(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
The United States entered the Second World War late in nineteen forty-one after a surprise attack by Japanese forces on Hawaii.
The time and the place of the attack was a surprise. But American military and political leaders had believed that the United States, sooner or later, would be pulled into the fighting. And they began to prepare for war.
President Franklin Roosevelt had been assistant secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War One. He remembered how American troops were not ready for that war. Now that he was president, Roosevelt wanted to be sure that the United States would be ready when it had to fight.
Throughout nineteen forty-one, Roosevelt urged American industries to produce more arms and military goods. And he established new government agencies to work with private industry to increase arms production.
Some business leaders resisted Roosevelt's efforts. They felt there was no need to produce more arms while the United States was still at peace. But many others cooperated. And by the time Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the American economy was producing millions of guns and other weapons.
This still was not enough to fight a war. After the Japanese attack, Roosevelt increased his demands on American industry. He called for sixty thousand war planes, forty-five thousand tanks, and twenty thousand anti-aircraft guns. And he wanted all these within one year.
One month after the Pearl Harbor raid, Roosevelt organized a special committee to direct this military production. He created another group to help companies find men and women for defense work. And he established a new office where the nation's best scientists and engineers could work together to design new weapons.
These new government organizations faced several problems. Sometimes factories produced too much of one product and not enough of another. Sometimes tools broke. And some business owners refused to accept government orders. But the weapons were produced. American troops soon had the guns and supplies they needed.
The federal government had to expand its own workforce rapidly to meet war needs. Federal spending increased from just six thousand million dollars in nineteen forty to eighty-nine thousand million in nineteen forty-four. This was a fifteen hundred percent increase in just five years.
In fact, total spending by the federal government during the war was twice as much as the government had spent since its beginning in seventeen eighty-seven.
Roosevelt had to take strong steps to get the money for all this spending. He put limits on wages. He increased taxes to as high as ninety-four percent of pay. And he asked the American people to lend money to the federal government. The people answered with almost one hundred thousand million dollars.
The great increase in public spending raised the threat of economic inflation. There was much more money in the economy just at the time that factories were producing fewer goods for people to buy. More money and fewer goods usually makes prices rise rapidly.
Roosevelt was able to prevent this problem by using taxes and borrowing to reduce the amount of money that people had. But he also created a special office with the power to control prices. Many Americans agreed with the idea of price controls. But everyone wanted somebody else's prices controlled, not their own. Federal officials had to work hard to keep prices and supplies under control. They restricted how much meat and gasoline and other goods people could buy.
The price control program generally worked. Its success kept the American economy strong to support the troops fighting in Europe and Asia.
One reason these strong economic steps worked was because the American people fully supported the war effort. One can look at photographs of people of those times and see in their faces how strongly they felt.
In one photograph from the state of North Carolina, a group of men are standing in front of old rubber tires collected from automobiles. They are planning to give the tires to the Army to be fixed and used for army vehicles.
Another photo shows a woman visiting a hospital. She is singing a song to a soldier to lift his spirits.
Still another photo shows a man who owns a small food store. He is placing special signs on his meats and cans of food to tell people how much they are allowed to buy.
Radio cannot show the faces in the pictures. But you can get an idea about their feelings by the names of some of the popular songs of the period. One of the most famous was "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition." Another was "He Is One-Aye in the Army, and He's One-Aye in My Heart." And one of the most hopeful songs was "When the Lights Go on Again All Over the World."
Not all Americans supported the war. A small number of persons refused to fight, because fighting violated their religious beliefs. And a few Americans supported the ideas of Hitler and other fascists. But almost everyone else supported the war effort. They wanted to win the war quickly and return to normal life.
Japanese-Americans felt the same way. Many of them served with honor in the military forces. But many Americans were suspicious of anyone whose family had come from Japan. They refused to trust even Japanese-American families who lived in the United States for more than a century.
Banks refused to lend money to Japanese-Americans. Stores would not sell to them. An American Army general, John Dewitt, spoke for many citizens when he said, "A Japanese is a Japanese. It makes no difference whether he is an American or not."
