(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. Soon after the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty-five, thousands of Americans began to move west to settle the land. The great movement of settlers continued for almost forty years. The great empty West, in time, became fully settled. The discovery of gold had already started a great movement to California. This week in our series, Robert Bostic and Leo Scully tell about the gold rush and the important part cowboys played in settling the West. Men had rushed to the gold fields with hopes of becoming rich. A few found gold. The others found only hard work and high prices. When their money was gone, they gave up the search for gold. But they stayed in California to become farmers or businessmen or laborers. Some never gave up the search for riches. They moved back toward the east, searching for gold and silver in the wild country between California and the Mississippi river. Men found gold and silver in Nevada, and then in the Idaho and Montana territories. Other gold strikes were made in the Arizona territory, in Colorado and in the Dakota territory.
Each new gold rush brought more people from the east. Mining camps quickly grew into towns with stores, hotels, even newspapers. Most of these towns, however, lived only as long as gold was easy to find. Then they began to die. In some of the gold centers, big mining companies bought up all the land from those who first claimed it. These companies brought in mining machines that could dig out the gold from deep underground and separate it from the rock that held it. These companies needed equipment and other supplies. Transportation companies were formed. They carried supplies to the mining camps in huge wagon trains pulled by slow-moving oxen. Roads were built, and in some places, railroads. The great wealth taken from the gold and silver mines was usually invested in other businesses: shipping, railroads, factories, stores, land companies. More jobs were created in the West. And living conditions got better. More and more people decided to leave the crowded East for a new life in the West. But the big eastern cities continued to grow. New factories and industrial centers were built. People moved from the farms to find work in the cities.
The growth of these industrial centers created a big demand for food, especially meat. Chicago quickly became the heart of the meat industry. Railroads brought animals to Chicago, where packing companies killed them and prepared the meat for eastern markets. Special railroad cars kept the meat cold, so it would remain fresh until sold. As the meat industry grew, the demand for fresh meat increased. More and more cattle were needed. There were millions of cattle in Texas, but no way to get them to the eastern markets. The closest point on the railroad was Sedalia, Missouri, more than one thousand kilometers away. Some cattlemen believed it might be possible to walk cattle to the railroad, letting them feed on the open grassland along the way. Early in eighteen sixty-six, a group of Texas cattlemen decided to try this. They put together a huge herd of more than two hundred sixty-thousand cattle and set out for Sedalia. There were many problems on that first cattle drive. The country was rough; grass and water sometimes hard to find. Bandits and Indians followed the herd trying to steal cattle.
Farmers had put up fences in some areas, blocking the way. Most of the great herd was lost along the way. But the cattlemen believed they had proved that cattle could be walked long distances to the railroad. They believed a better way to the railroad could be found, with plenty of grass and water. The cattlemen got the Kansas Pacific Railroad to extend its line west to Abilene, Kansas. There was a good trail from Texas to Abilene. Cattlemen began moving their herds up this trail across the Oklahoma territory and into Kansas. At Abilene, the cattle were put on trains and carried to Chicago. In the next four years, more than one-and-a-half-million cattle were moved north over the Chisholm trail to Kansas. Other trails were found as the railroad moved farther west. Trail drives usually began with the spring "round-up."Cattlemen would send out cowboys to search the open grasslands for their animals. As the cattle were brought in, the young animals were branded -- marked to show who owned them. Then they were released with their mothers to spend another year in the open country. The other cattle were put together for the long drive to Kansas. Usually, they were moved in groups of twenty-five hundred to five thousand animals. Twelve to twenty cowboys took them up the trail.
The cowboys worked hard on a trail drive. They had to keep the herd together day and night and protect it from bad men and Indians. They had to keep the cattle from moving too fast or running away. If they moved too fast, they would lose weight, and their owner would not get as much money for them. The cowboys would walk the cattle only twenty to thirty kilometers a day. The cattle could feed all night and part of the morning before starting each day. If the grass was good, and the herd moved slowly, the cattle would get heavier and bring more money. In the early eighteen eighties, the price of cattle rose to fifty dollars each, and many cattlemen became rich. Business was so good that a five thousand dollar investment in the cattle industry could make forty-five thousand dollars in four years. More and more people began raising cattle. And early cattlemen greatly increased the size of their herds. Within a few years, there was not enough grass for all the cattle, especially along the trails. There was so much meat that the price began to fall. There were two severe winters that killed hundreds of thousands of cattle. An extremely dry summer killed the grass, and thousands more died of hunger. The cattle industry itself almost died. Cattlemen also had problems with farmers and sheepmen. Farmers coming west would claim grassland used by the cattle growers. They would put up fences and plow up the land to plant crops. Other settlers brought huge herds of sheep to compete with cattle for the grass, and the sheep always won. Cattle would not eat grass where sheep had eaten.
