(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today we tell about Wilma Rudolph, the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics.
They called her "the Black Pearl," "the Black Gazelle" and "the fastest woman in the world." In nineteen sixty, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She was an extraordinary American athlete. She also did a lot to help young athletes succeed.
Wilma Rudolph was born in nineteen forty, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was born too early and only weighed two kilograms. She had many illnesses when she was very young, including pneumonia and scarlet fever. She also had polio, which damaged her left leg. When she was six years old, she began to wear metal leg braces because she could not use that leg. Wilma Rudolph was born into a very large, poor, African-American family. She was the twentieth of twenty-two children. Since she was sick most of the time, her brothers and sisters all helped to take care of her. They took turns rubbing her crippled leg every night. They also made sure she did not try to take off her leg braces. Every week, Wilma's mother drove her to a special doctor eighty kilometers away. Here, she got physical treatments to help heal her leg.
She later said: "My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother." Soon, her family's attention and care showed results. By the time she was nine years old, she no longer needed her leg braces. Wilma was very happy, because she could now run and play like other children. When she was eleven years old, her brothers set up a basketball hoop in the backyard. After that, she played basketball every day. As a teenager, Wilma joined the girl's basketball team at Burt High School. C.C. Gray was the coach who supervised the team. He gave her the nickname "Skeeter." She did very well in high school basketball. She once scored forty-nine points in one game, which broke the Tennessee state record.
Many people noted that Wilma was a very good basketball player and a very good athlete. One of these people was Ed Temple, who coached the track team of runners at Tennessee State University. Ed Temple asked C.C. Gray to organize a girl's track team at the high school. He thought Wilma Rudolph would make a very good runner. She did very well on the new track team. Wilma Rudolph went to her first Olympic Games when she was sixteen years old and still in high school. She competed in the nineteen fifty-six games in Melbourne, Australia. She was the youngest member of the United States team. She won a bronze medal, or third place, in the sprint relay event.
In nineteen fifty-seven, Wilma Rudolph started Tennessee State University, where she joined the track team. The coach, Ed Temple, worked very hard for the girls on the team. He drove them to track competitions and made improvements to the running track with his own money. However, he was not an easy coach. For example, he would make the members of the team run one extra time around the track for every minute they were late to practice. Wilma Rudolph trained hard while in college. She did very well at her track competitions against teams from other colleges. In nineteen sixty, she set the world record for the fastest time in the two thousand meter event. She said: "I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what else happened."
That same year, Wilma Rudolph went to the Olympics again, this time in Rome, Italy. She won two gold medals -- first place -- in the one hundred meter and the two hundred meter races. She set a new Olympic record of twenty-three point two seconds for the two hundred meter dash. Her team also won the gold medal in the four hundred meter sprint relay event, setting a world record of forty-four point five seconds. These three gold medals made her one of the most popular athletes at the Rome games. These victories made people call her the "world's fastest woman."
Wilma Rudolph received a lot of attention from the press and the public, but she did not forget her teammates. She said that her favorite event was the relay, because she could share the victory with her teammates Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones. All four women were from Tennessee State University. The Associated Press named Rudolph the U.S. Female Athlete of the year. She also appeared on television many times. Sports fans in the United States and all over the world loved and respected her. She said: "The feeling of accomplishment welled up inside of me, three Olympic gold medals. I knew that was something nobody could ever take away from me, ever."
Wilma Rudolph was a fine example for many people inside and outside the world of sports. She supported the civil rights movement -- the struggle for equality between white and black people. When she came home from the Olympics, she told the governor of Tennessee that she would not attend a celebration where white and black people were separated. As a result, her homecoming parade and dinner were the first events in her hometown of Clarksville that white people and black people were able to attend together.
After she retired from sports, Wilma Rudolph completed her education at Tennessee State University. She got her bachelor's degree in elementary education and became a teacher. She returned to coach the track team at Burt High School. She also worked as a commentator for women's track competitions on national television. In nineteen sixty-three she married her high school boyfriend Robert Eldridge. They had four children, but later ended their marriage.
