VOASE0704 Print Edition[Big Bug]

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这次还特意加了目录，老实说，就这目录的工作就一定很辛苦

有这样不求回报，无私奉献的网友，PoEnglish真的很高兴

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VOASE0704 Print Edition[Big Bug]

Music Helps New Orleans Revive

By Greg Flakus New Orleans 04 May 2007

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For more than 30 years, New Orleans has held a Jazz and Heritage Festival. This year's festival wraps up this weekend. Many well-known musicians come to play at Jazz Fest, but it is also an important showcase for local talent. That is especially important as the city still struggles to recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, which struck in August 2005. As VOA's Greg Flakus reports from New Orleans, one local group is doing its part to keep the city's musical heritage alive.

Troy Andrews

There are still large parts of New Orleans that are all but uninhabited and less than half the people who once called the city home have returned. In the months following Katrina, there was concern that the cultural heritage of New Orleans might have been irreparably damaged. But many musicians have returned, including 21-year-old Troy Andrews, who is known here and around the world as Trombone Shorty.

"Jazz was started here and it is just in some of the musicians' blood. Everything I like to say about New Orleans is that the musicians here are completely honest. I do not know any other place in the world that you can go to hear jazz where people come to dance," he said.

Michael Ballard playing bass

Bass player Michael Ballard says the essence of the music created here is found in every performance in which players alter and add to the sound as they play.

"You solo and you improvise and you play on top of intelligent material, but it is also what you can make up on the spot, whatever you can do or sing. That is what jazz is: whatever you can mix into the melting pot."

Jazz Fest organizer Don Marshall says music and musicians are playing an important role in the recovery of New Orleans.

"So many of our musicians were displaced right after Katrina and they were welcomed by people around the world, cities and individuals, and organizations. While we have struggled to keep the message alive about New Orleans and its importance in rebuilding, our musicians have really carried the message worldwide," he said.

Don Marshall

Marshall says Jazz Fest nurtures talents like Trombone Shorty, who began playing in his Treme neighborhood, near the French Quarter, when he was only four years old. When he played at Jazz Fest, it brought him to a wider audience. Marshall says proceeds from Jazz Fest are supporting a number of local projects that will help musicians stay here. These include a school program for aspiring musicians and a housing project, called Musicians' Village.

Troy Andrews' current group is called Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue. The ensemble plays a rich mixture of styles that are hard to label. He says this mixing of music in a creative stew is the New Orleans tradition most worth saving.

"In New Orleans, we have a gumbo [mixture] of music. You can walk down the street and catch the Neville Borthers, you can walk three blocks away and catch the Rebirth [Brass Band] and just by having all those different forms of music here, it gives a good avenue to be able understand different types of music and just be involved in the music scene, period. Jazz is my background, but like you can see with this band, we are more rock and roll funk, with a little jazz in it, and that is what we are," Andrews said.

Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue played at this year's Jazz Fest and are also playing in various clubs in New Orleans this month.

Polls Put Sarkozy Ahead in French Presidential Election

By Anita Elash Paris 04 May 2007

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New polls predict conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy will be the clear winner in Sunday's presidential election in France. With just three days to go, polling firms say he'll win at least 53 percent of the vote compared to 47 percent for Socialist candidate Segolene Royal. For VOA, Anita Elash reports from Paris.

After the first round of voting two weeks ago, polls showed that Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal were running neck and neck. That changed after their televised debate on Wednesday night.

French Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal (l) faces conservative front-runner Nicolas Sarkozy (r) minutes before their only televised debate in Paris, 02 May 2007

Twenty million people watched as a combative Royal tried to unhinge Sarkozy, who is often seen as an authoritarian with a volatile temper. In the end, it was Royal who lost her cool, over questions about education for handicapped children.

Sarkzoy told her to calm down, and when she refused, he told her, "As president of the republic, you need to be calm."

Brice Teinturier, director of the polling firm TPS-Sofres, said that's when opinion tipped in Sarkozy's favor.

He told a press conference in Paris that viewers perceived Royal as pugnacious and aggressive, when she should have been showing herself as presidential and proving that she had a firm grasp on policy.

Throughout the campaign, critics have said that Royal lacked a clear vision of where she wanted to lead the country. Teinturier said her performance during Wednesday's debate confirmed that perception.

He said more than half of those polled afterward, including members of the Socialist Party, concluded that Sarkozy was more convincing, and had stronger policies and a clearer vision for France.

