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HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC, in VOA Special English.
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I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:
We play music by Roseanne
Cash
Answer a question about Asian food
And report about a popular
new kind of exercise.
Gyrotonics
An exercise method designed to stretch muscles and improve strength and
balance is becoming popular in the United States. Faith Lapidus tells us
more about Gyrotonics and the man who invented this special form of
exercise.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Gyrotonics is a kind of exercise that combines the
movements of dancing and swimming with the mental and physical practice
called yoga. It helps lengthen muscles, improve balance, and exercise the
joints, the parts of the body where bones are joined.
A Hungarian dancer named Juliu Horvath developed this special form of
exercise. After he was injured dancing, Mister Horvath studied yoga
intensely. In the nineteen eighties, he developed a new exercise method as
a special kind of yoga to strengthen dancers.
Mister Horvath says that he based his method on the octopus, monkey and
cat. He says these animals have no restrictions. They can move in any
direction with control and strength. He designed the Gyrotonic movements
to help the human body move more freely.
A special machine made of wood and weights helps guide the body through
the many Gyrotonics exercises. You sit or lie on a flat board. You put
your legs or hands through special cloth handles attached to a line with
weights. With the tension created by the weights, you must try to move
through the exercises.
Seven kinds of backbone movements form the base of Gyrotonics. For
example, you can stretch your back to the left and right or forward and
backward. While moving your back, you can also work on arm or leg motions.
These movements must be done in a smooth way. Often the motions are
circular.
When Juliu Horvath first developed Gyrotonics, he was the only teacher.
He has since taught almost seventy master trainers. Now, there are more
than eight hundred official schools in the world where you can learn
Gyrotonics.
Ethnic Food
HOST: Our VOA listener question this week comes from Cambodia. Long
Sothea asks if Americans enjoy eating in Chinese, Vietnamese and other
Asian restaurants.
The simple answer to the question is yes. Americans do enjoy eating in
restaurants that serve foods of other nations. The American Restaurant
Association says the popularity of ethnic food in the United States has
greatly increased in the past ten years.
The Association says the three most popular kinds of ethnic foods in
the United States are Chinese Cantonese, Italian and Mexican. Association
officials say nine of every ten people in the United States have tried
Chinese, Italian and Mexican food at least one time.
The most recent research about the number of restaurants offering
ethnic food comes from the United States Economic Census of two thousand
two. The census counted more than thirty-two thousand Chinese restaurants
in the country. There were more than twenty-nine thousand Mexican
restaurants. And there were more than twenty-two thousand Italian
restaurants.
The American Restaurant Association says many ethnic foods are
increasing in popularity. They include Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese
sushi and Middle Eastern. American Restaurant Association research shows
that fifty-three percent of Americans have eaten Japanese food. Twenty-six
percent have tried Thai food. Nineteen percent have eaten Vietnamese food
and sixteen percent of Americans have tried Korean food.
The Association says many people from these countries are settling in
the United States and opening restaurants. And many older Americans are
trying new kinds of foods they had not eaten before.
The Restaurant Association says Americans between the ages of eighteen
and thirty-four are more likely than older people to eat ethnic food in
restaurants quite often. It says younger people do not consider eating
such foods to be different or experimental, just a normal part of what
they usually eat.
Rosanne Cash
The singer and songwriter Rosanne Cash has been making music for more
than twenty years. In her records she combines the sounds of country, rock
and pop music. Her newest album is called "Black Cadillac". It is an
exploration of family memories, mourning, and letting go. Barbara Klein
tells us more.
BARBARA KLEIN: Rosanne Cash has spent her life surrounded by music. Her
father, Johnny Cash, and stepmother, June Carter Cash, were famous country
music singers. Recently, both of these family members as well as Rosanne's
mother died within two years of each other. This album represents Rosanne
Cash's expression of her sadness about losing these loved ones. Here is
"House on the Lake". In this song Cash remembers the sights and sounds of
the house where she lived as a child. She thinks about the voice of her
father and how it has gone away.
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Rosanne Cash says that in making this album she had to show a degree of
restraint. She had to find the right balance between expressing her
sadness while also making enjoyable music. Critics say this is a rich and
expertly made album. Some critics have even said it is the best record of
her long musical career.
Here is "World without Sound". Rosanne Cash sings about her desire for
clear answers in a world that can be very unsure.
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We leave you with "I Was Watching You". This song expresses the way
that families care for each other over many years. It tells how love can
survive everything, even death.
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HOST:
I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
Our
show was written by Dana Demange and Nancy Steinbach. Caty Weaver was our
producer.
Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio
magazine in Special English.
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