Wilma Rudolph won many important athletic awards. She was voted into the Black Athlete's Hall of Fame and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. She was also voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. In nineteen seventy-seven, she wrote a book about her life called "Wilma." She wrote about her childhood problems and her athletic successes. NBC later made the book into a movie for television. Rudolph said her greatest success was creating the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in nineteen eighty-one. This organization helped children in local communities to become athletes. She always wanted to help young athletes recognize how much they could succeed in their lives.
She said: "The triumph can't be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams." Rudolph also influenced many athletes. One of them was another African American runner, Florence Griffith Joyner. In nineteen eighty-eight, Griffith Joyner became the second American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She went on to win a total of six Olympic medals. Wilma Rudolph was very happy to see other African American female athletes succeed. She said: "I thought I'd never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner – every time she ran, I ran."
Wilma Rudolph died of brain cancer in nineteen ninety-four in Nashville, Tennessee. She was fifty-four years old. She influenced athletes, African Americans and women around the world. She was an important example of how anyone can overcome barriers and make their dreams come true. Her nineteen sixty Olympics teammate, Bill Mulliken, said: "She was beautiful; she was nice, and she was the best."
重点解析
1.take care of 照顾
I take care of them to the best of my abilities
我尽我所能地照顾他们。
2.take off 脱下
He wouldn't take his hat off.
他不愿脱下他的帽子。
3.organize 组织
...helping to organize women working abroad...
帮助组织在国外工作的妇女
4.make improvements 作出改进
Use this information to make improvements, not to blame yourself for wasting time.
不要责怪自己浪费了多少时间，把这当作警示来提高自己。
5.determination 决心
Everyone concerned acted with great courage and determination.
每个相关的人都以巨大的勇气和决心行动了。
6.accomplishment 成就
For a novelist, that's quite an accomplishment.
对于一个小说家来说，那是一个了不起的成就。
参考译文