Friday is the last official day of campaigning. Sarkozy and Royal both held their final public meetings last night and were making the rounds of radio and TV talk show programs today.

Royal was on the offensive, arguing that Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice for France. Sarkozy said he had no desire to revisit the debate on Wednesday, but said he found Royal's approach that night outrageous.

Queen Elizabeth Tours Colonial Settlement of Jamestown, Virginia

By Margaret Besheer Washington 04 May 2007

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Britain's Queen Elizabeth visited the historic Jamestown Settlement Friday, in the U.S. state of Virginia. Jamestown was the first permanent English colony in what would become the United States. The Queen's visit is part of commemorations of the Virginia settlement's 400th anniversary. From Washington, VOA's Margaret Besheer has more on the royal visit.

Queen Elizabeth II looks over at US Vice President Dick Cheney during a visit to Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg, Virginia, 04 May 2007

The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, accompanied by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne, arrived at the historic settlement Friday morning.

In May 1607, 104 English settlers landed at the site on the James River. The dangerous Atlantic crossing took five difficult months, and nearly half the original group died within months of their arrival. But despite great difficulty, what began as a commercial venture and a search for a new water route to the Pacific, became the foundation of a new nation.

Vice President Cheney said the settlers' arrival changed the world.

"Inside a little three-sided fort in this corner of Virginia large events were set in motion and great and noble traditions were introduced to America," he said. "So we pay homage to the first English settlement on the North American shore and we mark the 14th of May 1607 as a providential moment in the life of this nation."

This is the 81-year-old monarch's fourth State visit to the United States. Her first was 50 years ago, just after she had become queen, and it was also to Jamestown for the 350th anniversary celebrations.

The queen, wearing a teal coat and matching hat, did not address the crowd. Later she toured the fort with the vice president. Her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, a former officer in the Royal Navy, accompanied Mrs. Cheney aboard a replica of the Susan Constant, the largest of the three ships that brought the Jamestown settlers to North America.

After Jamestown, the royal couple visited the nearby College of William & Mary. Founded by a royal charter in 1693, it is the second oldest college in the United States. At a luncheon at the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg in her honor, the Queen, now in a raspberry-colored ensemble, spoke about the symbolism of the Jamestown landing.

"[It is] A symbol of the convergence of civilizations, of the spread of the rule of law, of the growth of representative democracy, and also the symbol of friendship, the deep and enduring friendship between the United States and the United Kingdom," she said.

Saturday, the horse-loving monarch will travel to the state of Kentucky to attend the famous Kentucky Derby horse race. Monday night, the Bushes will entertain the royals at a White House State Dinner.

UN Climate Panel Says Work to Halt Global Warming Must Start Immediately

By Ron Corben Bangkok 04 May 2007

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A United Nations report on climate change says a reduction in potentially harmful greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved, and is affordable. But the report says that action by governments and individuals must begin immediately. Ron Corben reports from Bangkok.

A boat makes its way through the icebergs in Disko Bay, Greenland, (File)

The United Nations International Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, in a report released Friday, says the technology exists to curb so-called greenhouse gas emissions that are thought leading to global warming.

The report calls for the current rise in global temperatures to be halted at around two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial age levels. It says this can be achieved by 2030 at a cost to the global economy of about three percent of worldwide gross domestic product.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, says the report emphasizes the need for action by both individuals and governments.

"An extremely powerful message in this report is the need for human society as a whole to start looking at changes in lifestyle and consumption patterns," he said.

The U.N. panel says greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) rose 70 percent between 1970 and 2004, with most coming from the energy sector. Ogunlade Davidson, the panel's co-chairman, says existing policies will not halt GHG growth.

"If we continue to do what we are doing now, we're in deep trouble," he explained. "As it's clearly stated here, with the current climate change mitigation policies, global GHG emissions will continue to grow over the next few decades. That is one immediate message from us to take home."

The report says stabilizing emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief culprit in global warming, can be done through increased fuel efficiencies, improved building codes, the setting of stricter industry standards, plus financial incentives. For the first time, the IPCC endorses the option of nuclear power.

The report will be forwarded to governments, and will enter the public debate over how best to combat climate change. Hans Verolme, director of the World Wildlife Fund's global climate change program, says the matter is now up to the politicians.

"My message to the politicians, to which this document is addressed, let's get to work," he said. "Politicians need to get together and recognize there's an enormous potential for increasing energy efficiency."

The next step will come when leaders of the major industrialized countries meet in June, followed by another United Nations conference on climate change in Indonesia in December.

