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Yoga for the Underserved 用瑜伽课帮助边缘群体

Welcome to American Mosaic1 from VOA Learning English!

I’m Faith Lapidus.

On the show today, we play songs from the television show Glee, which recently lost one of its biggest stars.

We also hear about what life is like for stay-at-home mothers in America.

But first, we learn about how yoga is making a difference for people who are in need of help.

Millions of Americans take classes to learn the breathing and positions of yoga, the ancient Indian exercise for the mind and body. In recent years, yoga organizations have been attempting to serve needy2 people. Not just poor men and women, but homeless people, people who abuse drugs or alcohol and those with other problems.

VOA reporter Deborah Block visited Green Door, a mental health center in Washington, where yoga is helping3 change people’s lives. Christopher Cruise has her report.

Ericpaul Clark has been taking yoga classes for several months. He had earlier spent time in jail and a psychiatric hospital after abusing drugs. Today, he says he no longer uses drugs and is looking forward to a better life. Yoga helps keep him calm.

“I have rather a bad temper, and I’m afraid that if I really get angry I might do something dumb that will cause me to go back to jail. When I do stretches and poses it relaxes my muscles and just makes me feel more comfortable.”

Green Door offers free, weekly yoga classes to help Mr. Clark and others deal with their problems and become more independent. Most of the students are poor. Many are homeless or in temporary housing. Social worker Miranda White says a lot of them do not exercise, but yoga gets them moving, even if they are sitting down.

“Their patience for doing any type of exercise is minimal4 at first, but once they’ve gotten involved with yoga, I’ve seen this love for it.”

On this day, Clarence Marble is attending his first yoga class at the center. He found the class was difficult.

“I had to pull both my legs up with both my hands.”

He says he hopes yoga will help him lose weight and ease his depression.

Studies have shown the helpful effects of yoga can ease a number of mental disorders5. They suggest that yoga helps reduce tension, ease depression and lessen6 the signs of schizophrenia. People with that illness can see things or believe things that are not real.

Ernestine Jackson takes medicine to control her schizophrenia. But she says yoga helps her in several ways.

“It helps you get your self-esteem together, and most of all, it helps me with peace of mind.”

Social worker Miranda White says that is something these people really need.

“It’s a moment for their bodies to just relax because if you’re homeless, or if you’re struggling with symptoms of hearing voices or depression, it’s hard to find a calm place within yourself and your environment, and with a lot of them you can see it in their faces.”

Megan Davis is a specialist in yoga therapy. She says learning yoga helps her students feel more in control.

“Especially the breathing techniques, really invite people to not be reactive, so it comes up when you’re having a craving7 (strong desire) for drugs, for a drink.”

That is helpful to Charles Bradley, who suffered a mental breakdown8 as a result of drug use. He has now been clean of drugs for a year.

“You don’t always have to go running back to substances to make you feel good. You can make yourself feel good just by doing something as simple as breathing.”

Mr. Bradley started taking yoga because he wondered about it. Now he thinks yoga plays a major part in turning his life around.

I’m Christopher Cruise.

Making decisions about the best way to raise children is not easy. For many American families, finding a balance between work and childcare can be difficult. If parents have enough finances, one might choose to raise their children at home while the other works to support the family. The caregivers are called stay-at-home moms or dads.

A listener recently asked a question about stay-at-home moms in America. The listener wanted to know what their lives are like. To find out, we spoke9 to two women about their decisions on work and parenthood.

Sandie Angulo Chen is raising her three children in Silver Spring, Maryland. Before she decided10 to stay home, she had a full-time11 job in New York City. But she is not a traditional stay-at-home mom. She works from home as an entertainment writer, and operates a blog with other mothers in the Washington, DC area.

Sandie Angulo Chen may not go to an office for work every day. But she says she is busier than ever.

“I think that a lot of people don’t even recognize that it is incredibly hard to be at home, and that there is so much that goes on with keeping your kids’ schedules going and having that master schedule for your whole family in a way that even your partner doesn’t have.”

The Census12 Bureau estimates there were five million stay-at-home moms in the United States last year. The number of stay-at-home fathers has tripled in the past 10 years.

