253. Chicago_ Some Big Places to See in the ''''City of the Big Shoulders'''' docx

Chicago: Some Big Places to See in the 'City of the Big Shoulders'Written by Jerilyn Watson 07 May 2006 MUSIC VOICE ONE: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.. VOICE ONE: W

Chicago: Some Big Places to See in the 'City of the Big Shoulders'

Written by Jerilyn Watson

07 May 2006

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English I’m Faith Lapidus

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember This week: some places to see in Chicago

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VOICE ONE:

Early last century, the poet Carl Sandburg described Chicago, Illinois, as the “City of the Big Shoulders.” That still seems right Chicago does a lot of things in a big way

For example, the city is a big transportation center in the Midwest for trains,

trucks, ships and planes

Manufacturing is one of the biggest industries in Chicago

And Chicago has one of America’s busiest ports The city stretches for

about forty kilometers along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan The

Saint Lawrence Seaway opened in nineteen fifty-nine It connects the Great

Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean

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VOICE TWO:

Chicago is big on music Visitors can find all kinds, from classical to hip-hop Some of the best places for jazz and blues are along Rush Street

There are lots of things to see and hear in Chicago

At the Art Institute of Chicago, people can see fine Asian art and much more

At the Museum of Science and Industry, visitors crowd a working coal mine and a World War Two submarine

At the Adler Planetarium, people see stars and learn about space And at the Shedd Aquarium, they see colorful fish and learn about life under the sea

VOICE ONE:

Chicago lakefront area

Not surprisingly Chicago has a lot of big buildings The two tallest are the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Building

Many people take architectural tours around Chicago There are many interesting landmarks and building designs to see

The Wrigley Building, near the Chicago River, opened in the early nineteen twenties This office building is hard to miss It is bright white

Downtown Chicago, the business center, is known as the Loop There are many offices and stores The Loop includes the financial district around LaSalle Street The financial district is home to the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Stock Exchange and many banks

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VOICE TWO:

Another big thing to see, and feel, is the weather After all, another name for Chicago is the "Windy City." People turn their shoulders to the strong winds off Lake Michigan In winter, Chicago gets a lot of snow; in summer, the weather is hot and sticky

Almost three million people live in Chicago Chicago is America's third largest city, after New York and Los Angeles More than nine million people live in surrounding communities

Over the years many immigrants have settled in Chicago Many of its people have ethnic roots in Poland, Germany, Ireland and Italy More recent immigrants have come from all over the world Today just under half the population of the city of Chicago is non-Hispanic white The city has large black and Hispanic populations Four percent of the people are Asian

VOICE ONE:

When people in Chicago want to be outdoors, one place to go is Millennium Park In this City of Big Shoulders, almost everything about Millennium Park is big It covers ten hectares It took almost nine years

to finish

Millennium Park is on Michigan Avenue near Lake Michigan It officially opened in two thousand four It cost four hundred seventy-five million dollars

Millennium Park has gardens and places for music, dance and ice skating It also has one of the largest outdoor sculptures in the world Anish Kapoor of Britain created this work of public art It weighs one hundred ten tons

A huge rounded form of shiny steel captures a looking-glass image of the Chicago skyline and the clouds above The sculpture is called “Cloud Gate.”

VOICE TWO:

Millennium Park

The Spanish artist Jaume Plensa designed the Crown Fountain in Millennium Park The fountain is surely one of the most unusual in the world

The artist set a pool of water between two tall glass towers Video images appear on the towers The images are a series of pictures of nature and people’s faces The water appears to pour from their mouths The faces represent the many different people of Chicago

VOICE ONE:

Millennium Park has music in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion The architect Frank Gehry designed this modern-looking structure It can seat four thousand people under its open-top steel ribbons There is also an area called the Great Lawn to listen to the music The sound system makes the music seem like it is coming from inside a concert hall

The pavilion is a home for the Grant Park Music Festival Listen as the Grant Park Symphony plays

“Julius Caesar: Symphonic Epilogue After Shakespeare," Opus Twenty-eight, composed by Robert Kurka

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VOICE TWO:

In warm weather, people eat outdoors in the McCormick

Tribune Plaza and Ice Rink in Millennium Park In winter,

skaters come out to enjoy the ice

Visitors can also walk and ride bicycles in several areas of the

plaza

An indoor space has room for three hundred bicycles There are also places where people who ride their bikes to work can clean up and change clothes

Another part of Millennium Park is the Lurie Garden This one-hectare area is bordered by what is called the "Shoulder Hedge." Trees almost five meters tall form a living wall around the garden

"Shoulder" in this case is meant to honor the poet Carl Sandburg One hundred thirty-eight kinds of plants grow in the Lurie Garden

VOICE ONE:

Many people enjoy the activities at Millennium Park But critics wonder why the city needed a park

so big and costly They say the city should have spent the money instead on its more than six hundred public schools They say it could have helped the poor

Twenty-one percent of people in the city of Chicago were living below the poverty level in two thousand four The official poverty rate nationally that year was about thirteen percent

VOICE TWO:

McCormick Place

Other people say Millennium Park has improved the appearance of the area where it was built The mayor and many other city leaders believed a big park would bring more

people, more homes and more businesses to the area

Mayor Richard M Daley is the son of former Chicago mayor Richard J

Daley The father is still remembered for his control over the local

Democratic Party organization The city has not elected a Republican

mayor since nineteen fifteen

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VOICE ONE:

Another big development, the Chicago Cultural Center, stands across Michigan Avenue from

Millennium Park It contains the city's official Visitor Information Center It is also a showplace for the arts

The building that now houses the cultural center was completed in eighteen ninety-seven It held the first permanent collection of the Chicago Public Library It served as library headquarters until nineteen ninety-one

There are white walls made of marble from Carrara, Italy And there are two Tiffany domes The bigger dome is one of the largest Tiffany designs in the world It rises almost twelve meters above the floor

People say the restored Chicago Cultural Center looks like a home for kings and queens Some call it

“the People’s Palace.”

VOICE TWO:

Visitors can listen to all kinds of music at the Chicago Cultural Center For example, Monday through Friday, there are free LunchBreak Concerts Listen now to Middle Eastern music performed by Safwan Matni, a popular LunchBreak Concert guest artist

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Dancers from Hubbard Street Two in Chicago have also performed at the Cultural Center Hubbard Street Two is a six-member dance group It trains promising dancers between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five They perform works by young choreographers

VOICE ONE:

Carl Sandburg would probably not have been surprised by big projects like the Chicago Cultural Center and Millennium Park The poet wrote: “Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive … ”

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver I’m Steve Ember

Mayor Richard M Daley

VOICE ONE:

And I’m Faith Lapidus Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English We leave you with Frank Sinatra singing about "My Kind of Town."

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