American History: The 1920’s were an active and important period for the American arts

Source: www.voanews.com

Photo: loc.gov

Frank Lloyd Wright's home in Oak Park, Illinois

BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

There were many changes in the social customs and day-to-day life of millions of Americans during the administration of President Calvin Coolidge.

Many young people began to challenge the traditions of their parents and grandparents. They experimented with new ideas and ways of living. People of all kinds became interested in the new popular culture. Radio and films brought them exciting news of court trials, sports heroes and wild parties.

The nineteen twenties also was one of the most active and important periods for the more serious arts. Writers, painters, and other artists produced some of the greatest work in the nation's history.

This week in our series, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe take a look at American arts during this exciting period.

KAY GALLANT: Most Americans approved strongly of the economic growth and improved living conditions during the nineteen twenties. They supported the conservative Republican policies of President Calvin Coolidge. And they had great faith in the country's business leaders and economic system.

However, many of the nation's serious artists had a different and darker view of society. They were troubled deeply by the changes they saw. They believed that Americans had become too interested in money and wealth.

These artists rejected the new business society. And they also questioned the value of politics. Many of them believed that the first World War in Europe had been a terrible mistake. These artists had little faith in the political leaders who came to power after the war. They felt a need to protest the way the world was changing around them.

HARRY MONROE: The spirit of protest was especially strong in serious American writing during the nineteen twenties. Many of the greatest writers of this period hated the new business culture.

One such writer was Sinclair Lewis. He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Lewis wrote about Americans living in the towns and villages in the central part of the United States. Many of the people in his books were foolish men and women with empty values. They chased after money and popularity. In his famous book "Main Street," Lewis joked about and criticized small-town business owners.

Social criticism also was central to the writing of the newspaper writer H. L. Mencken, from the eastern city of Baltimore. Mencken considered most Americans to be stupid and violent fools. He attacked their values without mercy.

Of course, many traditional Americans reacted strongly to such criticism. For example, some religious and business leaders attacked Mencken as a dangerous person whose words were treason against the United States. But many young people thought Mencken was a hero whose only crime was writing the truth.

loc.gov

F. Scott Fitzgerald

KAY GALLANT: The work of Lewis, Mencken, and a number of other writers of the nineteen twenties has been forgotten by many Americans as the years have passed. But the period did produce some truly great writing.

One of the greatest writers of these years was Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway wrote about love, war, sports, and other subjects. He used short sentences and rough words. His style was sharper and different from traditional American writing. And his strong views about life set him apart from most other Americans.

Another major writer was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald wrote especially about rich Americans searching for happiness and new values. His books were filled with people who rejected traditional beliefs. His book "The Great Gatsby" is considered today to be one of the greatest works in the history of American writing.

A third great writer of the nineteen twenties was William Faulkner.

Faulkner wrote about the special problems and ways of life in the American south. His books explored the emotional tension in a society still suffering from the loss of the Civil War sixty years before. Some of Faulkner's best books were "The Sound and The Fury," "As I Lay Dying" and "Absalom, Absalom." Like Hemingway, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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HARRY MONROE: The nineteen twenties also produced the greatest writer of theater plays in American history, Eugene O'Neill.

O'Neill was an Irish-American with a dark and violent view of human nature. His plays used new theatrical methods and ways of presenting ideas. But they carried an emotional power never before seen in the American theater. Some of his best known plays were "Mourning Becomes Electra," "The Iceman Cometh" and "A Long Day's Journey into Night."

A number of American writers also produced great poetry during the nineteen twenties. Probably the most famous work was "The Waste Land," a poem of sadness by the writer T. S. Eliot.

KAY GALLANT: There also were important changes in American painting during the nineteen twenties. Economic growth gave many Americans the money to buy art for their homes for the first time. Sixty new museums opened. Slowly, Americans learned about serious art.

Actually, American art had been changing in important ways since the beginning of the century.

