(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. The Spanish-American War took place in the late eighteen hundreds during the administration of President William McKinley. This week in our series, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of that war. Unlike other presidents of the late eighteen hundreds, William McKinley spent much of his presidency dealing with foreign policy. The most serious problem involved Spain. Spain ruled Cuba at that time. Cuban rebels had started a fight for independence. The Spanish government promised the Cuban people equal rights and self-rule -- but in the future. The rebels did not want to wait. President McKinley felt Spain should be left alone to honor its promises. He also felt responsible for protecting the lives and property of Americans in Cuba. When riots broke out in Havana, he ordered the battleship Maine to sail there. One night in early eighteen ninety-eight, a powerful explosion sank the Maine. More than two hundred fifty American sailors died.
There was some evidence the explosion was caused by an accident in the ship's fuel tanks. But many Americans blamed Spain. They demanded war to free Cuba and make it independent. President McKinley had a difficult decision to make. He did not want war. As he told a friend: "I fought in our Civil War. I saw the dead piled up. I do not want to see that again." But McKinley also knew many Americans wanted war. If he refused to fight Spain, his Republican Party could lose popular support. So, he did not ask Congress for a declaration of war right away. He sent a message to the Spanish government, instead. McKinley demanded an immediate ceasefire in Cuba. He also offered his help in ending the revolt. By the time Spain agreed to the demands, McKinley had made his decision. He asked Congress for permission to use military force to bring peace to Cuba. Congress agreed. It also demanded that Spain withdraw from Cuba and give up all claims to the island. The president signed the congressional resolution. The Spanish government immediately broke relations. On April twenty-fifth, eighteen ninety-eight, the United States declared war on Spain.
The American Navy was ready to fight. It was three times bigger than the Spanish navy. It also was better trained. A ship-building program begun fifteen years earlier had made the American Navy one of the strongest in the world. Its ships were made of steel and carried powerful guns. Part of the American Navy at that time was based in Hong Kong. The rest was based on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Admiral George Dewey commanded the Pacific Fleet. Dewey had received a message from the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Theodore Roosevelt. If war broke out, it said, he was to attack the Spanish naval force in the Philippines. The Spanish force was commanded by Admiral Patricio Montojo. The American fleet arrived in Manila Bay on May first. It sailed toward the line of Spanish ships. The Spanish fired first. The shells missed. When the two naval forces were five thousand meters apart, Admiral Dewey ordered the Americans to fire. After three hours, Admiral Montojo surrendered. Most of his ships were sunk. Four hundred of his men were dead or wounded. American land forces arrived several weeks later. They captured Manila, giving the United States control of the Philippines.
Dewey was suddenly a hero. Songs and poems were written about him. Congress gave him special honors. A spirit of victory spread across the nation. People called for an immediate invasion of Cuba. Unlike the Navy, America's Army was not ready to fight. When war was declared, the Army had only about twenty-five thousand men. Within a few months, however, it had more than two hundred thousand. The soldiers trained at camps in the southern United States. One of the largest camps was in Florida. Cuba is just one hundred fifty kilometers off the coast of Florida. Two weeks after the Spanish-American War began, the Army sent a small force to Cuba. The force was ordered to inspect the north coast of Cuba and to take supplies to Cuban rebels. That invasion failed. But the second one succeeded. Four hundred American soldiers landed with guns, bullets, and supplies for the rebels. Next, the Army planned to send twenty-five thousand men to Cuba. Their goal was the Port of Santiago on the south coast. American ships had trapped a Spanish naval force there earlier. One of the commanders of the big American invasion force was Theodore Roosevelt.
Roosevelt had resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy when the war started. He organized a group of horse soldiers. Most of the men were cowboys from America's southwest. They could ride and shoot well. Some were rich young men from New York who simply shared Roosevelt's love of excitement. The group became known as Roosevelt's "Rough Riders." As the Americans landed near Santiago, Spanish forces withdrew to positions outside the city. The strongest force was at San Juan Hill. The Spanish soldiers used smokeless gunpowder. This made their artillery hard to find. The Americans did not have the smokeless powder. But they had Gatling machine guns which poured a stream of bullets at the enemy. When the machine guns opened fire, American soldiers began moving up San Juan Hill. Several American reporters watched. Later, one of them wrote this report: "I have seen many pictures of the charge on San Juan Hill. But none seem to show it as I remember it. In the pictures, the men are running up the hill quickly in straight lines. There seem to be so many men that no enemy could stand against them. "In fact," said the reporter, "there were not many men. And they moved up the hill slowly, in a close group, not in a straight line. It seemed as if someone had made a terrible mistake. One wanted to call to these few soldiers to come back."
