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This is America - Behind the Turkey: The Story of Thanksgiving（VOA原稿）
By Jerilyn Watson
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VOICE ONE:Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:And I'm Steve Ember. The story of the Thanksgiving holiday is our report this week.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. The month of November is in autumn, the main season for harvesting crops.
The writer O. Henry called Thanksgiving the one holiday that is purely American. It is not a religious holiday. But it has spiritual meaning.
Some Americans travel long distances to be with their families. They eat a large dinner, which is the main part of the celebration. For many people, Thanksgiving is the only time when all members of a family gather. The holiday is a time of family reunion.
VOICE TWO:Alma Scott-Buczak gathers her family for Thanksgiving dinner every year. She welcomes about thirty people to her home in northern New Jersey, near New York City.
Guests sit at several tables. Children eat together at their own table. Most people who are invited are relatives. But anyone can bring a friend.
Miz Scott-Buczak serves the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. But she adds a few special foods that are especially popular in some African-American homes, dishes like sweet potato pie and corn pudding.
Before the meal begins, the people all say a few words about what they are most thankful for.
VOICE ONE:The family of Ismaila Sanghua of Silver Spring, Maryland, also eats a large Thanksgiving dinner. It comes just weeks after their big dinner that celebrated the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the end of the observance of Ramadan.
Mister Sanghua was born in Sierra Leone. He says the family began a Thanksgiving tradition because the children, ages nine through sixteen, wanted to celebrate an American holiday.
VOA producer, writer and editor Subhash Vohra was born in India. Mister Vohra has been a journalist there and in Britain and Germany. He says he is pleased to take part in the traditions of places where he lives. He says he, his wife and two daughters have been enjoying an American Thanksgiving holiday meal in this country for many years.
VOICE TWO:More than twenty Korean young people will eat their first Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday in Washington, D.C. The celebration is for first-year international students at the Wesley Theological Seminary, a graduate school for religious studies. Several students said they are looking forward to learning about this American custom.
Listen now as the Paul Hillier Singers present an early-American song of thanks, "Give Good Gifts One to Another."
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VOICE ONE:Joan and Sandy Horwitt of Arlington, Virginia, have been holding a Thanksgiving dinner for almost thirty years. All the guests bring food to share. The Horwitts started this tradition when they moved to Virginia from the Midwest.
They regretted not being able to be with all their family members. But they soon met new friends. So they started a holiday dinner for others who were also unable to travel to family homes for the holiday.
At first, many people brought their babies and young children. Now some of the first guests are grandparents.
Mister and Missus Horwitt serve a turkey as the center of the meal. So do many other Americans. Most people serve it with a cooked bread mixture inside.
VOICE TWO:This year, some Americans asked poultry companies if it all right to eat turkey. These people feared bird flu, a disease that has struck birds in Asia and Europe. But public officials say no turkeys in the United States have been infected with the deadly kind of avian influenza.
Other traditional Thanksgiving foods served with turkey are potatoes, a cooked fruit called cranberries and pumpkin pie. Many people eat more at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year.
Some families serve other meats besides turkey. And some American homes have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners. This means no meat is served.
VOICE ONE:Many Americans also help others who might not have had a chance for Thanksgiving dinner. All across America, thousands of religious and service organizations provide holiday meals for old people, the homeless and the poor.
Over the years, Americans have added new traditions to their Thanksgiving celebration. For example, a number of professional and college football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the games are broadcast on national television.
Many people also like to watch Thanksgiving Day parades on television. Big stores in several cities organize these parades. For example, Macy's has a very famous Thanksgiving Day parade in New York.
VOICE TWO:Thanksgiving began with the first European settlers in America. They gathered their crops, celebrated and gave thanks for the food.
Tradition says Pilgrim settlers from England celebrated the first thanksgiving in sixteen twenty-one. There is evidence that settlers in other parts of America held earlier thanksgiving celebrations. But the Pilgrims' thanksgiving story is the most popular.
The Pilgrims were religious dissidents who fled oppression in England. They went first to the Netherlands. Then they left that country to establish a colony in North America. The Pilgrims landed in sixteen twenty in what later became known as Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Their voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was difficult. Their first months in America were difficult, too. About one hundred Pilgrims landed just as autumn was turning to winter. During the cold months that followed, about half of them died.