In nineteen-oh-eight, a group of New York artists arranged a historic show. These artists tried to show real life in their paintings. They painted new kinds of subjects. For example, George Bellows painted many emotional and realistic pictures of the sport of boxing. His work, and the painting of other realistic artists, became known as the "Ash Can" school of art.

Another important group of modern artists was led by the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz. This group held a major art show in nineteen thirteen in New York, Chicago, and Boston. The show presented modern art from Europe. Americans got their first chance to see the work of such painters as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

The show caused a huge public debate in the United States. Traditional art critics accused the organizers of the show of trying to overthrow Christianity and American values. Former president Theodore Roosevelt and others denounced the new art as a threat to the country.

However, many young American painters and art lovers did not agree. They became very interested in the new art styles from Europe. They studied them closely.

Soon, Charles Demuth, Joseph Stella, and other American painters began to produce excellent art in the new Cubist style. John Marin painted beautiful views of sea coasts in New York and Maine. And such artists as Max Weber and Georgia O'Keeffe painted in styles that seemed to come more from their own imagination than from reality.

As with writing, the work of many of these serious modern painters only became popular many years later.

HARRY MONROE: The greatest American designer of buildings during the nineteen twenties was Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright believed that architects should design a building to fit its location, not to copy some ancient style. He used local materials in new ways. Wright invented many imaginative methods to combine useful building design with natural beauty.

But again, most Americans did not know of Wright's work. Instead, they turned to local architects with traditional beliefs. These architects generally designed old and safe styles for buildings -- for homes, offices, colleges, and other needs.

KAY GALLANT: Writers and artists now look back at the roaring nineteen twenties as an extremely important period that gave birth to many new styles and ideas.

Hemingway's style of writing continues to influence American writers. Many painters say the period marked the real birth of modern American art. And architecture students in the United States and other countries now study the buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The changes in American society caused many of these artists much sadness and pain in their personal lives. But their expression of protest and rich imagination produced a body of work that has grown in influence with the passing years.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe.

You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and images at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.

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This is program #17
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The Ice Hotel

Source: Speak Up

Standard: American accent

Language Level: Basic

Speaker: Chuck Rolando

THE ICE HOTEL

Would you like to sleep on a bed of ice? How about a drink at a bar made entirely of snow and ice? Perhaps you’d prefer to sit in a hot tub while snowflakes fall from the open sky?

Canada’s extraordinary Ice Hotel, located 32 kilometres northwest of Quebec City, offers all this and more. Every year the hotel opens on January 5^th and closes around April 1^st, when spring brings warm weather and the snow begins to melt. Visitors enter the Ice Hotel’s magnificent lobby with its 5.4 metre-high ceiling and unique ice candelabra. They warm up with a drink at the Bar Absolut and then tour the hotel’s art galleries and exhibition rooms.

Evening entertainment is provided in the splendid banquet halls, the N’Ice Club, an enormous ballroom, and the Ice Lounge. The hotel’s Ice Chapel offers the perfect setting for memorable weddings.

DRESSING UP

What clothes must visitors wear? Outside temperatures can reach -30ºC, so clothing is very important, though the hotel’s 1.5 metre-thick walls ensure internal temperatures don’t drop below -5ºC. Three layers of clothing are recommended: an inner layer of thermal underwear, then a woolen shirt or fleece, and finally a ski jacket and trousers. Don’t forget your hat and gloves! Night clothes should be lighter, but wear a night cap and socks.

The original Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden inspired Canadian owner Jacques Desbois. As he says: “If they can do that in Sweden, we can do it here in Quebec, the snow capital of the world.”

Craftsmen take five weeks to build the hotel; they use 15.000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice. This is now the hotel’s sixth year.

PLAN B

Visitors can book a night in one of the 34 rooms and theme suites, each of which is a work of art in itself. The beds do have a base formed of ice, but don’t worry as they also have special foam mattresses. Price starts at €470 a night, and include a reservation at the nearby Station Touristique Duchesnay Hotel.

If guests find the conditions impossible at any time during their stay, they can simply move into their heated rooms at the Station Hotel.

