VOA慢速英语 不只有芭比娃娃50大寿

　　The first Barbie wore a black and white swimsuit and had her hair in a ponytail. She looked and seemed very grown up. But any concerns that parents would not want to buy it for little girls were soon proved wrong.

　　Mattel sold three hundred thousand Barbie dolls in the first year at a price of three dollars. Today, a fifty-year-old Barbie in good condition might cost more than twenty-seven thousand dollars.

　　VOICE TWO:

　　Barbies have represented fifty different nationalities and are sold in one hundred fifty countries. Mattel says ninety percent of girls in the United States between the ages of three and ten own at least one Barbie doll. It says girls between the ages of three and six own an average of about twelve.

　　Barbie has faced recent competition from Bratz dolls. Barbie has also faced her share of critics.

　　A well-known example was when women's education groups objected to a talking Barbie that declared, among other things, "Math class is tough!" Mattel agreed to change it. That was back in nineteen ninety-two, the same year as the first Barbie for President doll. The dolls, though designed in California, were produced in China. Because of that, some people joked that Barbie could not legally become president of the United States.

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