(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Today, we tell about the start of the American colonies' war for independence from Britain in the late seventeen hundreds. The road to revolution lasted several years. The most serious events began in seventeen seventy. War began five years later. Relations between Britain and its American colonists were most tense in the colony of Massachusetts. There were protests against the British policy of taxing the colonies without giving them representation in Parliament. To prevent trouble, thousands of British soldiers were sent to Boston, the biggest city in Massachusetts. On March fifth, seventeen seventy, tension led to violence. This is what happened. It was the end of winter, and the weather was very cold. A small group of colonists began throwing rocks and pieces of ice at soldiers guarding a public building. They were joined by others, and the soldiers became frightened. They fired their guns. Five colonists were killed. The incident became known as the Boston Massacre. The people of Massachusetts were extremely angry. The soldiers were tried in court for murder. Most were found innocent. The others received minor punishments. Fearing more violence, the British Parliament cancelled most of its taxes. Only the tax on tea remained.
This eased some of the tensions for a while. Imports of British goods increased. The colonists seemed satisfied with the situation, until a few years later. That is when the Massachusetts colony once again became involved in a dispute with Britain. The trouble started because the British government wanted to help improve the business of the British East India Company. That company organized all the trade between India and other countries ruled by Britain. By seventeen seventy-three, the company had become weak. The British government decided to permit it to sell tea directly to the American colonies. The colonies would still have to pay a tea tax to Britain. The Americans did not like the new plan. They felt they were being forced to buy their tea from only one company. Officials in the colonies of Pennsylvania and New York sent the East India Company's ships back to Britain. In Massachusetts, things were different. The British governor there wanted to collect the tea tax and enforce the law. When the ships arrived in Boston, some colonists tried to block their way. The ships remained just outside the harbor without unloading their goods. On the night of December sixteenth, seventeen seventy-three, a group of colonists went out in a small boat.
They got on a British ship and threw all the tea into the water. The colonists were dressed as American Indians so the British would not recognize them, but the people of Boston knew who they were. A crowd gathered to cheer them. That incident -- the night when British tea was thrown into Boston harbor -- became known as the Boston Tea Party. Destroying the tea was a serious crime. The British government was angry. Parliament reacted to the Boston Tea Party by punishing the whole colony of Massachusetts for the actions of a few men. It approved a series of laws that once again changed relations between the colony and Britain. One of these laws closed the port of Boston until the tea was paid for. Other laws strengthened the power of the British governor and weakened the power of local colonial officials. In June, seventeen seventy-four, the colony of Massachusetts called for a meeting of delegates from all the other colonies to consider joint action against Britain. This meeting of colonial delegates was called the First Continental Congress. It was held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September, seventeen seventy-four. All the colonies except one was represented.
The southern colony of Georgia did not send a delegate. The delegates agreed that the British Parliament had no right to control trade with the American colonies or to make any laws that affected them. They said the people of the colonies must have the right to take part in any legislative group that made laws for them. The First Continental Congress approved a series of documents that condemned all British actions in the American colonies after seventeen sixty-three. It approved a Massachusetts proposal saying that the people could use weapons to defend their rights. It also organized a Continental Association to boycott British goods and to stop all exports to any British colony or to Britain itself. Local committees were created to enforce the boycott. One of the delegates to this First Continental Congress was John Adams of Massachusetts. Many years later, he said that by the time the meeting was held, the American Revolution had already begun. Britain's King George the Second announced that the New England colonies were in rebellion. Parliament made the decision to use troops against Massachusetts in January, seventeen seventy-five.
The people of Massachusetts formed a provincial assembly and began training men to fight. Soon, groups of armed men were doing military exercises in towns all around Massachusetts and in other colonies, too. British officers received their orders in April, seventeen seventy-five. By that time, the colonists had been gathering weapons in the town of Concord, about thirty kilometers west of Boston. The British forces were ordered to seize the weapons. But the colonists knew they were coming and were prepared. Years later, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about what happened. The poem tells about the actions of Paul Revere, one of three men who helped warn the colonial troops that the British were coming: Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town tonight Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light, -- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm For the country folk to be up and to arm." When the British reached the town of Lexington, they found it protected by about seventy colonial troops.
