(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Shirley Griffith. And I'm Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. This week we tell about singer and songwriter Sam Cooke. The song is called "You Send Me." It was written and sung by a young singer and songwriter, Sam Cooke. During the late nineteen fifties and early sixties, Sam Cooke was one of the biggest stars in the music industry. His smooth voice and musical style were popular with both blacks and whites. His influence still is present in today's music. Sam Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in nineteen thirty-one. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a minister in a Baptist church. Sam started singing religious music when he was only fifteen years old. When he was nineteen, he became the lead singer of a famous gospel singing group called the Soul Stirrers. In nineteen fifty, he began writing and recording for the Soul Stirrers. During his six years with the group, Cooke brought his own kind of expression to gospel music. He became gospel music's biggest star. His good looks and singing abilities made him very popular among women, both young and old. Here is Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers singing "Touch the Hem of His Garment." Although Sam Cooke was a star with the Soul Stirrers, he wanted to sing other kinds of music. So, he decided to sing popular music instead. Cooke's decision to "cross over" to pop music shocked many blacks. That was because making such a change was not as easy then as it is today. Racial tensions were high between blacks and whites in the nineteen fifties. And gospel music was popular among black people. It was considered an important part of black culture. The company that recorded the Soul Stirrers' records urged him not to start singing pop music. They thought it would offend the group's fans. Cooke, however, wanted to sing to all groups of people. He wanted to express his racial identity without offending whites.
At that time, most records by black artists were not played on radio stations that had white listeners. So, he left the gospel music world where he was extremely popular with blacks. But the move was not a mistake. He soon became a big star singing pop music. Sam Cooke's first pop record was released by a small company, Keen, in nineteen fifty-seven. It was "You Send Me." It was a huge success. It sold one million seven hundred thousand copies in the first year alone. It is one of his most memorable recordings. Here is the first version he recorded of that song. It was made to show Cooke's ability to sing. Sam Cooke had a voice that was unlike any the public had ever heard. His voice was soft, yet intense. He made singing seem effortless. Cooke was also a wise businessman. In nineteen fifty-nine, he became the first black artist to establish his own record company, SAR Records. He wrote most of his own material. And, he owned the rights to his songs through his music publishing company, Kags Music. Very few blacks at that time were able to control their musical profession in such a way. And, without such business control, they lost money. Here is another hit by Sam Cooke, when he was with the Keen record company, called "Wonderful World. " In nineteen sixty, Sam Cooke signed an agreement with a major record company, RCA. Such a move is common today. But, a move from an independent black-owned record company to a major record company was something few black artists were able to do then. Cooke had a number of big hits at RCA. In this song, Sam Cooke uses a "call and answer" form of musical expression that started in the black church. The song is called "Bring it on Home to Me." In nineteen sixty-two, Sam Cooke recorded a song for RCA about a popular new dance step, the Twist. The song is called "Twistin' the Night Away. " In December nineteen sixty-four, Sam Cooke's life was suddenly cut short. He was shot and killed at a hotel during a visit to Los Angeles. He was thirty-three years old. His death shocked his fans. Thousands of people gathered at his funeral. Two of Cooke's last songs were released after he died. One of the songs is called "A Change is Gonna Come." It is a powerful song that combines gospel and pop music. The song is like many of Sam Cooke's that made him so popular as a singer and songwriter. It is about never losing hope.
重点解析
1.be able to 能够
You should then be able to save and reload these overlays as required.
然后，您应该能够根据需要保存和重新加载这些覆盖值。
2.popular with受…欢迎
Kedgeree is one of those dishes brought back from India in the days of the Raj, and was wildly popular with the Victorians.
鸡蛋葱豆饭是从印度流传过来，那天正好是印度的拉吉日，此后在维多利亚时代的十分流行。
3.as easy as 和……一样容易
Apart from being absurd on the face of it, if it were as easy as that, we would have been overrun by saints since time immemorial.
从表面上看这件事真的很荒唐，如果真的有想的那么容易的话，我想我们古时候的圣人学者也会觉得这种做法很荒唐。
4.sign an agreement 签订协议
While in Tokyo, Clinton signed an agreement on relocating thousands of American troops from Okinawa to the American island, Guam, in the Pacific.
克林顿在东京期间签署了一项有关把数千名美军人员从冲绳重新安置到美国的太平洋岛屿关岛的协议。
5.part of一部分
This part of the field has been fenced off to keep the cattle out.
