(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Today, we tell about slavery, and how it affected the history of the United States. Slavery is one person controlling or owning another. Some history experts say it began following the development of farming about ten thousand years ago. People forced prisoners of war to work for them. Other slaves were criminals or people who could not re-pay money they owed. Experts say the first known slaves existed in the Sumerian society of what is now Iraq more than five thousand years ago. Slavery also existed among people in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas. It expanded as trade and industry increased. This increase created a demand for a labor force to produce goods for export. Slaves did most of the work. Most ancient people thought of slavery as a natural condition that could happen to anyone at any time. Few saw it as evil or unfair. In most cities, slaves could be freed by their owners and become citizens. In later times, slaves provided the labor needed to produce products that were in demand. Sugar was one of these products. Italians established large sugar farms beginning around the twelfth century. They used slaves from Russia and other parts of Europe to do the work. By the year thirteen hundred, African blacks had begun to replace the Russian slaves.
They were bought or captured from North African Arabs, who used them as slaves for years. By the fifteen hundreds, Spain and Portugal had American colonies. The Europeans made native Indians work in large farms and mines in the colonies. Most of the Indians died from European diseases and poor treatment. So the Spanish and Portuguese began to bring in people from West Africa as slaves. France, Britain and the Netherlands did the same in their American colonies. England's southern colonies in North America developed a farm economy that could not survive without slave labor. Many slaves lived on large farms called plantations. These large farms produced important crops traded by the colony, crops such as cotton and tobacco. Each plantation was like a small village owned by one family. That family lived in a large house, usually facing a river. Many separate buildings were needed on a plantation. For example, a building was needed for cooking. And buildings were needed for workers to produce goods such as furniture that were used on the plantation. The plantation business was farming. So there also were barns for animals and buildings for holding and drying crops. There was a house to smoke meat so could be kept safely.
And there was a place on the river from which goods were sent to England on ships. The plantation owner controlled the farm and saw that it earned money. He supervised, fed and clothed the people living on it, including the slaves. Big plantations might have two hundred slaves. They worked in the fields on crops that would be sold or eaten by the people who lived on the plantation. They also raised animals for meat and milk. Field slaves worked very long and hard. They worked each day from the time the sun rose until it set. Many of these slaves lived in extremely poor conditions in small houses with no heat or furniture. Sometimes, five or ten people lived together in one room. House slaves usually lived in the owner's house. They did the cooking and cleaning in the house. House slaves worked fewer hours than field slaves, but were more closely supervised by the owner and his family. Laws approved in the southern colonies made it illegal for slaves to marry, own property or earn their freedom. These laws also did not permit slaves to be educated, or even to learn to read. But some owners permitted their slaves to earn their freedom, or gave them money for good work. Other owners punished slaves to get them to work. These punishments included beatings, withholding food and threatening to sell members of a slave's family.
Some plantation owners executed slaves suspected of serious crimes by hanging them or burning them alive. History experts say that people who were rich enough to own many slaves became leaders in their local areas. They were members of the local governments. They attended meetings of the legislatures in the capitals of their colonies usually two times a year. Slave owners had the time and the education to greatly influence political life in the southern colonies, because the hard work on their farms was done by slaves. Today, most people in the world condemn slavery. That was not true in the early years of the American nation. Many Americans thought slavery was evil, but necessary. Yet owning slaves was common among the richer people in the early seventeen hundreds. Many of the leaders in the colonies who fought for American independence owned slaves. This was true in the northern colonies as well as the southern ones. One example is the famous American diplomat, inventor and businessman Benjamin Franklin. He owned slaves for thirty years and sold them at his general store. But his ideas about slavery changed during his long life. Benjamin Franklin started the first schools to teach blacks and later argued for their freedom.
Slavery did not become a force in the northern colonies mainly because of economic reasons. Cold weather and poor soil could not support such a farm economy as was found in the South. As a result, the North came to depend on manufacturing and trade. Trade was the way colonists got the English goods they needed. It was also the way to earn money by selling products found in the New World. New England became a center for such trade across the seas. The people who lived there became shipbuilders so they could send the products to England. They used local wood to build the ships. They also sold wood and wood products. They became businessmen carrying goods around the world. The New England shipbuilding towns near the Atlantic Ocean grew quickly as a result. The largest of these towns was Boston, Massachusetts. By seventeen twenty, it had more than ten thousand people. Only two towns in England were larger: London and Bristol. More than twenty-five percent of the men in Boston had invested in shipping or worked in it. Ship captains and businessmen held most of the public offices. The American colonies traded goods such as whale oil, ginger, iron, wood, and rum, an alcoholic drink made from sugarcane.
