(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 the unforgettable entertainer Eartha Kitt. The life of this singer and actress was as rich and interesting as her career.
"C'est Si Bon," or "It's So Good" in French, was one of Eartha Kitt's first hit songs. She recorded it in the early nineteen fifties after performing it in a Broadway show. But Eartha Kitt's life was not always so good. She had a very difficult childhood although information about her early history is limited.
Eartha Mae Keith was born into a poor, rural family in South Carolina in nineteen twenty-seven. Some reports say she was the child of rape. Her mother was of African and Cherokee Indian ancestry. Her father was a white farmer.
When Eartha was eight, her mother married. The husband did not want Eartha to live with them because of her mixed race. Eartha Kitt said he called her "yellow gal."
Eartha was sent to New York City to live with an aunt in the African- American neighborhood of Harlem. The relationship was difficult. The aunt helped pay for piano and dance lessons for Eartha. But she also beat the girl. Eartha would run away after beatings.
(Music: "God Bless The Child")
Eartha Kitt lived on the streets and worked in a factory as a young teenager. But she kept up her dance lessons. One day she decided to try out for a famous African-American dance company. Soon, Eartha was performing in shows around the world with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe.
In Paris, Eartha left the dance company to sing in a nightclub. Her voice was unusual – but very appealing. She learned French quickly and gained French fans.
(Music: "Je Cherche Un Homme")
The film director Orson Welles discovered Eartha Kitt singing in Paris. He called her "the most exciting woman in the world." Welles asked her to play a lead part in a play he was directing and starring in.
Eartha Kitt returned to New York and appeared in the Broadway show "New Faces of Nineteen Fifty-Two." A humorous song she sang about a bored, spoiled woman became famous. Here is "Monotonous."
She soon signed a recording agreement with a record company. Eartha Kitt's songs were all daring, especially for the nineteen fifties. She even made a sexy Christmas song. "Santa Baby," became Kitt's biggest hit.
Eartha Kitt's first role in a film was in the nineteen fifty-seven movie "Mark of the Hawk" with Nat King Cole. Kitt was very careful about choosing her roles in films. She rejected parts that were not respectful to people of color. She said if her choices were bad it would not help the black actors who came after her.
CATWOMAN: "Hello Pierre.This is Catwoman. C-A-T-W-O-M-A-N."
PIERRE: "Quelle est la problem, Femme Chat?"
CATWOMAN: "Batman just caught Joker and me in the middle of a robbery."
In nineteen sixty-seven, Eartha Kitt got the part of Catwoman on the popular television series "Batman." Fans loved the special way she rolled her "r"s to create a sound like a cat. She appeared on just three shows but was an unforgettable Catwoman.
CATWOMAN: "What now?"
BATMAN: "You're on your way to prison, Catwoman. Will you never learn that you cannot outwit the law?"
CATWOMAN: "Maybe one day I will, Batman. Purr-haps."
In nineteen sixty-eight Eartha Kitt was invited to the White House. President Lyndon Johnson was in office and the Vietnam War was an issue of national dispute.
The president's wife, Lady Bird Johnson, invited several women to a luncheon to discuss the problem of crimes committed by young people. Eartha Kitt said the First Lady asked her why she thought there was so much youth crime in America.
Eartha Kitt said: "You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the streets. They will take pot and they will get high. They don't want to go to school because they will be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."
Those comments destroyed Kitt's career in America for a long time. Later, it was discovered that President Johnson had immediately ordered government agents to investigate the performer. Kitt said she was "blacklisted." No one in the American entertainment industry would employ her. For about ten years, she could only find work in other countries.
In the mid nineteen seventies Eartha Kitt slowly began to rebuild her career in America. She won critical praise for a concert in nineteen seventy-four at Carnegie Hall in New York. In nineteen seventy-eight, President Jimmy Carter asked Eartha Kitt back to the White House. That same year, she was nominated for a Tony award as best actress in the musical "Timbuktu!"
In nineteen ninety-four, Eartha Kitt released the album "Back In Business". It was nominated for a Grammy. She was sixty-six years old. She received another Tony nomination, three Emmys and other honors in the years that followed. And she continued singing in small clubs until the last year of her life.