The economic recession in 2008 has also affected13 many parents. Rachel Mehta is a stay-at-home mom in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey14. She decided to stay at home a few years ago after she lost her job in advertising15. But now that her two daughters are getting older and the economy is recovering, she hopes to start looking for work.

“I want to show my daughters as well that I’m a contributor and I’m working and I have a career, and that’s important to me as well.”

Rachel Mehta has major responsibilities at home beyond just caring for her children. Her husband travels often, so she takes care of their household and finances, too.

For Sandie Angulo Chen, caring for her children and meeting work deadlines at the same time is difficult. Above all, she says, being a stay-at-home mom can be rewarding, but it is not easy.

“The idea that women who are home are doing nothing is really insulting and offensive, because that has not been my experience. It’s not just like you’re just vacationing and going to the spa.”

There was sad news from the show business world this week. The actor and singer Cory Monteith was found dead in a hotel room in Vancouver, Canada on Saturday.

Cory Monteith was just 31 years old. He was best known for his work on the popular television series Glee. Madeline Smith looks back at his time on Glee and lets us hear some of his performances from the show.

Glee is a program about a singing group called a glee club at an American high school. It tells the stories of the students and teachers involved with the club. On each show, Glee cast members perform their own versions of popular songs.

Cory Monteith played the football player Finn Hudson. Finn is tricked into leaving the football team for the glee club in the show’s first broadcast. But he soon begins to make friends with the other singers, and he starts to enjoy singing in the group.

In Glee’s second season, he performed “Just the Way You Are,” a song made famous by the singer Bruno Mars.

Cory Monteith also met his girlfriend Lea Michele on the show. She has the role of Rachel Berry, one of the glee club’s star singers. The two actors were a couple in real life and on the show. They often performed together, like on the song “No Air” from season one.

Cory Monteith had spoken publicly about his past struggles with substance abuse. The actor spent time at a substance abuse treatment center earlier this year.

The British Columbia coroner’s office announced on Tuesday that he died from a combination of the drug heroin16 and alcohol. Cory Monteith will be remembered as a talented performer gone too soon.

I’m Faith Lapidus. Our program was written Caty Weaver17 and Madeline Smith, who was also the producer.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 mosaic CEExS     
n./adj.镶嵌细工的,镶嵌工艺品的,嵌花式的
参考例句:
  • The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
  • The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。
2 needy wG7xh     
adj.贫穷的,贫困的,生活艰苦的
参考例句:
  • Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷,但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
  • They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。
3 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
4 minimal ODjx6     
adj.尽可能少的,最小的
参考例句:
  • They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
  • I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家,所以我的花费很小。
5 disorders 6e49dcafe3638183c823d3aa5b12b010     
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调
参考例句:
  • Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告,厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 lessen 01gx4     
vt.减少,减轻;缩小
参考例句:
  • Regular exercise can help to lessen the pain.经常运动有助于减轻痛感。
  • They've made great effort to lessen the noise of planes.他们尽力减小飞机的噪音。
7 craving zvlz3e     
n.渴望,热望
参考例句:
  • a craving for chocolate 非常想吃巧克力
  • She skipped normal meals to satisfy her craving for chocolate and crisps. 她不吃正餐,以便满足自己吃巧克力和炸薯片的渴望。
8 breakdown cS0yx     
n.垮,衰竭;损坏,故障,倒塌
参考例句:
  • She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
  • The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障,但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。
9 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
10 decided lvqzZd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
11 full-time SsBz42     
adj.满工作日的或工作周的,全时间的
参考例句:
  • A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
  • I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
12 census arnz5     
n.(官方的)人口调查,人口普查
参考例句:
  • A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
  • The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。
13 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
14 jersey Lp5zzo     
n.运动衫
参考例句:
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
15 advertising 1zjzi3     
n.广告业;广告活动 a.广告的;广告业务的
参考例句:
  • Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
  • The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
16 heroin IrSzHX     
n.海洛因
参考例句:
  • Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
  • Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。
17 weaver LgWwd     
n.织布工;编织者
参考例句:
  • She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快,而且布的质量很好。
  • The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

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