(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
This is Gwen Outen. And this is Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today we tell the story of athlete Jesse Owens. He once was the fastest runner in the world.
In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, people all over the world heard the name of Jesse Owens. That summer, Owens joined the best athletes from fifty nations to compete in the Olympic games. They met in Berlin, Germany. There was special interest in the Olympic games that year.
Adolf Hitler was the leader of Germany. Hitler and his Nazi party believed that white people -- especially German people – were the best race of people on Earth. They believed that other races of people -- especially those with dark skin -- were almost less than human.
In the summer of nineteen thirty-six, Hitler wanted to prove his beliefs to the world. He wanted to show that German athletes could win every important competition. After all, only a few weeks before the Olympics, German boxer Max Schmeling had defeated the great American heavyweight Joe Louis, a black man.
Jesse Owens was black, too. Until nineteen thirty-six, very few black athletes had competed in the Olympics for the United States. Owens was proud to be on the team. He was very sure of his ability.
"I think that this week is very sufficient for the boys on the United States Olympic team for the simple reason because we have been through a series of preliminary events in our country. And the training here that we are getting here is just a little tune-up for the Olympic games. Our hard training is really over. And the rain here is something that is going to help our team quite a bit because some of the boys has a tendency to work a little bit too hard. And I think that the rain is doing a good to slack up the training a bit."
Owens spent one week competing in four different Olympic track and field events in Berlin. During that time, he did not think much about the color of his skin, or about Adolf Hitler. Owens said later: "I was looking only at the finish line.
I thought of all the years of practice and competition, and of all who believed in me."
We do not know what Hitler thought of Jesse Owens. No one recorded what he said about this black man who ran faster and jumped farther than any man of any color at the Olympic games. But we can still see Jesse Owens as Hitler saw him. For at Hitler's request, motion pictures were made of the Berlin Olympic games.
The films show Jesse Owens as a thin, but powerfully-built young man with smooth brown skin and short hair. When he ran, he seemed to move without effort. When he jumped, as one observer said, he seemed to jump clear out of Germany.
Jesse Owens won the highest award -- the Gold Medal -- in all four of the Olympic competitions he entered. In the one-hundred meter run, he equaled the fastest time ever run in that Olympic event. In the long jump and the two-hundred meter run, he set new Olympic records. And as part of a four-man team, he helped set a new world record for the four-hundred meter relay race. He was the first American in the history of Olympic track and field events to win four Gold Medals in a single Olympics.
Owens's Olympic victories made him a hero. He returned home to parades in New York City and Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the state university. Businessmen paid him for the right to use his name on their stores. No one, however, offered him a permanent job.
For many years after the nineteen thirty-six Olympic games, Jesse Owens survived as best he could. He worked at small jobs. He even used his athletic abilities, but in a sad way. He earned money by running races against people, motorcycles and horses. He and his wife and three daughters saw both good times and bad times.
Poverty was not new to James Cleveland Owens. He was born in nineteen thirteen on a farm in the southern state of Alabama. He was the youngest of thirteen children. His parents did not own the farm, and earned little money. Jesse remembered that there was rarely enough food to eat. And there was not enough fuel to heat the house in winter.
Some of Jesse's brothers and sisters died while still young. Jesse was a sickly child. Partly because of this, and partly because of the racial hatred they saw around them, Jesse's parents decided to leave the South. They moved north, to Cleveland, Ohio, when Jesse was eight years old. The large family lived in a few small rooms in a part of the city that was neither friendly nor pleasant to look at.
Jesse's father was no longer young or strong. He was unable to find a good job. Most of the time, no one would give him any work at all. But Jesse's older brothers were able to get jobs in factories. So life was a little better than it had been in the South.
Jesse, especially, was lucky. He entered a school where one white teacher, Charles Riley, took a special interest in him. Jesse looked thin and unhealthy, and Riley wanted to make him stronger. Through the years that Jesse was in school, Riley brought him food in the morning. Riley often invited the boy to eat with his family in the evening. And every day before school, he taught Owens how to run like an athlete.
At first, the idea was only to make the boy stronger. But soon Riley saw that Jesse was a champion. By the time Jesse had completed high school, his name was known across the nation. Ohio State University wanted him to attend college there. While at Ohio State, he set new world records in several track and field events. And he was accepted as a member of the United States Olympic team.
Owens always remembered the white man who helped change his life. Charles Riley did not seem to care what color a person's skin was. Owens learned to think the same way.
Later in life, Owens put all his energy into working with young people. He wanted to tell them some of the things he had learned about life, work and success: That it is important to choose a goal and always work toward it. That there are good people in the world who will help you to reach your goal. That if you try again and again, you will succeed.
People who heard Owens's speeches said he spoke almost as well as he ran. Owens received awards for his work with boys and girls. The United States government sent him around the world as a kind of sports ambassador. The International Olympic Committee asked for his advice.
