HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play music by Isaac Stern …
answer a question about engagements …
and tell about a special reading project taking place in Chicago.
One Book, One Chicago
HOST:
Each year, the city of Chicago, Illinois, observes Library Week.This year the celebration of reading is called “One Book, OneChicago.” City officials hope to influence more people to read andenjoy books. Shep O’Neal has more.
ANNCR:
To observe “One Book, One Chicago”, Chicago Mayor Richard Daleyhas asked all the people in the city to read the same book. It is”To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Harper Lee wrote “To Kill A Mockingbird” in Nineteen-Sixty. Itwon the Pulitzer Prize. The story makes a strong statement againstracial injustice. The organizers of Library Week hope the book willhelp people discuss racial issues.
The story tells about a white lawyer in the American South duringthe Nineteen-Thirties. Atticus Finch lives in the state of Alabama.He defends a black man wrongly accused of sexually attacking a whitewoman. People in his small town react angrily when Atticus Finchaccepts the case.
His young daughter Scout tells the story. Its message is that itis important to do the right thing. The book shows that this is trueeven if it means going against social pressures.
For the project, libraries in Chicago bought thousands morecopies of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Some are in Polish, Spanish andChinese. Mary Dempsey is the city’s library chief. She says manypeople have borrowed the book. Bookstores have reported an increasein sales of the book, too. Planners say tens of thousands of peopleprobably will have read “To Kill a Mockingbird” by the end ofChicago Library Week October twelfth.
People are discussing the book at local libraries. Groups alsoare meeting to discuss the book at local coffee shops, bookstoresand in private homes. They also are exchanging ideas on theInternet. Libraries are showing the film that was made from the bookin Nineteen-Sixty-Two. Actor Gregory Peck won an Academy Award forhis performance as Atticus Finch. Chicago lawyers will enact a trialsimilar to the one that provides the central conflict of “To Kill aMockingbird.”
The idea of having everyone in a city read the same book beganfour years ago. Library worker Nancy Pearl started it in Seattle,Washington after receiving money for a special project. Now Seattledoes it every year. Several other cities have followed the example.They include Buffalo and Rochester, New York; Springfield, Illinoisand Boise, Idaho.
Engagements
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Ukraine. OlegPalayda asks about engagements in the United States. The period ofengagement is the time between the marriage proposal and the weddingceremony. Two people agree to marry when they decide to spend theirlives together.
The man usually gives the woman a diamond engagement ring. Thattradition is said to have started when Archduke Maximilian ofAustria gave a diamond ring to the woman he wanted to marry. Thediamond represented beauty.
He placed it on the third finger of her left hand. He chose thatfinger because it was thought that a blood vessel or nerve in thatfinger went directly to the heart. Today, we know that this is nottrue. Yet the tradition continues.
Americans generally are engaged for a period of about one year ifthey are planning a wedding ceremony and party. During this time,friends of the bride may hold a party called a bridal shower. Womenfriends and family members give the bride gifts she will need as awife. These could include cooking equipment or new clothing.
Friends of the groom may have a bachelor party for him. Thisusually takes place the night before the wedding. Only men areinvited to the bachelor party. It is considered the groom’s lastnight out as an unmarried man.
During the marriage ceremony, the bride and groom usuallyexchange gold rings that represent the idea that their union willcontinue forever. The wife often wears both the wedding ring andengagement ring on the same finger. The husband wears his ring onthe third finger of his left hand.
Many people say the purpose of the engagement period is to permitenough time to plan the wedding. But another purpose is to letenough time pass so the two people are sure they want to marry eachother. Either person may decide to break the engagement. If thishappens, the woman usually returns the ring to the man. They alsoreturn any wedding or shower gifts they have received.
Isaac Stern
HOST:
World famous violinist Isaac Stern died last month. He waseighty-one years old. Shirley Griffith tells us about him and hismusic.
ANNCR:
Isaac Stern was born in what is now Ukraine in Nineteen-Twenty.He came to the United States with his parents when he was one yearold. He grew up in San Francisco, California. His mother beganteaching him the piano when he was six. He began learning the violinafter hearing a friend play the instrument. Later, he studied at theSan Francisco Conservatory of Music. He performed publicly for thefirst time at the age of sixteen.
By Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, Isaac Stern was playing concerts allover the world. Here he plays Dvorak’s “Humoresque” with theColumbia Symphony Orchestra.
((CUT 1: HUMORESQUE))
Isaac Stern first played at the famous Carnegie Hall in New YorkCity in Nineteen-Forty-Three. He loved playing in the same hallwhere many great musicians had performed. He organized a committeeto save Carnegie Hall when it was in danger of being torn down inNineteen-Sixty.
Isaac Stern was a great teacher. He was one of the most honoredmusicians in the world. He played with almost every major orchestra.He became one of the most recorded musicians in history. We leaveyou now with Isaac Stern playing Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin andOrchestra in D Major with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
((CUT 2: CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA CDC-2760A))
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Nancy Steinbach andJerilyn Watson. Our studio engineers were Michael Dubinsky and TomVerba. And our producer was Caty Weaver.