(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Today, we tell about the movement for civil rights for black Americans. The day is August twenty-eighth, nineteen sixty-three. More than two hundred fifty-thousand people are gathered in Washington. Black and white, young and old, they demand equal treatment for black Americans. The nation's most famous civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, is speaking. MARTIN LUTHER KING: "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration of freedom in the history of our nation. "Early in its history, black Africans were brought to America as slaves. They were bought and sold, like animals. By the time of America's Civil War in the eighteen sixties, many had been freed by their owners. Many, however, still worked as slaves on the big farms of the South. By the end of the war, slavery had been declared unconstitutional. But that was only the first step in the struggle for equality.
Most people of color could not get good jobs. They could not get good housing. They had far less chance of a good education than white Americans. For about one hundred years, blacks made slow gains. Widespread activism for civil rights did not really begin until after World War Two. During the war, black Americans earned respect as members of the armed forces. When they came home, many demanded that their civil rights be respected, too. An organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, led the way. In nineteen fifty-one, the organization sent its lawyers to help a man in the city of Topeka, Kansas. The man, Oliver Brown, and twelve others had brought legal action against the city. They wanted to end racial separation in their children's schools. At that time, two of every five public schools in America had all white students or all black students. The law said all public schools must be equal, but they were not. Schools for white children were almost always better than schools for black children. The situation was worst in Southern states.
The case against the city of Topeka -- Brown versus the Board of Education -- was finally settled by the nation's highest court. In nineteen fifty-four, the Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black children were not equal to schools for white children. The next year, it said public schools must accept children of all races as quickly as possible. In September nineteen fifty-seven, a black girl tried to enter an all-white school in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas. An angry crowd screamed at her. State guards blocked her way. The guards had been sent by the state governor, Orville Faubus. After three weeks, a federal court ordered Governor Faubus to remove the guards. The girl, Elizabeth Eckford, and seven other black students were able to enter the school. After one day, however, riots forced the black students to leave.
President Dwight Eisenhower ordered federal troops to Little Rock. They helped black students get into the white school safely. However, angry white citizens closed all the city's public schools. The schools stayed closed for two years. In nineteen sixty-two, a black student named James Meredith tried to attend the University of Mississippi. School officials refused. John Kennedy, the president at that time, sent federal law officers to help him. James Meredith became the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi. In addition to fighting for equal treatment in education, black Americans fought for equal treatment in housing and transportation. In many cities of the South, blacks were forced to sit in the back of buses. In nineteen fifty-five, a black woman named Rosa Parks got on a bus in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. She sat in the back. The bus became crowded. There were no more seats for white people. So, the bus driver ordered Missus Parks to stand and give her seat to a white person. She refused. Her feet were tired after a long day at work. Rosa Parks was arrested.
The Reverend Martin Luther King organized the black citizens of Montgomery. They were the major users of the bus system. They agreed to stop using the buses. The boycott lasted a little more than a year. It seriously affected the earnings of the bus company. In the end, racial separation on the buses in Montgomery was declared illegal. Rosa Parks's tired feet had helped win black Americans another victory in their struggle for equal rights. And, the victory had been won without violence. The Reverend King was following the teachings of Indian spiritual leader, Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi urged his followers to reach their political goals without violence. One of the major tools of nonviolence in the civil rights struggle in America was the "sit-in". In a sit-in, protesters entered a store or public eating place. They quietly asked to be served. Sometimes, they were arrested. Sometimes, they remained until the business closed. But they were not served. Some went hours without food or water.
Another kind of protest was the "freedom ride." This involved buses that traveled through states from the North to the South. On freedom rides, blacks and whites sat together to make it difficult for officials to enforce racial separation laws on the buses. Many freedom rides -- and much violence -- took place in the summer of nineteen sixty-four. Sometimes, the freedom riders were arrested. Sometimes, angry crowds of whites beat the freedom riders. Perhaps the most dangerous part of the civil rights movement was the campaign to win voting rights for black Americans. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution said a citizen could not be denied the right to vote because of race or color. Several Southern states, however, passed laws to try to deny voting rights to blacks for other reasons.
