HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Steve Ember. On our program today:
We answer a listener’s question about the rock group R.E.M. …
Visit a popular stop for travelers called South of the Border …
And tell about one of America’s most popular movie actors.
Tom Cruise
HOST:
One of America’s top actors has another one-hundred-milliondollar movie. Mary Tillotson tells the latest news about Tom Cruise.
ANNCR:
Tom Cruise was on the cover offive major American magazines when his latest movie was releasedearlier this summer. It is called “Minority Report.” It is ascience-fiction, mystery and action movie. It takes place in theyear two-thousand-fifty-four. This is a time when special beings cansee crimes like murder before they happen. Cruise plays a policemanwho heads a group called Precrime. These police arrest would-bemurderers before they can carry out their crime. Cruise is accusedof a future murder and must hide from the other police and solve themystery of the crime.
“Minority Report” has become Tom Cruise’s tenth movie out oftwenty-four to make one-hundred-million dollars or more. Like othertop actors Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks, Cruise is considered a verysafe investment in Hollywood.
But, he is an investment. Tom Cruise demands about twenty-milliondollars to star in a film. He also often gets a percentage of themovie’s profits. Two years ago, Cruise made aboutseventy-five-million dollars from his movie “Mission: ImpossibleTwo.”
Tom Cruise has received praise along with big earnings. TheNational Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated himtwo times for Best Actor and once for Best Supporting Actor. He haswon two Golden Globe awards. People Magazine has included Cruise onits yearly list of the most beautiful people three times. Themagazine also named him the sexiest man alive. And, last year,Forbes magazine named Tom Cruise number one on its list of the mostpowerful people in entertainment.
Tom Cruise is forty years old. He was born in Syracuse, New York,but moved around a lot growing up. Cruise was a member of the RomanCatholic Church for most of his life. He had planned on becoming aclergyman. But, at age eighteen, he moved from New Jersey to NewYork to try acting instead. Cruise now belongs to the Church ofScientology.
Tom Cruise’s next two movies are “The Last Samurai” and “Mission:Impossible Three.”
South of the Border
HOST:
This summer, many Americans are traveling on the huge road systemthat connects the states. They can drive hundreds of kilometersacross state borders without having to stop.
What happens when drivers and their families become hungry? Orwhen their car needs more fuel? Where can they stop for food orgasoline or just to stretch their legs after sitting in a car formany hours? One of the most famous rest areas for travelers in theUnited States is called “South of the Border” in Dillon, SouthCarolina. Shep O’Neal tells us about it.
ANNCR:
South of the Border is a popularrest area for people driving on the main road through the easternUnited States from Maine to Florida. It is just south of the borderbetween North Carolina and South Carolina. During summer weekends,as many as forty-thousand American holiday travelers stop there.
Every traveler knows where it is. That is because there are hugesigns, or billboards, for South of the Border, starting manykilometers away from the area. There are more than one-hundred Southof the Border billboards along major roads in the southeasternUnited States. All the billboards are colorful. They make fun of theplace and a character named Pedro. At the entrance to South of theBorder is the biggest sign of all. It is a sign of Pedro that isthirty meters tall.
South of the Border is an unusual mix of the traditional AmericanSouth and Old Mexico. At first, you wonder why there are so manyseemingly Mexican things in South Carolina. South of the Border isnowhere near Mexico. That is part of the joke.
South of the Border has six eating places, fifteen stores and alarge hotel for tired travelers. There are plenty of things to do atSouth of the Border. Visitors can play golf or ride a machine thatlooks like a cow. They can ride up a tall structure shaped liked aMexican hat. Or they can buy a Mexican hat, fireworks and many otherthings.
A man named Alan Schafer started South of the Border more thanfifty years ago. At first, there was only one store that sold beer.Through the many billboards and marketing efforts, South of theBorder grew and became a huge success. When Mister Shafer died lastyear, the business reportedly was worth about fifty-million dollars.
R.E.M.
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Hong Kong. EricPun asks about the rock music group R.E.M.
The band was formed innineteen-eighty. The members were Bill Berry, Mike Mills, PeterBuck, and lead singer, Michael Stipe. The band formed while all fourmen were attending classes at the University of Georgia, in Athens.They first played together in an empty church where two of themembers lived. This song is from R.E.M.’s first album, called”Chronic Town.” It is called “Carnival of Sorts.”
((MUSIC: “Carnival of Sorts”))
The name of the band stands for “rapid eye movement.” This is themovement of the eyes during the period of sleep when a person isdreaming. The band did not choose the name R.E.M. until after itsfirst performance twenty-two years ago. During that show, the fourmembers of the band wrote ideas for names on the floor. In themorning, they settled on R.E.M. This popular song, “Radio FreeEurope,” is from the band’s second album.
((MUSIC: “Radio Free Europe”))
Since nineteen-eighty-eight, several of the group’s albums havereached number one on the Billboard list based on total sales. Theband has also won several Grammy and M-T-V music awards. Innineteen-ninety-seven, drum player Bill Berry left the band aftersuffering health problems. The remaining members of R.E.M. havecontinued to release albums. The most recent, called “Reveal,” cameout last year. We leave you with a song from the album. It is called”The Lifting.”
((MUSIC: “The Lifting”))
HOST:
This is Steve Ember. 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 Caty Weaver, GeorgeGrow and Jill Moss. Our studio engineer was Eva Nenicka. And ourproducer was Caty Weaver.