(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
The Cold War began after World War Two. The main enemies were the United States and the Soviet Union. The Cold War got its name because both sides were afraid of fighting each other directly. In such a "hot war," nuclear weapons might destroy everything. So, instead, they fought each other indirectly. They supported conflicts in different parts of the world. They also used words as weapons. They threatened and denounced each other. Or they tried to make each other look foolish. Over the years, leaders on both sides changed. Yet the Cold War continued. It was the major force in world politics for most of the second half of the twentieth century. Historians disagree about how long the Cold War lasted. Some believe it ended when the United States and the Soviet Union improved relations during the nineteen sixties and early nineteen seventies. Others believe it ended when the Berlin Wall was torn down in nineteen eighty-nine.
The Cold War world was separated into three groups. The United States led the West. This group included countries with democratic political systems. The Soviet Union led the East. This group included countries with communist political systems. The Non-Aligned group included countries that did not want to be tied to either the West or the East.
Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War. He used several policies. One was the Truman Doctrine. This was a plan to give money and military aid to countries threatened by communism. The Truman Doctrine effectively stopped communists from taking control of Greece and Turkey. Another policy was the Marshall Plan. This strengthened the economies and governments of countries in Western Europe. A major event in the Cold War was the Berlin Airlift. In June nineteen forty-eight, the Soviets blocked all ways into the western part of Berlin, Germany. President Truman quickly ordered military planes to fly coal, food, and medicine to the city. The planes kept coming, sometimes landing every few minutes, for more than a year. The United States received help from Britain and France. Together, they provided almost two and one-half million tons of supplies on about two hundred-eighty thousand flights. The United States also led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in nineteen forty-nine. NATO was a joint military group. Its purpose was to defend against Soviet forces in Europe. The first members of NATO were Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United States.
The Soviet Union and its east European allies formed their own joint military group -- the Warsaw Pact -- six years later. In nineteen fifty-three, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin died. His death gave the new American president, Dwight Eisenhower, a chance to deal with new Soviet leaders. In July, nineteen fifty-five, Eisenhower and Nikolai Bulganin met in Geneva, Switzerland. The leaders of Britain and France also attended. Eisenhower proposed that the Americans and Soviets agree to let their military bases be inspected by air by the other side. The Soviets later rejected the proposal. Yet the meeting in Geneva was not considered a failure. After all, the leaders of the world's most powerful nations had shaken hands. Cold War tensions increased, then eased, then increased again over the years. The changes came as both sides actively tried to influence political and economic developments around the world. For example, the Soviet Union provided military, economic, and technical aid to communist governments in Asia. The United States then helped eight Asian nations fight communism by establishing the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. In the middle nineteen fifties, the United States began sending military advisers to help south Vietnam defend itself against communist North Vietnam. That aid would later expand into a long and bloody period of American involvement in Vietnam. The Cold War also affected the Middle East. In the nineteen fifties, both East and West offered aid to Egypt to build the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The West cancelled its offer, however, after Egypt bought weapons from the communist government of Czechoslovakia.
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser then seized control of the company that operated the Suez Canal. A few months later, Israel invaded Egypt. France and Britain joined the invasion. For once, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed on a major issue. Both supported a United Nations resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire. The Suez crisis was a political victory for the Soviets. When the Soviet Union supported Egypt, it gained new friends in the Arab world. In nineteen fifty-nine, Cold War tensions eased a little. The new Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, visited Dwight Eisenhower at his holiday home near Washington. The meeting was very friendly. But the next year, relations got worse again. An American military plane was shot down over the Soviet Union. Eisenhower admitted that such planes had been spying on the Soviets for four years. In a speech at the United Nations, Khrushchev got so angry that he took off his shoe and beat it on a table. John Kennedy followed Eisenhower as president in nineteen sixty-one. During his early days in office, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba. They wanted to oust the communist government of Fidel Castro. The exiles had been trained by America's Central Intelligence Agency. The United States failed to send military planes to protect them during the invasion. As a result, almost all were killed or taken prisoner.