Ships carried these goods from the New England colonies to Africa. There, they were traded for African people. The Africans had been captured by enemy tribesmen and sold to African slave traders. The New England boat captains would buy as many as they could put on their ships. The conditions on these ships were very cruel. The Africans were put in so tightly they could hardly move. Some were chained. Many killed themselves rather than live under such conditions. Others died of sicknesses they developed on the ship. Yet many did survive the trip, and became slaves in the southern colonies, or in the Caribbean islands. Black slaves were needed to work on Caribbean sugar plantations. The southern American colonies needed them to work on the tobacco and rice plantations. By seventeen fifty, almost twenty-five percent of the total number of people in the American colonies were black slaves. From the fifteen hundreds to the eighteen hundreds, Europeans sent about twelve million black slaves from Africa to America. Almost two million of them died on the way. History experts say English ships carried the greatest number of Africans into slavery. One slave ship captain came to hate what he was doing, and turned to religion. His name was John Newton. He stopped taking part in slave trade and became a leader in the Anglican Church. He is famous for having written this song, "Amazing Grace".
重点解析
1.fight for 为…而战，而奋斗
He readied himself to fight for freedom.
他准备为自由而战斗。
2.taking part in 参与
They make you think you're taking part in the decisions, but it's all cut and dried.
他们使你觉得你也参与决定， 其实早已内定了。
3.as a result 结果
As a result, the bad thing has been turned into a good one.
结果坏事变成了好事。
4.attended meeting 出席了会议
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Chinese Ambassador to Chile Lv Fan attended the meeting.
外交部长杨洁篪、中国驻智利大使吕凡参加上述会见。
5.famous for 以…著称，闻名
I like Japanese food because it is famous for being fresh.
我喜欢日本食物，因为它为是著名的新鲜的。
参考译文
