(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. America's eighteenth president, Ulysses Grant, was elected to his second term in eighteen seventy-two. Grant had led the Union army of the North to victory over the Confederate army of the South during the Civil War. He easily won the presidency in eighteen sixty-eight in the first election held after the war. Now, he would spend four more years as president of the United States. This week in our series, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell about Grant's second term in office. Grant's first administration was marked by dishonesty and shameful events. The situation grew much worse after he won a second term. Grant himself was not involved directly. But his administration suffered because of his ties to those who were involved. Soon after Grant's re-election, for example, there was a serious incident that involved many of his supporters in Congress. The Union Pacific Railroad Company had helped build a railroad across the American west to California. The cost of building the railroad was very high. The company got large amounts of aid from the government.
Not all this aid came honestly. An investigation showed that leading members of Congress, and even the Vice President, received shares of ownership in the company for free, or at low cost. In exchange, they voted to use federal money to help build the railroad. A few months later, members of Congress voted a pay raise for themselves and the executive branch of government. The pay raise would be retroactive. This meant the extra money would be paid for the two years already past. Newspapers and citizens raised a storm of protest. Some lawmakers were afraid they would not be re-elected. So they refused to accept the pay raise. Within six months, another shameful incident was uncovered. This one involved Jay Cooke, one of the richest bankers in the country. He also was a good friend of President Grant. In eighteen sixty-nine, Cooke began raising money to build another railroad across America's west. He planned to sell one hundred million dollars' worth of railroad bonds. Many people invested all the money they had in Cooke's railroad. But Cooke was unable to sell as many bonds as he expected. Soon, his banks had no money left. They could return no money to the thousands of people who had bought railroad bonds. People hurried to other banks to withdraw their savings. Within hours, many of these other banks had to close. They, too, were out of money. Within a month, more than five thousand banks across the country failed and closed their doors. This created an economic crisis.
The New York Stock Exchange closed for ten days. Factories closed. Thousands of people lost their jobs. Investigations showed that many of the banks that failed had violated banking laws. The laws often were not enforced, because so many bankers had given money to the ruling Republican Party. Other incidents followed. One of the biggest was called the Whiskey Ring. It involved a group of whiskey producers and some high officials who were friends of President Grant. Together, they found a way not to pay taxes on their whiskey. One of Grant's close advisers was at the center of the incident. A grand jury found him not guilty of any crime. However, it charged several hundred whiskey producers and government officials with illegal activities. President Grant had done nothing illegal. But the Whiskey Ring incident increased public feeling that there was no honesty in the White House. The feeling grew that Grant was a failure. These incidents took place during a time of intense social and political change in the United States. The period after the Civil War was a time of industrial revolution and business growth. Most of this growth was taking place in the North. Before the Civil War, most businesses were small. Now there were many companies with large numbers of workers. The companies also had large numbers of owners. They sold shares of ownership to anyone with enough money to buy.
A few men rose to positions of great power in business. In the steel industry, for example, there was Andrew Carnegie. He came to the United States as a boy from Scotland. He took a low-paying job in a factory that produced cotton cloth. He worked hard. In time, he earned enough money to take control of an iron factory. Carnegie soon built another factory. This one produced steel with a new technology. The system worked well. Soon, he was earning more than one million dollars a year. He competed fiercely with other steel companies. He pressured railroads to transport his steel for lower prices than his competitors. And he cut his prices to force other steel-makers out of the business. Before long, Andrew Carnegie was the unquestioned leader of America's steel industry. His position gave him great power over the economy of the whole country. What Carnegie did for the steel industry, John D. Rockefeller did for the oil industry. Oil became a useful product only in the middle of the eighteen hundreds. Rockefeller was part of a group of businessmen who built an oil processing center in Ohio. It was so successful that Rockefeller gave up his other business interests. He put all his money into oil production. He formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.