VOICE ONE:When spring came, the pilgrims began to plant crops. An American Indian named Squanto helped them. When summer ended, the Pilgrims had a good harvest of corn and barley. There was enough food to last through the winter.
The Pilgrims decided to hold a celebration to give thanks for their harvest. Writings from that time say Pilgrim leader William Bradford set a date late in the year. He invited members of a nearby Indian tribe to take part. There were many kinds of food to eat. The meal included wild birds such as ducks, geese and turkeys. That thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.
Listen as Paul Hillier leads his singers in "The Apple Tree."
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VOICE TWO:As the American colonies grew, many towns and settlements held thanksgiving or harvest celebrations. Yet it took two hundred fifty years before a national observance was declared.
In the eighteen twenties, a writer named Sarah Josepha Hale began a campaign for an official holiday.
Support for her idea grew slowly. Finally, in eighteen sixty-three, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of thanksgiving. Later, Congress declared that the holiday would be celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November.
VOICE ONE:As in the past, many Americans will gather on Thursday with family and friends. We will share what we have. And we will give thanks for the good things of the past year.
VOICE TWO:Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at WWW.51VOA.COM. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:And I'm Faith Lapidus. Please join us again next week for another report about life in the United States, on THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
We leave you now as the Boston Pops Orchestra and chorus perform "Prayer of Thanksgiving."
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This is America - Behind the Turkey: The Story of Thanksgiving（改编）
This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of November. The month of November is in autumn, the main season for harvesting crops.The writer O. Henry called Thanksgiving the one holiday that is purely American. It is not a religious holiday. But it has spiritual meaning.Some Americans travel long distances to be with their families. They eat a large dinner, which is the main part of the celebration. For many people, Thanksgiving is the only time when all members of a family gather. The holiday is a time of family reunion.
Alma Scott-Buczak gathers her family for Thanksgiving dinner every year. She welcomes about thirty people to her home in northern New Jersey, near New York City.Guests sit at several tables. Children eat together at their own table. Most people who are invited are relatives. But anyone can bring a friend.Miz Scott-Buczak serves the traditional American Thanksgiving dinner. But she adds a few special foods that are especially popular in some African-American homes, dishes like sweet potato pie and corn pudding.Before the meal begins, the people all say a few words about what they are most thankful for.
Many Americans also help others who might not have had a chance for Thanksgiving dinner. All across America, thousands of religious and service organizations provide holiday meals for old people, the homeless and the poor.Over the years, Americans have added new traditions to their Thanksgiving celebration. For example, a number of professional and college football games are played on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the games are broadcast on national television.Many people also like to watch Thanksgiving Day parades on television. Big stores in several cities organize these parades. For example, Macy's has a very famous Thanksgiving Day parade in New York.
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - A New Way to Help Predict Earthquakes（VOA原稿）
Written by Brianna Blake, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver
VOICE ONE:
This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE TWO:
Collapsed buildings in China's Sichuan province after the earthquake in May
And I'm Steve Ember. This week, we will tell about a new way to help predict earthquakes. We also tell about an American study on happiness. And, we tell about an international effort to prevent deaths and injuries in hospital operating rooms.
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VOICE ONE:
Scientists in the United States have developed a method that may help to predict earthquakes earlier. They say it could give people who live in deadly earthquake areas enough warning to leave before an earthquake hits.
Currently, the most modern systems for predicting earthquakes find them only a short time before the event. Like most strong earthquakes, the one that hit southwestern China in May was not identified early enough for people to flee the area. That earthquake killed sixty-nine thousand people.
But scientists who study earthquakes are reporting that new technology could measure very small changes in the Earth's surface. Their report was published this month in Nature magazine.
VOICE TWO:
Fenglin Niu is a seismologist with Rice University in Houston, Texas. He and his team performed experiments along California's San Andreas Fault, an area famous for its many earthquakes.
The team placed highly sensitive electrical devices about one kilometer below ground in two different places. The devices were able to measure even small changes in air pressure on the Earth's surface. The scientists say such changes are caused when rocks push together, forcing air out of small cracks in the rock. When this happens, seismic waves travel faster than usual through the rock.
