Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. Our program today we:
play music written by John Williams …
answer a question about the holiday Saint Patrick’s Day …
and tell how Americans watch players train for the professionalbaseball season.
Spring Training
HOST:
Many Americans love the sport ofbaseball. They are looking forward to the start of the NorthAmerican professional baseball season at the end of this month.Currently, teams are busy training for the new season. MaryTillotson has more.
ANNCR:
Baseball has created many popular traditions. One of them isspring training. Each February, Major League players report to theirteams for training in warm American states. The players work on anumber of skills, including hitting, throwing and running. They playgames against other teams to help team officials decide whichplayers to keep.
Spring training is a popular activity for baseball fans.Thousands of people travel to the states of Arizona and Florida towatch the games. Some of the people do this to escape from winterweather in the north.
Florida, for example, is famous for its warm waters andactivities for holiday travelers. Spring training is another popularactivity. The cost to attend a game is much lower than the cost of agame during the official baseball season.
People of all ages enjoy spring training games. Boys and girlssit side by side with older adults. Parents take their babies to thegames. Even some businessmen attend the games. Many people comeequipped with cameras, baseballs, and something to write with. Theyask players to sign their name on a baseball, a picture or a pieceof paper. The most popular players are easy to recognize. They arethe ones in the center of the largest crowds.
This year, spring training is a little different. Increasedsecurity measures were added because of the terrorist attacks in theUnited States in September.
As a result, the interaction between players and crowds is beingclosely watched. People who attend spring training games are nolonger permitted to bring large cooling containers for food anddrinks. Security officers search small, personal objects. Theyexamine the playing field before a game. They also inspect the areaswhere people leave their cars.
Yet this has not kept Americans away from spring training. Somerecent reports say it is now more popular than ever.
Saint Patrick’s Day
HOST:
Our VOA listener question thisweek comes from Vietnam. Nguyen Thanh Duc asks about the holidaySaint Patrick’s Day.
Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated on March seventeenth. It is areligious holiday in Ireland. It is the day to honor the man whobrought the Roman Catholic religion to Ireland more thanone-thousand years ago.
Saint Patrick’s Day is not an official holiday in the UnitedStates. But a lot of people celebrate it anyway. They show thetraditional Irish color, green. People wear green clothes. Some putgreen color in their hair or on their faces. Some public eatingplaces serve beer that is green. The city of Chicago even puts greencolor in its river. Many Americans eat the traditional Irish food,corned beef and cabbage. And they enjoy parties and parades.
Saint Patrick’s Day was first celebrated in the United States inBoston, Massachusetts about two-hundred-fifty-years ago. Thesecelebrations involved only people whose families had come to theUnited States from Ireland.
Today, Americans who are not Irish also celebrate Saint Patrick’sDay. Some cities have Saint Patrick’s Day parades. An old story saysthis tradition began in New York City in Seventeen-Sixty-Two. Somemembers of the New York State military guard at that time had beenborn in Ireland. They decided to march to breakfast on SaintPatrick’s Day. These parades spread throughout the country as moreIrish people came to live in the United States.
Many Irish people who moved to the United States settled in bigcities. Many became firefighters, police officers and city leaders.They were able to stop work in the city for a day so they could havea parade to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day.
Today, New York City’s parade is the biggest. Hundreds ofthousands of people march for eight kilometers along Fifth Avenue.Millions of others gather along the street to watch. Many of theseAmericans are not really Irish. But they like to say that everyoneis a little bit Irish on Saint Patrick’s Day.This year, the paradein New York City will be on March sixteenth, because it is neverheld on a Sunday. Also this year, there will be a minute of silencefor the people killed in the World Trade Center attacks.
John Williams’ Music
HOST:
The National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences willpresent its yearly Academy Awards on March twenty-fourth. The awardshonor people who make movies. One of the nominees this year is musicwriter John Williams. He has been nominated for an Academy Awardforty-one times. That is more than anyone else in history. ShepO’Neal has more.
ANNCR:
John Williams may be best knownfor writing movie soundtracks, the music that is heard throughout amovie. He has written the music and served as music director foralmost eighty movies. They include “E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial,””Home Alone,” and “Superman,” to name only a few. He has won fiveAcademy Awards. One was for the music from the movie “Jaws.”
((CUT 1: JAWS SOUNDTRACK))
John Williams is writing the music for the new series of “StarWars” movies. The second of these will be released later this year.He also wrote the soundtracks for the first three “Star Wars”movies. He won an Academy Award for the first one inNineteen-Seventy-Eight.
((CUT 2: STAR WARS SOUNDTRACK))
John Williams is nominated for two Academy Awards this year. Oneis for the music he wrote for the movie “A.I: ArtificialIntelligence.” We leave you now with the music that earned him thesecond nomination this year. It is from the movie “Harry Potter andthe Sorcerer’s Stone.”
((CUT 3: HARRY POTTER SOUNDTRACK))
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson . I hope you enjoyed our program today. AndI hope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow and NancySteinbach. Our studio engineer was Kwasi Smith. And our producer wasPaul Thompson.