20180428VoaLeb:
美国之音(voa)慢速英语 30分钟
(1)Jury Finds Comedian Bill Cosby Guilty of Sexual Abuse
(2)‘Burning Man’ Art Comes to Smithsonian
(3) Thousands of Girls Join Boys Scouts of America
(4）what it take
(5) AMERICAN STORIES 《The Black Cat》
(1)Jury Finds Comedian Bill Cosby Guilty of Sexual Abuse
A jury in the American state of Pennsylvania has found actor Bill Cosby guilty of sexual assault. The ruling was announced Thursday.
Cosby, who is 80 years old, is best known as the lovable father from the 1980s American television series “The Cosby Show.”
He was found guilty of three charges of drugging and molesting a woman in 2004. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each of the three crimes.
The victim, Andrea Constand, is now 45 years old. She is a former administrator for the women’s basketball team at Temple University, the college that Cosby attended. She and Cosby were once friends.
Constand is one of about 50 women who have accused Cosby of sexual assault. Cosby has said any sexual experiences he has had with women were consensual.
The jury’s decision comes less than a year after a different jury could not come to a decision. The judge called it a mistrial.
Government lawyers then decided to retry Cosby.
The first trial ended just before sexual abuse accusations against rich and powerful men led to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.
Such movements have led women around the world to go public with their stories of abuse after, in some cases, years of silence.
I’m Alice Bryant.
Reuters news agency reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in This Story
assault - n. the crime of trying or threatening to hurt someone physically
molest- v. to harm (someone) through sexual contact : to touch (someone) in a sexual and improper way
consensual - adj. agreed to by the people involved : done with the consent of the people involved
(2)‘Burning Man’ Art Comes to Smithsonian
The Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., is exploring the art of the yearly Burning Man event held in Nevada.
The show, No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, opened March 30. The Renwick is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Every August, a temporary city rises from the dust in northwestern Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. As many as 75,000 people gather for the eight-day event called Burning Man. They sculpt, build, perform and invent in many ways while there. Organizers have called Burning Man a “crucible of creativity.” The attendees are called “Burners.” Each attendee is equal part observer and actor at Burning Man.
The event’s name comes from the burning of a huge, wooden representation of a human, known as the “Man.” It takes place on Saturday night, hours before the event ends. A crowd gathers, the model is lit on fire, and celebrants watch it burn.
The first “Man” was burned in 1986 on Baker Beach in San Francisco, California. That wooden work stood less than three meters high. Now they are always much bigger. The tallest ever was 32 meters.
But more than the “Man” turns to ash at Burning Man. Many works of art are burned during the eight days. The immediate and the temporary are important ideas at the event. Total respect for the environment is also important. Burners are expected to remove from the area all evidence of themselves and the activity when they leave.
Stephanie Stebich is the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She said that the Burning Man festival provides artists a chance to “dream big and create large-scale works with new technologies.”
But Burning Man is not easy to attend. It is deep in the desert, the living conditions are difficult and tickets are costly. Many who want to go cannot. But, now, people in Washington can get much closer to the experience.
On a recent Saturday, visitors formed a long line in front of the Renwick. As they entered, one of the first artworks they saw was Temple, an installation from artist David Best.
At Burning Man, Best is known for designing huge structures in the style of holy buildings. People use them as spiritual centers during their stay at the event. Best told Renwick officials that there are not enough places where people can gather to think about loss. The artist said Temple is such a place without connection to any single religion.
Best’s work is always lit on fire at Burning Man. That will not happen at Renwick Gallery, of course. But the show's organizers have included other activities that are similar to what happens at Burning Man. Maybe most important is that Renwick visitors interact with the art at the exhibit. This is why the show is called “No Spectators.”
For example, visitors to Temple are provided wooden cards on which to write about memories or other thoughts of lost loved ones. They can then place the piece in small openings of the temple structure.
In this way, Temple is changed by those who enter it.
Visitors are also encouraged to touch and take photos of other artworks. FoldHaus’sShrumen Lumen is an example. The three large models of mushrooms were created by the traditional Japanese art of folding paper, or origami. The mushrooms light up and grow when people are near. Children seem to especially enjoy this combination of technology and artistic skill.
Artist Richard Wilk’s Evotrope is also interactive. The artwork of wheels and metal framing holds a large, flat round piece in its center. Attached to it are images of a blue eye: open, closed, and several positions in between. When visitors use the device to make the circle spin, the eye seems to open and close.
The Renwick Gallery show also has a virtual reality area where visitors can explore past Burning Mans as if they were there.
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man will close on January 21, 2019.
I'm Caty Weaver.
Reporter Xiaotong Zhou wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.
