(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week in our series, we continue the story of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy, a Democrat, defeated Republican Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in United States history. He took office in January nineteen sixty-one. After three months, Kennedy faced a major foreign policy failure. On April seventeenth, armed Cuban exiles tried to invade Cuba, less one hundred fifty kilometers from the American state of Florida. They had been trained by the Central Intelligence Agency. Their goal was to overthrow the island's communist leader, Fidel Castro. In nineteen fifty-nine he and his guerrilla forces had overthrown Fulgencio Batista, the president who was supported by the United States.
The exiles came ashore at Cuba's Bay of Pigs. Most were killed or captured. The last administration, under President Dwight Eisenhower, had planned the invasion. But Kennedy had approved it. After the failure, some Americans again wondered if the forty-three-year-old president had enough experience to lead the nation. In May nineteen sixty-one, Kennedy went to Paris and met with French President Charles de Gaulle. Kennedy visited France with his wife Jacqueline, who spoke French and had studied there. In June, Kennedy met in Vienna, Austria, with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev did not want to compromise on any issue. He threatened to have the East Germans block all movement into and out of the Allied-controlled western half of Berlin.
In November, the East Germans, with Soviet support, started building the Berlin Wall to separate east and west. President Kennedy quickly announced a large increase in American military forces in Germany. Less than a year later came the Cuban missile crisis. On October twenty-second, nineteen sixty-two, President Kennedy made an announcement to the American people.
"This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere. "Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information of this nature last Tuesday morning at nine a.m., I directed that our surveillance be stepped up. And having now confirmed and completed our evaluation of the evidence and our decision on a course of action, this government feels obliged to report this new crisis to you in fullest detail.
"The characteristics of these new missile sites indicate two distinct types of installations. Several of them include medium range ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead for a distance of more than one thousand nautical miles. Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking Washington, DC, the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city in the southeastern part of the United States, in Central America, or in the Caribbean area."
Kennedy had a warning for the Soviets. "It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union."
Kennedy and his national security advisers debated what to do about the Soviet missiles in Cuba. Should the United States launch an air strike and try to destroy them? What if some of the nuclear missiles escaped the attack? Kennedy decided to use a naval blockade -- he called it a "quarantine" -- to prevent any more Soviet ships from reaching Cuba. There were tense negotiations with the Soviets. Khrushchev demanded a promise that the United States would not invade Cuba. Kennedy agreed, and did so publicly. Secretly he also agreed to another demand. He promised that the United States would remove its Jupiter missiles based in Turkey, after the crisis was over.
The Cuban missile crisis lasted thirteen days. It raised fears of a nuclear war. But it ended peacefully when the Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba, and turned their ships around. But the Cold War continued. In Asia, the Kennedy administration tried to fight communism in Vietnam by increasing the number of American military advisers there. The United States and the Soviet Union did make some progress on arms control. In nineteen sixty-three, the two countries agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons except underground. Kennedy also had to deal with domestic issues, including discrimination against blacks. His brother Robert was attorney general, the nation's top law enforcement official. The Justice Department took legal action against states in the South that violated laws on voting rights.
The administration also supported a voter registration campaign to sign up more black voters. Robert Kennedy repeatedly called on National Guard troops to protect blacks when they tried to register to vote or attend white schools. President Kennedy said the situation was causing a moral crisis in America. He decided it was time to propose a new civil rights law that would guarantee equal treatment for blacks in public places and jobs. Congress did not pass a wide-reaching civil rights bill until nineteen sixty-four. By then Kennedy was no longer president. In November nineteen sixty-three, he traveled to Texas. He hoped to settle a dispute in the Democratic Party in that state. The dispute might have affected his chances for re-election in nineteen sixty-four. Kennedy arrived in Dallas in the late morning of November twenty-second. The president and his wife were seated in the back of an open-topped car as his motorcade drove through the city. Suddenly, there were gunshots. "Here is a bulletin from CBS news. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting."
