eyes played a part in the markings he saw on Mars. Experts explain that the movement of air in the atmosphere and natural qualities of the human eye caused him to see markings that were not there.

VOICE TWO:

Percival Lowell also studied the effect of gravity on the planet Neptune. Small changes in the movement of Neptune led several astronomers to believe that an undiscovered planet was affecting Neptune’s orbit. Mister Lowell called it Planet X.

Mister Lowell himself searched for Planet X for two years starting in nineteen-oh-five. He made the search by comparing two pictures of the same part of the sky. The photographs would be taken several weeks apart. The astronomer would then check both photographs. An object in the solar system could be identified if it appeared to move from its place in the earlier photograph.

However, the first search failed. In fact, he failed to recognize Planet X in a few photographs. He searched again for it several years later. Percival Lowell did not have the chance to discover Planet X. He died suddenly in November, nineteen sixteen.

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VOICE ONE:

The search for Planet X did not restart at Lowell Observatory for years. Then in nineteen twenty-five, Guy Lowell, a relative of Percival, gained control of the observatory. He decided to seriously search for Planet X. He wanted to continue the work Percival had started.

In the following years, Percival’s brother, Abbott Lawrence, provided money to build a special photographic telescope. The new telescope was completed in early nineteen twenty-nine.

That year, an observatory official, V.M. Slipher, offered a young man a job working with the new telescope. The young man’s name was Clyde Tombaugh.

VOICE TWO

Mister Tombaugh got a job a Lowell Observatory after he sent drawings of his observations of Jupiter and Mars. He quickly learned how best to use the new photographic telescope at the observatory. He carefully planned his research to make the most of his time. On February eighteenth, nineteen thirty, he discovered an unusual object after less than one year of searching. The object moved slowly in the sky like a distant planet. Percival Lowell’s Planet X had been found!

On March thirteenth, Clyde Tombaugh and V.M Slipher announced the discovery of a new planet. The date was the seventy-fifth anniversary of Mister Lowell’s birth.

Mister Tombaugh continued to record the motion of the new planet for thirteen years. He found more than seven hundred small bodies that orbit the sun, called asteroids. He also discovered a number of star systems called galaxies.

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VOICE ONE:

During his life, Percival Lowell did not enjoy the success he hoped to find in astronomy. He died long before the search for Planet X resulted in the discovery of Pluto. And his theories about waterways and complex life on Mars have been disproved. In nineteen sixty-five, NASA’s Mariner Four spacecraft showed that no waterways existed on Mars.

Yet, the institution Mister Lowell established in Flagstaff, Arizona, has made many discoveries in addition to that of Pluto. Evidence that the universe is expanding was first discovered at Lowell Observatory by V.M. Slipher. Also, the rings around the planet Uranus were discovered there.

Lowell Observatory now has four telescopes and is continuing to expand. It supports programs that bring astronomy to the public.

Astronomers at Lowell and many other observatories continue to search for life beyond our planet. Their efforts continue Percival Lowell’s tradition of scientific investigation.

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VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Mario Ritter. It was produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Mary Tillotson.

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

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