(Music: "Let's Do It")
Eartha Kitt was also a mother and grandmother. She married businessman William O'Donald in nineteen sixty and gave birth to their daughter, Kitt, the same year. Eartha Kitt said her daughter was her greatest joy in life. She said she took her everywhere her career went.
Eartha Kitt said her own experiences as a child left her a divided person. Her real self was not Eartha Kitt but Eartha Mae, a child given away by her mother.
EARTHA KITT: "Rejection has always made me into a person that does not want to be seen anywhere, except when I'm all made up and go out as Eartha Kitt. Then I feel okay."
And where was Eartha Mae most herself?
EARTHA KITT: "I'm at home, digging in the dirt, or doing something that is very close to the Earth, because that's where I know how to survive."
(MUSIC: "Here's To Life")
Eartha Mae Kitt was at home when she died on December twenty fifth, two thousand eight. The cause was colon cancer. She was eighty-one.
重点解析
1.because of由于；
There were fewer temporary engineers to plug in in that city because of low pay.
由于报酬低，该城市雇用得到的临时工程师就更少了。
2.run away逃跑
I had run away like a child, instead of keeping control of the situation, as I thought I should.
我像个小孩子似地逃跑了，却没控制住那一情形，因为我认为我应当控制得住自己。
3.keep up保持
I thank him for his willingness to keep up our dialogue as well as offering some good advice on increasing Chinese and American student interaction.
感谢他愿意和我们保持对话，也感谢他在如何增加中美学生互动方面给我们提供了一些好建议。
4.give birth to生下；
Instead, he said, he managed an oil refinery. Ms. Simpson was unhappy in Syria and moved back to Green Bay, he said, where she gave birth to their second child, Mona.
他说，自己当时管理着一个炼油厂，而辛普森在叙利亚的生活并不快乐，她回到了美国的格林贝，并且在那里生下他们的第二个孩子莫娜。
5.give away赠送；放弃
Why do you think it is so hard for people to give away control?
为什么你认为对人们来说，放弃控制权是很困难的事呢？
6.begin to开始
However, after years of labor in their chosen field, they begin to hate their jobs.
然而，他们在选择的领域工作了几年后，便开始痛恨自己的工作。
参考译文
我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔，我是芭芭拉·克莱恩，这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们讲述令人难以忘怀的艺人艾萨·凯特的故事。这个演员和歌手的生活跟他的职业生涯一样丰富有趣。