The motorcade raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital. But doctors could do little to save his life. This was how television newsman Walter Cronkite reported the news: "From Dallas, Texas -- the flash apparently official -- President Kennedy died at one p.m., Central Standard Time." Police quickly arrested a suspect. Lee Harvey Oswald worked in a building near where Kennedy had been shot. People had seen him leave the building with a gun. Lee Harvey Oswald was a man with a strange past. He was a former United States Marine. He was also a communist. He had lived for a while in the Soviet Union and had tried to become a Soviet citizen. He worked for a committee that supported the communist government in Cuba. Police questioned Oswald about the shooting of President Kennedy. He told them he did not do it. After two days, officials decided to move him to a different jail. Oswald was being led by two police officers. Suddenly, a man stepped forward. There was a shot. Oswald fell to the ground. Television cameras broadcast the events live. The man who killed Oswald was Jack Ruby. He was a nightclub owner in Dallas. He said he shot Oswald to prevent the Kennedy family from having to live through a trial.
A commission investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The chief justice of the United States, Earl Warren, led the investigation. In its report, the Warren commission said that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. It said there was no plot to kill the president. Many Americans never accepted that finding. Some blamed Fidel Castro or the Central Intelligence Agency. Others blamed organized crime. President Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington. An Eternal Flame burns night and day by his grave.
重点解析
1.take office 就职
The president-elect has been preparing to take office in january.
当选总统已在准备于一月份就职。
2.defeat 击败，战胜
His guerrillas defeated the colonial army in 1954...
1954 年他领导的游击队打败了殖民军队。
3.overthrow 推翻；打倒；倾覆
That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.
该政府在3年前的一次军事政变中被颠覆了。
4.capture 俘获；夺得；捕捉
The guerrillas shot down one aeroplane and captured the pilot.
那些游击队员击落了一架飞机，并俘虏了飞行员。
5.approve 批准；赞成
The committee unanimously approved the plan.