VOASE0504_In the News

04 May 2007

White House, Congress Try to Negotiate a New Spending Bill for Iraq War
Talks follow Bush's veto of a measure that would have required a troop withdrawal to begin by October.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

White House officials have begun talks with Congress on a war spending bill in place of the one President Bush vetoed on Tuesday.

President Bush speaking at the White House after he vetoed a $124 billion spending bill

He rejected it because the Democratic-controlled Congress tried to set a date for American troops to leave Iraq. The bill would have required a withdrawal to begin by October.

The spending measure totaled one hundred twenty-four billion dollars. One hundred billion of that would have gone to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The veto was only the second of Mister Bush's presidency. The first was last year, to stop Congress from ending his restrictions on federal money for stem cell research.

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to try to save the war spending bill that the president vetoed. But, as in the case of his first veto, there was not enough support for an override.

The president met with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders after the House failed to override his veto. He said he was hopeful that an agreement could be reached. And he called for it to be done quickly. Republican leaders said they hope for a new bill by the end of the month.

The president says it is time to move away from the political battles of recent days. He said three of his top advisers would be working with members of both parties to write an acceptable war funding bill.

Talks took place Thursday on Capitol Hill. The two sides agreed to meet again early next week and to keep details of their talks private. But Democratic leaders said they have not agreed to keep any language about troop withdrawals out of a replacement bill.

The administration said Mister Bush would not accept any bill that includes a time limit or suggested date for a withdrawal from Iraq.

Congress could also try to set goals for the Iraqi government.

Earlier this week, President Bush asked Americans to give his recent troop increase in Iraq more time. The war began in March of two thousand three.

A new public opinion study showed that more than seventy percent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the war. Two-thirds of those questioned for CBS News and the New York Times said they support setting a time limit for the withdrawal of troops.

President Bush says he wants American troops out of Iraq, but only when its own government is better able to control security.

Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert Byrd proposed Thursday that Congress cancel its resolution that approved the use of force in Iraq. They say the president should have to seek approval from Congress this October to continue the war. A presidential spokeswoman accused the Senate of trying, in her words, "another way to put a surrender date on the calendar."

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE0503_Economics Report

03 May 2007

How Much Is Too Much? The Debate Over Executive Pay
Critics say company leaders are getting big raises even when they do not add value for their shareholders.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Robert Nardelli

For Robert Nardelli, two thousand seven might seem like a bad year. After all, he resigned in January as chief of the world's largest operator of home-improvement stores.

Sales and profits grew during his six years at Home Depot. But the stock price of the company, based in Atlanta, fell eight percent. Many shareholders thought Bob Nardelli was paid too much and did not respect his investors enough.

So he was forced out. But he had something to look forward to that would ease his fall. Company directors agreed to give him two hundred ten million dollars worth of payments and benefits.

An agreement like this is known as a golden parachute. These are traditional when top executives lose their jobs because of a change of ownership or control of a company. This was not the case at Home Depot, and the money only added to shareholder anger.

Golden parachutes are just one issue in a larger debate in America. Executive pay is growing out of control, critics say, at a time when many Americans are feeling greater economic pressures. Last year, the average pay for a chief executive officer on the Standard & Poor's Five Hundred list of companies increased by over nine percent.

Critics say there is no relationship between pay and performance. They say company leaders get raises even if they fail to create value for shareholders.

Lawmakers are taking note. On April twentieth, the House of Representatives passed a bill to give shareholders in publicly traded companies the right to vote on executive pay.

The proposal by majority Democrats now goes to the Senate. But its future is unclear. The Bush administration opposes the bill. It says Congress should not set the approval process for executive pay.

The bill would require yearly votes but these would be non-binding. In other words, companies would not have to follow shareholder wishes. Still, supporters argue that a "say on pay" vote would send a clear signal about what the owners of the company, the investors, think.

The Securities and Exchange Commission requires public companies to include executive pay information in a document called a proxy statement. A proxy statement is supposed to help shareholders make informed votes on company proposals. But critics note that the way executive income is reported is often too difficult to understand.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE0503_American Mosaic

03 May 2007

Mix Caribbean, West African, Pop and Hip-Hop, What Do You Get? Akon
Also: a question from Vietnam about the life stories of Helen Keller and Sally Ride. And we check out the Smithsonian Craft Show in Washington.

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

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

We answer a question about two famous American women …

Play music by Akon …

And tell about a craft show in Washington, D.C.