Violence broke out. Cattle growers fought the farmers and sheepmen for control of the land. The cattlemen finally had to settle land of their own, putting up fences and cutting the size of their herds. They no longer could let their cattle run free on public lands. By the late eighteen hundreds, the years of the cowboys were ending. But the story of the cowboy and his difficult life would not be forgotten. Even today, the cowboy lives in movies, on television, and in books. When one thinks of the "Wild West" of America, he does not think of the miners who opened the way to the West. Nor does he think of the men who struggled to build the first railroads across the wild land. And one does not think of the farmers who pushed slowly westward to fence, plow, and plant the land. The words "Wild West" bring to mind just one character: the cowboy. His difficult fight to protect his cattle on the long trail was an exciting story. It has been told by many writers. Perhaps the best-known was a young easterner, Owen Wister. He worked as a cattleman for several years, then wrote about the heroic life of the cowboy in a book called "The Virginian." Another easterner who came west to learn about the cowboy was the artist Frederick Remington. Remington was a cowboy for only two years. But he spent the rest of his life painting pictures of the west and writing about it. His exciting works made the west and the cowboy come to life for millions who never saw a real cowboy. The cowboy has also lived in music. He had his own kind of songs that told of his problems, his hopes, and his feelings. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.rush to 奔赴；急着做
We must rush to repair the dykes before the flood comes.
我们必须抢在洪水的前面把堤坝修好。
2.give up 停止；放弃
Georgia refuses to give up any territory.
格鲁吉亚拒绝出让任何领土。
3.put together 装配；拼拢
It will be able to put together a governing coalition.
它将可以组成一个执政联盟。
4.run away 逃跑；逃走
I ran away from home when I was sixteen.
我16岁的时候离家出走了。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。1865年内战结束后不久，成千上万的美国人开始向西迁移定居。定居者的大迁徙持续了将近四十年。空旷的大西部，终于完全安定下来了。发现黄金已经使人们开始了一场迁往加利福尼亚州的伟大运动。在本周的系列节目中，罗伯特·博斯蒂克和利奥·斯库利讲述了淘金热以及牛仔们在西部定居中扮演的重要角色。人们带着发财的希望冲向金矿。一些人发现了金子，其他人只发现了艰苦的工作和高昂的价格。当他们的钱花完后，就放弃了寻找黄金的工作。但他们留在加利福尼亚成为农民、商人或劳工。有些人从不放弃寻找财富。他们往东走，在加利福尼亚和密西西比河之间的荒野中寻找金银。人们在内华达州发现了金银，然后又在爱达荷州和蒙大拿州发现了金银。在亚利桑那州、科罗拉多州和达科他州也有其他的金矿开采活动。
