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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — a program in VOA Special Englishabout music and American life. And we answer your questions.
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This is Doug Johnson.
On our show today, we answer a question about the Academy Awards– and we play some songs that are nominated for one of the Oscars.
We also tell about some of the people to be honored by theInventors Hall of Fame. But first, a report about a girl who losther arm to a shark, but not her spirits.
Shark Attack Victim
HOST:
Researchers at the University of Florida say the number of sharkattacks around the world dropped for the third year. There wereeight fewer attacks reported last year than in two-thousand-two.Sharks attacked fifty-five people last year and killed four of them.Most of the attacks happened in United States waters. Steve Emberhas a progress report on one of the victims.
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Bethany Hamilton celebrated herbirthday this month. She is now fourteen years old. She lives on theHawaiian island of Kauai. On October thirty-first of last year,Bethany and her best friend went to the ocean to surf. Bethany lovesto balance on a surfboard and ride the waves to shore. In fact, thisteenager is among the best amateur surfers in the world.
Bethany was lying on her surfboard to rest, with her arm in thewater. She does not remember much about what happened next. She saysshe did not feel the shark bite, but she knew her arm was gone whenshe saw the blood in the water. Her friend’s father was in the waternearby. He helped get her to shore. He tied a rubber surfboard ropearound the top of her arm to slow the bleeding.
Bethany lost more than half the blood in her body and all but tencentimeters of her left arm. She was in the hospital for a week.Then, ten weeks after the attack, she returned to surfingcompetition. In January, she placed fifth in her age group in aNational Scholastic Surfing Association event in Hawaii.
Bethany and her family also visited the United States mainland.This competitive surfer and skateboarder even learned another sport.She learned to snowboard in the western state of Colorado. On theway home to Hawaii, the family stopped in California. There, doctorsgave Bethany a prosthetic device that she can wear in place of herarm.
Bethany Hamilton has appeared on television and gotten many otherrequests to tell her story. She says she believes the shark attackhad some purpose. She calls what happened “part of God’s plan” forher life.
Inventors Hall of Fame
HOST:
Do you ever repair things with a drop of Super Glue? Do you evenknow what Super Glue is? How about the Dolby sound system? These arejust two of the inventions whose creators will be honored by theNational Inventors Hall of Fame. Faith Lapidus has the story.
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The Inventors Hall of Fame is in Akron, Ohio. It honors peoplewho have made important things for science, medicine and everydaylife. One of these people is Harry Coover. He was a research chemistduring World War Two. He worked with a group of chemicals calledcyanoacrylates [SI-a-no-AK-ri-LATES]. He discovered that thesechemicals could be used to attach one object to another. HarryCoover invented a glue that is often used in emergency medicaloperations to stop bleeding.
Cyanoacrylates are also used tomake a product sold in stores. Superglue is known for beingextremely strong. And anyone who has ever used it will warn you notto get it on your fingers … they can easily stick together! Today,Harry Coover holds four-hundred-sixty patents.
Another American, Ray Dolby, invented a system that reduces thenoise that was common in older sound recordings. He developed theidea during the nineteen-sixties as he recorded traditional music inIndia. Dolby technology is used in movie theaters and in cassettetape players. The Dolby Sound System makes recordings sound muchmore natural.
Among others who will join Mister Dolby at the Inventors Hall ofFame ceremony is French scientist Luc Montagnier. He will be honoredfor discovering H-I-V, the human immunodeficiency virus, innineteen-eighty-three. H-I-V was identified as the cause of AIDS.The discovery of the virus led to the development of a test forfinding the presence of H-I-V in the blood. Luc Montagnier hasreceived more than twenty major awards for his work. And hecontinues to work in the fight against AIDS.
These are only three of the twenty inventors who will be honoredby the Inventors Hall of Fame on May first. You can find a link tothe Hall of Fame Web site at voaspecialenglish-dot-com.
Oscar Nominated Songs
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Liaoning, China.Chu Xiaoxu wants to know about the American movie award, the Oscar.
The official name is the Academy Awards. They are given by theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The academy begangiving the awards in nineteen-twenty-nine.
This year the Oscars will be given on Sunday, Februarytwenty-ninth. Filmmakers will receive honors for the best acting,directing, writing, editing and other work on movies released lastyear.
One of the awards will go to thebest song written for a motion picture. Five songs are nominatedthis year. This one is from the movie “Lord of the Rings: The Returnof the King.” The song is called “Into the West.” The singer isAnnie Lennox.
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Another song nominated for an Oscar this year is “A Kiss at theEnd of the Rainbow” from the movie “A Mighty Wind.” The thirdnominee is the title song from a cartoon movie, “The Triplets ofBelleville,” sung by Ben Charest.
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Two songs from the movie “Cold Mountain” have been nominated thisyear for best original song. One is called “Scarlett Tide.” Theother is “You Will Be My Ain True Love.” It is performed by AllisonKrauss.
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To learn more about the Academy Awards and the nominees thisyear, listen this Monday to the VOA Special English program THIS ISAMERICA.
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICAN MOSAIC. Join usagain next week for VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Paul Thompson, whowas also our producer. And our engineer was Tony Pollock.