The American soldiers were not called back. They reached the top of San Juan Hill. The Spanish soldiers fled. "All we have to do," an American officer said, "is hold on to the hill and Santiago will be ours." American Commander General William Shafter sent a message to Spanish Commander General Jose Toral. Shafter demanded Toral's surrender. While he waited for an answer, the Spanish naval force tried to break out of Santiago Harbor. The attempt failed, and the Americans took control of the port. The loss destroyed any hope that Spain could win the war. There was now no way it could send more soldiers and supplies to Cuba. General Toral agreed to a short ceasefire so women and children could leave Santiago. But he rejected General Shafter's demand of unconditional surrender. American artillery then attacked Santiago. General Toral defended the city as best he could. Finally, on July seventeenth, he surrendered. The United States promised to send all his soldiers back to Spain. In the next few weeks, American forces occupied Puerto Rico and the Philippine capital of Manila. America's war with Spain was over. It had lasted just ten weeks. The next step was to negotiate terms of a peace treaty. The negotiations would be held in Paris. The victorious United States demanded independence for Cuba. It demanded control over Puerto Rico and Guam. And it demanded the right to occupy Manila. The two sides agreed quickly on the terms concerning Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam. But they could not agree on what to do about the Philippines. Spain rejected the American demand for control. It did not want to give up this important colony. Negotiations on this point of the peace treaty lasted for days. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.break out 爆发；突然发生
He was 29 when war broke out.
战争爆发时他才29岁。
2.pile up 堆积；积聚
Let's pile up the fallen leaves in the corner and sweep up the floor.
我们把落叶堆在角落里，然后把地打扫干净。
3.give up 放弃；投降
Georgia refuses to give up any territory.
格鲁吉亚拒绝出让任何领土。
4.be based in 驻扎在
The bank will be based in Beijing.
