(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about photographer Margaret Bourke-White, one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century. A young woman is sitting on her knees on top of a large metal statue. She is not in a park. She is outside an office building high above New York City. The young woman reached the statue by climbing through a window on the sixty-first floor. She wanted to get a better picture of the city below. The woman is Margaret Bourke-White. She was one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century. But she did not write the news. She told her stories with a camera. She was a fearless woman of great energy and skill. Her work took her from America's Midwest to the Soviet Union. From Europe during World War Two to India, South Africa and Korea. Through her work, she helped create the modern art of photojournalism.
In some ways, Bourke-White was a woman ahead of her time. She often did things long before they became accepted in society. She was divorced. She worked in a world of influential men, and earned their praise and support. She wore trousers and colored her hair. Yet, in more important ways, she was a woman of and for her times. She became involved in the world around her and recorded it in pictures for the future. Margaret Bourke-White was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-four. When Margaret was very young, the family moved to New Jersey. Her mother, Minnie Bourke, worked on publications for the blind. Her father, Joseph White, was an engineer and designer in the printing industry. He also liked to take pictures. Their home was filled with his photographs. Soon young Margaret was helping him take and develop his photographs.
When she was eight years old, her father took her inside a factory to watch the manufacture of printing presses. In the foundry, she saw hot liquid iron being poured to make the machines. She remembered this for years to come.
Margaret attended several universities before completing her studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in nineteen twenty-seven. She studied engineering, biology and photography. She married while she was still a student. But the marriage only lasted one year. Margaret took the name Bourke-White, the last names of her mother and father. In nineteen twenty-eight, she began working in the midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. It was then one of the centers of American industry. She became an industrial photographer at the Otis Steel Company. In the hot, noisy factories where steel was made, she saw beauty and a subject for her pictures. She said: "Industry is alive. The beauty of industry lies in its truth and simpleness. Every line has a purpose, and so is beautiful. Whatever art will come out of this industrial age will come from the subjects of industry themselves...which are close to the heart of the people." Throughout America and Europe, engineers and building designers found beauty in technology. Their machines and buildings had artistic forms. In New York, the Museum of Modern Art opened in nineteen twenty-nine. One of its goals was to study the use of art in industry. Bourke-White's photographic experiments began with the use of industry in art.
Bourke-White's first pictures inside the steel factory in Cleveland were a failure. The difference between the bright burning metal and the black factory walls was too extreme for her camera. She could not solve the problem until she got new equipment and discovered new techniques of photography. Then she was able to capture the sharp difference between light and dark. The movement and power of machines. The importance of industry. Sometimes her pictures made you feel you were looking down from a great height, or up from far below. Sometimes they led you directly into the heart of the activity.
In New York, a wealthy and influential publisher named Henry Luce saw Bourke-White's pictures. Luce published a magazine called Time. He wanted to start a new magazine. It would be called Fortune, and would report about developments in industry. Luce sent a telegram to Bourke-White, asking her to come to New York immediately. She accepted a job as photographer for Fortune magazine. She worked there from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen thirty-three. Margaret Bourke-White told stories in pictures, one image at a time. She used each small image to tell part of the bigger story. The technique became known as the photographic essay. Other magazines and photographers used the technique. But Bourke-White – more than most photographers – had unusual chances to develop it. In the early nineteen thirties, she traveled to the Soviet Union three times. Later she wrote:"Nothing invites me so much as a closed door. I cannot let my camera rest until I have opened that door. And I wanted to be first. I believed in machines as objects of beauty. So I felt the story of a nation trying to industrialize – almost overnight – was perfect for me."
On her first trip to the Soviet Union, Bourke-White traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway. She carried many cameras and examples of her work. When she arrived in Moscow, a Soviet official gave her a special travel permit, because he liked her industrial photographs. The permit ordered all Soviet citizens to help her while she was in the country. Bourke-White spoke to groups of Soviet writers and photographers. They asked her about camera techniques, and also about her private life. After one gathering, several men surrounded her and talked for a long time. They spoke Russian. Not knowing the language, Bourke-White smiled in agreement at each man as he spoke. Only later did she learn that she had agreed to marry each one of them. Her assistant explained the mistake and said to the men: "Miss Bourke-White loves nothing but her camera." By the end of the trip, Margaret Bourke-White had traveled eight thousand kilometers throughout the Soviet Union. She took hundreds of pictures, and published some of them in her first book, "Eyes on Russia."