VOICE ONE:
The experiment was performed near Parkfield, California. Two earthquakes hit the area in late two thousand five. The first took place on December twenty-fifth. A smaller earthquake struck five days later.
The scientists noted changes in the Earth's surface about ten hours before the first quake struck. That quake measured three in intensity. They then found similar changes taking place two hours before the other quake struck five days later.
VOICE TWO:
The earthquake in China rated seven point nine in intensity. If additional tests confirm the changes are linked to earthquakes, the scientists believe their equipment could be used for early warning systems. A system that provides a signal ten hours before a major earthquake could help move people from the area and save lives.
The scientists now hope they can find earthquakes with even greater intensity by placing their equipment deeper in the ground.
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VOICE ONE:
Do you live in a happy country? Chances are strong that you do. Results of a recent study have shown that many people around the world are happier now than in the past. The study is called the World Values Survey. Researchers responsible for the study are based at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research in the United States.
The researchers gathered information from opinion studies done in more than ninety countries or territories. Those studies were completed between nineteen eighty-one and two thousand seven. More than three hundred fifty thousand people told how happy or unhappy they were feeling. They also said how generally satisfied or unsatisfied they felt.
The results were reported in the publication "Perspectives on Psychological Science."
VOICE TWO:
University of Michigan political scientist Ronald Inglehart directed the World Values Survey. Mister Inglehart says the results surprised him. He said it is widely believed that it is nearly impossible for happiness levels for a whole country to improve. He said many earlier studies have suggested that happiness levels do not really change.
Denmark was found to be the world's happiest country. Mister Inglehart notes that Denmark's health care is good and few Danes are hungry. Zimbabwe was rated as the least happy country. Zimbabweans have suffered from political and social unrest.
VOICE ONE:
Other nations in the top ten for happiness include Iceland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Colombia. Colombia suffers from violence in some areas. But Mister Inglehart says Colombians share strong family, friendship and religious ties. He says those qualities are common in areas along the Caribbean Sea. And he says they help balance economic and political weakness. Also, America's Central Intelligence Agency says the Colombian government has been working harder to control the violence.
VOICE TWO:
The researchers compared the most recent World Values Survey with information from a study completed in nineteen forty-six. Several areas showed rising happiness levels. They include India, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Puerto Rico and South Korea.
Over the years, India's economy has grown. An improved financial situation is an important sign of happiness, the political scientist says. But living in a country that is becoming more democratic may be more important. So may acceptance of minorities. Mister Inglehart says the study shows a strong link between happiness and freedom to choose how life is lived. It shows that equality between men and women is another reason.
VOICE ONE:
Mister Inglehart says Northern Ireland is doing well financially and moving toward sexual equality. He also says the area has the traditional bases of friendship, family ties and religion. Northern Ireland has suffered violence in the past. But he says most people there live a normal life today.
Some places showed less happiness than in the past. They were Austria, Belgium, Britain and the former West Germany. However, Mister Inglehart says these areas were still in the top twenty-five percent for happiness last year. And, he says, that rating still shows a good level of satisfaction.
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VOICE TWO:
Doctors around the world now perform more than two hundred thirty million major operations every year. The World Health Organization says preventable injuries and deaths from medical operations are a growing concern.
Experts estimate that at least one million people die every year because of complications from surgical treatments. The W.H.O. says studies suggest that about half of these problems may be preventable. The United Nations agency hopes to reduce mistakes with a program built around a new Surgical Safety Checklist.
VOICE ONE:
Atul Gawande works at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. He helped develop the Safe Surgery Saves Lives program. Doctor Gawande and other researchers studied records from fifty-six countries.
In two thousand four, surgical complications in developed countries led to death in less than one percent of cases. In developing countries, the rate was five to ten percent. Complications can happen during an operation or after. For example, an infection might develop after an operation.
VOICE TWO:
More than two hundred medical societies and health ministries have joined in the effort to make surgery safer. The new list is similar to what airplane pilots use before flying.
One member of the surgical team is responsible for the checklist. The first questions are asked before the patient receives anesthesia. The very first step is to confirm the patient's identity and the operation to be performed.