该银行的总部将设在北京。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。美西之战发生在18世纪末威廉·麦金利总统执政期间。在本周的系列节目中，哈里·门罗和凯·格兰特将讲述有关这场战争的故事。任期内的大部分时间都在处理外交政策。最严重的问题涉及西班牙。当时，西班牙统治古巴。古巴反叛者已经开始为独立而战。西班牙政府承诺古巴人民享有平等权利和自治权，但都是在未来。反叛者不想等待。麦金利总统认为应该让西班牙独自履行承诺，他还感到有责任保护在古巴的美国人的生命和财产。当哈瓦那爆发骚乱时，他命令缅因号战舰驶往那里。1898年初的一个晚上，一次强烈的爆炸致使缅因号战舰沉没，250多名美国水手丧生。
有证据表明，爆炸是由船上的油箱事故所致。但许多美国人指责西班牙，他们要求战争解放古巴并使其独立。麦金利总统面临一个艰难的决定。他不想发动战争，正如他对一位朋友所说：“我参加了美国内战，看到过死尸堆积如山，我不想再看到这样的场面了。”但是，麦金利也知道，许多美国人想要开战。如果他拒绝与西班牙作战，他领导的共和党可能会失去民众的支持。因此，他没有要求国会立即宣战。相反，他给西班牙政府发了一条消息。麦金利要求古巴立即停火，他还提出帮助他们结束叛乱。当西班牙同意这些要求时，麦金利已经做出决定。他请求国会允许使用军事力量帮助古巴恢复和平，国会表示同意。请求中还要求西班牙撤出古巴，放弃对古巴所有主权的索取要求。总统签署了国会决议，西班牙政府立即断绝关系。1898年4月25日，美国向西班牙宣战。
美国海军准备战斗，其规模比西班牙海军大三倍，士兵也接受过更好的训练。15年前开始的一项造船计划，使美国海军成为世界上最强的海军之一。其船只由钢制成，运载着火力强大的枪支。当时美国将一部分海军设置在香港，其余都驻扎于美国的大西洋海岸。乔治·杜威上将指挥太平洋舰队，杜威收到了海军助理部长西奥多·罗斯福的消息。报道说，如果战争爆发，他将攻击西班牙驻菲律宾海军，西班牙军队由帕特里西奥·蒙托霍上将指挥。美国舰队5月1日抵达马尼拉湾，它朝着西班牙船只的航线航行。西班牙人率先开炮，但炮弹没有打中。当两支海军相距五千米时，杜威上将命令美国军队开火。三小时后，蒙托霍上将投降了，他的大部分船只都沉没了，手下有400人死伤。几周后，美国陆上部队到达。他们占领了马尼拉，使美国控制了菲律宾。
杜威突然变成了英雄，人们撰写有关他的歌曲和诗歌，国会授予他特别荣誉。胜利的精神传遍全国，国民呼吁立即武装入侵古巴。与海军不同的是，美国陆军还没有做好战斗的准备。宣战时，军队只有两万五千人。然而，在数月内，士兵人数就达到了二十多万。他们在美国南部的营地接受训练。最大的营地之一位于佛罗里达，古巴离佛罗里达海岸只有150公里。美西战争开始两周后，军队向古巴派遣了一支小部队。部队奉命视察古巴北部海岸，并向古巴叛军运送物资。这次入侵失败了，但第二次成功了。400名美国士兵携带着给叛乱者的枪支、炮弹和补给登陆了。接下来，军队计划向古巴派遣两万五千人，他们的目标是南海岸的圣地亚哥港。早些时候，美国船只在那里拦截了一支西班牙海军。西奥多·罗斯福是美国入侵部队的指挥官之一。
战争开始时，罗斯福辞去了海军助理部长的职务。他组织了一群马兵，大多数人都是来自美国西南部的牛仔，他们的骑术和射击技术也很好。有些人是来自纽约的富有年轻人，他们和罗斯福一样热爱刺激，人们称这个组织为罗斯福的“骑手”。当美国人在圣地亚哥附近登陆时，西班牙军队撤退到城外的阵地，其最强的部队位于圣胡安山。西班牙士兵使用无烟火药，这使得他们的炮兵很难被发现。美国部队没有无烟火药，但是他们有加特林机枪，可以向敌人发射一连串的子弹。当机关枪开火时，美国士兵开始向圣胡安山移动。几名美国记者在场观看战况。后来，其中一人写了这篇报道：“我在圣胡安山上看过很多冲锋的照片，但没有哪张能像我记忆中那样去表现它。在照片中，士兵们正沿着直线迅速地向山上跑去，似乎有许多人，没有敌人能与他们对抗。“事实上，”记者说道，“士兵并不多，他们缓慢地向山上行进，是一个紧密的小队，而不是一条直线，好像有人犯了一个可怕的错误，有人想叫这几个士兵回去。”
没有人把美国士兵召回，他们到达了圣胡安山顶。西班牙士兵逃跑了，“我们所要做的，”一位美国军官说，“就是坚守这座山，圣地亚哥将为我们所有。”美国司令官威廉·沙夫特将军给西班牙司令官何塞·托拉尔发了一条信息。沙夫特要求托拉尔投降。在他等待回复的时候，西班牙海军试图冲出圣地亚哥港。这次尝试失败了，美国人控制了港口。这场损失摧毁了西班牙赢得战争的希望，现在没有办法向古巴派遣更多的士兵和补给。托拉尔将军同意短暂停火，以便妇女和儿童能够离开圣地亚哥。但是，他拒绝了沙夫特将军无条件投降的要求，美国炮兵随后袭击了圣地亚哥。托拉尔将军竭尽全力保卫这座城市。最后，在7月17日，他投降了，美国答应把所有士兵送回西班牙。在接下来的几周里，美国军队占领了波多黎各和菲律宾首都马尼拉。美国与西班牙的战争结束了，这场战争仅持续了10星期。下一步是谈判和平条约的条款，谈判将在巴黎举行。胜利的美国要求古巴独立，它要求控制波多黎各和关岛，要求占领马尼拉的权利。双方很快就有关古巴、波多黎各和关岛的条款达成一致。但是，他们无法就如何处理菲律宾的事宜达成一致。西班牙拒绝了美国掌握控制权的要求，它不想放弃这个重要的殖民地。关于和平条约中此点的谈判持续了数天。这将是我们下周要讲述的故事。
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