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Words in This Story
crucible – n. a difficult test or challenge
large-scale – adj. covering or involving a large area
encourage – v. to make (someone) more likely to do something
virtual – adj. very close to being something without actually being it
(3) Thousands of Girls Join Boys Scouts of America
Thousands of girls have now joined the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, across the United States.
The previously all-male organization announced last year it would begin permitting girls to join the Cub Scouts in 2018. The Cub Scouts is a similar group for younger children.
The BSA also plans to create a new program next year for older girls wishing to join the organization.
The Cub Scout program officially begins nationwide later this year. But the BSA gave local councils the choice to get started earlier than planned. About two-thirds of U.S. councils chose to begin early, with about 3,000 girls accepted into the Cub Scouts so far.
The new plans call for smaller Cub Scout groups to be either all-boys or all-girls. Larger Cub Scout groups will have the choice to remain single gender or welcome both boys and girls.
When the new program for older girls begins, it will let them earn the highest level of scouting in the BSA, the rank of Eagle Scout.
BSA spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos said the organization had received a clear message that many girls could not wait to join. “We heard from our families, ’OK, you’ve made the decision. Can you please give us a way to do this right now because we’ve got families and daughters that are just really excited about it,” she said.
Delimarkos added that the Boy Scouts have received many reports that girls have been warmly welcomed by leaders and the boys themselves.
Tuck Pescosolido is a Cub Scout leader in Durham, New Hampshire. He told the Associated Press some of the new female members are friends the boys suggested, while others are sisters of Scouts.
One of his recent projects involved the Cub Scouts building wooden toolboxes. Pescosolido said the only difference he saw was that some girls remained a little calmer than the boys. He added that the girls were just as active in the project as the boys, but did not become as easily distracted by other things.
Boy Scouts of America officials have said the decision to admit girls was made, in part, to make things easier for busy families. But the move was criticized by the country’s other major scouting organization, the Girl Scouts of the USA.
Girl Scout officials have suggested the change was driven partly by a need to raise money because of BSA’s financial problems.
The leader of the Girl Scouts in the New Hampshire area, Patricia Mellor, said the BSA’s decision should also not have been made just to make things easier for families.
“You’ve made the choice for your son based on what you thought was best for him, and the daughter should be getting a similar decision,” Mellor told the Associated Press. “We know facts prove that the Girl Scout program is the better program for the girls and young women we serve,” she added.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn adapted this story for VOA Learning English, based on a report from the Associated Press. Mario Ritter was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
council – n. a group of people who elected or chosen to give advice or make decisions
gender – n. the state of being male or female
distracted – adj. unable to think clearly or carefully pay attention
(4) what it take
...
(5) AMERICAN STORIES 《The Black Cat》
We present the short story "The Black Cat," by Edgar Allen Poe. The story was originally adapted and recorded by the U.S. Department of State.
Tomorrow I die. Tomorrow I die, and today I want to tell the world what happened and thus perhaps free my soul from the horrible weight which lies upon it.
But listen! Listen, and you shall hear how I have been destroyed.
When I was a child, I had a natural goodness of soul which led me to love animals — all kinds of animals, but especially those animals we call pets, animals which have learned to live with men and share their homes with them. There is something in the love of these animals which speaks directly to the heart of the man who has learned from experience how uncertain and changeable is the love of other men.
I was quite young when I married. You will understand the joy I felt to find that my wife shared with me my love for animals. Quickly she got for us several pets of the most likeable kind. We had birds, some goldfish, a fine dog, and a cat.
The cat was a beautiful animal, of unusually large size, and entirely black. I named the cat Pluto, and it was the pet I liked best. I alone fed it, and it followed me all around the house. It was even with difficulty that I stopped it from following me through the streets.
Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years, during which, however, my own character became greatly changed. I began to drink too much wine and other strong drinks.
As the days passed I became less loving in my manner; I became quick to anger; I forgot how to smile and laugh. My wife — yes, and my pets, too, all except the cat — were made to feel the change in my character.
One night I came home quite late from the inn, where I now spent more and more time drinking. Walking with uncertain step, I made my way with effort into the house. As I entered I saw — or thought I saw — that Pluto, the cat, was trying to stay out of my way, to avoid me. This action, by an animal which I had thought still loved me, made me angry beyond reason. My soul seemed to fly from my body. I took a small knife out of my coat and opened it. Then I took the poor animal by the neck and with one quick movement I cut out one of its fear-filled eyes!
Slowly the cat got well. The hole where its eye had been was not a pretty thing to look at, it is true; but the cat no longer appeared to suffer any pain. As might be expected, however, it ran from me in fear whenever I came near. Why should it not run? Yet this did not fail to anger me. I felt growing inside myself a new feeling. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself doing wrong, some evil thing for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Are not we humans at all times pushed, ever driven in some unknown way to break the law just because we understand it to be the law?