Near French-speaking Quebec City

The Ice Hotel is located at the Station Turistique Duchesnay on the shores of Lake St. Joseph. The nearest airport is Quebec International Airport, which is a short drive from the hotel The Station Touristique Duchesnay is the perfect location for a winter holiday. The station offers a variety of activities. Visitors can learn how to make an igloo or take a short course in dog sledging. Don’t expect a quiet ride: you will be in charge of your own sledge and a team of huskies.

Nearby Quebec City is well worth a visit for its narrow historic streets – it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is a French-speaking region, but most people are also fluent in English.

For more Info: http://www.icehotel-canada.com

E-mail: reservations@icehotel-canada.com

Telephone: (1) 418-875-4522

The beauty of life Food for your thought

Nothing is impossible, believe yourself, never give up, friends and go ahead. Have a wonderful day 

History of English part I

Visit the Voa Special English, one of the best site for those interested to practice English, million people around the world use this site to improve their English, very, very useful.

Source: www.voanews.com 

STEVE EMBER: This is Steve Ember.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we present the first of two programs about the history of the English Language.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: More people are trying to learn English than any other language in the world. English is the language of political negotiations and international business. It has become the international language of science and medicine. International treaties say passenger airplane pilots must speak English.

English is the major foreign language taught in most schools in South America and Europe. School children in the Philippines and Japan begin learning English at an early age. English is the official language of more than seventy-five countries including Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia, and South Africa.

In countries where many different languages are spoken, English is often used as an official language to help people communicate. India is good example. English is the common language in this country where at least twenty-four languages are spoken by more than one million people.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Where did the English language come from? Why has it become so popular? To answer these questions we must travel back in time about five thousand years to an area north of the Black Sea in southeastern Europe.

Experts say the people in that area spoke a language called Proto-Indo-European. That language is no longer spoken. Researchers do not really know what it sounded like.

Yet, Proto-Indo-European is believed to be the ancestor of most European languages. These include the languages that became ancient Greek, ancient German and the ancient Latin.

Latin disappeared as a spoken language. Yet it left behind three great languages that became modern Spanish, French and Italian. Ancient German became Dutch, Danish, German, Norwegian, Swedish and one of the languages that developed into English.

STEVE EMBER: The English language is a result of the invasions of the island of Britain over many hundreds of years. The invaders lived along the northern coast of Europe.

The first invasions were by a people called Angles about one thousand five hundred years ago. The Angles were a German tribe who crossed the English Channel. Later two more groups crossed to Britain. They were the Saxons and the Jutes.

These groups found a people called the Celts, who had lived in Britain for many thousands of years. The Celts and the invaders fought.

Getty Images

An Anglo-Saxon helmet

After a while, most of the Celts were killed, or made slaves. Some escaped to live in the area that became Wales. Through the years, the Saxons, Angles and Jutes mixed their different languages. The result is what is called Anglo-Saxon or Old English.

Old English is extremely difficult to understand. Only a few experts can read this earliest form of English.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Several written works have survived from the Old English period. Perhaps the most famous is called Beowulf. It is the oldest known English poem. Experts say it was written in Britain more than one thousand years ago. The name of the person who wrote it is not known.

Beowulf is the story of a great king who fought against monsters. He was a good king, well liked by his people. Listen as Warren Scheer reads the beginning of this ancient story in modern English.

WARREN SCHEER:

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by

and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.

We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns.

There was Shield Sheafson, scourge of many tribes,

a wrecker of mead-benches, rampaging among foes.

This terror of the hall-troops had come far.

A foundling to start with, he would flourish later on

as his powers waxed and his worth was proved,

In the end each clan on the outlying coasts

beyond the whale-road had to yield to him

and begin to pay tribute. That was one good king.

STEVE EMBER: The next great invasion of Britain came from the far north beginning about one thousand one hundred years ago. Fierce people called Vikings raided the coast areas of Britain. The Vikings came from Denmark, Norway and other northern countries. They were looking to capture trade goods and slaves and take away anything of value.