She returned the next year to prepare for a series of stories for the New York Times newspaper. And she went back a third time to make an educational movie for the Kodak film company. Bourke-White visited Soviet cities, farms and factories. She took pictures of workers using machines. She took pictures of peasant women, village children, and even the mother of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She took pictures of the country's largest bridge, and the world's largest dam. She used her skill in mixing darkness and light to create works of art. She returned home with more than three thousand photographs – the first western documentary on the Soviet Union.
Margaret Bourke-White had seen a great deal for someone not yet thirty years old. But in nineteen thirty-four, she saw something that would change her idea of the world. Fortune magazine sent her on a trip through the central part of the United States. She was told to photograph farmers – from America's northern border with Canada to its southern border with Mexico. Some of the farmers were victims of a terrible shortage of rain, and of their own poor farming methods. The good soil had turned to dust. And the wind blew the dust over everything. It got into machines and stopped them. It chased the farmers from their land, although they had nowhere else to go.
Bourke-White had never given much thought to human suffering. After her trip, she had a difficult time forgetting. She decided to use her skills to show all parts of life. She would continue taking industrial pictures of happy, healthy people enjoying their shiny new cars. But she would tell a different story in her photographic essays. Under one picture she wrote: "While machines are making great progress in automobile factories, the workers might be under-paid. Pictures can be beautiful. But they must tell facts, too."
重点解析
1.statue 雕塑
She superseded the old statue.
她把那个旧的塑像扔掉了。
2.fearless 无畏的；大胆的
Newborn calves are not afraid of tigers--young people are fearless.
初生牛犊不怕虎。
3.influential 有影响力的
It helps to have influential friends.
交上几个有权势的朋友很有好处。
4.Soon young Margaret was helping him take and develop his photographs.
develop冲洗胶卷
I had the film developed yesterday.
我昨天把胶卷拿去冲印了。
5.Bourke-White's first pictures inside the steel factory in Cleveland were a failure.
failure 失败
The marriage was a failure and they both wanted to be free of it.
这段婚姻是个失败，他们俩都想从中解放出来。
6.So I felt the story of a nation trying to industrialize – almost overnight – was perfect for me.
industrialize 使工业化