More questions are asked before the first cut. All members of the team are supposed to identify themselves by name and job. Another step is to confirm whether the patient was given antibiotic drugs within the last hour to prevent infection.
VOICE ONE:
The third and final part of the checklist is completed before the patient leaves the operating room. For example, surgical equipment is counted to make sure nothing unnecessary stays in the patient.
At eight locations worldwide, these actions were being done only thirty-six percent of the time. But the W.H.O. says use of the list increased that to sixty-eight percent. Some hospitals reached almost one hundred percent.
Early results from one thousand patients showed a drop in complications and deaths. Doctor Gawande says the checklist has helped him in his own surgery. A final version of the list is expected by the end of the year.
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VOICE TWO:
This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Brianna Blake, Jerilyn Watson and Caty Weaver. Brianna Blake also was our producer. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us at this time next week for more news about science on the Voice of America.
Science in the News - A New Way to Help Predict Earthquakes（改编）
Scientists in the United States have developed a method that may help to predict（预测） earthquakes earlier. They say it could give people who live in deadly earthquake areas enough warning to leave before an earthquake hits.
Now the most modern systems for predicting earthquakes find them only a short time before the event. Like most strong earthquakes, the one that hit southwestern China in May was not identified early enough for people to flee the area. That earthquake killed sixty-nine thousand people.
But scientists who study earthquakes are reporting that new technology could measure very small changes in the Earth's surface. Their report was published this month in Nature magazine.
Fenglin Niu is a seismologist (地震学家) with Rice University in Houston, Texas. He and his team performed experiments along California's San Andreas Fault, an area famous for its many earthquakes.
The team placed highly sensitive electrical devices about one kilometer below ground in two different places. The devices were able to measure even small changes in air pressure on the Earth's surface. The scientists say such changes are caused when rocks push together, forcing air out of small cracks in the rock. When this happens, seismic waves (震波) travel faster than usual through the rock.
The experiment was performed near Parkfield, California. Two earthquakes hit the area in late two thousand five. The first took place on December twenty-fifth. A smaller earthquake struck five days later.
The scientists noted changes in the Earth's surface about ten hours before the first quake struck. That quake measured three in intensity (强度). They then found similar changes taking place two hours before the other quake struck five days later.
The earthquake in China rated seven point nine in intensity. If additional tests confirm the changes are linked to earthquakes, the scientists believe their equipment could be used for early warning systems. A system that provides a signal ten hours before a major earthquake could help move people from the area and save lives.
The scientists now hope they can find earthquakes with even greater intensity by placing their equipment deeper in the ground.
Words And Their Stories - Proverbs: Ideas About How to Live（VOA原稿）
By Shelley Gollust
Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
Today we explain more popular proverbs. A proverb is a short, well known saying that expresses a common truth or belief. Proverbs are popular around the world.
Many listeners have sent us their favorite proverbs. They give advice about how to live. We begin with two popular proverbs about staying healthy by eating good food: One is an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Another is you are what you eat.
Several proverbs about birds also give advice. You may have heard this one: The early bird catches the worm. This means a person who gets up early, or acts quickly, has the best chance of success.
Another famous proverb is a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means you should not risk losing something you have by seeking something that is not guaranteed.
Here is another piece of advice: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. In other words, you should not think too much about some future event before it really happens.
Another proverb warns do not put all your eggs in one basket. This means you should not put all of your resources together in one place because you could risk losing everything at one time. Many Americans learned this the hard way by investing all their money in stock shares, which then lost value. Another proverb says a fool and his money are soon parted. This means someone who acts unwisely with money will lose it.
Here is more advice: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Also, never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
You might learn that haste makes waste if you do somethingso fast, resulting in mistakes. Most people would agree with this proverb: honesty is the best policy.
Yet another proverb advises us not to be concerned about something bad that you cannot change. It says there is no use crying over spilled milk.
Do you agree with the proverb that children should be seen and not heard? Maybe you have told your children that hard work never hurt anyone. But other people say that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. They believe it is not wise to spend all your time working and never having fun.
Finally, here is one of our favorite proverbs: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. This means you should not criticize other people unless you are perfect yourself.