In some areas, the Vikings became so powerful they built temporary bases. These temporary bases sometimes became permanent. Later, many Vikings stayed in Britain.

Many English words used today come from these ancient Vikings. Words like “sky,” “leg,” “skull,” “egg,” “crawl,” “ lift” and “take” are from the old languages of the far northern countries.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The next invasion of Britain took place more than nine hundred years ago, in ten sixty-six. History experts call this invasion the Norman Conquest. William the Conqueror led it.

The Normans were a French-speaking people from Normandy in the north of France. They became the new rulers of Britain. These new rulers spoke only French for several hundred years. It was the most important language in the world at that time. It was the language of educated people. But the common people of Britain still spoke Old English.

Old English took many words from the Norman French. Some of these include “damage,” “prison,” and “marriage.” Most English words that describe law and government come from Norman French. Words such as “jury,” “parliament,” and “justice.”

The French language used by the Norman rulers greatly changed the way English was spoken by eight hundred years ago.

English became what language experts call Middle English. As time passed, the ruling Normans no longer spoke true French. Their language had become a mix of French and Middle English.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Geoffrey Chaucer

STEVE EMBER: Middle English sounds like modern English. But it is very difficult to understand now. Many written works from this period have survived. Perhaps the most famous was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a poet who lived in London and died there in fourteen hundred. Chaucer’s most famous work is “The Canterbury Tales,” written more than six hundred years ago.

“The Canterbury Tales” is a collection of poems about different people traveling to the town of Canterbury. Listen for a few moments as Warren Scheer reads the beginning of Chaucer’s famous “Canterbury Tales.”

WARREN SCHEER:

Whan that aprill with his shoures soote

The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heath…

Now listen as Mister Scheer reads the same sentences again, but this time in Modern English.

WARREN SHEER:

When April with his showers sweet with fruit

The drought of March has pierced unto the root

And bathed each vein with liquor that has power

To generate therein and sire the flower;

When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,

Quickened again, in every holt and heath,

The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun…

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: English language experts say Geoffrey Chaucer was the first important writer to use the English language. They also agree that Chaucer’s great Middle English poem gives us a clear picture of the people of his time.

STEVE EMBER: The prologue you just heard describes a group of religious travelers going to Canterbury. To entertain themselves, they agree to tell stories while they travel.

The Knight’s Tale is about two men who compete for the love of a beautiful woman. The Miller’s Tale is a funny story that tells about a young man who is in love with a married woman. The two play a mean trick on the woman’s old husband.

One of the most famous characters in the series of stories is the Wife of Bath. She is a strong, and opinionated woman who likes to talk about her many adventures in life and marriage.

Some of the people described in “The Canterbury Tales” are wise and brave; some are stupid and foolish. Some believe they are extremely important. Some are very nice, others are mean. But they all still seem real.

The history of the English language continues as Middle English becomes Modern English, which is spoken today. That will be our story next time.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Shirley Griffith.

STEVE EMBER: And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week to hear the second part of the History of the English Language on the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS.

The Isle of Mull

The Isle of Mull

Source: Speak Up

Standard: British Accent

Speaker:Justin Ratcliffe

     The Hebrides are a group of islands off Scotland’s west coast and the Isle of Mull is one of their best kept secrets. Visitors to the island are enchanted by its tranquility and the mysterious beauty of its landscape; while the mild climate makes the island a wildlife sanctuary for an incredible 250 species of birds. Visitors arrive by ferry at the island’s capital Tobermory. The town’s main street has brightly painted building that look onto the busy harbor with its fishing boats and yachts. Treasure hunters come to search the bay for a Spanish galleon that sank here in 1588. Escaping after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the ship was blown up by the local people and sank, taking its gold to the bottom of the sea.

MOTHER NATURE

     The island offers wildlife tours which take visitors into the mountains, or along the coast, to see a wide variety of birds, from golden eagles and buzzards to owls and ravens. Boat trips pass seals, dolphins and whales on visit to the nearby island.

     Mendelssohn, the composer, was inspired to write his well-known overture The Hebrides during a tour of the islands; his visit is commemorated by Mull’s annual Mendelssohn Festival.

