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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 remember country singer Johnny PayCheck …
Answer a few questions about American history …
And report about a new design for Ground Zero in New York City.
New Design for Ground Zero
HOST:
On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, terrorist hijackers flewtwo passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City.Two-thousand-eight-hundred people died as the two tallest buildingsin the city fell to the ground. Now officials have chosen a designto rebuild the area that people have come to know as Ground Zero.Mary Tillotson has the details.
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The winning design calls for a collection of modern glass officebuildings. One would be the tallest building in the world. Thispointed tower would include gardens inside. It would risefive-hundred-forty-one meters — orone-thousand-seven-hundred-seventy-six feet. Seventeen-seventy-sixwas the year America declared its independence from Britain.
In the center of the design is anempty space, the huge hole where the ruins of Ground Zero burned forseveral weeks. The design is such that every September eleventh, aline of sunlight will shine into this area as a special honor. Itwill shine from eight-forty-six in the morning, the time the firstplane hit, until ten-twenty-eight a.m., the time the second towerfell.
Daniel Libeskind [LEEB-skind] is the architect who designed thewinning proposal. Mister Libeskind says he wanted to keep the centerarea as a memorial to the brave men and women who died on Septembereleventh. A wall that held firm against the waters of the HudsonRiver will stand as part of the memorial.
Daniel Libeskind is a Polish-born American. His offices are basedin Germany. Thirty years ago, as an architecture student in NewYork, he watched the World Trade Center being built.
Officials chose his plan over a design for two tall buildings.Some thought these looked too much like the towers that fell.
The Libeskind proposal isestimated to cost more than three-hundred-million dollars to build.Officials told him that his imagination and ideas have brought hopeto a city still recovering from what happened. However, plannerswarn that economic pressures and other issues may force changes.
A separate competition to design a memorial on the ground wherethe fallen towers once stood will begin later this year.
The Making Of A Nation
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Nigeria. OluseyiJoel Ogunbode of Osun State asks about Martin Luther King,Christopher Columbus and the American holiday, the Fourth of July.
These questions are easy to answer in a simple way. Martin LutherKing was a black American who led the struggle for civil rights inthe United States. Christopher Columbus was an early Europeanexplorer in this part of the world. And the Fourth of July isAmerica’s independence day.
But these answers do not really say much about Martin LutherKing, Christopher Columbus and the Fourth of July. And we do nothave the time to answer them all fully here.
To get these answers, you should listen to the Special Englishprogram THE MAKING OF A NATION. It is broadcast each Thursday.
THE MAKING OF A NATION answers many questions about Americanhistory. How was the United States formed? Why was it necessary forcitizens to rebel against one nation — Britain — and createanother? What is the American Constitution? How and when was itwritten? Why is this document still important today?
In other programs, THE MAKING OF A NATION explains the rights ofAmericans. It tells about the mistakes they have made, and the warsthey have fought. Programs describe social changes, the elections ofpresidents, the period of slavery, and much more.
So, if you are interested in the answers to these and otherquestions about the United States, listen to THE MAKING OF A NATIONon Thursdays.
There are more than two-hundred programs in the series. And theseries has just started again. Next week, it will tell about thefirst Europeans to arrive in what they called the New World.
The story will continue each week — all the way until thetwenty-first century!
Johnny PayCheck
HOST:
Country singer and songwriter Johnny PayCheck has died inNashville, Tennessee. He was sixty-four years old and had been inpoor health. As Jim Tedder tells us, he recorded seventy recordalbums and had more than twenty hit songs.
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Johnny PayCheck was born DonaldEugene Lytle, in the north central state of Ohio. He learned to playguitar as a child. At fifteen he ran away from home and later joinedthe Navy. He moved to Nashville in nineteen-fifty-nine.
Johnny PayCheck lived life hard. He spent two years in prison forhitting a Navy officer. Years later he recorded “Eleven Months andTwenty-Nine Days,” the length of his suspended jail sentence foranother crime.
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In nineteen-eighty-five, in Ohio, Johnny PayCheck shot andwounded a man in the head. While in prison he performed with avisitor, singer Merle Haggard. Here they sing “I Can’t Hold MyselfIn Line.”
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That prison term was cut short after two years. Johnny PayCheckworked hard to clean up his life. Today he is most widely rememberedfor a song from nineteen-seventy-seven. We leave you with JohnnyPayCheck singing “Take This Job and Shove It.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Joinus again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine inSpecial English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Jill Moss and NancySteinbach. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. And our producerwas Paul Thompson.