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This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. I'm Faith Lapidus. You can find more proverbs and other WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our Web site, 51voa.com.
Words And Their Stories - Proverbs: Ideas About How to Live（改编）
By Shelley Gollust
Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.
Today we explain more popular proverbs. A proverb is a short, well known saying that expresses a common truth or belief. Proverbs are popular around the world.
Many listeners have sent us their favorite proverbs. They give advice about how to live. We begin with two popular proverbs about staying healthy by eating good food: One is an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Another is you are what you eat.
Several proverbs about birds also give advice. You may have heard this one: The early bird catches the worm. This means a person who gets up early, or acts quickly, has the best chance of success.
Another famous proverb is a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. This means you should not risk losing something you have by seeking something that is not guaranteed.
Here is another piece of advice: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched. In other words, you should not think too much about some future event before it really happens.
Another proverb warns do not put all your eggs in one basket. This means you should not put all of your resources together in one place because you could risk losing everything at one time. Many Americans learned this the hard way by investing all their money in stock shares, which then lost value.
PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Helen Keller（VOA原稿）
VOICE ONE:
I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Ray Freeman. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States.
This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher.
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VOICE ONE:
Helen Keller
The name Helen Keller has had special meaning for millions of people in all parts of the world. She could not see or hear. Yet Helen Keller was able to do so much with her days and years. Her success gave others hope. Helen Keller was born June twenty-seventh, eighteen eighty in a small town in northern Alabama. Her father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the army of the South during the American Civil War. Her mother was his second wife. She was much younger than her husband. Helen was their first child. Until she was a year-and-one-half old, Helen Keller was just like any other child. She was very active. She began walking and talking early. Then, nineteen months after she was born, Helen became very sick. It was a strange sickness that made her completely blind and deaf. The doctor could not do anything for her. Her bright, happy world now was filled with silence and darkness.
VOICE TWO:
From that time until she was almost seven years old, Helen could communicate only by making signs with her hands. But she learned how to be active in her silent, dark environment. The young child had strong desires. She knew what she wanted to do. No one could stop her from doing it. More and more, she wanted to communicate with others. Making simple signs with her hands was not enough. Something was ready to explode inside of her because she could not make people understand her. She screamed and struggled when her mother tried to control her.
VOICE ONE:
When Helen was six, her father learned about a doctor in Baltimore, Maryland. The doctor had successfully treated people who were blind. Helen's parents took her on the train to Baltimore. But the doctor said he could do nothing to help Helen. He suggested the Kellers get a teacher for the blind who could teach Helen to communicate. A teacher arrived from the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston. Her name was Anne Sullivan.
She herself had once been almost completely blind. But she had regained her sight. At Perkins, she had learned the newest methods of teaching the blind.
VOICE TWO:
Anne Sullivan began by teaching Helen that everything had a name. The secret to the names was the letters that formed them. The job was long and difficult. Helen had to learn how to use her hands and fingers to speak for her. But she was not yet ready to learn. First, she had to be taught how to obey, and how to control her anger. Miss Sullivan was quick to understand this. She wrote to friends in Boston about her experiences teaching Helen.
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VOICE THREE:
“The first night I arrived I gave Helen a doll. As she felt the doll with one hand I slowly formed the letters, d-o-l-l with my fingers in her other hand. Helen looked in wonder and surprise as she felt my hand. Then she formed the letters in my hand just as I had done in hers. She was quick to learn, but she was also quick in anger. For seven years, no one had taught her self-control. Instead of continuing to learn, she picked up the doll and threw it on the floor. She was this way in almost everything she did.
Even at the table, while eating, she did exactly as she pleased. She even put her hands in our plates and ate our food. The second morning, I would not let her put her hand on my plate. The family became troubled and left the room. I closed the door and continued to eat. Helen was on the floor, kicking and screaming and trying to pull the chair out from under me.
This continued for half an hour or so. Then she got up from the floor and came to find out what I was doing. Suddenly she hit me. Every time she did this I hit her hand. After a few minutes of this, she went to her place at the table and began to eat with her fingers. I gave her a spoon to eat with. She threw it on the floor. I forced her to get out of her chair to pick the spoon up. At last, after two hours, she sat down and ate like other people. I had to teach her to obey.