One day, in cold blood, I tied a strong rope around the cat’s neck, and taking it down into the cellar under the house I hung it from one of the wood beams above my head. I hung it there until it was dead. I hung it there with tears in my eyes, I hung it because I knew it had loved me, because I felt it had given me no reason to hurt it, because I knew that my doing so was a wrong so great, a sin so deadly that it would place my soul forever outside the reach of the love of God!
That same night, as I lay sleeping, I heard through my open window the cries of our neighbors. I jumped from my bed and found that the entire house was filled with fire. It was only with great difficulty that my wife and I escaped. And when we were out of the house, all we could do was stand and watch it burn to the ground. I thought of the cat as I watched it burn, the cat whose dead body I had left hanging in the cellar. It seemed almost that the cat had in some mysterious way caused the house to burn so that it could make me pay for my evil act, so that it could take revenge upon me.
Months went by, and I could not drive the thought of the cat out of my mind. One night I sat in the inn, drinking as usual. In the corner I saw a dark object that I had not seen before. I went over to see what it could be. It was a cat, a cat almost exactly like Pluto. I touched it with my hand and petted it, passing my hand softly along its back. The cat rose and pushed its back against my hand.
Suddenly, I realized that I wanted the cat. I offered to buy it from the innkeeper, but he claimed he had never seen the animal before. As I left the inn, it followed me, and I allowed it to do so. It soon became a pet of both my wife and myself. The morning after I brought it home, however, I discovered that this cat, like Pluto, had only one eye.
How was it possible that I had not noticed this the night before? This fact only made my wife love the cat more. But I myself found a feeling of dislike growing in me. My growing dislike of the animal only seemed to increase its love for me. It followed me, followed me everywhere, always. When I sat, it lay down under my chair. When I stood up it got between my feet and nearly made me fall. Wherever I went, it was always there. At night, I dreamed of it. And I began to hate that cat!
One day my wife called to me from the cellar of the old building where we were now forced to live. As I went down the stairs, the cat, following me as always, ran under my feet and nearly threw me down.
In sudden anger, I took a knife and struck wildly at the cat. Quickly my wife put out her hand and stopped my arm. This only increased my anger and, without thinking, I turned and put the knife’s point deep into her heart! She fell to the floor and died without a sound.
I spent a few moments looking for the cat, but it was gone. And I had other things to do, for I knew I must do something with the body, and quickly. Suddenly, I noted a place in the wall of the cellar where stones had been added to the wall to cover an old fireplace which was no longer wanted.
The walls were not very strongly built, and I found I could easily take down those stones. Behind them there was, as I knew there must be, a hole just big enough to hold the body. With much effort I put the body in and carefully put the stones back in their place. I was pleased to see that it was quite impossible for anyone to know that a single stone had been moved.
Days passed. Still there was no cat. A few people came and asked about my wife, but I answered them easily. Then one day several officers of the police came. Certain that they could find nothing, I asked them in and went with them as they searched.
Finally, they searched the cellar from end to end. I watched them quietly, and, as I expected, they noticed nothing. But as they started up the stairs again, I felt myself driven by some unknown inner force to let them know, to make them know, that I had won the battle.
“The walls of this building,” I said, “are very strongly built; it is a fine old house.” And as I spoke, I struck with my stick that very place in the wall behind which was the body of my wife. Immediately I felt a cold feeling up and down my back as we heard coming out of the wall itself a horrible cry.
For one short moment, the officers stood looking at each other. Then quickly they began to pick at the stones, and in a short time they saw before them the body of my wife, black with dried blood and smelling of decay. On the body’s head, its one eye filled with fire, its wide open mouth the color of blood, sat the cat, crying out its revenge!
Download a lesson plan to use with this story here.
Now it's your turn to use the words in this story. What do you do when you are so angry you feel you might hurt your friends or loved ones? How can violence be avoided? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.
Words in This Story
uncertain - adj. not exactly known or decided
“in cold blood” - expression. without feeling or with cruel intent
wine – n. an alcoholic drink made from the liquid part that can be squeezed out of a small, round fruit that is green, dark red, or purplish-black in color
inn – n. a house usually in the country where people can eat, drink and rent a room to sleep in
cellar – n. the part of a building that is entirely or partly below the ground
sin – n. an action that is considered to be wrong according to religious or moral law
revenge – n. the act of doing something to hurt someone because that person did something that hurt you
pet(ted) – v. to touch an animal or person with your hand in a loving or friendly way
innkeeper – n. a person who owns or operates an inn
decay – n. the process or result of being slowly destroyed by natural processes
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