In about nineteen seventy, Jesse Owens wrote a book in which he told about his life. It was called "Blackthink." In the book, Owens denounced young black militants who blamed society for their troubles. He said young black people had the same chance to succeed in the United States as white people. Many black civil rights activists reacted angrily to these statements. They said what Owens had written was not true for everyone.
Owens later admitted that he had been wrong. He saw that not all blacks were given the same chances and help that he had been given. In a second book, Owens tried to explain what he had meant in his first book. He called it "I Have Changed." Owens said that, in his earlier book, he did not write about life as it was for everyone, but about life as it was for him.
He said he truly wanted to believe that if you think you can succeed--- and you really try -- then you have a chance. If you do not think you have a chance, then you probably will fail. He said these beliefs had worked for him. And he wanted all young people to believe them, too.
These were the same beliefs he tried to express when he spoke around the world about being an Olympic athlete. "The road to the Olympics," he said, "leads to no city, no country. It goes far beyond New York or Moscow, ancient Greece or Nazi Germany. The road to the Olympics leads -- in the end -- to the best within us."
In nineteen seventy-six, President Gerald Ford awarded Jesse Owens the Medal of Freedom. This is the highest honor an American civilian can receive. Jesse Owens died of cancer in nineteen eighty. His family members operate the Jesse Owens Foundation. It provides financial aid and support for young people to help them reach their goals in life.
重点解析
1.believe in 相信
Among the Greek philosophers we find that Pythagoras, Plato and their followers believed in this theory of Metempsychosis or Transmigration of souls.
我们发现，在希腊哲学家中，毕达哥拉斯和柏拉图以及他们的追随者相信灵魂轮回或转生。
2.part of一部分
He crystallized salt as part of his experiment.
他使盐结晶作为他的实验的一部分。
3.because of 由于
His business went under because of competition from the large corporations.
由于大公司的竞争，他的生意陷入了困境。
4.unable to 不能
The morale of the enemy soldiers degenerated, and they were unable to fight.
敌军士气低落，所以他们不能战斗。
5.as well as也
It can be implemented on the server side as well as the client side.
它既可以在服务器端实现，也可以在客户机端实现。
6.lead to导致
It leads to an almost limitless number of separate universes, each with its own laws of physics.
它所通向的结论是有着无限个相互独立的宇宙，各自都有不同的物理法则。
参考译文
我是格温·奥坦恩，我是史蒂夫·恩伯，这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。每周我们会讲述一位美国历史上的重要人物的故事。今天我们讲述运动员杰西·欧文斯的故事，他曾是世界上跑得最快的人。
