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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 listener’s question about Mother’s Day …
Play music by the group Fleetwood Mac …
And report about a contest for a September eleventh memorial inNew York City.
World Trade Center Memorial Competition
HOST:
Officials in New York City haveannounced an international competition to design a memorial to honorthose who died at the World Trade Center. The memorial is part of alarger plan for the rebuilding of the area. Shas more.
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The seven buildings known as theWorld Trade Center complex in New York City were built betweennineteen-sixty-two and nineteen-seventy-three. The buildings knownas the Twin Towers were the tallest in the world at the time theywere finished.
On February twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three, a terrorist bombexploded in the parking area below the World Trade Center. Sixpeople were killed. Thousands were injured. The bomb damaged thebuildings but people were able to return to work three weeks later.
On September eleventh, two-thousand-one, hijackers flew twopassenger airplanes into the Twin Towers. The attacks caused hugeexplosions that started fires in the buildings. Pieces fell all overthe area. The Twin Towers fell down.
Five other buildings in the World Trade Center were alsodestroyed. Almost three-thousand people were killed.
The international competition to honor those killed is open toanyone over the age of eighteen. The competition will be carried outin two parts. The first designs must be sent to the judgingcommittee by June thirtieth. The judges will select five to furtherdevelop their designs. The judges will announce a winner later thisyear. The fourteen judges on the committee include designer MayaLin, architecture professor Enrique Norton, and Paula Grant-Berry.Her husband was among those killed.
Officials say they are seeking the most creative designs for thememorial to honor all those who died. Anyone seeking to take part inthe competition must register by May twenty-ninth. The cost istwenty-five dollars. To register for the competition, you must usethe form found on the Memorial Competition Web site. It provides allthe necessary information about the contest and how to send in thedesign. That address is www.wtcsitememorial.org.Again, the address is wtcsitememorial — that’s all one word — doto-r-g.
Mother’s Day
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from two differentpeople. Nguyen Than Duc of Vietnam and Ibrahim Abdulkarim of Nigeriaboth ask about the American holiday, Mother’s Day.
This Sunday, May eleventh, isMother’s Day in the United States. Mother’s Day is celebrated inmany countries around the world, but not always on the same day.Some history experts say the holiday comes from ancient springfestivals in Greece and Rome. A more modern Mother’s Day began inthe seventeenth century in Britain.
The writer Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for aMother’s Day in the United States. That was in eighteen-seventy-two.She said it should be a day to celebrate peace.
Mother’s Day as it is celebrated today began with a woman namedAnna Jarvis. In nineteen-oh-seven, she held a ceremony to honor hermother at a church in the state of West Virginia. She held theceremony on the anniversary of her mother’s death. Later, she andothers wrote thousands of letters to public officials urging thatthe second Sunday in May be declared Mother’s Day.
President Woodrow Wilson and the United States Congress finallyagreed in nineteen-fourteen. The second Sunday in May became a dayof public expression of love for mothers throughout the country. Itbecame popular for people to send gifts of flowers and candy tottheir mothers on Mother’s Day.
Today, children of all ages still give their mothers specialgifts on Mother’s Day. Older children may travel to visit theirmothers. If they cannot, they usually send a special card with amessage of love. Or they send flowers.
They also usually call their mothers on the telephone to wishthem a happy day. Mother’s Day is one of the busiest days of theyear for American telephone companies.
Fleetwood Mac
HOST:
You probably remember the band Fleetwood Mac from its hit recordstwenty years ago. Well, the band has released its first album of newsongs in sixteen years. Steve Ember tells us about the album, called”Say You Will.”
ANNCR:
Fleetwood Mac has produced a bigalbum. There are eighteen songs on “Say You Will.” Singer StevieNicks joked that a person needs two days to listen to it.
She and guitar player Lindsey Buckingham met as teenagers. Theyrecorded an album together before joining Fleetwood Mac innineteen-seventy-four. The two musicians are famous for the stormylove relationship they once had. The album closes with goodbye songsthat they wrote about each other years ago. Hers is called “GoodbyeBaby.”
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Nicks and Buckingham says they balance each other musically.However, part of the balance comes from much argument. Nicks saysthe music would be uninteresting if everything went smoothly. Hereis another song Stevie Nicks wrote about her relationship withLindsey Buckingham. It is called “Thrown Down.”
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Fleetwood Mac has sold more than seventy-million records sinceits creation. Mick Fleetwood is the only member who has been in theband from the beginning. He plays the drums. John McVie is also anearly member. He plays bass. We leave you now with the new album’stitle song, “Say You Will.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. Writeus with your questions about American life. We will try to answerthem on future programs. Listeners whose questions are chosen willreceive a gift.
Write to American Mosaic, VOA Special English, Washington, D.C.,two-zero-two-three-seven, USA. Or send e-mail to mosaic at v-o-anews dot com. Please include your name and mailing address.
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and Caty Weaver. Ourstudio engineer was Rick Barnes. And our producer was Paul Thompson.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radiomagazine in Special English.