Smithsonian Craft Show

HOST:

Where can you go to see and buy the work of one hundred twenty of America's best craft artists? In Washington, D.C. you can visit the yearly Smithsonian Craft Show. For twenty-five years, some of the finest craft artists have gathered to show their expertly made objects at this special event. These objects include beautiful jewelry, wood, paper, glass, ceramics and more. Faith Lapidus tells us about it.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

A ceramic container by Jennifer McCurdy

The Smithsonian Craft Show is held every year for four days in late April. Going to the craft show is an exciting activity. As you visit the many craft artists' show areas, you feel like you are taking part in a celebration of artistic skill and invention. But not just any artist can take part in this event. More than one thousand people from all over the United States requested to be in the show. But only one hundred and twenty were chosen. They were carefully picked by a jury of craft experts.

The Craft Show is organized every year by the Smithsonian Women's Committee. The event helps raise money to support education and research programs for the nineteen museums that are part of the Smithsonian Institution.

This year, for example, visitors could see the graceful ceramic works of Jennifer McCurdy. Her finely formed white clay containers have a fluid sense of motion. Or, visitors could play with the detailed and imaginative toy machines made by Bill Durovchic.

A work by Joh Ricci

Holly Anne Mitchell showed her wonderfully creative jewelry made out of folded pieces of newspaper. Joh Ricci received the Best of Show award for her colorful art objects made by tying thin pieces of cloth cord into detailed forms. And, if you wanted to wear a piece of art, you could buy a hat by Joan Hammerschmidt. Her wildly colorful and inventively shaped hats would make everyone look at you with a smile.

Helen Keller and Sally Ride

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The students of Nguyen Thanh Duc at the Marie Curie High School want to know about two famous American women: Helen Keller and Sally Ride.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller was born in eighteen eighty in a small town in Alabama. She developed an infection when she was nineteen months old. She lost the ability to see and hear.

When Helen was seven years old, her parents hired a special teacher for their daughter. Anne Sullivan taught Helen the names of things. She formed letters with her fingers in Helen’s hand to spell out words. She taught Helen sign language, and how to use her voice.

Later, Helen Keller learned to read Latin, Greek, French and German. She completed her studies at Radcliffe College with honors in nineteen-oh-four.

Helen Keller worked for many years for the American Foundation for the Blind. She met with presidents and traveled to many countries. She wrote books and articles. And she showed other disabled people that they, too, could succeed. Helen Keller died in nineteen sixty-eight. Her life story has been told in books, plays and movies.

Sally Ride grew up near Los Angeles, California. She studied science in college. In

Sally Ride

nineteen seventy-eight, she was one of the first six women to be trained as an astronaut. She also earned a doctoral degree in astrophysics at Stanford University in California.

Sally Ride was the first American woman in space. She was the flight engineer on the Challenger space shuttle in nineteen eighty-three. She was thirty-one years old, the youngest American astronaut ever to go into orbit.

One year later, she was a crew member on another space shuttle flight. And in nineteen eighty-six, she was a member of the presidential committee that investigated the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle earlier that year.

Sally Ride left NASA to teach at Stanford University. Since nineteen eighty-nine, she has been a professor at the University of California at San Diego. She has also written science books for children and directed education projects designed to interest young people in science.

Akon

HOST:

A man in demand

Senegalese-American singer Akon has a musical sound that is different from current popular artists. He has had several hit songs. Barbara Klein tells us about him.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN:

That was Akon singing his hit song "I Wanna Love You" from his latest album, "Konvicted."

Akon's real name is Aliaune Thiam. He is the son of Senegalese jazz drummer Mor Thiam. Akon grew up listening to jazz and other kinds of music, but he especially liked hip-hop.

When he was a teenager, Akon was arrested and sentenced to three years in jail for stealing cars. During his time in jail, Akon wrote songs. Those songs became part of his first album, "Trouble," released in two thousand four. Akon sings about his arrest and jail experiences in this song, "Locked Up."

(MUSIC)

Music critics say Akon is popular because his music offers something new. His creative sound combines Caribbean and West African singing with popular music and hip-hop beats. Akon has performed and recorded songs with many kinds of artists. They include rapper Snoop Dogg, singer Gwen Stefani and the South African singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

We leave you with another hit song from Akon’s latest album, "Konvicted." This is "Don’t Matter."

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. It was written by Lawan Davis, Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was the producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

Send your questions about American life to mosaic@voanews.com. Please include your full name and mailing address. Or write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C., two-zero-two-three-seven, U.S.A.

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