The nineteen fifties song "Rockin' Robin" was about a bird that loved to tweet, or sing. But to a new generation of high-speed communicators, a tweet describes a message sent through a popular new service. Barbara Klein tells us about Twitter. 五十年代的歌曲“Rockin Robin”是一首关于一个爱唱歌的鸟的歌。但在高速通讯的时代，tweet描述通过流行的新兴服务传播的信息。芭芭拉和我们说说tweet。
BARBARA KLEIN:
Many people use E-mail, blogs, text messages and social Web sites like Facebook to keep in touch with their friends. Now there is also Twitter. This online service lets people send short messages that are no more than one hundred forty letters long.很多人利用电子邮件，文本信息，社交网站如"脸谱'来和朋友联络。现在有了tweeter。这种在线服务可以让人们发出不超过150个字母的短信息。
Here is how it works: Users can set up their own Twitter page by joining the free service on Twitter.com. They can search the Web site to find friends who are also using the service. By choosing to "follow" friends, users can see their new messages. Updates appear instantly in a list form as they are written. Twittering describes writing new updates on Twitter. A tweet is an individual Twitter update, or message.它是这样工作的：用户可以在免费的网站Tweeter。com建立自己的tweeter网页。他们可以搜寻也在使用这种服务的朋友。选择跟踪朋友，用户就可以看到朋友的最新信息。当他们写东西时，列表马上更新。Tweetering描述在tweeter上正在写的东西。tweet是个人的tweeter更新，或信息。
Unlike blogs, Twitter users do not have to log onto the Web site to post updates. They can send and receive messages through mobile phones as text messages or through E-mail. Other programs available for download make Twitter updates appear on your computer screen. People use social Web sites like Facebook to share information with a special group of friends. But most Twitter users make their messages public. 和博客不同的是，tweeter的用户不必登陆网站就可以更新信息。他们们可以用手机，就像发短信或电子邮件那样。其他的下载程序可以让tweeter的更新出现在你的电脑屏幕上。人们利用社交网站如脸谱网和朋友们分享信息。但多数tweeter的用户把他们的信息公开。
Twitter says its service provides a way for people to stay connected to others, through messages describing what they are doing at that moment. But twitterers also use the service to get quick answers to questions or to get breaking news.
Tweeter说它的服务提供了一种方式，让人们通过即时的描述来和朋友保持联系。但Tweeter使用者也用这种服务来得到一些问题的答案，或了解突发事件。
For example, when he was a presidential candidate, Barack Obama announced his choice for vice president on Twitter. 例如，奥巴马成为总统候选人时，他通过tweeter宣布了副总统人选。
Many other politicians in Washington use Twitter to share their daily activities with supporters. They reportedly include former Republican presidential candidate John McCain. In addition, news agencies provide updates and companies share product information. 华盛顿的很多政治家使用tweeter和支持者们分享日常活动。据说包括前共和党总统候选人约翰麦凯恩。另外，新闻机构也通过这种服务提供最新信息，公司用这种服务分享产品信息。
Some critics say Twitter is a waste of time that takes people's attention away from their work. Yet a growing number of users around the world see it as the latest method for busy people to get and share information quickly.
一些批评者说tweeter是浪费时间，让人们不能专心工作。但全世界越来越多的使用者把它看做快速分享信息的最新方式。待续
Abraham Lincoln
HOST:
Our listener question this week comes from Brazil. Silvio Sabenca wants to know more about the sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
Good timing, Silvio. February twelfth is the two hundredth anniversary of his birth. Abraham Lincoln is considered one of the greatest and beloved American presidents. But, in some ways he was one of the most unlikely.
Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky in eighteen-oh-nine. He grew up in Indiana. His family was poor and had no school education. But Abraham Lincoln taught himself what he needed to know. He became a lawyer. He served in the Illinois state legislature and in the United States Congress. He was elected president in eighteen sixty.
President Lincoln led the United States during the Civil War. He sent Northern forces to battle the slave-holding Southern states to keep them from leaving the Union. President Lincoln freed the slaves and helped keep the nation together.
In the end, it cost him his life. On April fourteenth, eighty sixty-five, a Southern supporter shot President Lincoln in Ford's Theater in Washington. It happened five days after the South surrendered and the Civil War ended.
Abraham Lincoln wrote some of the most important words in American history. In eighteen sixty-three, he gave what became his best known speech. The Union army had won a major battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Ceremonies were held there to honor the dead at a burial place on the battlefield.
President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg for only about two minutes. Written copies of his speech differ. Without a recording, no one can be sure exactly what he said. But his speech has never been forgotten. Here is some of the Gettysburg Address:
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."
You can learn more about Abraham Lincoln on the Special English program "THIS IS AMERICA" at this time on Monday.
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Raconteurs
HOST:
The Raconteurs make music that lives up to the band's name. The word "raconteur" describes a person who is skillful at telling stories. The band members describe themselves as a new band made up of old friends. All the band members have established music careers doing other projects. But they decided to come together as a band to try something different. Mario Ritter has more.
MARIO RITTER:
The lead singer of the Raconteurs may sound familiar. Jack White is also a member of the band called the White Stripes. The Raconteurs also include the songwriter and guitarist Brendan Benson. The other members are Patrick Keeler and Jack Lawrence who are part of the band called the Greenhornes.
These musicians had performed together over the years. But in two thousand five, they decided to play together officially as the Raconteurs. Here is "Steady, As She Goes" from their first album, "Broken Boy Soldiers."
(MUSIC)
The Raconteurs' latest album is called "Consolers of the Lonely." The band released the album in an unusual way. They announced their new album only a week before it went on sale to avoid the usual publicity created by critics. Here is the song "The Switch and the Spur."
(MUSIC)
Last year, the Raconteurs played at several music festivals. They included Coachella in California, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Bonnaroo in Tennessee. We leave you with "Many Shades of Black" from "Consolers of the Lonely."
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