2014英语四级听力练习慢速3.24(2)

　　From Learning English, welcome to This Is America. Im Steve Ember.

　　If youve checked your calendar lately, you know - at least in the northern part of the world its spring. And, after a long winter, its time to celebrate.

　　Hey, buds below

　　Up is where to grow

　　Up, from which below cant compare with...

　　Now, your English teacher might have had a problem with that phrase, but lets keep listening, shall we?

　　Life down a hole takes an awful toll,

　　What with not a soul there to share with

　　If youre wondering what those words are all about, she is singing to her flower pots.

　　Hurry, its lovely up here

　　Wake up, bestir yourself

　　Its time that you disinter yourself...

　　Actress Barbara Harris in the musical On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever by Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane.

　　And what a gift package of showers, sun and love

　　Youll be met above everywhere with

　　Fondled and sniffed by millions who drift by...

　　And spring being the season of new growth, I hope that song, and all the others were going to play for you, will paint a musical picture of this lovely season. Come along with us!

　　Come poke your head out!

　　Open up and spread out!

　　Hurry, its lovely here!

　　She sometimes is slow to arrive...

　　Sometimes spring comes slowly that was certainly the case this year. It seems like we wear our winter clothes for a long, long time. The weather stays cold...snow stays on the ground. Trees still look bare. Everything is changing, but we may not see the changes from day to day.

　　Early spring brings vivid greens to this forest setting in northern Maryland

　　And then suddenly, warmth seems to jump up from the earth overnight. Snow becomes a memory. Tree branches fill out. The gray and brown colors of winter give way to the green of spring. Thats the spirit expressed here by the New Christy Minstrels.

　　Springtime, change of scenery, wont that be fine

　　Springtime, the grass is greener

　　And the berry grows redder on the vine

　　Into each life, there will come sunshine, sometime after the rain

　　Dont be downhearted, before tears get started,

　　Let Springtime make you smile again.

　　You know that Springtime, change of scenery, wont that be fine

　　Springtime, the grass is greener

　　And the berry grows redder on the vine.

　　Springtime, change of scenery...Spring is a wonderful season to celebrate rebirth and new life. The sun is out again, the daylight stays around longer...the flowers are blooming. The season represents hope, joy and beauty.

　　However, not all songs about spring are happy. This song by K.D. Lang is about dreaming of spring in cold dark places. She recorded I Dream of Spring in two thousand eight.

　　She arrives like autumn in a rainstorm

　　The threat of thunder above

　　Ill return from the streets of Melbourne

　　Ill return my love

　　This world is filled with frozen lovers

　　The sheets of their beds are frightfully cold

　　And Ive slept there in the snow with others

　　Yet loved no others before

　　These cold dark places

　　Places Ive been

　　In cold dark places

　　I dream of spring

　　Springtime inspires lasting popular song...

　　Unlike the other seasons, there are not many rock songs about spring. Most of the songs about this season were written in the nineteen thirties and forties by famous American composers writing for the Broadway stage or Hollywood films or popular vocalists. The songs became standards, popular songs recorded by many singers over the years.

　　If youre a young person, this may surprise you, but this was the popular music of its day.

　　Have you ever had Spring Fever?

　　A young Frank Sinatra, surrounded by fans at about the time he recorded It Might As Well Be Spring

　　Here is one example, It Might as Well Be Spring. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein wrote the song for the movie State Fair in 1945. Frank Sinatra sings about having spring fever. This is not a real sickness. It is a feeling of restlessness or excitement brought on by the coming of spring.

　　Im as restless as a willow in a windstorm,

　　Im as jumpy as a puppet on a string,

　　Id say that I had spring fever,

　　But I know it isnt spring.

　　I am starry eyed and vaguely discontented,

　　Like a nightingale without a song to sing.

　　Oh, why should I have spring fever,

　　When it isnt even spring?

　　I keep wishing I were somewhere else,

　　Walking down a strange new street,

　　Hearing words I have never heard,

　　From a girl Ive yet to meet.

　　Im as busy as a spider, spinning daydreams,

　　Im as giddy as a baby on a swing,

　　I havent seen a crocus or a rosebud,

　　Or a robin or a bluebird on the wing,

　　But I feel so gay in a melancholy way,

　　That it might as well be spring,

　　It might as well be, might as well be,

　　It might as well be spring.

　　A sad side to Spring...

　　Richard Rodgers also wrote Spring Is Here. But this time, the words were by lyricist Lorenz Hart. They were tender...but sad. The singer wants to feel happy in the new season, but cant, because something very important in life...is missing. Ella Fitzgerald had one of the loveliest versions of this classic Rodgers and Hart song.

　　Once there was a thing called spring

　　When the world was writing verses like yours and mine.

　　All the lads and girls would sing

　　When we sat at little tables and drank May wine.

　　Now April May and June are sadly out of tune

　　Life has stuck the pin in the balloon.

　　Spring is here!