我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。我是芭芭拉·克莱恩。这里是美国慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们将讲述威尔玛·鲁道夫的故事，她是首位在一届奥运会上获得三枚金牌的美国女性。他们称她为“黑珍珠”、“黑瞪羚”，称她是“世界上最快的女性”。1960年，威尔玛·鲁道夫成为了在一届奥运会上获得三枚金牌的首位美国女性。她是一名超凡的美国运动员，还为年轻运动员的成功提供大量帮助。
威尔玛·鲁道夫于1940年出生于田纳西州圣伯利恒。她是早产儿，体重只有两公斤。小时候她得过很多病，包括肺炎和猩红热。她还患有小儿麻痹症，她的左腿因而受损。6岁的时候，她开始佩带金属腿支架，因为她的左腿不能走路。威尔玛·鲁道夫出生于一个非常贫穷的大家庭。她是22个孩子中的第20个。由于她大部分时间都在生病，她的哥哥姐姐都帮忙照顾她。他们每晚轮流按摩她残疾的左腿。他们还要注意确保她不会把腿支架脱下来。每周，威尔玛的妈妈开车带她到80千米远的地方看医生。她在那里进行治疗帮助治愈她的腿。之后她说：“我的医生们告诉我我以后都不能走路了。我的母亲告诉我我可以。我相信我的母亲。”很快她们一家的关注和照料获得了回报。
在她9岁的时候，她不再需要腿支架了。威尔玛很开心，因为她现在可以跑、可以像其他孩子一样玩耍。11岁的时候，她的哥哥在后院建了一个篮球框。之后，她每天都会去打篮球。青少年时期，威尔玛参加了伯特中学的女子篮球队。格雷是管理这支队伍的教练。他给威尔玛取了个绰号“蚊子”。她在篮球队的表现很好。她曾在一场比赛中拿下了42分，打破了田纳西州的记录。很多人都注意到威尔玛是位很棒的篮球运动员，也是优秀的运动员。这些人之一就是爱德·坦普尔，他是田纳西州大学田径队的教练。
爱德·坦普尔要求格雷在这所中学组建女子田径队。他认为威尔玛·鲁道夫会成为一名很棒的跑步运动员。她在新组建的田径队中表现非常好。威尔玛·鲁道夫在16岁的时候首次参加奥运会，当时她仍在读高中。1956年，她在澳大利亚墨尔本比赛。她是美国队中年纪最小的队员。她在短跑接力赛中取得第三名成绩获得了铜牌。1957年，威尔玛·鲁道夫开始在田纳西州大学上学，她也加入了学校的田径队。爱德·坦普尔教练倾注很多心血在女子田径队中。他开车带她们参加比赛，自己掏钱改善跑道。但他是一名严厉教练。比如，队员们训练每迟到一分钟，他就会让队员多跑一圈。威尔玛·鲁道夫在大学是2训练非常刻苦。在与其他高校的比赛中，她表现很好。
1960年，她在两千米跑步赛中打破了世界纪录。她说：“我每天都跑啊跑啊，我获得了一种勇往直前的决心，这种感觉激励着我，让我永远永远都不会放弃，不论发生任何事情。”同年，威尔玛·鲁道夫来到意大利罗马再次参加奥运会。她首次在一百米和两百米跑中获得金牌。在两百米冲刺中，她以23分2秒的成绩创造了奥运会新纪录。她所在的团队也在四百米接力赛中获得金牌，并以44.5秒的成绩创造世界记录。三枚金牌让她成为了罗马奥运会中最受欢迎的运动员之一。因为这些胜利，人们称她为“世界上最快的女性”。
威尔玛·鲁道夫受到了媒体和大众的关注，但是她没有忘记自己的队友。她说她最喜欢的比赛就是接力赛，因为她可以和她的队友玛莎·哈德逊、卢欣达·威廉姆斯以及芭芭拉·琼斯共享胜利。四位女性均来自田纳西州大学。美联社将威尔玛·鲁道夫提名为美国年度女性运动员。她还多次上电视。美国和世界各地的体育迷们都喜爱并尊重她。她说：“成功的感觉填满了我，三块奥运金牌，我知道这些东西是别人无论如何都拿不走的。”威尔玛·鲁道夫是体育界内外众多人中的代表。她支持民权运动—为黑人和白人的平等而斗争。当她参加完奥运会回到家中时，她告诉田纳西州州长，她不会参加将黑人和白人分割开来的庆典。因此，她的返乡游行活动和晚宴是她的家乡克拉克斯维尔举办的首个黑人白人共同出席的活动。
退役后，威尔玛·鲁道夫在田纳西州大学完成了学业。她获得了初等教育学士学位并成为了一名教师。她回到伯特中学培训田径队。她还成为了国家电视台女子田径比赛的一名解说员。1963年，她和她高中的男友结婚。他们有四个孩子，但之后他们离婚了。威尔玛·鲁道夫获得了很多重要运动奖项。她被投票选入黑人运动员名人堂和美国奥运会名人堂。她还被选入美国田径名人堂。1977年，她写了一本关于自己的书—《Wilma》。她写到了童年的问题和她在体育上的成功。之后，NBC将这本书拍成了电影。威尔玛称她最大的成功是在1981年成立了威尔玛·鲁道夫基金会。该组织帮助本地社区的孩子们成为运动员。她总是想要帮助年轻运动员认识到他们能在一生中获得很多的成功。她说：“不努力就不会有胜利。我知道什么是努力。我花了一生时间想要分享在体育界中这对女性首先意味着什么，这样其他年轻女性才有机会实现梦想。”
威尔玛还影响了很多运动员。其中之一就是另一名非裔美国跑步运动员，弗洛伦斯·格里菲斯·乔伊娜。1988年，格里菲斯·乔伊娜成为第二位在一届奥运会中获得三枚金牌的美国女性。她继续获得了总共六块奥运金牌。威尔玛·鲁道夫非常开心看到其他非裔美国女性运动员取得成功。她说：“我以为我没机会看到了。弗洛伦斯·格里菲斯·乔伊娜—每次她在奔跑，我也在奔跑。”1994年威尔玛·鲁道夫因脑癌在田纳西州那什维尔去世，年54岁。她影响了世界众多运动员、非裔美国人以及女性。任何人都可以克服障碍实现梦想，她就是最重要的证明。她在1960届奥运会的队友比尔·穆利肯说：”她很漂亮、很善良，她是最棒的。”
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