DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
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This is Doug Johnson. On our show this week:
A new movie celebrates the music of Cole Porter.
A listener has a question about the Statue of Liberty, which hasreopened to the public.
But first — a brief history of the Olympics, as the Summer Gamesopen today in Athens.
Summer Olympics
The first Olympic competition washeld in the ancient Greek city of Olympia more than two thousandseven hundred years ago. The modern day summer Olympics begin todayin the Greek capital, Athens. Gwen Outen tells us more about theOlympic Games.
GWEN OUTEN: At the first Olympics, men took part in foot racesduring celebrations to honor the Greek god, Zeus. More races andsports were added later.
Greece held these Olympic games every four years for the next onethousand years. The ancient Romans banned them in the fourthcentury.
The modern Olympic games began more than one hundred years ago.Baron Pierre de Coubertin of France proposed a world celebration ofsports like the ancient games of Greece.
The first modern Olympics were held in Athens in eighteenninety-six. Athletes from eight countries competed in ten sports.The purpose was to help athletes develop strength and values throughcompetition. It also provided a way for athletes of all nations tobecome friends.
The Olympic symbol of five linked rings represents thisfriendship. Baron de Coubertin designed it in nineteen thirteen. Therings represent the linking through sports of the major populatedareas of the world-Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the twoAmerican continents, represented by one ring. The colors of therings are blue, yellow, black, green and red. The flag of eachnation competing in the games has at least one of these colors.Under the rings is the Olympic saying in Latin: “Citius, Altius,Fortius”. The words mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”.
The Olympic flame links the old and new games. In ancientOlympia, a fire burned for the god Zeus during the sportscompetitions. Now, runners bring a flame from Olympia, Greece toevery new Olympics. That flame opens the summer games today inAthens. They end August twenty-ninth.
About ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred nationswill compete in the world’s most important international athleticevent.
Statue of Liberty
DOUG JOHNSON: Our VOA listenerquestion this week comes from Iran. Elnaz Ershadi asks about theStatue of Liberty in New York City. This is a good time to answerthat question because the Statue of Liberty re-opened to visitorslast week. It had been closed after the terrorist attacks inSeptember, two thousand one. New York officials called there-opening a sign of the recovery of the city and the country.
The Statue of Liberty represents a woman holding a torch of fire.It stands on an island at the entrance to the New York City harbor.It is almost ninety-three meters tall, one of the tallest statuesever built. Its complete name is “Liberty Enlightening the World”.
The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the people of the UnitedStates from the people of France. It was an expression of friendshipand the goal of liberty shared by the people of both countries.
The idea for the statue came from a French history expert ineighteen sixty-five. Six years later, artist Frederic Bartholditraveled to the United States to seek support for building thestatue. He decided it should stand on an island in New York harbor.
Bartholdi began designing the statue when he returned to France.He designed the woman’s face to look like his mother’s. Frenchofficials organized a group to raise money and supervise theproject. The French people gave four hundred thousand dollars tobuild the statue. In eighteen seventy-seven, the Americansestablished a similar committee to raise money needed to build thestatue’s base.
The statue was built in France. Bartholdi had hoped it would beready on the one hundredth anniversary of the American Declarationof Independence in eighteen seventy-six. But it was not. Franceofficially presented the statue to the United States Minister toFrance in Paris on July fourth, eighteen eighty-four.
The statue was then taken apart and sent to the United States.”Liberty Enlightening the World” was completed in the United Statesin eighteen eighty-six. New York City celebrated with a huge parade.President Grover Cleveland and other American and French officialsattended. Since then, the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol offreedom for people all over the world. Its meaning is expressed inthe famous poem by Emma Lazarus that is written on the statue’sbase. Here is part of that poem:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Cole Porter
Cole Porter was one of America’smost famous and successful songwriters. He wrote songs for Broadwaymusical shows and Hollywood movies. He wrote most of his songs inthe nineteen-twenties, thirties and forties. But they remain populartoday. A new movie about Cole Porter was released last month. ShepO’Neal tells us about the man and his music.
SHEP O’NEAL: Cole Porter lived from eighteen ninety-one untilnineteen sixty-four. More than five-hundred of his songs wererecorded in his lifetime. The new movie about his life is called”De-Lovely.” Popular young performers sing his songs in the movie.The songs were released on a new CD, also called “De-Lovely.” RobbieWilliams sings the song “It’s De-Lovely.”
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Cole Porter’s songs were funny, sexy and intelligent. They werefull of little jokes and hidden meanings. One of his earliest bighits was “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love.)” Alanis Morissette singsit.
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Critics consider “Night and Day” perhaps the finest song ColePorter ever wrote. It is about the kind of romantic love that isalmost a form of insanity. We leave you now with John Barrowman andKevin Kline singing “Night and Day” in the movie “De-Lovely.” Youcan learn more about Cole Porter on the Special English programPeople in America on Sunday.
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HOST:
DOUG JOHNSON: This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed AMERICANMOSAIC. Join us again next week for VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish. Our program was written by Shelley Gollust and NancySteinbach. Paul Thompson was our producer. And our engineer was JimSleeman.