HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
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This is Steve Ember. On our program today:
We play music by Dolly Parton …
Answer a question from a listener about the pens that presidentsuse to sign important documents …
And tell about the world’s biggest electronic auction.
eBay
HOST:
Every day, about five-hundred-thousand things are sold on theInternet computer Web site called eBay. It has been called the mostsuccessful business in Internet history. Mary Tillotson tells usmore.
ANNCR:
eBay is an internationalelectronic auction. Computer users around the world compete to buythings for sale on the eBay Web site. The person who offers the mostmoney buys the object. You can buy and sell almost anything on eBay.This includes art, books, electronic equipment, clothing, cameras,sports equipment, jewelry, movies and music. You can even buy andsell cars, property and places to spend your holiday.
There are about eleven-million things for sale on eBay at onetime. Many people buy and sell special things that they collect,like toy trains or dolls. Some of these things become very valuableover the years.
For example, a woman in Palm Bay, Florida has collected the toyscalled Barbie dolls since she was a little girl. She knows whichones are valuable because they are rare. Recently she bought onedoll for a few dollars at someone’s yard sale. She later sold it forseveral hundred dollars on eBay.
Some things on eBay sell for only a few dollars. Others sell formany thousands of dollars, such as old cars or rare moneycollections. Some Americans have started their own businessesselling things on eBay. More than one hundred thousand businessesnow operate only on eBay.
The headquarters of eBay are in San Jose, California. A young mannamed Pierre Omidyar started eBay. He worked as a computerprogrammer in California. Mister Omidyar’s idea was to create aperfect, international marketplace where everyone was equal. Hisidea began as a Web site called AuctionWeb in nineteen-ninety-five.Three years later it became a public company. It was then valued atmore than two-thousand-million dollars.
eBay does not sell anything itself. Instead, it connects buyersand sellers. It collects money from the sellers for every objectsold. eBay has links to Web sites in twenty other countries. Almostfifty-million people around the world buy and sell things on eBay.
Presidential Pens
HOST:
Our VOA listener question thisweek comes from Vietnam. Vu Hoai Thu wants to know why PresidentBush uses a lot of pens when he signs an official document. Also,what happens to all these pens after the President signs his name ona document?
For the answers, we turn to Bill Bushong (BUSH-ong). He is ahistorian with the White House Historical Association. MisterBushong says it is a tradition for presidents to use many writinginstruments at official signing ceremonies. He says a presidentoften uses twelve or more pens during a single ceremony.
Each pen serves as a memento, or something that helps someoneremember an event. Most of the pens are given to people consideredimportant to the approval of a bill or treaty, such as members ofCongress. A few private citizens attending the ceremony also mayreceive a pen.
Mister Bushong says the White House sends one pen used by thepresident and a copy of the signed document to the NationalArchives. The National Archives is the federal agency that collectsand saves official records.
The president also may decide to keep one of the pens. It may beincluded with other important objects in a presidential libraryafter he leaves office.
Members of the president’s family may keep a few of the pens usedat official ceremonies. The pens rarely are offered to the generalpublic. However, you might be able to buy one from someone whoattended a signing ceremony. Such pens are sometimes sold in specialstores. Computer users also can search for them on Internet auctionWeb sites, like eBay.
Another way to get a pen from the White House is through theofficial White House store. The White House gift shop sells a numberof writing instruments. Some pens come in beautiful wooden boxes andcost twenty-five or thirty dollars. Other pens cost from fourdollars to ten dollars. You can also buy twelve White House pencilsfor about four dollars.
Now, some final thoughts about presidential pens. For more thanfifty years, pens made by the Parker company were used at WhiteHouse signing ceremonies. However, the current president uses pensmade by another company, Shaeffer.
Dolly Parton
HOST:
One of the most popular country music artists has released a newalbum. Shep O’Neal tells about Dolly Parton’s record, “Halos andHorns.”
ANNCR:
Dolly Parton grew up poor in theGreat Smoky Mountain area of Tennessee. She listened to traditionalmountain music called bluegrass. Mizz Parton’s recent albums,including “Halos and Horns,” have honored that kind of music.
The banjo, fiddle and mandolin are some of the most commoninstruments used in bluegrass music. Listen for these instruments in”Sugar Hill,” a song about memories of mountain life.
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Dolly Parton is as famous for writing songs as she is for singingthem. She has published more than three-thousand songs. Many of hersongs have become hit recordings for other artists. Last year, theNational Academy of Popular Music chose Mizz Parton to be includedin the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Dolly Parton wrote two songs for “Halos and Horns” in reaction tothe terrorist attacks on the United States last September. In “RavenDove” she sings about a time when there is no war or hate.
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Dolly Parton also re-recorded a famous rock and roll song for”Halos and Horns.” Critics were surprised by her choice of “Stairwayto Heaven” by the band Led Zeppelin. But most critics praised herversion. We leave you now with Dolly Parton singing “Stairway toHeaven.”
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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 Shelley Gollust. Our studio engineer was Dwayne Collins.And our producer was Paul Thompson.