(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Today, we tell about the administration of the thirty-ninth president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. It is January twentieth, nineteen seventy-seven. Inauguration Day. America's newly elected president, Jimmy Carter, is on his way to the White House after his swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol building. But the new president is not riding in a car. He is walking. His wife, Rosalynn, and his daughter, Amy, walk with him. Crowds along Pennsylvania Avenue cheer. Bands play. On this cold day in Washington, Americans look to the future. Watergate -- the crisis that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon -- is several years in the past. The Vietnam War is history, too. Republican Gerald Ford served the remaining years of Nixon's term. Many people believe he brought respect and order back to the government. Yet he lost the office to Democrat Jimmy Carter in the election of Nineteen-Seventy-Six.
The nation still has problems. Unemployment is high. So is inflation. But the future of the nation looks bright. Jimmy Carter feels sure about his future, too. On the day before his inauguration, he said: CARTER: "I do feel that the people of this nation and, I think, the entire world wish me well and want to see me succeed as president. And that gives me a sense of reassurance and confidence. I think I'm ready now to be president."During the election campaign, Carter often said he would be different from other presidents. He was not a member of the Washington political establishment. So he would do things in his own independent way. Carter was from Georgia -- the "Deep South" of the United States. There had not been a president born in the South in more than one-hundred years. Carter studied nuclear engineering and attended the United States Naval Academy. He planned to stay in the Navy. Then his father died. And he decided to return to Georgia to operate the family peanut farm.
Carter began his political life on the committee that supervised schools in his hometown. He also served in other local offices. In nineteen sixty-six, he failed to win the Democratic nomination for governor of Georgia. For the next four years, he traveled around the state gathering support. He won the next election. As governor, Carter earned praise for reorganizing the state government. He also reformed state programs dealing with prisons and mental health care. In nineteen seventy-two, he offered himself as a candidate for vice president with presidential candidate George McGovern. But the Democratic Party chose someone else. Carter did not wait long to begin his next political move. He would try to win the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen seventy-six. Jimmy Carter was not well-known outside the state of Georgia. Political experts gave him little chance. Even his mother was surprised to learn that he wanted to be president. "President of what?" she asked. The farmer and former governor had a plan, however. He would try to win his party's primary elections in the South.
He believed this would give him enough support at the party convention to win the nomination. Other Democratic candidates tried to stop him, but his plan worked. By the time of the convention, he had enough support to win the nomination on the first ballot. In the general election, Carter defeated President Ford by about two percent of the popular vote. He lost in the West and Middle West, but won the South and Northeast. President Carter believed strongly in human rights. He hoped he could use his new position to support human rights throughout the world. On this and other issues, he was not afraid of being criticized when he believed he was right. For example, he believed it was right for the United States to end its control of the Panama Canal. He won Congressional support for treaties to give control to Panama by the year two thousand. He believed it was right to give diplomatic recognition to Communist China. And he believed it was right to continue negotiations with the Soviet Union about limiting nuclear weapons, even though he denounced human rights violations there.
In nineteen seventy-nine, Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT Two treaty. However, Carter decided not to send the treaty to the Senate for approval after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan later that year. One of the finest moments of his presidency took place at Camp David. That is the holiday home of American presidents. There, in March nineteen seventy-nine, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt met with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel. They signed a peace treaty ending thirty years of war between their countries. Both men said the treaty would not have been possible without President Carter's help. President Carter was not as successful in dealing with the economy. High unemployment and inflation continued. The federal deficit increased, although he had promised to end it. And there was a shortage of gasoline. The shortage resulted when oil-producing countries limited production and exports. Carter urged American companies to develop new sources of energy, in addition to oil. He said the United States must do this, because it could not always depend on getting enough oil from other countries. During the gasoline shortage, Americans had to wait in long lines to buy fuel.
They did not like it and were angry. Many were even more angry about a different situation. Like the gasoline shortage, it was a result of actions in another place. In November nineteen seventy-nine, Muslim extremists in Iran seized the American Embassy in Tehran. They took many hostages, including more than sixty Americans. The extremists said they were punishing the United States for being friendly with ousted Iranian leader, Shah Reza Pahlavi. The extremists refused to negotiate. They refused to release the hostages. In early April nineteen eighty, President Carter broke relations with Iran. He then ordered American military forces to try to rescue the hostages in Tehran. The operation failed. A sandstorm caused two of the aircraft to crash into each other. They went down in the desert hundreds of kilometers away. The failed rescue attempt had a major effect on the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Many Americans felt it showed that he could not do the job. Their respect for him continued to decrease as the hostages continued to be held. Other things were beginning to go wrong, too.