　　Why doesnt my heart go dancing?

　　Spring is here!

　　Why isnt the waltz entrancing?

　　No desire, no ambition leads me,

　　Maybe its because nobody needs me.

　　Spring is here...

　　New York has inspired so many wonderful and timeless songs, including those about the vibrant city in the various seasons of the year. My favorite is Vernon Dukes Autumn in New York. And if youll write a note on your calendar to join us in September when autumn arrives, we have a date to listen to it together. But, for now, heres Tony Bennett.

　　Spring in Manhattan starts after dark

　　After a lazy afternoon in Central Park

　　Washington Square may be where youll feel her first warm touch

　　Down in the Village, youll find she may be much too much

　　Spring in Manhattan never stays long

　　Still, if you fall in love, shell bless you with a song

　　And if you listen to every word the song shell sing will bring

　　Spring in Manhattan to stay all winter long.

　　Just thinking about all the wonderful songs of New York, I realize we could actually do a program of New York songs. If youd like to hear such a program on This Is America, be in touch let us know!

　　Have an umbrella handy After all, its Spring...

　　You know, we have a saying, April showers bring May flowers. And, of course, showers happen throughout springtime, and certainly do their part in bringing out the flowers and making the trees turn a beautiful shade of green.

　　Here is a very gentle song about those springtime showers, from the musical The Fantasticks.

　　Soon its gonna rain.

　　I can see it.

　　Soon its gonna rain.

　　I can tell.

　　Soon its gonna rain.

　　Whatre we gonna do?

　　Soon its gonna rain.

　　I can see it.

　　Soon its gonna rain.

　　I can tell.

　　Soon its gonna rain.

　　Whatll we do with you?

　　Well find four limbs of a tree.

　　Well build four walls and a floor.

　　Well bind it over with leaves,

　　And run inside to stay.

　　Then well let it rain.

　　Well not feel it.

　　Then well let it rain,

　　Rain pell-mell.

　　And well not complain

　　If it never stops at all.

　　Well live and love

　　Within our own four walls.

　　Kenneth Nelson and Rita Gardner...Soon Its Gonna Rain from Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidts The Fantasticks.

　　When Spring comes late...

　　Frank Loesser wrote a sad song about spring - Spring Will be a Little Late This Year. Why has the season been delayed? Because the singers lover has left her. Sarah Vaughan released her version of the song in 1953.

　　Spring will be a little late this year

　　A little late arriving in my lonely world over here

　　For you have left me and where is our April of old?

　　You have left me, and winter continues cold

　　As if to say spring will be a little slow to start

　　A little slow reviving that music it made in my heart

　　Yes, time heals all things so I neednt cling to this fear

　　Its merely that spring will be a little late this year

　　Yes, time heals all things so I neednt cling to this fear

　　Its merely that spring will be a little late, a little late this year

　　Well, by now you may be thinking: Enough with the sad songs, already! OK, then how about a cowboy song? Gene Autry was one of Americas most famous singing cowboys. In 1937, he recorded When Its Springtime in the Rockies.

　　When its springtime in the Rockies

　　Im coming back to you

　　Little sweetheart of the mountains

　　With your bonnie eyes of blue

　　Once again Ill say I love you

　　While the birds sing all the day

　　When its springtime in the Rockies

　　In the Rockies far away

　　In most of the United States, spring is a warm and pleasant season. But this is not the case in the northwestern state of Alaska. According to Johnny Cash, it can be extremely cold.

　　I mushed from Point Barrow through a blizzard of snow

　　Been out prospectin for two years or so

　　Pulled into Fairbanks, the city was a-boom

　　So I took a little stroll to the Red Dog Sea-loon

　　When I walked in the door, the music was clear

　　Purtiest voice I had heard in two years

　　The song she was singin would make a mans blood run cold

　　When its Springtime in Alaska, its forty below...

　　[From Frank Loessers Wheres Charley?]

　　Twas a bright blue sky, and the lark sang high

　　On a bough that was blossom laden

　　And I had my eye on a very pretty maiden...

　　In the Spring, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, a young mans fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. To that, I would simply add, you dont have to be a young man...

　　We heard a sad song about spring by Frank Loesser earlier in the program. But Loesser captured a joyful side of spring and romance when two lovers meet after many years...He wrote Lovelier Than Ever for his musical Wheres Charley. Well conclude our This Is America Songs of Spring program with Jerry Desmonde and Marion Grimaldi.

　　Springtime, youre looking lovelier than ever

　　Lovelier than ever before

　　Still irresistible in the same old gown of green

　　Still irresistible as that lilac-scented scene

　　When I was seventeen.

　　Springtime, you havent changed your way of whispring

　　Whispring that romance lies in store

　　Springtime, youre being devastatingly clever

　　And lovelier than ever before...

　　This Is America is a production of Learning English. Steve Ember here. Hope you enjoyed the music. Well see you next week.

　　Springtime, youre being devastatingly clever

　　And lovelier than ever before.