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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 answer a question about an area known as Silicon Valley …
and we play music by Lisa Marie Presley …
But first, we tell about the results of a recent Special Englishlisteners’ contest.
Contest Results
HOST:
Special English recently held a contest for our listeners. FaithLapidus tells us about the results and about the two top winners.
ANNCR:
During one week last month, we asked listeners to send us ane-mail. We asked them to tell us their name, address, age, theSpecial English program they like best and other kinds of programsthey would like to hear.
We received almost five-hundred e-mails from forty-nine countriesduring that week. The highest number, more than one-hundred-sixty,came from Special English listeners in China. Almost sixty e-mailscame from listeners in Nigeria. We also received many messages fromlisteners in Vietnam, Japan, India and Iran.
The large majority of listeners who sent e-mails are young peoplebetween the ages of twenty and forty. The most popular SpecialEnglish program is our American history series, The Making of aNation, followed by Science in the News. Our listeners alsosuggested many interesting ideas for programs that they would liketo hear in the future.
The Special English chief and editors enjoyed reading thee-mails. Choosing winners among all the interesting letters was verydifficult. Finally, they chose the two winners. One winner isDorjsuren Khurelbaatar from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He is a directorof the Mongolian International Education Agency which sendsMongolian students to study in other countries. He has listened toVOA news and Special English broadcasts since nineteen-seventy-four.He wrote: “VOA helps me feel like a naturalized American.”
The other winner is Joseph Oduntan of Osun State, Nigeria. He isa scientist and farmer who supervises an organic farming program inhis country. He wrote: “All presentations of the different featuresof the VOA Special English program have been educative and excellentin all respects. The presenters are intelligent and hard working. Ilove them all for their good knowledge and love for Africa and herpeople.”
We would like to thank all the listeners who sent e-mails forsharing their thoughts with us. We consider you all to be winners.
Silicon Valey
HOST:
Our question this week comes from Chongqing, China. James Yangwants to know the story of California’s “Silicon Valley.” The namecomes from the silicon material used to produce tiny electroniccomputer parts.
The area of California that iscalled Silicon Valley is about seventy kilometers southeast of SanFrancisco. It is about forty kilometers long and about fifteenkilometers wide. You will not find the name Silicon Valley on anymaps of California. But it is a very important place. There arethousands of high-technology companies in Silicon Valley today.
The story begins with Stanford University near the city of PaloAlto. After World War Two, Stanford University was having financialproblems. It also owned several thousand hectares of land that wasnot being used.
A professor at Stanford did his best to solve the problem. Hisname was Frederick Terman. He learned that the university could notlegally sell the land. The Stanford family made it legallyimpossible to sell any of the land when they gave it to theuniversity.
However, Mister Terman discovered there was nothing to preventthe university from permitting companies to pay the university touse the land.This idea led to the development of an area calledStanford Industrial Park. This business area was established innineteen-fifty four. Several leading companies moved their officesthere. These included the new Hewlett Packard electronics company.Successful businesses like Hewlett Packard influenced othercompanies to move into and near the Stanford Industrial Park.
The area became known as Silicon Valley at the beginning of thecomputer age. In the early nineteen-seventies, a reporter named thearea Silicon Valley in a series of stories for a publication calledElectronic News. Young computer engineers with little money startedcompanies in this area. Many of these companies are now largeinternational businesses. One example is Apple Computers.
Silicon Valley is a name that has become so popular today that itis often used to describe any area that is home to many electronicscompanies. But the first and most important Silicon Valley can stillbe found in California.
Lisa Marie Presley
HOST:
American singer Elvis Presley is perhaps the most famous rock androll artist of all time. Now his daughter Lisa Marie is recordingher own music. Shep O’Neal tells us about her first album.
ANNCR:
It is called “To Whom It MayConcern.” Lisa Marie Presley wrote the words to all the songs. Shesays all the songs are about her. She says they tell who she reallyis. This song is about her family and how she found her place in theworld. It is called “Lights Out.”
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Lisa Marie was nine years old when Elvis Presley died. She lefthigh school before she graduated because she said school had nopurpose for her. She says she has been looking for meaning in herlife ever since. That is why she recorded these songs at the age ofthirty-five. Here is another song from the album, “Sinking In.”
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“To Whom It May Concern” has already sold at leastfive-hundred-thousand copies since it was released in the UnitedStates in April. Now, Lisa Marie Presley is performing its songs inconcerts all over the country. We leave you with the title song fromher album, “To Whom It May Concern.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
This program was written by Shelley Gollust, Nancy Steinbach andPaul Thompson. Our studio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producerwas Paul Thompson.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radiomagazine in Special English.