这部分田园已经用栅栏隔开，以防牧畜跑进去。
6.cut short打断
We have shared the grief of an Olympic dream cut short. The memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili will always be with us.
我们共同为一个奥运之梦的突然结束感到悲伤，库马里塔什威利将被我们永远铭记。
参考译文
我是雪莉·格里菲思，我是雷·弗里曼。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。每周我们会讲述一位美国历史上的重要人物的故事。今天我们讲述创作歌手山姆·库克的故事。这首歌叫做《你如此真心》。这首歌由年轻的创作歌手山姆·库克演唱。在上世纪50年代末和60年代初，山姆·库克是音乐界最耀眼的明星之一。他流畅的嗓音和音乐风格深受黑人和白人的喜爱。现在他仍然影响着今天的音乐。萨姆·库克于1931年出生在密西西比州的克拉克斯顿。他在伊利诺斯州的芝加哥长大。他的父亲是浸信会教堂的牧师。小山姆在他15岁的时候就开始演唱宗教歌曲了。19岁的时候，山姆成为了一个有名的福音歌唱组合的主唱，组合名字叫灵魂扇动者。在灵魂扇动者组合唱歌的时候，他成为了福音音乐界最耀眼的明星。1950年，山姆开始为灵魂扇动着组合创作和录制歌曲。在与乐队共处的六年时光里，库克以自己独有的方式表现着福音音乐。他成为了福音音乐的巨星。他的美貌和歌唱才能使他在男女老少中都很受欢迎。这首是山姆和灵魂煽动者组合演唱的《摸摸他衣服的下摆》。虽然山姆·库克在组合中是个明星，但是他想演唱其他类型的音乐。所以他决定演唱流行歌曲。库克的这个转到流行歌曲的决定震惊了许多黑人，这是因为做出这样一个改变并不像今天一样容易。在20世纪50年代，黑人和白人之间的种族主义争端很激烈，而福音音乐在黑人中非常流行。福音音乐被认为是黑人文化的重要组成部分。为灵魂煽动者组合录制唱片的公司力劝山姆不要转唱流行音乐，公司的人们认为这样会冒犯组合的粉丝。但是库克想为所有人群唱歌。他想要表达自己的种族身份，同时又不冒犯白人群体。在那个时候，大多数黑人艺术家的唱片都没有在有白人听众的广播电台播放。所以，山姆离开了自己极受黑人欢迎的福音音乐世界，但是这个转变不是一个错误，很快他成为了一名流行音乐界的耀眼明星。山姆·库克的第一个流行音乐唱片是由一个小公司发布的，那是在1957年。歌曲名字叫《你如此真心》，唱片取得了巨大的成功，仅在第一年就卖了170万张。这是山姆最难忘的唱片之一，这是他录制的歌曲的首版，制作这个唱片是为了展现库克的演唱能力。山姆·库克的声音是公众从未听过的。他的声音很柔和，但也很热情。他使唱歌显得毫不费力。库克也是一位明智的商人。1959年，他成为第一个成立自己的唱片公司（SAR唱片）的黑人艺术家。他自己创作了大部分的作品。他通过自己的音乐出版公司（Kagsmusic）拥有歌曲的版权。当时很少有黑人能以这种方式控制自己的音乐职业。没有这样的商业控制，他们就会亏损。这是山姆·库克的另一首热曲《美好世界》，当时他在Keen唱片公司。1960年，山姆·库克和一个大型唱片公司RCA签约，这种签约在现在很常见。但是在那个时代，从一家独立的黑人拥有的唱片公司转到到一家大型唱片公司是很少有黑人艺术家能够做到的事情。库克在RCA唱片公司发行了几首大热歌曲。在这首歌中，山姆·库克使用了一种“callandanswer”的音乐表达形式，这种形式起源于黑人教堂。这首歌的名字叫《把它带回家给我》。1962年，山姆·库克为RCA录制了一首关于流行的新舞扭腰舞的歌曲。这首歌叫做《摇曳这个夜晚》。1964年12月，山姆·库克突然与世长辞。他在洛杉矶的时候，在一家旅馆内被枪杀，年仅33岁。山姆的死震惊了他的粉丝，成千上万人参加了他的葬礼。库克去世后，他最后的两首歌发行了。其中一首歌叫《改变就要发生》，这是一首结合福音音乐和流行音乐的力作。这首歌就像山姆·库克的许多歌曲一样，使他成为如此受欢迎的歌手和作曲家。这首歌表达的是永远不要失去希望。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