John D. Rockefeller's new company used the same aggressive business methods as Andrew Carnegie. Rockefeller bought control of other oil processing companies. He started price wars that forced his competitors out of business. Most important, Rockefeller made a secret deal with the railroads. The deal greatly reduced his transportation costs. This permitted him to crush his competition. Before long, he controlled ninety-five percent of the oil processing industry in the United States. As with steel and oil, America's railroads were an extremely important business in the eighteen-hundreds. In fact, they were the nation's biggest business. They were as important as automobiles and airplanes are to the American economy today. Before the Civil War, most railroads were east of the Mississippi River. Most were small lines. In the years after the war, four major railroads got control of almost all the lines in the east. And they began building new lines in the west. The first rail line to cross the nation was completed in eighteen sixty-nine. It was built by two companies. One company started from the east and went west. The other went in the opposite direction. Finally, after six years of back-breaking labor, the two work teams met in northern Utah. They connected the rail lines with a golden spike.
It was a great moment in the nation's history. Now, at last, the two coasts of the United States were united by a single line of metal rail. It was like the day -- a hundred years later -- when the first American walked on the moon. Like the steel and oil industries, the railroad industry also had its stories of intense business competition. In this case, the most influential man was Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt already was rich from the shipping industry. Now he formed the New York Central Railroad. It was the largest railroad in the east. Cornelius Vanderbilt tried to take over the railroad industry. He was not as successful as Andrew Carnegie with steel or John D. Rockefeller with oil. A group of other rich railroad owners blocked his plans. But Vanderbilt did succeed in winning a great amount of power and influence. Vanderbilt and the other new leaders of industry were powerful. And they let others know it. They sometimes made statements about how they did not have to obey the law. Other powerful men thought the same way. Some were officials elected or appointed to serve in the federal government. Political power blinded them to their responsibility to be honest and fair to the public. As a result, the Republican Party lost public support. The blame was placed on Ulysses Grant. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.because of 因为；由于