今天，我们为您讲述奴隶制及其对美国历史的影响。奴隶制指的是一个人控制或占有另一个人。一些历史学家表示，奴隶制从一万年前农业发展就开始了。战俘、罪犯或无法偿还欠款的人沦为奴隶。专家表示，已知的第一批奴隶出现在5000多年前的苏美尔社会，也就是现在的伊拉克一带。奴隶制也存在于中国、印度、非洲、中东和美洲地区。奴隶制随着贸易和工业的增长而有所扩大。贸易和工业的发展增加了出口商品生产的劳动力需求，从而带动了奴隶制的发展。古代的大多数人认为，奴隶制是自然产生的，可能在任何时候，任何人身上发生。没有人认为奴隶制是邪恶或不公的。在大多数城市，奴隶可以被奴隶主释放，成为公民。后来，奴隶为产品生产提供了必要的劳动力。蔗糖就是一个例子。12世纪前后，意大利人建立了大型蔗糖农场。他们使用来自俄罗斯和欧洲其它地区的奴隶。到一千三百年，非洲黑人奴隶开始取代俄罗斯的奴隶。这些人是从北非阿拉伯人手中买来或俘获的，多年来一直作为奴隶使用。到16世纪时，西班牙和葡萄牙已在美洲建立了殖民地。欧洲人让土著印第安人在殖民地的大农场和矿山做工。大多数印第安人死于欧洲疾病和虐待。因此，西班牙人和葡萄牙人开始从西非引进奴隶。法国、英国和荷兰在其美洲殖民地也采取了同样的做法。英格兰在北美的南部殖民地发展了一种完全依靠奴隶的农业经济。许多奴隶住在被称为种植园的大农场里。这些大农场生产重要作物，如棉花和烟草，由殖民地交易。
每个种植园就像一个家庭小农庄，住在面朝河流的大房子里。种植园里还有许多独立的建筑。例如，厨房、工人生产商品（比如种植园里使用的家具）的作坊。种植园的业务是农业。所以也有谷仓以及用于存放和晾晒农作物的场地。还有用于熏肉的地方、河边设有码头，码头上的货物通过船只运往英国。种植园主控制着农场，依靠农场盈利，种植园主管理着农场里的所有人（包括奴隶），并为他们提供食物和衣服。大的种植园可能有200名奴隶。他们在田地里耕种，供种植园里的人们出售或食用。他们还饲养动物以获取肉类和牛奶。田地里干活的奴隶工作时间很长，特别辛苦，日出而做，日落而息。许多奴隶住在条件极其恶劣，没有暖气，也没有家具的小房子里。有时候，一个房间里要住上五个人，或者十个人。家宅奴隶通常住在主人的房子里，负责做饭和打扫卫生。他们的工作时间比农奴短，但在主人一家的严格监督之下。法律规定，南方殖民地的奴隶结婚、拥有财产或获得自由都是非法的。法律也不允许奴隶接受教育，甚至不允许他们看书学习。但有些奴隶主却用自由或者金钱的方式奖励表现较好的奴隶。其他奴隶主则惩罚表现较差的奴隶，包括殴打，扣留食物，威胁卖掉其家庭成员。
一些种植园主通过绞刑或活活烧死的方式来处决那些被怀疑犯有严重罪行的奴隶。历史学家表示，当地的领袖都是拥有许多奴隶的富裕的种植园主。他们是地方政府官员，通常一年两次参加殖民地首府的立法会议。奴隶主有时间和知识来极大地影响南方殖民地的政治生活，因为奴隶们承担着农场的辛勤工作。时至今日，世界上大多数人谴责奴隶制美国建国初期的人们并不这样认为。许多美国人认为奴隶制虽然罪恶的但却是必要的。然而在十八世纪早期，富人拥有奴隶是很普遍的一件事情。许多参加美国独立战争的殖民地领袖们也是奴隶主。北方殖民地和南方殖民地皆是如此。美国著名的外交家、发明家、商人本杰明•富兰克林就是一个例子。他拥有奴隶长达三十年，并在其杂货店里出售奴隶。但他的一生对奴隶制的看法发生了改变。本杰明•富兰克林创办了第一所黑人学校，后来努力为黑人争取自由。奴隶制并没有成为北方殖民地的一股力量，主要是因为经济原因。寒冷的天气和贫瘠的土壤无法支撑像南方那样的农业经济。结果，北方开始依赖制造业和贸易。通过贸易，殖民者获得所需的英国商品，也能销售新大陆的产品。新英格兰成为了跨国贸易的中心。当地人建造船只，以便把产品运到英国。造船的材料是当地的木材，他们还销售木材和木制品。把产品销往世界各地。因此，位于大西洋附近的新英格兰造船城镇迅速发展。
其中最大的是马萨诸塞州的波士顿。到1720年，波士顿已经高达一万多人。仅次于英国的伦敦和布里斯托尔。波士顿超过25%的男性曾投资或从事过航运工作。政府大多数官员都是船长和商人。美洲殖民地买卖的商品包括鲸脂油、生姜、铁、木材和朗姆酒，朗姆酒是一种用甘蔗制成的酒精饮料。船只把这些货物从新英格兰殖民地运到非洲，用来交换非洲人。这些非洲人被敌国部落俘虏然后卖给非洲奴隶贩子。新英格兰的船长们会换取尽可能多的奴隶。船上的条件非常恶劣，非洲人紧挨在一起，几乎动弹不得。一些人还被锁链拴着，许多人宁愿自杀也不愿生活在这样的条件下。还有人病死在床上。然而，许多人幸存了下来，成为南部殖民地或加勒比群岛的奴隶。加勒比的甘蔗种植园需要黑人奴隶。南美殖民地需要他们在烟草和水稻种植园工作。到1750年，在美国殖民地的人口中，将近25%是黑奴。从16世纪到19世纪，欧洲人从非洲向美洲运送了大约1200万黑奴。其中近200万人死于途中。历史学家表示，推动非洲人成为奴隶主要来自英国的船只。一名奴隶船长开始憎恨他所做的事情，转而信仰宗教。他的名字叫约翰•牛顿。约翰•牛顿停止了奴隶贸易，成为英国国教的领袖。他还写了著名的歌曲“奇异恩典”。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