Martin Luther King and his supporters demonstrated to demand new legislation to guarantee the right to vote. They held protests in the state of Alabama. In the city of Birmingham, the chief law officer ordered his men to fight the protesters with high-pressure water hoses and fierce dogs. People throughout the country watched the demonstration on television. The sight of children being beaten by policemen and bitten by dogs awakened many citizens to the civil rights struggle. Federal negotiators reached a compromise. The compromise was, in fact, a victory for the protesters. They promised to stop their demonstrations. In exchange, they would be permitted to vote. President Johnson signed a major civil rights bill in nineteen sixty-four. Yet violence continued in some places. Three civil rights workers were murdered in Mississippi. One was murdered in Alabama. Martin Luther King kept working toward the goal of equal rights. He died working. On April fourth, nineteen sixty-eight, he was shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee. He had gone there to support a strike by waste collection workers. A white man, James Earl Ray, was tried and found guilty of the crime.
A wave of unrest followed the murder of Martin Luther King. Blacks in more than one hundred cities in America rioted. In some cities, areas affected by the riots were not rebuilt for many years. The movement for civil rights for black Americans continued. But it became increasingly violent. The struggle produced angry, bitter memories. Yet it also produced some of the greatest words spoken in American history. MARTIN LUTHER KING: "When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children -- black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics -- will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!'"
重点解析
1.voting rights 投票权；表决权
Within days of Bloody Sunday, president Johnson would present a bill to Congress that would gain passage later that year as the Voting Rights Act.
在血色星期天不久后，约翰逊总统向国会提交了一份议案，不久这项议案通过，这便是投票权法案。
2. civil rights 民事权利，公民权利
The civil rights bill carried by a large majority.
公民权利法案获得大多数同意而通过。
3. struggle for 为…奋斗；为…争斗
“Intimacy has been a struggle for us, working through all that, ” Ms. Waddell said.
“亲密对于我们而言，就是挣扎，自始至终如此，”瓦德尔女士说。
4. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 全国有色人种促进会
He was also influential in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, though he himself was white.
他在全国有色人种进步协会建立中也有重要的影响，虽然他是一个白人。
5. Constitution 宪法；体质
I stood the drawing up of a constitution.
