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1、This Swan Song Is My Last Hurrah09/28/2014Now, the Special English program Words and Their Stories.The white swan, with its long, graceful neck, is among the most beautiful of birds. The swan is mostly silent through its life. It floats quietly on the water, unable to sing sweet songs like most othe
2、r birds.In ancient times, however, people believed that the swan was given a special gift of song at the end of its life. They believed a swan sings a most beautiful song just before it dies.The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates talked of this 2,300 years ago. Socrates explained that the swan was s
3、inging because it was happy. The bird was happy because it was going to serve the Greek God Apollo. Swans were holy to Apollo, the god of poetry and song.The story of the swans last song found a place in the works of other writers, including the early English writers Chaucer and Shakespeare.And, the
4、 expression swan song has long been a part of the English language. At first, swan song meant the last work of a poet, musician or writer. Now, it means the final effort of any person. Someones swan song usually is also considered that persons finest work.A political expression with a similar meanin
5、g is the last hurrah. The expression may be used to describe a politicians last campaign - his final attempt to win the cheers and votes of the people. The last hurrah also can mean the last acts of a politician before his term in office ends.Writer Edwin OConnor made the expression popular in 1956.
6、 He wrote a book about the final years in the political life of a long-time mayor of Boston, Massachusetts. He called his book The Last Hurrah.Some language experts say the expression came from a name given to noisy supporters of Andrew Jackson, Americas seventh president. They cheered hurrah! so lo
7、udly for Andy Jackson during his presidential campaign that they became known as the hurrah boys.Jacksons hurrah boys also played a part in the election to choose the next president. Jacksons choice was his vice president, Martin VanBuren.A newspaper of the time reported that VanBuren was elected pr
8、esident, in its words, “by the hurrah boys, and those who knew just enough to shout hurrah for Jackson.” So, President Jackson really heard his last hurrahs in the campaign of another candidate, the man who would replace him in the White House.Great Photographs from the US Library of Congress09/28/2
9、014What if you were asked to choose just 730 photographs from among 1.25 million images And you had just a few months in which to complete the project.Most people would say it could not be done.Aimee Hess is not “most people.”“When this project originated, I just sort of, you know, raised my hand an
10、d said me, me, me!”Aimee Hess served as the editor of a book called “Great Photographs from the Library of Congress.” She is a writer and editor in the publishing division of the Library of Congress here in Washington, DC. The Library is the countrys oldest federal cultural institution. It was found
11、ed in 1800.A Difficult Job.During her time at the Library of Congress, Ms. Hess had worked on many projects and books about photography collections. She became known as an expert on such books. But she had never worked on something as big as the iBook project. It was made available to iPad users lat
12、e last year.“I, I looked at a lot of photographs, yeah, so, yeah in the collection theres more than 12 million items - and this is just in the Prints and Photographs Division - but because we were working on an eBook I decided to only look through the, the photographs that had been digitized, and so
13、 we estimate that at about one and a quarter million photographs. And I wouldnt say I looked at every single one, but I definitely looked at a good 50 to 60,000 photographs.”She needed several months to look at all those pictures. She looked at 20 to 100 small images at one time on a computer screen
14、. Every day she looked at several thousand photographs. She says her work days were sometimes long and difficult.“So, there were definitely some days where, you know, by the end of the day I just thought Oh my God, I cant look at a photograph ever again, but most of the time it was just really a ple
15、asurable, you know, fun experience.”After looking at tens of thousands of pictures, Aimee Hess saved between 6,000 and 10,000 of them. Now came the hard part: choosing just 730 to put into the iBook. It took her six weeks to make those decisions.“Which, let me tell you, was agonizing, because I just
16、, I liked them all so much. You know, theres certain photos that you just fall in love with. And, and, you know, I had to cut so many photos that I just thought were great.”Was There Criticism of Her Choices Surprisingly, NoMs. Hess says she expected criticism of her choices - questions such as “Why did you choose that photograph ” or “Why didnt you