Energy consumption rises as countries industrialize.
能源消耗随着各国工业化而增加。
参考译文
我是芭芭拉·克莱因，我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们将讲述20世纪顶尖新闻记者之一—玛格丽特·布尔克-怀特。一位年轻女士跪坐在一个大型金属雕塑之上，她并不是在一座公园里，而是在纽约市高耸的办公大楼外。这位年轻的女士爬上61层通过窗户触及这座雕塑。她想更好地拍摄下边的这座城市。这位女士就是玛格丽特·布尔克-怀特。她是20世纪顶级新闻记者之一。但是她不写新闻，而是用她的相机讲述故事。她是一名精力极好、技巧高超且无所畏惧的女士。她的作品将她从美国中西部带到了苏联。从二战时期的欧洲到印度、南非和韩国。通过自己的工作，她帮助创造了摄影新闻工作的现代艺术。
在某些方面，布尔克-怀特是时代领先的女性。她常做一些还不被那个社会所接受的事情。她离婚了。她在一个满是有影响力的男性世界工作，争取他们的赞美和支持。她穿着长裤，染头发。但是在某些重要的方面，她是那个时代的代表性人物。她参与周围的世界并用照片形式为未来做着记录。1904年，玛格丽特·布尔克-怀特出生于纽约市。在玛格丽特·布尔克-怀特小的时候，一家人就搬到了新泽西州。她的母亲明妮·伯克在一家盲人刊物出版社工作。她的父亲约瑟夫·怀特是印刷厂的一名工程师兼设计师。他也喜欢拍照。他们家里都是照片。很快年轻的玛格丽特就帮助父亲拍照和洗照片。玛格丽特8岁的时候，她的父亲带她去工厂观看印刷机的制作。在铸造厂里，她看到灼热铁水被浇入制成机械。今后几年她都一直记得这个画面。1927年，在去伊萨卡岛康乃尔大学完成学业之前，玛格丽特还去了几所大学。她学习工程学、生物学和摄影。还是学生的她结婚了，但是婚姻仅维持了一年。玛格丽特取名布尔克-怀特，是她父母的姓氏。1928年，她开始在俄亥俄州中西部城市克利夫兰工作。那里是美国工业中心之一。她成为了奥蒂斯钢铁公司的一名工业摄影师。在炎热吵杂的钢铁生产工厂里，她看到了拍摄照片的美丽主题。她说：“工厂是活的。工厂的美丽在于它的简单真实。每条生产线都是有其目的的，美丽也是它的目的。不论在这个工业时代会有何种艺术产生，它都是来自于工厂这个主题本身...它与人的内心如此贴近。”纵观美国和欧洲，工程师和建筑设计师也在科技中发现了美。他们的机器和建筑都是有艺术形式的。在纽约，现代艺术博物馆于1929年开放。其目的之一就是研究艺术在工厂中的利用。布尔克-怀特的摄影经历开始于工厂在艺术中的利用。
布尔克-怀特在克利夫兰的钢铁工厂内拍摄的第一组照片失败了。明亮的燃烧金属和黑暗的工厂墙壁之间的区别在她的镜头下显得过于极端。她一直无法解决这个问题，直到她获得了一台新设备并发现摄影的新技巧。然后，她便能捕捉到明与暗、运动与机械力量之间的尖锐区别，以及工厂的重要性。有时她的照片会让你觉得自己是从高处向下看或是从下仰望。有时它们会将你直接带进这个活动的中心。在纽约，一名富有且颇具影响力的出版商亨利·鲁斯看到了布尔克-怀特的照片。鲁斯创办了《时代周刊》。他想办一个新杂志。这个新杂志将叫做《财富》，报道工业中的发展。鲁斯给布尔克-怀特发了一封电报，邀请她立即来纽约。她接受了《财富》杂志摄影师的工作。从1929年到1933年，她都在那里工作。
玛格丽特·布尔克-怀特在照片里讲故事，一次一个画面。她利用每个小图片讲述大故事。这种手法被称为摄影文章。其他杂志和摄影师也运用这种手法。但是布尔克-怀特—与其他大部分摄影师不同是—她有自己的独特的机遇。1930年代初期，她三次前往苏联。之后她写到：“没有什么能像一扇关闭的门那样招致我。我无法关闭自己的相机，除非我打开那扇门。我想成为第一个打开那扇门的人。我相信机器是平凡事物的美丽。所以我觉得一个国家试图几乎在一夜之间实现工业化的故事对我来说是非常完美的。”第一次去苏联的时候，布尔克-怀特搭乘了西伯利亚大铁路。她带上了很多相机和她的作品。当她到达莫斯科，一名苏联官员给了她一张特殊的旅游许可证，因为他喜欢她的工业化照片。这张许可证要求所有苏联市民对她提供帮助。布尔克-怀特和很多苏联作家和摄影师交谈。他们询问她关于相机的技巧和她的私生活。在一次聚会后，一些男士围着她说了很长时间，他们都说俄语。布尔克-怀特不会俄语，只能微笑表示赞同。直到后来她才知道她还同意了和其中一个人结婚。她的助理解释了这个误会并对男士们说：“布尔克-怀特小姐只爱自己的相机。”旅程结束时，玛格丽特·布尔克-怀特在整个苏联游历路程八千千米。她拍了上百张照片，并将其中一些发表于自己的第一本书《Eyes on Russia》中。
第二年，她回到苏联准备为《纽约时报》拍摄系列故事。她第三次去苏联是为可达电影公司制作教育电影。布尔克-怀特参观了苏联城市、农场和工厂。她拍摄了工人们使用机械的照片。她给农夫、乡镇儿童甚至是苏联领导人约瑟夫·斯大林母亲拍摄了照片。她拍下了苏联最大的桥、世界上最大的水坝。她运用自己的技巧将黑暗与光明相混合创造出了艺术作品。她带着自己的三千多张照片回到家中—这些照片是首部关于苏联的西方纪录片。玛格丽特·布尔克-怀特看到过很多。但是在1934年，她看到了一些改变她对世界看法的事物。《财富》杂志将她送上了穿越美国中部的旅途。她被告知要在美国北部与加拿大的交界处和美国南部与墨西哥的交界处之间拍摄农民的照片。一些农民是雨季极度缺乏和恶劣农耕方法的受害者。优质的土地变成了尘土。风把尘土刮得四处都是。需要借助机器才能停住它们。沙尘追逐着农民逃离自己的土地，虽然他们已无处可去。
布尔克-怀特从没有想过人类的苦难。此次旅途之后，她很难忘记这次经历。她决定运用自己的技巧展现生活的每个部分。她会继续拍摄开心健康的人们享受新车的工业照片。但是她也会在自己的摄影文章中讲述不同的故事。在一张照片地下她写到：“虽然机器在汽车工厂取得了伟大的进步，但是工人们的薪水或许还是很低。照片可以是美丽的，但是它们也必须讲述事实。”
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