我曾参与了制定宪法的工作。
参考译文
今天，我们为您讲述的是美国黑人民权运动，这天是1963年8月28日，超过25万人聚集在华盛顿。黑人和白人，年轻人和老人都要求美国黑人享有平等待遇。美国最著名的民权运动领袖——马丁·路德·金发表讲话。“我很高兴，今天能和大家一起参加这次示威游行，它必将作为美国有史以来为争取自由所举行的最伟大的示威游行而名垂青史。”早期，非洲黑人作为奴隶被卖到美国。它们被当作动物一样任意买卖，19世纪60年代美国内战爆发时，许多人被释放。然而，很多黑人仍然在南方的大农场像奴隶一样工作林肯宣布奴隶制违宪，然而，这只是迈出了争取平等的第一步。多数有色人种很难得到好工作，他们无法获得良好的住房。与美国白人相比，他们接受良好教育的机会要少得多。一百年来，黑人收入增长缓慢。大规模民权运动直到第二次世界大战后才逐渐展开。战争期间，美国黑人以军人身份赢得了社会的尊重。退伍回家后，许多人要求自己的民权得到尊重。“全国有色人种促进会”领导了美国的民权运动。1951年，全国有色人种协进会派律师协助美国堪萨斯州托皮卡的一名男子。这名男子，奥利弗·布朗和其他12人已经对该市提起了法律诉讼。
他们希望结束孩子学校的种族隔离制度。当时，美国五分之二的公立学校都是全白人学校或者全黑人学校。法律规定所有公立学校必须平等对待所有学生，但事实并非如此。白人学校几乎总是比黑人学校好。尤其是在美国南部，对比更加鲜明。针对托皮卡市的案件——布朗诉教育委员会——最终由国家最高法院裁决。1954年，最高法院裁决，黑人儿童就读的隔离学校与白人儿童就读的学校确实存在着不平等。第二年，法院要求公立学校必须尽快落实不分种族的招收儿童入学。1957年9月，一名黑人女孩试图进入阿肯色州小石城的一所全白学校就读。结果一群白人愤怒的人朝她吼叫，州警也堵着路不让她进这些警卫是州长奥维尔·福布斯派来的。三周后，联邦法院命令福伯斯州长撤走警卫。伊丽莎白·埃克福德和其他七名黑人小孩才得以进入学校。一天后，暴乱迫使这些黑人孩子离开学校。德怀特·艾森豪威尔总统命令联邦军队进驻小石城。他们帮助黑人学生安全进入白人学校。然而，愤怒的白人公民关闭了该市所有的公立学校。学校停课两年。1962年，一位名叫詹姆斯梅瑞迪斯的黑人学生想就读密西西比大学。学校官员拒绝了，当时的总统约翰·肯尼迪派联邦法律官员帮助他顺利入学。詹姆斯梅瑞迪斯因此成为首位毕业于密西西比大学的黑人学生。
除了争取教育上的平等待遇，美国黑人还争取住房和交通上的平等待遇。在美国南部的许多城市，黑人被迫坐在公共汽车的后座上。1955年，一位名叫罗莎·帕克斯的黑人妇女在阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利市乘坐公共汽车。她坐在最后一排。公共汽车人越来越多，白人没地方坐了。于是，公共汽车司机让帕克斯站起来，把座位让给白人。她拒绝了，一整天的辛苦工作之后，她的脚很累，罗莎·帕克斯因此而被警察逮捕。马丁·路德·金牧师召蒙哥马利市的黑人公民团结起来，拒乘公交车这些黑人是这个城市公交系统的主要乘客，抵制活动历时一年多一点，严重影响了公交公司的收益。最后，蒙哥马利市公交车上的种族隔离被宣布为非法。罗莎·帕克斯疲惫的双脚帮助美国黑人赢得了争取平等权利的又一次胜利。并且胜利的换来，并没有暴力发生。马丁·路德·金遵循着印度精神领袖莫罕达斯·甘地的教诲。甘地敦促他的追随者采取非暴力不合作方式实现他们的政治目标。美国民权斗争中，使用的一个最主要的非暴力途径是静坐抗议静坐抗议时，抗议者进入一个商店或公共餐饮场所，安静地坐在里面，要求得到服务。有时，他们会被逮捕，有时，他们会一直静静地待到打烊，但他们根本不会得到任何服务，有些人在里面静坐好几个小时不吃不喝。另外一种抗议形式叫做“自由行”。这种活动涉及到自北向南穿过各州的公交车。在“自由行”上，黑人和白人坐在一起，让官员难以在公共汽车上执行种族隔离政策。1964年夏天，美国出现了很多充满暴力的自由行活动。参加自由行的游行者会被警方逮捕，有时，一些愤怒的白人还会成群结队地攻击这些自由行的游行者。民权运动中最危险的部分也许是为黑人争取选举权。宪法修正案第十五条规定，不能因为种族或肤色而剥夺他们的选举权。
然而，南部的几个州又颁布了另外一些法案，试图以其他理由剥夺黑人的选举权。马丁·路德·金和他的支持者举行游行示威，要求通过新的立法来确保黑人的选举权。他们在阿拉巴马州举行了抗议活动。在伯明翰市，警察总长下令使用高压水枪和凶猛的警犬来镇压当地的抗议者。全国人民通过电视观看了示威游行。儿童被警察殴打，被警犬撕咬的面画刺痛并唤醒了很多美国人，他们一同加入到民权斗争的队伍中联邦谈判代表做出了妥协，事实上，妥协就是抗议者的胜利。抗议者答应停止示威游行，但交换条件是政府给予他们投票选举权。1964年，约翰逊总统签署了一项重要的民权法案，然而在一些地方暴力仍在继续上演。三名民权工作者在密西西比州被杀，其中一人在阿拉巴马州被杀。马丁·路德·金一直为了公民平等权利不懈努力。他在争取民权平等的路上，献出了自己的生命。
1968年4月4日，马丁·路德·金在田纳西州孟菲斯被人枪杀。他去那里是为了声援田纳西州孟斐斯市当地的废品收集工人，一名白人男子詹姆斯·厄尔·雷被审判并被判有罪。马丁·路德·金被谋杀引起大规模的社会动荡黑人暴动遍及一百多个城市一些受暴乱影响的城市地区多年没有重建。美国黑人民权运动仍在继续，暴力程度也在上升。这一运动给人们留下了愤怒而又苦涩的记忆，但与此同时，它也在美国历史上留下了很多伟大的演说。“当我们敲响自由之钟，让自由之声响彻每一个大小村庄、每一个州府县市，让自由之风吹的更猛烈些吧！直到那一天，所有的子民，不管您是黑人还是白人、犹太人还是外来人，也不管您是新教徒还是天主教徒，将能够携起手来，歌唱着那古老的黑人歌谣：‘我们自由啦，自由啦！感谢万能的上帝，我们终于自由啦！’”
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