These troops were called "Minute Men" because they had been trained to fight with only a minute's warning. Guns were fired. Eight colonists were killed. No one knows who fired the first shot in that first battle of the American Revolution. Each side accused the other. But the meaning was very clear. It was called "the shot heard round the world." From Lexington, the British marched to Concord, where they destroyed whatever supplies the colonists had not been able to save. Other colonial troops rushed to the area. A battle at Concord's north bridge forced the British to march back to Boston. It was the first day of America's war for independence. When it was over, almost three hundred British troops had been killed. Fewer than one hundred Americans had died. The British troops had marched in time with their drummers and pipers. The musicians had played a song called "Yankee Doodle." The British invented the song to insult the Americans. They said a Yankee Doodle was a man who did not know how to fight. After the early battles of the revolution, the Americans said they were glad to be Yankee Doodles. Following the battles at Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts government organized a group that captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York State. The other colonies began sending troops to help. And another joint colonial meeting was called: the Second Continental Congress. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.Second Continental Congress 第二届大陆会议
Finally, in1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed a committee, headed by Thomas jefferson, to draft a declaration of independence.
最后,在1776年,第二届大陆会议指定一个委员会,由托马斯?杰斐逊牵头起草了一份《独立宣言》 。
2.reacted to 反应
Think about how your parents have reacted to other situations.
想想你的父母对于其他情况的反应 。
3.sent back to 送回
If something is not right, the form is sent back to the second step for rework.
如果某些项不正确,那么表单将被发送回第二步骤进行重新审核 。
4.fight with 与…并肩战斗
“The next time,” says Cressman, “we’ll fight with new tools”.
“下次,”克雷斯曼说,“我们将使用新的武器进行战斗” 。
参考译文
今天,我们为您讲述18世纪末美国的独立战争
。革命之路持续了好几年,发生的最严重事件是在1770年,五年后战争开始了 。英国和美国殖民者之间的关系在马萨诸塞州最为紧张 。英国征税无代表的的政策遭到了殖民地的抗议 。为了控制局势,数千名英国士兵被派往马萨诸塞州最大的城市波士顿 。1770年3月5日,紧张局势演变成暴力冲突 。事情是这样的 。冬末,天气依然很冷 。一小群殖民者开始向守卫一座公共大楼的士兵投掷石块和冰块 。人数越来越多,士兵们都吓坏了 。他们开枪了 。五名殖民者被杀 。这一事件被称为波士顿大屠杀 。这一事件引起了麻萨诸塞居民的极度愤慨 。士兵们因谋杀罪受审 。大多数人被判无罪 。其他人则受到了轻微的惩罚 。由于担心更多暴力事件的发生,英国议会取消了大部分税收 。只留下茶叶税 。税务取消暂时缓解了紧张局势 。殖民地进口的英国商品增加了 。殖民者似乎对这种情况感到满意,几年后,马萨诸塞殖民地再次卷入了与英国的争端 。英国政府希望帮助改善英属东印度公司的业务 。英属东印度公司控制着印度和英国其他殖民地之间的贸易 。到了1773年,东印度公司经营越来越差 。英国政府决定允许东印度公司直接向美洲殖民地出售茶叶
该会议于1774年9月在宾夕法尼亚州的费城举行
。除了南殖民地格鲁吉亚没有派代表,所有殖民地都派代表出席了会议 。代表们一致认为,英国议会无权控制与美国殖民地的贸易,也无权制定任何殖民地的法律 。他们表示,殖民地人民必须有权参加任何涉及自身利益的立法会议 。第一届大陆会议通过了一系列文件,谴责1763年后英国在美洲殖民地的所有行为 。会议批准了马萨诸塞州的一项提议,声称人们可以使用武器来捍卫自己的权利 。还组织了一个大陆联合会以抵制英国商品,并停止向任何英国殖民地或英国出口商品 。地方委员会负责实施抵制行动 。第一届大陆会议的代表之一是马萨诸塞州的约翰•亚当斯 。多年以后,他说,在这次会议召开的时候,美国革命就已经开始了 。英国国王乔治二世宣布新英格兰殖民地处于叛乱状态 。1775年1月,国会决定出军镇压马萨诸塞州 。马萨诸塞人组建省议会,开始进行军事训练 。不久,成群的武装人员在马萨诸塞州周围的城镇和其他殖民地进行军事演习 。1775年4月,英国收到命令 。当时,殖民者正在波士顿以西大约30公里的康科德镇收集武器英国军队奉命没收了这些武器 。但是殖民者做好了抵抗的准备 。多年后,亨利•沃兹沃斯•朗费罗写了一首诗,描述当时的情景 。这首诗写的是保罗•里维尔的行动,保罗•里维尔是帮助警告殖民地军队英国即将到来的三个人之一:孩子们,你们听到的是保罗•里维尔午夜骑马的故事 。七十五年四月十八日几乎没有人活到现在谁记得年份和日子
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