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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
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This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We play some music nominated for a Grammy Award …
Tell about a new study of Internet use in the United States …
And report about the winners of two awards for the bestchildren’s books.
Newberry & Caldecott Award WinnersHOST:Each year, the American Library Association presents awards forthe best books for children. The Newbery and Caldecott awards honorexcellence in writing and art in children’s literature. The winnerswere announced at a meeting of the association last month. ShepO’Neal tells us about them.ANNCR:A thirteen-year-old boy living infourteenth century England is the hero of the book that won theNewbery Award for writing. The book is called “Crispin: The Cross ofLead.” Crispin is accused of murder and must run away from hisvillage. A juggler becomes his protector and teacher. Crispin was ateenager seven-hundred-years ago. Yet he was searching for freedomlike many young people today. The head of the committee that namesthe Newbery Award winner says readers can “see, hear, smell, tasteand feel” Crispin’s world.The book was written by Avi, a popular American writer who usesonly one name. Avi is from New York City. He says he was not a goodstudent in school. He did not start writing stories for childrenuntil he had children of his own. He says it takes about one yearfor him to write one book. Avi urges his young readers to “Listenand watch the world around you. Do not be satisfied with answersothers give you. Work to get answers on your own. Understand why youbelieve things.”The Caldecott Medal for the bestartwork in children’s books in the United States went to EricRohmann. Mister Rohmann wrote and drew the pictures for the book “MyFriend Rabbit.” In the story, a mouse shares a new toy airplane withhis friend the rabbit. The airplane lands in a tree. So the rabbitgets an elephant, a crocodile and a hippopotamus to help rescue theplane. All of these animals fall on and off the pages in a veryfunny story for young children.Mister Rohmann made the pictures for the story with woodcuts. Tomake a woodcut, the artist cuts designs or pictures in wood. Theartist prints the pictures on paper and then paints them. The headof the Caldecott Award committee says the pictures show a lot ofenergy and bright colors. One group of children said the eyes of theanimals tell a lot of the story.UCLA Internet StudyHOST:A recent university study asked more than two-thousand Americanswho use computers where they get most of their information. Theanswer may surprise you. Mary Tillotson has more.ANNCR:The University of California at Los Angeles did the study. Itsays about sixty-one percent of the people said the Internet wastheir most important source of information. The other answers werebooks, newspapers, television, radio and magazines.Jeffrey Cole is the Director of the UCLA Center forCommunications Policy. He says the Internet has become the mostpopular information source after existing for only about eight yearsas a communications tool. Mister Cole says this is the third yearthat UCLA has done the study. It is the first time the Internet wasthe top answer.Mister Cole said people are able to gather information muchquicker now than in the past. He said this may be the main reasonfor the increased use of the Internet as an information-gatheringtool.However, the UCLA study also showed a decrease in the number ofpeople who trust the information they find on the Internet. Twoyears ago, fifty-eight percent of those questioned said theybelieved the information on the Internet was true. In the lateststudy, only about fifty-three percent of the people said they wouldtrust information from the Internet.Mister Cole says this could be a problem for Internet informationin the future. How long will it be before people no longer valuewhat they learn on the Internet?The study showed the Internet is extremely popular and iscontinuing to grow. About seventy percent of Americans now use theInternet. Sixty percent of them are linked to the Internet at home.That is an increase of more than thirteen percent in only two years.The study also showed that almost thirty percent of Americans do notuse the Internet. Their main reason is not understanding thetechnology. Some people say they are afraid to try using theInternet.The UCLA report also showed that the Internet continues to growas an important business and professional tool. It said that mostInternet users are happy with it. The users said they are mostsatisfied to be able to communicate with other people very quickly.The Grammy AwardsHOST:Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. DareOmosowon wants to know about the Grammy Awards that will bepresented on Sunday.The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has presentedGrammy Awards every year since nineteen-fifty-eight. The awardsrecognize excellent recordings and those who create them. The awardis a small statue shaped like the early record player called agramophone. The word “Grammy” is a short way of saying gramophone.Eighteen-thousand members of the Recording Academy choose thebest work each year. Awards are given for spoken word albums and formany kinds of music, including jazz, classical, country, rap, andrhythm and blues.One of the most important Grammy Awards is for “Album of theYear”. The award goes to the recording artist and to the album’sproducers and engineers.This year, the Dixie Chicks’ album”Home” is nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy. Here is a songfrom that album, “Long Time Gone.”(MUSIC)Another album nominated for this Grammy Award is “The EminemShow” by Eminem. A third nominated album is “Come Away with Me” byNorah Jones. Here is a song from that album, “Shoot the Moon”.(MUSIC)The fourth nominated album is by Nelly. It is called “Nellyville.And the final album nominated for “Album of the Year” is by BruceSpringsteen. We leave you now with the title song from the album,”The Rising.”(MUSIC)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 Karen Leggett, NancySteinbach and Paul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Jim Harmon. Andour producer was Paul Thompson.