Columbia Records Turns 125 With a New Book About Its Past

November 01, 2012

Adele performs in February during the Brit Awards 2011 in London

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

I’m June Simms.

On our show this week, we play some music from Columbia Records, which is celebrating its one-hundred twenty-fifth anniversary…

We also read some of your posts to our blog “Confessions of an English Learner.”…

But first, we report on the world of high school debate…

High School Debaters

Only a few days remain in the American election campaign. The recent presidential and vice-presidential debates were of special interest to high school debate teams.

Many debate teams compete locally and nationally for awards. The experience helps team members strengthen their skills in argumentation. It also makes them critics -- not only of the candidates, but of all the political talk they are hearing. Christopher Cruise has our story.

The high school debate team in the Texas community of Oakridge has won many awards.

Recently, some of its members argued for an extension of the federal ban on assault weapons. At the same time, other team members prepared to call for cancellation of the ban.

“This is a long-term ban, if you see before the ban…”

“So long will this ban have to go on? How long will we have to restrict people’s rights?”