The federal government ordered all Japanese-Americans to live in restricted areas for the rest of the war. Only after the war ended did it release them. Years later, people agreed that Japanese-Americans had been badly treated.
Another American minority made progress during the war: black Americans. For years, black American citizens had been kept in low-paying jobs and poor living conditions. But black leaders spoke out to say it was unfair to fight a war for freedom in Europe while blacks at home were not as free as white citizens.
In nineteen forty-one, black leader A. Philip Randolph threatened to lead a giant march on Washington for black rights. President Roosevelt reacted by issuing an order that made it a crime to deny blacks a chance for jobs in defense industries. He also ordered the armed forces to change some of their rules for blacks.
Blacks made progress in these government-controlled areas. But most private industries still refused to give them an equal chance.
Major progress for blacks would come in the years after the war, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties.
Life was busy during the war years with all the changes in the economy, business, music, race relations, and other areas. But in many ways, life continued as it always does.
Americans did what they could during the hard years of World War Two to keep life as normal as possible. But almost everyone understood that the first job was to support the troops overseas and win the war.
This strength of purpose at home gave American soldiers the support they needed. And it also helped President Roosevelt as he negotiated with other world leaders during the fighting. Diplomacy and foreign relations were extremely complex during the war. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.Japanese-Americans 日裔美国人
Japanese-Americans were rounded up and interned during World War II.
第二次世界大战期间，日本裔美国人遭到集体关押。
2.diplomacy 外交
Intervention is America’s diplomacy tradition.
对外干涉是美国外交的传统。
3.federal 联邦的；同盟的
And he says it can all be done without adding to the federal budget deficit.
他说，这些完全可以在不增加联邦预算赤字的情况下完成。
4.call for 召集
Some turn on the meaning of federal law. The others call for interpreting the Constitution.
有些案件涉及联邦法律的含义，另一些则需要对宪法作出解释。
5.serve with 提供