每次新的淘金热都会从东部带来更多的人。采矿营地很快就发展成为带有店铺、旅馆，甚至发行自己报纸的城镇。然而，这些城镇中大多数只在黄金容易找到的情况下存在。然后它们就开始消亡。在一些黄金中心，大型矿业公司从最初的拥有者手中买下所有土地。这些公司引进了采矿机，可以从地下深处挖出黄金，并将其与持有黄金的岩石分离。这些公司需要设备和其他用品，成立了运输公司。他们用缓慢移动的牛拉着大货车把物资运到采矿营地。修建了道路，有些地方还修建了铁路。从金矿和银矿中获得的巨大财富通常投资于其他行业：航运、铁路、工厂、商店、土地公司。西部创造了更多的就业机会，生活条件也变好了。越来越多的人决定离开拥挤的东部去西部过新生活。但东部大城市继续增长，新建了工厂和工业中心。人们从农场搬到城市去找工作。
这些工业中心的发展对食物，特别是肉类产生了巨大的需求。芝加哥迅速成为肉类工业的生产中心。铁路把动物运到芝加哥，在那里包装公司把它们杀死，并为东部市场准备出肉制产品。铁路专用车把肉冷藏起来，所以在出售前肉品都会保持新鲜。随着肉类工业的发展，对鲜肉的需求也在增加。人们需要越来越多的牛。德克萨斯州有数百万头牛，但没办法把它们送到东部市场。铁路上最近的一个地点是密苏里州的赛德利亚，距离这儿一千多公里。一些牧民认为，可以把牛带到铁路上，让它们在沿途开阔的草地上吃草。1866年初，一群德克萨斯州的牧民决定这样试一下。他们聚集了一大群，有26万多头，出发前往锡代利亚。赶牛群出现很多问题。乡村路面崎岖，有时很难找到草和水。强盗和印第安人尾随牛群试图偷牛。
农民们在一些地区筑起了篱笆，挡住道路。庞大的牛群中，大多数牛都在途中迷路了。但是，牧民们相信，他们已经证明牛可以走很远到达铁路。他们相信能找到一条更好的路通往铁路，那里有很多草和水。牧民们让堪萨斯太平洋铁路向西延伸到堪萨斯州的阿比林。从德克萨斯州到阿比林有条很好的小路。牧民们开始赶着牛群，沿着这条小道穿过俄克拉荷马州的领土，进入堪萨斯州。在阿比林，牧民把牛赶到火车上运到芝加哥。在接下来的四年里，超过150万头牛沿着奇泽姆小径，向北转移到堪萨斯州。当铁路向西移动时，发现了其他的小路。小径游通常从春季的“围捕”开始，牧民会派出牛仔为他们的牲畜寻找开阔的草地。当牛群被带进草场时，这些幼小的动物被打上烙印，以标明各自的主人。然后，牧民把它们和母亲一起放到开阔的乡下再度过一年的时间。其他的牛被赶到一起，长途驱车送往堪萨斯。通常，它们被分为2500到5000只。12到20个牛仔把它们赶到小路上。
牛仔们在小径游中努力劳作，他们不得不日夜把牛群聚集在一起，保护它们不受坏人和印第安人的伤害。他们必须防止牛跑得太快或逃跑。如果它们走得太快，就会变瘦，主人就赚不到很多钱了。牛仔们每天只赶牛走20到30公里。在每天开始前，牛整夜和上午的一段时间都会进食。如果草好，牛群慢慢地移动，牛就会变得更重，为主人赚更多的钱。在18世纪80年代初，牛的价格涨到了每头50美元，许多牧民变得富有起来。生意很好，在养牛业投资五千美元，四年就能赚四万五千美元。越来越多的人开始养牛，早期牧民的牧群规模大大增加。几年之内，没有足够的草场来养牛，尤其是小径上。肉质产品过多，价格开始下跌。两个严冬杀死了数十万头牛。一个极其干燥的夏天让草都死光了，成千上万的人因饥饿而亡。养牛业本身几乎就要倒闭了。牧民也遇到与农民和牧羊人同样的问题。西部的农民向养牛人索要草场。他们在草场上筑起篱笆，犁地种庄稼。其他的定居者带来了大量的羊群和牛争草吃，羊总是赢。牛不吃羊吃过的草。
暴力爆发了。养牛的人与农民和牧羊人争夺土地的控制权。牧民们最后不得不定居在自己的土地上，筑起篱笆，减少牛群的数量。他们再也不能让牛在公共土地上自由奔跑了。到了1800年末，牛仔的时代结束了。但是，人们不会忘记牛仔的故事及其艰难的生活。即使在今天，牛仔仍然活在电影、电视和书籍中。当一个人想到美国的“蛮荒西部”时，他不会想到那些开辟了通往西部之路的矿工，不会想到那些在荒原上奋力修建第一条铁路的人，也不会想到那些缓慢地向西推进，给土地筑篱笆、犁地、种植庄稼的农民。“狂野西部”一词只让人想起一个角色：牛仔。他在长途跋涉中艰难地保护牛群，这是一个令人激动的故事。许多作家都讲述过这样的故事。也许最有名的是一位年轻的东部人，欧文·威斯特。他当了几年牛倌，然后在一本名叫《弗吉尼亚人》的书中描写了牛仔的英雄生活。另一个来到西方了解牛仔生活的东部人是艺术家弗雷德里克·雷明顿，雷明顿只当了两年牛仔。但他余生都在描画西部的图画，撰写西部的事物。他那激动人心的作品使数百万从未见过真正牛仔的人看到了栩栩如生的西部和牛仔。音乐中也记录着牛仔的生活。他有讲述自己遇到的问题、怀有的希望和感受的歌曲。这将是我们下周要讲述的故事。
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