But it was painful to her family to see their deaf and blind child punished. So I asked them to let me move with Helen into a small one-room house nearby. The first day Helen was away from her family she kicked and screamed most of the time. That night I could not make her get into bed. We struggled, but I held her down on the bed. Luckily, I was stronger than she. The next morning I expected more of the same, but to my surprise she was calm, even peaceful.
Two weeks later, she had become a gentle child. She was ready to learn. My job now was pleasant. Helen learned quickly. Now I could lead and shape her intelligence. We spent all day together. I formed words in her hand, the names of everything we touched. But she had no idea what the words meant.
As time passed, she learned how to sew clothes and make things. Every day we visited the farm animals and searched for eggs in the chicken houses. All the time, I was busy forming letters and words in her hand with my fingers. Then one day, about a month after I arrived, we were walking outside. Something important happened.
We heard someone pumping water. I put Helen's hand under the cool water and formed the word w-a-t-e-r in her other hand. W-a-t-e-r, w-a-t-e-r. I formed the word again and again in her hand. Helen looked straight up at the sky as if a lost memory or thought of some kind was coming back to her.
Suddenly, the whole mystery of language seemed clear to her. I could see that the word w-a-t-e-r meant something wonderful and cool that flowed over her hand. The word became alive for her. It awakened her spirit, gave it light and hope. She ran toward the house. I ran after her. One by one she touched things and asked their name. I told her. She went on asking for names and more names.”
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VOICE ONE:
Helen Keller
From that time on Helen left the house each day, searching for things to learn. Each new name brought new thoughts. Everything she touched seemed alive. One day, Helen remembered a doll she had broken. She searched everywhere for the pieces. She tried to put the pieces together but could not. She understood what she had done and was not happy. Miss Sullivan taught Helen many things -- to read and write, and even to use a typewriter. But most important, she taught Helen how to think.
VOICE TWO:
For the next three years, Helen learned more and more new words. All day Miss Sullivan kept touching Helen's hand, spelling words that gave Helen a language. In time, Helen showed she could learn foreign languages. She learned Latin, Greek, French and German. Helen was able to learn many things, not just languages.
She was never willing to leave a problem unfinished, even difficult problems in mathematics. One time, Miss Sullivan suggested leaving a problem to solve until the next day. But Helen wanted to keep trying. She said, "I think it will make my mind stronger to do it now.”
VOICE ONE:
Helen traveled a lot with her family or alone with Miss Sullivan. In eighteen eighty-eight, Helen, her mother and Miss Sullivan went to Boston, Massachusetts. They visited the Perkins Institution where Miss Sullivan had learned to teach. They stayed for most of the summer at the home of family friends near the Atlantic Ocean. In Helen's first experience with the ocean, she was caught by a wave and pulled under the water. Miss Sullivan rescued her. When Helen recovered, she demanded, "Who put salt in the water? "
VOICE TWO:
Three years after Helen started to communicate with her hands, she began to learn to speak as other people did. She never forgot these days. Later in life, she wrote: "No deaf child can ever forget the excitement of his first word. Only one who is deaf can understand the loving way I talked to my dolls, to the stones, to birds and animals. Only the deaf can understand how I felt when my dog obeyed my spoken command. " Those first days when Helen Keller developed the ability to talk were wonderful. But they proved to be just the beginning of her many successes.
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VOICE ONE:
You have been listening to the first part of the story of Helen Keller. It was written by Katherine Clarke. Your narrators were Sarah Long, Ray Freeman and Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to People in America, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.
PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Helen Keller（改编）
VOICE ONE:
I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Ray Freeman. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States.
This week we tell about Helen Keller. She was blind and deaf but she became a famous writer and teacher.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Helen Keller
The name Helen Keller has had special meaning for millions of people in all parts of the world. She could not see or hear. Yet Helen Keller was able to do so much with her days and years. Her success gave others hope. Helen Keller was born June twenty-seventh, eighteen eighty in a small town in northern Alabama. Her father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the army of the South during the American Civil War. Her mother was his second wife. She was much younger than her husband. Helen was their first child.