The game was postponed because of rain.
因为下雨，比赛延期了。
2.for free 免费的；为了免费
Buy a computer and you will get a package of software for free.
买一台电脑，附送一套软件。
3.a group of 一组；一群
Suddenly the door opened and a group of children burst in.
门突然打开，闯进了一群孩子。
4.succeed in 成功地做；取得成功
He went to law and did not succeed in his claim against us.
他告上了法庭，但没有告赢我们。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。美国第十八任总统尤利西斯·格兰特于1872年当选连任。格兰特在内战期间率领北方联邦部队战胜南方联盟国军队。在战后举行的第一次选举中，他轻松地赢得了1868年的总统职位。现在，他将再次出任四年美国总统。本周在我们的系列节目中，哈里·门罗和凯·格兰特将讲述格兰特第二个任期中发生的故事。格兰特的第一届政府以不诚实和可耻的事件为标志，他连任后情况变得更糟糕。格兰特本人没有直接参与，但是他的政府因为他和那些涉案人员的关系而蒙受损失。例如，在格兰特连任后不久，就发生了一个严重的事件，他在国会的许多支持者都参与其中。联合太平洋铁路公司帮助建造了一条横跨美国西部到加利福尼亚的铁路，修建铁路的费用很高，这家公司得到了政府的大量援助。
并非所有这些援助都是诚实的，一项调查显示，国会主要成员，甚至是副总统，免费或以低成本获得该公司的股份。作为交换，他们投票决定用联邦资金帮助修建铁路。几个月后，国会议员投票决定为自己和政府行政部门加薪。加薪是有反作用的，这意味着额外的钱款将支付过去两年的费用。报纸和公民掀起了一场抗议风暴，一些议员担心他们不会连任。所以，他们拒绝接受加薪。六个月内，又一起可耻的事件被揭露。其中一位是杰伊·库克，他是美国最富有的银行家之一，他也是总统格兰特的好朋友。1869年，库克开始筹集资金，在美国西部修建另一条铁路。他计划出售价值一亿美元的铁路债券。许多人把他们所有的钱款都投资在库克的铁路上，但是库克不能像他预期的那样卖出那么多债券。不久，他的银行就没有什么钱款剩下。他们无法向购买铁路债券的数千人返还钱款。人们匆忙到其他银行去取存款，几个小时内，许多其他银行不得不关闭。这些银行也没钱了。在一个月内，全国超过5000家银行倒闭并关门，这造成了一场经济危机。
纽约证券交易所关门十天，工厂关闭，数千人失业。调查显示，许多倒闭的银行都违反了银行法。这些法律经常得不到执行，因为许多银行家把钱都给了执政的共和党。其它事件接踵而至，其中最重要的一个事件称为威士忌戒指，包括一批威士忌生产商和一些高级官员，这些官员都是总统格兰特的朋友。他们找到了不纳税买酒的办法。和格兰特很亲近的一位顾问是事件的主要人物，大陪审团裁定他无罪。然而，它指控数百名威士忌生产商和政府官员从事非法活动。总统格兰特没做违法的事情，但威士忌戒指事件增加了公众对白宫官员不诚实的感觉。人们越来越觉得格兰特是个失败者。这些事件发生在美国社会和政治剧烈变革的时期，内战后是一个工业革命和商业增长的时期。这种增长大部分发生在北方。内战前，大多数企业规模都很小。而现在，有许多公司都雇有大量的工人。这些公司也有大量的所有者。他们把股份卖给任何有钱购买的人。
有几个人在商界获得了巨大的权力。例如，在钢铁行业，就有安德鲁·卡内基。他小时候从苏格兰来到美国。他在一家生产棉布的工厂里找了一份低薪工作。他努力工作，后来，赚了足够的钱来掌控一家钢铁厂。卡内基很快又建了一家工厂，这家公司采用新技术生产钢材。这个系统运行良好。很快，他一年的收入就超过一百万美元。他与其他钢铁公司竞争激烈，迫使铁路公司以低于竞争对手的价格运输他的钢铁。他还下调了价格，迫使其他钢铁制造商退出该行业。不久之后，安德鲁·卡内基就成为美国钢铁业无可争议的领导者。他的地位使他在整个国家的经济中掌控着很大的权力。卡内基为钢铁业所做的事，也是约翰·D·洛克菲勒为石油业所做的事情。石油在18世纪中期才成为有用的产品，洛克菲勒参与到一群商人中，他们在俄亥俄州建造一个石油加工中心。他们做得非常成功，洛克菲勒放弃了自己的其他商业收益，把所有钱都投入到石油生产中。他成立了俄亥俄州的标准石油公司。
约翰·D·洛克菲勒的新公司采用了与安德鲁·卡内基同样激进的商业方法。洛克菲勒收购了其他石油加工公司的控制权，他发动了价格战，迫使竞争对手停业。最重要的是，洛克菲勒与铁路公司达成了一项秘密协议。这笔交易大大降低了他的运输成本，这使他击败了他的对手。不久，他控制了全美95%的石油加工产业。与钢铁和石油一样，美国的铁路在18世纪是一项极其重要的产业。事实上，他们是美国最大的企业，就像现在汽车和飞机对美国经济的重要性一样。内战前，大多数铁路都在密西西比河以东，大多数是小段铁路。战后几年，四条主要铁路线几乎控制了东部所有的线路。他们开始在西部修建新的铁路线。第一条横穿全国的铁路线于1869年竣工，它是由两家公司建造的。一家公司从东部向西建造，另一家则方向相反。最后，经过六年辛苦的劳动，两个工作队在犹他州北部相遇。他们用一根金钉子把铁路连接起来。
这是美国历史上的一个伟大时刻。现在，美国的东西海岸终于由一条金属铁路线连接起来。其重要性就像一百年后，第一个美国人登上月球的那一天。与钢铁和石油行业一样，铁路行业也有着激烈的商业竞争。在这种情况下，最有影响力的人是科尼利厄斯·范德比尔特。范德比尔特在航运业已经很富有了。现在，他组建了纽约中央铁路，这是东部规模最大的铁路。科尼利厄斯·范德比尔特试图接管铁路业，他在钢铁业不如安德鲁·卡内基，在石油业不如约翰·D·洛克菲勒。一群其他有钱的铁路业主阻止了他的计划。但是，范德比尔特确实成功地赢得了巨大的权力和影响力。范德比尔特和其他工业界的新领导人都很有权势，他们让别人知道这一点。有时，他们会说他们不必遵守法律。其他有权势的人也这样想，有些被选举或任命为联邦政府的官员。政治权力蒙蔽了他们要对公众诚实和公正的责任。结果，共和党失去了公众的支持。这归咎于尤利西斯·格兰特。这将是我们下周要讲述的故事。
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