Following the marriage, the couple will live in north Wales, where Prince William will continue to serve with the Royal Air Force.
婚礼之后，这对新人将会住在威尔斯北部，威廉王子会继续在皇家空军军队服役。
6.Sooner or later迟早，早晚
He believes that death penalty will be repealed sooner or later.
他相信死刑早晚会被废除。
参考译文
《建国史话》——VOA慢速英语节目。
日本军队突袭夏威夷之后，美国于一九四一年末加入二战。
袭击的时间和地点令人诧异。但是美国的军事和政治领导人相信，美国迟早会卷入这场战争。他们开始为战争做准备。
第一次世界大战期间，富兰克林•罗斯福总统担任伍德罗•威尔逊总统的海军助理部长。他想起美军是如何没有做好战争的准备。罗斯福现在晋升总统，他想确保美国在战争中做好准备。
1941年，罗斯福敦促美国工业生产更多的武器和军事产品。他还成立了新的政府机构，与私营工业合作，以此扩大武器生产。
尽管一些商界领袖抵制罗斯福，他们认为美国尚处于和平时期，没有必要生产更多的武器，但很多其他人认可罗斯福，相互合作。当日本袭击珍珠港时，美国正在制造上百万支枪支和其他武器。
这还不足以开战。珍珠港事件之后，罗斯福对美国工业提出了更高的要求。他打算在一年内召集六万架战机、四万五千辆坦克和两万支高射炮。
珍珠港被袭一个月后，罗斯福组织了特别委员会来指导此次军事生产。他成立了另一个小组，帮助找寻从事国防的男性和女性工作者。他还成立了新的办公室，美国顶尖科学家和工程师在此共同设计新式武器。
这些新成立的政府组织面临一些问题：有时工厂生产一种产品的数量太多，而另一种产品生产的数量不够，有时工具也坏了，一些企业主拒绝接受政府的命令。但是这些武器生产出来了，而且美国军队很快得到了所需的枪支和物资。
联邦政府不得不迅速扩员以满足战争需要。联邦支出从1940年的60亿美元增至1944年的890亿美元，短短五年内增长了15倍。
事实上，总开支是1787年以来联邦政府在战争期间开支的两倍。
为筹集资金，罗斯福不得不采取强硬措施。他限制工资数额，将税收提高至工资的94%。他要求美国人民借钱给联邦政府。人们借出将近1000亿美元。
公共开支的大幅增长增加通货膨胀威胁。人们的资金越来越多，而当时工厂生产可供购买的商品却越来越少，钱多货少导致价格迅速上涨。
为防止此次事件的发生，罗斯福采用税收和借贷的方法来减少民众手头资金。他还设立了机关，专门控制物价。许多美国人赞同价格控制，但每个人都希望控制他人的价格，而不是自己的价格。联邦官员必须努力控制物价和物资，限制人们买肉、汽油和其他商品的数量。
价格控制方案普遍奏效。该方案的成功保持了美国雄厚的经济实力，从而给予欧洲和亚洲作战军队支持。
这些强有力的经济措施之所以奏效，是因为美国人民全力支持战争。我们可以看看当时人们的照片，从他们的脸上可以看出他们的感受多么强烈。
在北卡罗莱纳州的一张照片中，一群男人站在从汽车上收集的旧轮胎前，他们计划把轮胎交给陆军来修理，用于军用车辆。
另一张照片显示一名妇女来到医院，为一名士兵唱歌，振奋他的精神。
还有一张照片是一个男人开了一家小食品店，他在肉和罐头上贴上特别的标签，告诉人们可以买多少。
无线电广播无法显示照片中人们的表情。但你可以通过当时流行歌曲的名字来了解他们的感受。其中最著名的歌词之一是“赞美主，传递弹药”。另一句歌词是“他在军队里是独一无二的，在我心里也是独一无二的。” 《“当世界各地的灯再次亮起来》 成为最有希望的歌曲之一。
并非所有美国人都支持这场战争。少数人拒绝战争，因为战争违背了他们的宗教信仰。一些美国人赞同希特勒和其他法西斯主义者的观点，但几乎所有人都支持这场战争。他们想尽快赢得战争，过回正常的生活。
日裔美国人也感同身受。他们中的许多人为在军队服役深感自豪。但许多美国人都怀疑来自日本的家庭。他们甚至拒绝信任美国生活了一个多世纪的日裔美国家庭。
银行拒绝借钱给日裔美国人，商店也不会卖东西给他们。美国陆军上将约翰•德维特代表许多美国公民说道，“日本人是日本人，是不是美国人并不重要。”
联邦政府命令所有日裔美国人在战争期间住在禁区，直到战争结束才释放他们。多年后，人们认为日裔美国人受到了虐待。
美国另一个少数民族在战争中取得了进步：美国黑人。多年来，美国黑人公民一直从事低薪水的工作，处于恶劣的生活条件下。但黑人领袖公开表示，在欧洲为自由而战，而在国内黑人却享受不到和白人一样的自由，这是不公平的。
1941年，黑人领袖阿萨•菲利普•伦道夫威胁要在华盛顿领导一场争取黑人权利的大规模游行。罗斯福总统颁布了一项命令，他将剥夺黑人在国防工业工作的机会定为犯罪行为。他还命令军队改变针对黑人的某些规定。
黑人斗争在政府控制地区取得了进展，但大多数私营企业仍然拒绝给予黑人平等的待遇。
战争结束后的十九世纪五十年代和六十年代，黑人斗争将会取得重大进展。
战争年代，随着经济、商业、音乐、种族关系和其他领域的变化，生活变得忙碌起来。但在很多方面，生活还是一如既往地继续着。
在第二次世界大战的艰难岁月里，美国人民尽其所能维持他们的正常生活。但几乎所有人都明白，他们的首要任务是支援海外军队，赢得战争的胜利。
国家的使命感支撑着美国士兵，也助力罗斯福总统在战争期间与世界其他领导人的谈判。战争期间的外交和对外关系极为复杂，这是我们下周要讲的故事。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