“如此美妙”是艾萨·凯特的第一批热门歌曲之一。20世纪50年代初，她在百老汇演出后录制了这首歌。但艾萨·凯特的生活并不总是那么美好。尽管有关她早期经历的信息不多，但她的童年很艰难。
艾萨·梅·凯特于1927年出生在南卡罗来纳州一个贫穷的农村家庭。一些报道称她是女人被强奸后生下的孩子。她的母亲有非洲和切罗基印第安血统。她的父亲是个白人农场主。
艾萨八岁时，母亲结婚了。但是父亲不想让艾萨和他们生活在一起，因为她是个混血儿。艾萨·凯特说他称自己为“黄加仑”。
他们把艾萨送到了哈莱姆的非裔美国人社区，跟她的一个阿姨住在一起。她和阿姨的关系并不好。阿姨为她支付钢琴课和舞蹈课的费用。但是她也殴打艾萨。艾萨经常会在被打后跑出来。
（音乐：“天佑稚子”）
艾萨·凯特青少年时住在街上，在一个工厂上班。但是她也继续学自己的舞蹈课程。一天，她决定去一家著名的非裔美国舞蹈公司面试。很快，艾萨就随着凯瑟琳·邓纳姆舞蹈团在世界各地演出。
在巴黎，艾萨离开了舞蹈公司，去了一家夜总会演出。她的声音是与众不同的，但是非常吸引人。她法语学得很快，也赢得了法国粉丝的喜爱。
（音乐：“我要找男人”）
电影导演奥森·威尔斯在巴黎发现了正在演唱的艾萨·凯特。威尔斯称艾萨为“世界上最令人兴奋的女人”。威尔斯邀请她去自己导演兼主演的戏剧中担任主角。
艾萨·凯特回到了纽约，并在百老汇演出“1952年的新面孔”。她演唱的一首关于一个无聊的、被宠坏的女人的幽默歌曲出名了。就是这首歌曲“枯燥”。
她很快就和一家唱片公司签订了唱片协议。艾萨·凯特的歌曲都很大胆，尤其是在20世纪50年代。她甚至演唱了一首性感的圣诞歌曲。“圣诞宝贝”，这首歌成为她最热门的歌曲之一。
1957年，艾萨·凯特参演了她的第一部电影“鹰标”，这是她和纳·京·高尔一起演出的电影。凯特在选择电影角色时非常谨慎。她拒绝了包含有不尊重有色人种部分的电影。艾萨说如果自己做了不好的选择，她将不会帮助那些追随她的黑人演员。
猫女：你好，皮埃尔。我是猫女。C-A-T-W-O-M-A-N。
皮埃尔：“这是什么问题，女人聊天？”
猫女：“蝙蝠侠刚刚抓到小丑，我现在处于一起抢劫案中。”
1967年，艾萨·凯特在热门电视剧《蝙蝠侠》中扮演了猫女这个角色。为了听起来像猫的声音一样，她用独特的方式发了“r”这个音，粉丝都很喜欢。她只出演了其中三集，但是却留下了难忘的猫女形象。
猫女：“怎么办呢？”
蝙蝠侠：“你正在去监狱的路上，猫女。你什么时候才能知道你不能战胜法律呢？”
猫女：“或许某一天我会的，蝙蝠侠。或-许吧。”
1968年，艾萨·凯特受邀去了白宫。当时美国总统是林登·约翰逊，越南战争是一个具有国家争议的问题。
当时的第一夫人伯德·约翰逊邀请了几位女性参加了一次午宴，他们讨论了年轻人犯罪的问题。艾萨·凯特说，当时第一夫人问她，为什么她觉得美国有这么多的青少年犯罪发生。
艾萨·凯特说，“你们把这个国家最好的人送去参加战争，他们就在街上造反了。他们会吸大麻，然后变得兴奋起来。他们不想上学，因为国家会把他们从母亲身边抢走，然后他们会在越南被枪杀。”
这些评论在长时间里摧毁了凯特的职业生涯。后来，人们知道，林登·约翰逊总统当时立即命令政府特工调查凯特。凯特说她被加入了黑名单。美国娱乐行业没有一个人敢雇佣她。差不多有十年的时间，她只能在其他国家找到工作。
在20世纪70年达中期，艾萨·凯特开始在美国重启自己的职业生涯。1974年，她在纽约卡内基音乐厅举办了一场音乐会，赢得了评论界的一致好评。1978年，吉米·卡特总统邀请艾萨·凯特回到白宫。同年，她凭借音乐剧《廷巴克图》获得托尼奖最佳女主角提名。1994年，艾萨·凯特发行了专辑《重回本行》。专辑获得了格莱美奖提名。当时她66岁。在接下来的几年里，她又获得了托尼奖提名、三项艾美奖和其他荣誉。她继续在小俱乐部唱歌，直到生命的最后一年。
（音乐：“让我们开始做吧”）
艾萨·凯特也是一位母亲和祖母。她在1960年嫁给了商人威廉·唐纳德，同年生下了他们的女儿凯特。艾萨·凯特说她女儿是她生活中最大的快乐。她说她职业生涯所到之处都带着自己的女儿。
艾萨·凯特说她童年时的经历让她成为一个分裂的人。真正的她不是艾萨·凯特，而是艾萨·梅，一个由母亲遗弃的孩子。
艾萨·凯特：“拒绝让我成为了一个在哪都不想被看到的人，当我化好妆，以艾萨·凯特形象示人的时候，我感觉就没事了。”艾萨·梅经常会在哪里出现呢？
艾萨·凯特：“我会在家里，挖着泥土，或者做一些会离地面很近的事情，因为在那里我知道如何生存。”
（音乐：“致生活”）
2008年12月25日，艾萨·梅·凯特在家中去世。死因是结肠癌。她享年81岁。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