The president's younger brother admitted receiving a large amount of money from Libya. He took the money in exchange for supporting Libyan interests with American lawmakers. His mistake was that he did not list his name as a representative of a foreign government. Nineteen eighty was a presidential election year in the United States. President Carter was expected to be the candidate of the Democratic Party. He almost ruined his chances, however, because of the situation in Iran. Carter hoped that concern for the hostages would unite the country behind him. Instead, support turned to blame. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts believed he could defeat Carter for the nomination. Kennedy won several important Democratic primary elections. It was not enough. The party re-nominated Carter. Kennedy offered Carter his support, but not very strongly. This left the party divided. The Republicans got ready to win back the White House. They hoped to do it with a strong appeal to American voters. The appeal came from a man who would become one of America's most popular presidents -- Ronald Reagan. That will be our story next time.
重点解析
1. former governor 前州长
Soon after I entered the race, former governor Jerry Brown of California also announced.
我参选后不久,加利福尼亚州前任州长杰里.布朗也宣布参选 。
2. primary elections 初选;预选
Palmer wins the Super Tuesday Primary election, sweeping California and all eleven other states.
帕默在总统竞选初选日获胜,在加州和其它11个州以大比数胜选 。
3. Democratic Party 民主党
Public opinion turned against the Democratic Party.
舆论对民主党不利 。
4. respect for 尊重…;对…的尊敬
His accomplishments earned respect for him.
他的成就赢得了人们的尊敬 。
5. crash into 闯入;撞到…上
Along the way, his pursuers would crash into each other in their attempts to stop him.
这样,他的追赶者在试图阻挡的过程中就撞成一团了 。
参考译文
今天,我们为您讲述美国第39任总统吉米·卡特
。1977年1月20日是美国总统就职日 。美国新当选总统吉米·卡特在国会大厦宣誓就职后将前往白宫 。卡特以步代车,他的妻子罗莎琳和女儿艾米陪伴左右 。宾夕法尼亚大街上的人群欢呼雀跃,还有乐队演奏 。在华盛顿这个寒冷的日子,美国人民展望着未来 。导致理查德·尼克松总统辞职的水门事件已过去多年 。越南战争也被载入历史 。共和党人杰拉尔德·福特完成了尼克松总统的最后几年任期 。许多人认为福特让政府重新有了尊严和秩序 。然而,1976年的选举中,福特输给了民主党人吉米·卡特 。美国仍然面临很多问题,失业率居高不下,通货膨胀严重 。但是前景似乎是光明的,吉米·卡特也对自己的未来充满信心 。他在就职的前一天说道:“我确实感到,美国人民乃至全世界人民都希望我能做一个成功的总统 。这让我觉得很安稳,信心倍增,我想我已经准备好当总统了 。”竞选期间,卡特经常说他和其他总统有所不同 。他不是华盛顿政治的圈内人
就连他的母亲在得知他想参选总统也颇为惊讶
。“什么,总统?”,母亲问道 。然而,这位农民和前州长有一个计划 。他将努力赢得南方各州的党内初选,他认为,到党内提名的时候,他就会有足够的支持了其他民主党候选人试图阻止他,但没有成功 。民主党总统候选人提名大会召开的时候,卡特在第一轮投票中就赢得了提名 。总统大选中,卡特的票数比福特多出将近百分之二 。卡特在西部和中西部票选落后,但在南部和东北部则占据优势 。卡特总统坚信人权 。他希望身为美国总统,能更好地推动世界各地人权的进步 。在这类问题上,他只要认准了,就绝不怕别人批评 。例如,他认为美国应该结束对巴拿马运河的控制 。他赢得了国会的支持,签署了协议,2000年放弃巴拿马的控制权 。外交方面,卡特认为应该承认共产主义中国 。他认为美国应该继续与苏联就限制核武器进行谈判,尽管苏联存在侵犯人权的行为 。1979年,卡特和苏联领导人勃列日涅夫签署了第二阶段限制战略武器条约 。然而,1979年下半年苏联入侵阿富汗后,卡特决定不将条约提交参议院批准
1979年11月,伊朗的穆斯林极端分子占领了美国驻德黑兰大使馆
。他们劫持了许多人质,包括60多名美国人 。极端分子说,他们这样做是为了惩罚美国,因为美国与被罢黜的伊朗领导人巴列维关系友好 。极端分子拒绝谈判,拒绝释放人质 。1980年4月初,卡特总统断绝了与伊朗的外交关系 。然后命令美国军队设法营救德黑兰的美国人质 。营救行动失败,一场沙尘暴让两架飞机相撞,在距离德黑兰几百公里的沙漠里坠机 。这次失败的救援行动对吉米·卡特的总统任期产生了重大影响 。许多美国人认为这表明他不能胜任总统这份职务 。随着人质事件的持续发酵,美国民众对卡特的尊敬也逐渐减少 。祸不单行,卡特总统的弟弟承认从利比亚得到了一大笔钱 。他接受了这笔钱,作为交换,他将和和美国议员一起支持利比亚的利益
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