(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
World War Two ended with one of the most important events in the history of warfare, science, and technology. A team of American scientists, working in secrecy, designed and built the first atomic bombs. President Harry Truman made the decision to use these weapons against Japan. America's use of atomic weapons brought to an end a terrible worldwide conflict. But it also marked the beginning of the modern nuclear period. And it showed the growing importance of science and technology in a modern economy and military system. The leaders of the United States have been interested in science since the early days of the nation. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were famous not only as great political leaders, but as inventors and scientists. President Abraham Lincoln and the Congress established the National Academy of Sciences during the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. And in the early nineteen hundreds, the nation created scientific offices to study and improve agriculture, public health, and air travel.
By the start of World War One in nineteen fourteen, the federal government was using scientists in many ways. President Woodrow Wilson created the National Research Council to organize the work of scientists and engineers to win the war. However, government support for science before World War Two generally was quite limited. The government was willing to pay for research only to meet certain clear goals, such as better weapons or military transport systems. World War Two greatly changed the traditional, limited relationship between American scientists and the federal government in Washington. In the early years of the war, the German forces of Adolf Hitler showed the world the strength of their new tanks, guns, and other weapons. American President Franklin Roosevelt knew that the United States would need to develop modern weapons of its own if it entered the war. For this reason, Roosevelt established a National Defense Research Committee in nineteen forty to support and organize research on weapons.
The new committee included some of the top scientists in America. Among its members were the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Bell Laboratories. The committee did its work so well that Roosevelt later formed an even more powerful Office of Scientific Research and Development. The leader of both groups was a great scientist and organizer named Vannevar Bush. Bush had long experience as a professor of electrical engineering and as an inventor. Many scientists knew him. Bush put together a hard-working team. And in the years that followed, American scientists and engineers developed one invention after another to help the war effort. Scientists developed new devices to help the navy find German submarines. They improved methods for bomber planes to find their targets. And they developed more powerful rockets to protect American troops when they landed on foreign beaches.
American scientists and doctors also made great progress in improving the methods of wartime medicine. World War Two may well have been the first war in history in which a wounded soldier was more likely to survive than to die. The most important scientific development by far, however, was the invention of the atomic bomb. In nineteen thirty-nine, scientist Albert Einstein wrote President Roosevelt a letter. Einstein told the president that it might soon be possible to build a weapon that would use the power of the atom to cause terrible destruction. And he urged Roosevelt to get American scientists to build the atomic bomb before German scientists could build one. Roosevelt agreed. He created a special team of scientists. Their work became known as the Manhattan Project. Roosevelt made sure that these scientists got all the money and supplies they needed. Roosevelt died before the scientists could complete their work. But in April, nineteen forty-five, the scientists told the new president, Harry Truman, that they were almost ready to test the atomic bomb. And just three months later, they exploded the world's first atomic weapon in a test in the southwestern state of New Mexico. Truman had to make a difficult decision. He knew the atomic weapon would cause major death and suffering if it was used on a Japanese city. But he was willing to do anything to avoid the need for American troops to invade Japan. Such an invasion surely would be a long, bloody struggle.
A new prime minister and government in Japan were searching for a way to end the war. But Truman believed that the Japanese still were not ready to surrender. And he felt it was his duty to end the war as soon as possible. On August sixth, nineteen forty-five, the first bomb fell on the city of Hiroshima. It killed nearly eighty thousand people and destroyed a great many buildings. Three days later, a second bomb fell on the city of Nagasaki. It, too, caused great destruction in human life and property. The bombs left Japan's rulers with no choice. In less than one week, they surrendered. Truman always defended his decision strongly. "I understand the tragic importance of the atomic bomb," he told the world by radio shortly after the two bombings. "We knew our enemies also were searching for this secret. And we know the disaster that would have come to this nation and to all peaceful nations if they had found it. "Having found the bomb," said Truman, "we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us. And we have used it to shorten the suffering of war, and to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans." American scientists and engineers proved that wars could be won with research as well as with bullets. And all Americans learned how much could be gained when government, scientists, and universities worked together for common goals.
Roosevelt had understood this long before the war ended. He asked Vannevar Bush to study how the federal government could work with scientists and universities in peacetime. Bush studied the problem. And he offered a number of ideas to President Truman at the end of the war. Bush told the president that science was important to America's progress and safety. He called on the federal government to support scientific study and education. Professor Bush said that the nation's universities should be greatly strengthened. He called for the creation of a new government agency to provide money for useful science projects. Truman and the Congress agreed with Bush. And in the next few years, they helped the American scientific and research effort to grow to new size and strength. In nineteen forty-six, an Office of Naval Research was created to support basic science study in the universities. In the same year, the government created the Atomic Energy Commission to develop nuclear energy for military and peaceful uses. And in nineteen fifty, it created the powerful National Science Foundation to provide support to thousands of the nation's best scientists.
In the years that followed, American science would grow beyond the wildest dreams of Vannevar Bush or the other scientists who worked during World War Two. Universities would add thousands of new students. They would build new laboratories, book collections, and study centers. By the middle of the nineteen sixties, the federal government would spend more than thirteen thousand million dollars each year for research and development. And five hundred new centers of higher learning would be created. This investment would help make the United States the world's leader in such fields as computer science, genetics, and space travel.
You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Warren Scheer. Our program was written by David Jarmul.
重点解析
1.troop 军队;组
Accountability starts with the commander in charge of this troop.
军队的主管应该在开始就有责任 。
2.surrender 投降;放弃
They have agreed on the terms of surrender.
他们就投降条件达成了协议 。
3.committee 委员会
He submitted the report to the committee.
他向委员会呈交了一份报告 。
4.bomb 炸弹
炸弹和其他爆炸物爆炸了 。
The bomb and other explosive exploded.
5.explode 爆炸,爆发
They help you cool down when you feel like your anger might explode.
当你感觉自己要怒火爆发的时候,它们会帮助你冷静下来 。
参考译文
《建国史话》——VOA慢速英语节目
第二次世界大战以战争、科学和技术史上最重要的事件之一而结束
1914年第一次世界大战开始时,美国联邦政府在许多方面都启用了科学家
布什是一名经验丰富的电气工程教授兼发明家,名声在外,为众多科学家所熟知
罗斯福确保这些科学家得到了他们所需的所有资金和物资
1945年8月6日,第一颗炸弹落在日本广岛,造成近8万人死亡,众多建筑被摧毁
他要求万尼瓦尔·布什研究和平时期联邦政府如何与科学家和高校合作
1946年成立了海军研究办公室来支持大学的基础科学研究
您正在收听的是VOA慢速英语节目《建国史话》,播报人哈里·梦露和沃伦·舍尔,撰写人David Jarmul
译文为可可英语翻译,未经授权请勿转载!