In Europe, tens of thousands of East Germans had fled to the West. East Germany's communist government decided to stop them. It built a wall separating the eastern and western parts of the city of Berlin. Guards shot at anyone who tried to flee by climbing over. During Kennedy's second year in office, American intelligence reports discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union denied they were there. American photographs proved they were. The Cuban missile crisis easily could have resulted in a nuclear war. But it ended after a week. Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles if the United States agreed not to interfere in Cuba. Some progress was made in easing Cold War tensions when Kennedy was president. In nineteen sixty-three, the two sides reached a major arms control agreement. They agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons above ground, under water, and in space. They also established a direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin.
Relations between East and West also improved when Richard Nixon was president. He and Leonid Brezhnev met several times. They reached several arms control agreements. One reduced the number of missiles used to shoot down enemy nuclear weapons. It also banned the testing and deployment of long-distance missiles for five years. A major change in the Cold War took place in nineteen eighty-five. That is when Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev held four meetings with President Ronald Reagan. He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan. And he signed an agreement with the United States to destroy all middle-distance and short-distance nuclear missiles. By nineteen eighty-nine, there was widespread unrest in eastern Europe. Gorbachev did not intervene as these countries cut their ties with the Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall, the major symbol of communist oppression, was torn down in November. In less than a year, East and West Germany became one nation again. A few months after that, the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. The Cold War was over.
重点解析
1.Cold War 冷战
But could he deal with Congress, and with Nikita Khrushchev at the height of the Cold War?
可是，他能和国会处理好关系吗？ 能对付尼基塔·赫鲁晓夫这个冷战敌手吗？
2.Berlin Wall 柏林围墙
Unlike them, he had no siege mentality, and needed no Berlin Wall to huddle behind.
与后者不同，他没有四面受敌的心态，也不需要蜷缩在柏林墙背后。
3.Suez crisis苏伊士运河危机
They became particularly popular when fuel prices shot up in 1956, during the Suez crisis.