1936年夏天，全世界的人们都听说了杰西·欧文斯的故事。那年夏天欧文斯和来自50个国家的最好的运动员在奥运会上同场竞技。那次奥运会在德国柏林举办。那年，人们对奥运会有着特别的兴趣。
阿道夫·希特勒是当时德国的领袖，希特勒和他的纳粹党认为白人——尤其是德国人——是地球上最好的种族。他们认为其他种族的人类——尤其是黑皮肤的人类——几乎算不得人类。
1936年夏天，希特勒想向全世界证明他的信念。他想展现德国的运动员可以赢得世界上所有重要的比赛。毕竟，那次奥运会前几周，德国拳击手马克斯·施梅林刚刚战胜了美国重量级选手乔·路易斯，后者为黑种人。
杰西·欧文斯也是黑人，1936年以前，很少有黑人运动员代表美国参加奥运会。欧文斯很自豪加入这一阵营，他对自己的能力非常自信。
“我认为这个星期对于美国奥运代表队的男人来说已经足够了，原因很简单，因为我们已经在我们国家经历了一系列的预赛。在这里的训练只不过是奥运会前一次小小的热身罢了，艰苦的训练真的已经结束了。这里的雨会对我们的球队有很大的帮助，因为一些队员倾向于在艰难的条件下竞争。我认为这场雨对放松训练是有些好处的。”
在柏林，欧文斯在一周的时间里参加了四项不同的奥运会田径项目。在那段时间里，他对自己的肤色和阿道夫·希特勒都不怎么在意。欧文斯后来说：“我的眼里只有终点线。
我想的是我多年来的练习和竞争，想的是所有相信我的人。
我们不知道希特勒对杰西·欧文斯的看法。没有人记录下希特勒对这个在奥运会上比任何肤色的人都跑得更快、跳得更远的黑人的评价。但是我们仍然可以像希特勒那样看到杰西·欧文斯。因为希特勒要求拍摄柏林奥运会的电影。
影片中杰西·欧文斯身材瘦削，但体格强壮，他有着光滑的棕色皮肤，留着短发。当他跑的时候，他似乎毫不费力。正如一位观众所说，当他跳起来的时候，他似乎完全跳出了德国。
杰西·欧文斯在他参加的所有四项奥运会比赛中都获得了最高奖项——金牌。在100米赛跑中，他追平了奥运会本项目中最快的赛跑成绩。在跳远和200米赛跑中，他创造了新的奥运纪录。作为四人团队的一员，他帮助创造了400米接力赛的新世界纪录。他是奥运田径史上首位在一届奥运会上获得四枚金牌的美国人。
欧文斯在奥运会上取得的胜利使他成为英雄。回到家乡后，他参加了在纽约和俄亥俄州哥伦布市举行的游行，并在那里上了州立大学。商人们付钱给欧文斯，想在他们的商店上使用欧文斯的名字。然而，没有人给他一份永久的工作。
在1936年奥运会之后的许多年里，杰西·欧文斯拼尽全力地活了下来。他做些小工作。他甚至运用了他的运动能力，但是是以一种悲哀的方式。他通过和人、摩托车和马赛跑来挣钱，他和妻子和三个女儿一块经历了好时光和不好的时光。
詹姆斯·克利夫兰·欧文斯对贫穷并不陌生。他于1913年出生在阿拉巴马州南部的一个农场。他是13个孩子中最小的一个。他的父母没有自己的农场，挣的钱很少。杰西记得那时候几乎没有足够的食物可以吃。冬天没有足够的燃料给房子供暖。
杰西的一些兄弟姐妹在还年轻的时候就死了。杰西是个体弱多病的孩子。因为这个，还有他们看到周围的种族仇恨，所以杰西的父母决定离开南方。杰西八岁时，他们搬到了俄亥俄州的克利夫兰。这个大家庭住在一个既不友好也不令人愉快的城市里的一些小房间里。
杰西的父亲不再年轻强壮了。他找不到一份好工作。大多数时候，没有人会给他任何工作。但是杰西的哥哥们能够在工厂找到工作。所以这里的生活比南方好一点。
杰西尤其幸运。他进入了一所学校，学校里有一位叫查尔斯·莱利的白人教师对他特别感兴趣。杰西看起来又瘦又不健康，莱利想让他更强壮。在杰西上学的那些年里，莱利每天早上给他带食物。莱利经常邀请这个男孩晚上和他的家人一起吃饭。每天上学前，他都教欧文斯如何像运动员一样跑步。
起初，这个想法只是为了让男孩更强壮。但是莱利很快发现杰西是当冠军的料。杰西高中毕业时，他的名字已经传遍全国。俄亥俄州立大学希望他在那里上大学。在俄亥俄州，他在几项田径项目上创造了新的世界纪录。而且他成为了美国奥运代表队的一员。
欧文斯一直记得那个帮助他改变生活的白人。查尔斯·莱利似乎并不关心一个人的皮肤是什么颜色。欧文斯也学会了用同样的方式思考。
后来，欧文斯把他所有的精力都投入到与年轻人的工作中。他想告诉他们一些他从生活、工作和成功中学到的东西：选择一个目标并一直朝着这个目标努力是很重要的。世界上有很多好人会帮助你达到你的目标。如果你一再尝试，你就会成功。
听欧文斯演讲的人说，他的演讲几乎和他跑得一样好。欧文斯因为帮助年轻人而获奖。美国政府派他到世界各地担任体育大使。国际奥委会也曾征求他的意见。
大概在1970年，杰西·欧文斯写了一本讲述他自己生活的书，名字叫《Blackthink》。在书中，欧文斯谴责了年轻的黑人激进分子，这些黑人把自己的问题归咎于社会。他说，年轻的黑人在美国获得成功的机会与白人相同。许多黑人民权活动家对这些表述作出了愤怒的反应。他们说欧文斯写的东西并不适用于所有人。
欧文斯后来承认他错了。他认识的到并不是所有的黑人都得到了和他一样的机会和帮助。在第二本书中，欧文斯试图解释他在第一本书中想表达的意思。欧文斯说自己已经变了，他说道，在自己前一本书中，他写的不是大家的生活，他写的是自己的生活。
他说他真的想相信，如果你认为你能成功——而且你真的尝试过——那么你就有机会。如果你认为你没有机会，那么你可能会失败。他说这些信念对他起了作用。他希望所有的年轻人也相信自己。
这些都是他在世界各地谈论成为一名奥林匹克运动员时试图表达的信念。欧文斯说“通向奥运会的路，是没有城市之分的，是没有国家之分的”。它远不止于纽约或莫斯科、古希腊或纳粹德国。通往奥运会的道路最终会引导我们走向内心的最佳境界。
1976年，时任美国总统的杰拉尔德·福特授予杰西·欧文斯自由勋章。这是美国公民能获得的最高的荣誉。1980年，杰西·欧文斯死于癌症。杰西的家人成立了杰西基金会，旨在给年轻人提供经济上的资助，以帮助他们实现自己的人生目标。
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