委员会一致通过了计划。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语栏目《建国史话》。我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。本周，我们将继续约翰·费茨杰拉德·肯尼迪总统的故事。民主党人肯尼迪击败了共和党副总统理查德·尼克松，此次票数是美国历史上最接近的几次之一。1961年1月，肯尼迪就职总统。 三个月后，肯尼迪面临一次主要的外交政策失败。4月17日，武装古巴流犯试图入侵古巴，距离美国佛罗里达不足150千米。这些流犯在CIA接受过培训。他们的目标是推翻共产主义领导人菲德尔·卡斯特罗。1959年，他和他的游击队军队推翻了富尔亨西奥·巴蒂斯塔，这是一位由美国扶持的总统。流犯在古巴猪猡湾登陆，其中大部分人都被杀或被捕。
由德怀特·艾森豪威尔总统领导的上一届政府策划了此次入侵，但是肯尼迪批准了。入侵失败后，一些美国人再一次质疑这位43岁的总统是否有能力领导这个国家。1961年5月，肯尼迪前往巴黎会见法国总统夏尔·戴高乐。肯尼迪和他的妻子杰奎琳一同来到法国，他的妻子会说法语也在法国读过书。6月，肯尼迪在奥地利维也纳会见苏联领导人尼基塔·赫鲁晓夫。赫鲁晓夫不愿在任何问题上妥协。他威胁要封锁东德进出西柏林的一切活动，那时西柏林由盟军控制。11月，在苏联的支持下，东德人开始修建柏林墙将分隔东西。肯尼迪总统很快便宣布增加派往德国的美国驻兵。不到一年就发生了古巴导弹危机。1962年10月22日，肯尼迪总统向美国民众宣布
“本届政府一直遵照承诺，对苏联在古巴的军事集结进行最为严密的监视。在过去一周里，有明显证据表明在封闭的古巴岛上，正在进行一系列的进攻型导弹基地的准备活动， 这些导弹基地的目的只能有一个，就是建立对西半球国家发动核打击的能力。”“上周二早上九点，当我收到了第一份关于这个消息的初步消息后，我当即决定加强对该地的监控。对这些证据以及我们的行动决定进行确认评估后，政府觉得有义务向大家报告这一新危机的细节。”
"这些信导弹基地的特征表明基地上有两种设备类型。其中几个包括中程弹道导弹，可以将核弹头发射至一千海里的距离。总之，每颗导弹都能炸毁华盛顿、巴拿马运河、卡纳维拉尔角以及墨西哥城，或者是美国东南、中美洲或是加勒比地区的任何一个城市。”
肯尼迪对苏联发出警告。“美国的政策是，任何从古巴发射向西半球任何一个国家的核导弹都将被视为是苏联发射向美国的，美国必将对苏联采取全面报复。”肯尼迪和他的国家安全顾问争论该如何处理古巴的苏联导弹。美国应该发动空袭摧毁它们么？要是一些核导弹漏掉了怎么办？肯尼迪决定使用海上封锁—他称之为“隔离”—阻止任何去往古巴的苏联船只。美国和苏联展开了激烈的谈判。克鲁晓夫要求美国承诺不会入侵古巴。肯尼迪同意了，而且是公开表示同意。他还秘密同意了另一个要求。他承诺在危机结束后，美国会撤回位于土耳其的木星飞弹。古巴导弹危机持续了13天，加剧了人们对核战争的恐惧。但是当苏联同意从古巴撤回导弹和船只后，这场危机以和平收场。
但是冷战还在继续。在亚洲，肯尼迪试图增加越南的美国军事顾问数量以此打击越南的共产主义。美国和苏联确实在军备控制上取得了一些进展。1963年，两国同意禁止在地下以外的任何地方进行核武器测试。肯尼迪还不得不处理一些国内问题，包括黑人歧视问题。他的哥哥罗伯特是司法部长，国家最高执法人员。司法部以违反投票权对南部各州提起诉讼。政府还支持选民登记活动，让更多黑人参与投票。罗伯特·肯尼迪不断要求国民警卫队在黑人注册投票的时候保护他们不受白人袭击。肯尼迪总统称这种情况造成了美国的道德危机。他决定是时候提议新的民权法，保证黑人在公共场合和工作岗位上的公平对待。国会直到1964年才通过这项影响深远的民权法案。只是到那时，肯尼迪已经不是总统了。
1963年11月，他来到德克萨斯州。他希望解决那里的民主党纠纷。这场纠纷有可能会影响到他在1964年总统大选中获得连任。11月22日上午晚些时候，肯尼迪到达达拉斯机场。总统和他的妻子坐在一辆敞篷车的后排座上，他的总统车队穿过这座城市。突然，传来一阵枪声。“CBS短讯。在德克萨斯州达拉斯，有人在市中心朝肯尼迪总统的车队开了三枪。
报道称，肯尼迪总统受伤严重。”车队迅速把总统送至帕克兰纪念医院，但是医生说机会渺茫。以下为电视记者沃尔特·克朗凯特报道这条消息，“德克萨斯州达拉斯消息—官方消息—肯尼迪总统于中央标准时间下午一点去世。”
警察迅速逮捕嫌疑人。李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德在肯尼迪遭遇暗杀的大楼附近工作。人们看到他拿着枪离开这幢大楼。李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德是一个有着奇怪经历的男人。他是前美国海军陆战队成员，也是一名共产主义者。他在苏联生活过一段时间，还想成为苏联公民。他在一个支持古巴共产主义政府的委员会里工作。警察就刺杀肯尼迪对奥斯瓦尔德进行审讯。他告诉警察不是他做的。两天后，官员决定将他转到另一个监狱。奥斯瓦尔德被两名警察带领着。突然，一个男人走了出来，开枪。奥斯瓦尔德倒地。电视摄像机直播了该事件。杀死奥斯瓦尔德的男人叫杰克·鲁比。他是达拉斯一家夜店的老板。他说他射杀奥斯瓦尔德是为了保护肯尼迪家人不用受煎熬。
委员会调查了约翰·F·肯尼迪的暗杀事件。美国首席法官厄尔·沃伦主持调查工作。在报告中，华伦委员会说道，李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德是独自行动的。报告称并没有刺杀总统的阴谋。很多美国人并不接受这种结果。一些人指责是菲德尔·卡斯特罗或是CIA暗杀了总统。其他人则认为这是有组织的犯罪。肯尼迪总统被葬在阿灵顿国家公墓，距离华盛顿只隔着一条波托马克河。一盏长明灯不分昼夜点亮他的公墓。
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