LEGENDS

Would you like to spend a night in a Scottish castle? Glengorm Castle, located high in the green hills just north of Tobermory, offers bed and breakfast. There are also hotels, and cottages for rent all over the island. The local people are friendly and happily recount the legends of giants and dragons, murderous clan chiefs, witches who sank boats, and the MacLean chief who was decapitated in battle but rode on for six miles.

Travel Info (no sound)

The island has several medieval castles, including the 13^th century Duart Castle which is the ancestral home of the McLean Clan – rules of the island for many years. Samuel Johnson and James Boswell visited Mull in 1773 and describe it in their Journey to the Western isles of Scotland. Deserted cottages on the island still stand as reminders of the terrible years of the 18^th and 19^th Century Highland Clearances, when landowners forced their tenants off the land, and the population fell down 10.000 to less than 4.000.

How to get there?

There’s a ferry service from the mainland port of Oban (which can in turn be reached from Glasgow by train or coach).

Discover Mull Tour Info

Pam & Arthur Brown Ardrioch Farm, Dervaig isle of Mull, Argyll PA75 6QR Tel: +44 1688 400415

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Mary J. Blige

ary

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Advanced

Standard: British Accent

Working on Happiness

MARY J. BLIGE

Mary J. Blige is the unofficial “Queen of hip-hop soul” and has been a major part of the music scene ever since making her debut in 1992 with the album, What’s The 411? Yet her private life has often been traumatic. Born in Bronx, she grew up in a rough housing project in Yonkers, and experience that left her with both physical and emotional scars. And yet, as she explains in this interview, which was recorded in order to promote her latest album, Breakthrough, she sees music as way of finding happiness:

Mary J. Blige

(African American accent)

Happiness is something that I am working on every day to attain, to maintain, to keep, in my life. Like I need it, because if don’t have it, I’m going to die, because I’ve been so miserable all my entire life since I was a child that I cannot do this anymore like this. Now, whoever wants to do it with me, let’s go, whoever wants to do it with me, let’s go, whoever wants to sing a sad song still, then go sing it with some other artist, you know, because I have enough sad songs on the My life album, I have enough on the Share My album. I have enough sad songs – even on this album, “Father In You” was a sad record, “Enough Cryin’” is sad, but, you know, the beat is up, you know. “Aint Really Love” (informal usage I’m not)  is sad. And these are the things that I still deal with, you know, “Baggage” is sad, you know, the fact that “When is he going to cheat?” you know, that’s what I still carry, you know.

THE MEANING OF THE WORD

Indeed the choice of the word “Breakthrough” was deliberate:

Mary J. Blige:

Yeah, this is a breakthrough and the breakthrough is being honest with myself. What is that Mary wants? Mary wants…I want everybody to be happy, but I can’t save the world. I want myself to be happy, but that’s gonna (informal usage going to)  take a lifetime and I have to make the choice to be happy and I have chosen to, although it’s very, very hard, but at the same time I’m getting somewhere. I have grown.

In addition to her musical career, Mary J. Blige has also tried her hand at acting. She particularly enjoyed appearing in an off-Broadway play, The Exonerated, a couple of years ago:

Mary J. Blige:

It was real professional, because you had to lock your mind into this one thing every single night, it’s..like doing it the exact same way every single night, and it was really nice ‘cause, you know, the people that were in the play with me, they were so warm, and you know, it was unlike the music business, it was a whole ‘nother atmosphere, they really care about you. And, at the same time, it was depressing because I had to bring this character to life, her name was Sunny, and she went to jail for 20 years for something that she didn’t do but, in the midst of her being in prison, she learned how to be positive in her down time, and that’s why they called her Sunny, ‘cause she learned how to, you know, be happy in the time of troubles. And that’s what I am today. That’s what I’m doing, and that’s what I’ve been doing and that’s what, you know, breakin’ through is, that’s…why I called the album “The Breakthrough that’s what a breakthrough is. 

The True Power Within You

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