在苏伊士运河危机期间，1956年油价上涨，那时他们特别流行。
4.Non-Aligned group 不结盟组织
Designed by Nehru, the Non-aligned Movement (NAM) was a domestic and international triumph for India.
尼赫鲁设计的不结盟运动对印度而言是一个国内和国际的胜利。
5.NATO 北大西洋公约组织
But can we trust Nato or the US military?
但是我们能够信任北约或美国军队吗？
参考译文
冷战始于第二次世界大战后，战争分为两大阵营：美国和苏联。之所以叫冷战是因为双方都害怕直接交战。“热战”中，核武器可能会摧毁一切，因此，他们采用冷战。他们支持世界各地的冲突，还用文字作为武器。他们互相威胁，互相指责，或者试图让对方看起来很愚蠢。
多年来，双方政权更迭，然而冷战仍在继续。二十世纪下半叶的大部分时间，美苏一直主导着世界政治格局。历史学家对冷战持续多长时间意见不一。有人认为，20世纪60年代和70年代初美苏关系改善时，冷战就会结束。另一些人则认为，1989年柏林墙被推倒后，冷战就结束了。冷战时期，世界被分裂成三组，美国领导西方世界，包括施行民主政治制度的国家。苏联领导东方世界，包括施行共产主义政治制度的国家。不结盟国家包括不愿与西方或东方结盟的国家。哈里·杜鲁门是首位抗击冷战的美国总统，他施行了一些政策。一个是“杜鲁门主义”，该计划旨在向受到共产主义威胁的国家提供资金和军事援助。“杜鲁门主义”有效地制止了共产主义者控制希腊和土耳其。另一项政策是“马歇尔计划”，它强化了西欧各国的经济和政治力量。冷战时期发生的重大事件是柏林空运。
1948年6月，苏联封锁了通往德国柏林西部的所有道路。杜鲁门总统迅速命人用军用飞机将煤、食品和药品空运到柏林。飞机不停地在两地飞行，有时每隔几分钟就降落一次，这样持续了一年多。美国得到了英国和法国的援助，英法在28万次飞行中为美国提供了将近250万吨的物资。1949年，美国还领导成立了《北大西洋公约组织》，北约是一个联合军事组织。其目的为抵御苏联在欧洲的军事力量。北约最初的成员国是比利时、英国、加拿大、丹麦、法国、冰岛、意大利、卢森堡、荷兰、葡萄牙和美国。六年后，苏联及其东欧盟国组织成立了自己的联合军事组织——《华沙条约组织》。1953年，苏联领导人约瑟夫·斯大林逝世。
他的死为美国新上任总统德怀特·艾森豪威尔与苏联新领导人打交道提供了契机。1955年7月，艾森豪威尔和尼古拉·布尔加宁在瑞士日内瓦会面，英国和法国领导人也出席了此次会议。艾森豪威尔提议，美苏同意一方军事基地由另一方进行空中视察。苏联后来拒绝了这项提议。然而，人们并不认为日内瓦会议失败。毕竟，世界上最强大国家的领导人已经握手言和。多年来，冷战紧张局势不断加剧，有所缓和，又再度加剧。这些变化发生之际，双方积极影响世界各地的政治和经济发展。例如，苏联向亚洲的共产主义政府提供军事、经济和技术援助。随后，美国通过建立《东南亚条约组织》，帮助亚洲的八个国家抵抗共产主义。
20世纪50年代中期，美国开始派遣军事顾问帮助南越抵御共产主义北越。这一援助后来扩展成美国对越南漫长血腥的军事侵略。冷战也影响了中东。20世纪50年代，东西方都帮助埃及在尼罗河上修建阿斯旺大坝。然而，在埃及向捷克斯洛伐克共产政府购买武器后，西方国家停止对埃及施行援助。随后，埃及总统贾迈勒·阿卜杜勒·纳赛尔接管了运营苏伊士运河的公司。几个月后，以色列入侵埃及，法国和英国加入了入侵。这一次，美国和苏联在重大问题上达成了一致。双方都支持联合国要求立即停火的决议。苏伊士运河危机是苏联政治上的胜利。苏联支持埃及时，结交了阿拉伯新朋友。1959年，冷战时期的紧张关系有所缓和。
苏联新领导人——赫鲁晓夫在华盛顿附近的度假别墅拜访了艾森豪威尔。此次会面很顺利。但第二年，两国关系再次恶化。美国的一架军用飞机在苏联被击落。艾森豪威尔承认，这些飞机已经在苏联监视了四年。赫鲁晓夫在联合国发表演讲时非常生气，他脱下鞋子，敲打桌子。1961年，约翰·肯尼迪在艾森豪威尔之后成为总统。肯尼迪执政初期，古巴流亡者入侵古巴，他们想推翻菲德尔·卡斯特罗的共产主义政府。流亡者在美国中央情报局接受了培训。在入侵期间，美国未能派遣军用飞机保护他们。结果，几乎所有人都被杀害或俘虏。在欧洲，成千上万的东德人逃往西方。东德共产主义决定阻止他们逃走，修建了柏林墙，柏林被分割为东柏林和西柏林。守卫们向任何试图爬过去逃跑的人开枪。肯尼迪执政的第二年，美国情报局声称在古巴发现了苏联导弹。苏联否认这一说法，美国的照片证明了导弹的事实。古巴导弹危机会很容易引发核战争，但一周后就结束了。如果美国同意不干涉古巴，赫鲁晓夫同意撤除导弹。肯尼迪担任总统期间，缓和冷战紧张局势取得了一些进展。
1963年，双方达成了一项重要的军备控制协议，他们同意在地面、水下和太空禁止进行核武器试验，还在白宫和克里姆林宫之间建立了一条直接电话连线。尼克松担任总统时，东西方的关系也有所改善，他和列昂尼德勃列日涅夫多次见面，还达成了几项军控协议，其中一项是削减用于击落敌方核武器的导弹数量。还在5年内禁止测试和部署远程导弹。冷战的一个重大变化发生在1985年。那时米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫成为苏联领导人，戈尔巴乔夫与里总统举行了四次会晤，从阿富汗撤出了苏联军队。他还与美国签署了一项协议，销毁所有中短程核导弹。1989年，东欧动乱四起。随着东欧国家与苏联断绝关系，戈尔巴乔夫没有干预动乱。11月，标志共产主义压迫的柏林墙被推倒。在不到一年的时间里，东德和西德再次统一。几个月后，华沙条约组织解散，冷战结束。
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