(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. President Abraham Lincoln led the Union of northern states in four years of civil war against the southern Confederacy. But he did not live to see the end of the war. He did not live to see the nation re-united. He was assassinated in April of eighteen sixty-five.This week in our series, Shep O'Neal and Maurice Joyce tell what happened after Lincoln died. Almost immediately, officials began planning details of the president's funeral. They asked Missus Lincoln where she wanted her husband buried. At first, she said Chicago. That was where the Lincolns were going to live after they left the White House. Then she said the Capitol building in Washington. A tomb had been built there for America's first President, George Washington. But it had never been used. Finally, she remembered a country cemetery they had visited. At the time, her husband had said: "When I am gone, lay my remains in some quiet place like this." So Missus Lincoln decided that the president's final resting place would be in the quiet, beautiful Oak Ridge Cemetery outside their home town of Springfield, Illinois.
For several days after Lincoln's assassination, his body lay in the East Room of the White House. The room was open to the public all day. Next, the body was taken to the Capitol building. Again, the public could come to say goodbye. Then the body was put on a special train for the trip back to Illinois. Four years earlier, President-elect Lincoln had traveled by train from Illinois to Washington. He stopped to make speeches in cities along the way. Now, on this sad return trip, the train stopped at those same cities: Baltimore. Philadelphia. New York. Cleveland. Indianapolis. Chicago. In every town, people lined the railroad. They stood silently, with tears in their eyes, as the train moved slowly past. Farmers working in the fields saw the train and dropped to their knees in prayer. For the wise man who had led the Union through four years of bloody civil war -- Father Abraham -- was dead. Churches throughout the country held memorial services. Ministers told their people that God had taken Lincoln because the president had completed the job God had given him. He had brought peace to the Union, and freedom to all men.
The final service was at the cemetery outside Springfield. It ended with the words from Lincoln's second inaugural speech. "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right -- as God gives us to see the right -- let us strive on to finish the work we are in. Let us heal the nation's wounds. Let us do all possible to get and keep a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." While the nation mourned Lincoln's death, federal officials investigated his assassination. The man who had shot Lincoln in Ford's Theater was an actor, John Wilkes Booth. He had fled the theater after the murder. The government offered a reward of one hundred thousand dollars to anyone who captured Booth and his helpers. The investigation produced the names of several people who were friends of Booth. One was John Surratt. Like Booth, he supported the southern Confederacy during the Civil War. Another was David Herold, a young man who worked in a store in Washington. Others were George Atzerodt, Lewis Paine, Sam Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlin. Most of these men had stayed at a house owned by John Surratt's mother, Mary.
One by one, in the days following Lincoln's death, these people were arrested. Anyone else who might have had a part in the plot was seized. Soon, hundreds of suspects were being held in jails in and around Washington. At the end of a week, only two of the plotters were still free: David Herold and John Wilkes Booth. Booth broke his leg when he jumped from the presidential box to the stage at Ford's Theater. A few hours later, he and Herold stopped at the home of a Doctor Samuel Mudd. They reportedly gave the doctor false names. They asked him to fix Booth's broken leg. Doctor Mudd agreed. And he let the two men sleep at his home. Federal troops chasing the assassins arrested the doctor. They accused him of being part of the plot. John Wilkes Booth and David Herold ran and hid for six days. They crossed the Potomac River from Maryland into Virginia. Finally, twelve days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, soldiers found the two men. They were hiding in a tobacco barn near the town of Port Royal. Herold agreed to surrender. He came out of the barn with his hands in the air. He shouted again and again that he was innocent.
Booth refused to come out. The soldiers set fire to the barn. The fire forced Booth to move close to the door. The soldiers could see him now. He was aiming a gun at them. The soldiers had been ordered to capture Booth alive. But one of them raised his gun and shot Booth in the neck. The actor fell. Some of the soldiers ran to the burning barn and pulled him out. They carried him to a nearby house. He died two hours later. John Wilkes Booth carried a notebook. He wrote in it every day. On the day Lincoln was killed, he wrote: "For six months we had worked to kidnap Lincoln. But with the Confederacy being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done. I struck boldly." Booth described how and why he had shot the president. "Our country," Booth wrote, "owed all her troubles to him. And God simply made me the instrument of his punishment." Booth's body was returned to Washington. Men who knew him confirmed that it was the body of John Wilkes Booth. The body was buried under the stone floor of the Washington prison. A few years later, his family received permission to move the body to a cemetery in the city of Baltimore.
Evidence showed that only a few people were actually involved in the plot against the president. Most had agreed to work with Booth because they believed he planned to kidnap Lincoln, not kill him. Of the hundreds of persons arrested, only eight were brought to trial. The secretary of war decided that they would be tried by a military court. He argued that Lincoln had been commander-in-chief of all military forces and had been murdered during wartime. The trial began almost two months after the assassination. The prisoners seemed in poor condition. All wore heavy chains on their arms and legs. And the men had been forced to wear thick cloths over their heads. Officials said the cloths were necessary to prevent them from talking to each other. The secretary of war announced that the prisoners could not meet privately with their defense lawyers. They could meet only in the courtroom. Guards could hear everything they said. One of the defense lawyers recognized that the job was hopeless. He said the trial was a contest between the defense lawyers and the whole United States. There was no question, he said, what the military court's decision would be.
The government tried to prove that Lincoln's assassination was a Confederate plot. Witnesses told how Confederate supporters reportedly planned to cause trouble in the North. But none could prove that Confederate President Jefferson Davis -- or any other southern leader -- played a part in Booth's plot to kill Lincoln. Four hundred witnesses appeared. Many of the important ones had been arrested as suspects. They agreed to give evidence if the government dropped the charges against them. For six weeks, the court heard evidence against the eight prisoners. The prisoners themselves could say nothing. They could only listen. In late June, eighteen sixty-five, the trial of Abraham Lincoln's assassins ended. The military officers serving as judges met secretly for two days. Then they announced their decision. All eight prisoners were found guilty. One received a prison sentence of six years. Three were sentenced to life in prison. Four were sentenced to die. Defense lawyers appealed for mercy. The appeal was rejected. On July seventh, David Herold, Lewis Paine, George Atzerodt and Mary Surratt were hanged for the murder of Abraham Lincoln.
重点解析
1.agree to 同意;赞成
You and I are going to have to agree to disagree then.
那你我只能各自保留不同意见了
2.serve as 作为;担任
Water may serve as a type of instability.
水可以作为不稳定性的象征
3.at first 起先;最初
You will find it hard at first, but stick at it.
你会发现刚开始时有点难,但要坚持下去
。4.one by one 一个一个;一个接一个
One by one they got out.
他们一个一个地走了出去
。参考译文
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林肯遇刺后的几天里,他的尸体放置在白宫东厅 。这个房间全天向公众开放 。接下来,尸体送至国会大厦 。公众又可以来此处向总统道别 。随后,尸体被放置于一列专列上,准备送回伊利诺伊州 。四年前,林肯当选总统后乘火车从伊利诺伊州来到华盛顿 。他在沿线城市停留发表演讲 。现在,在这趟悲伤的返程途中,火车在这些城市一一停靠:巴尔的摩、费城、纽约、克利夫兰、印第安纳波利斯、芝加哥 。火车每到一个城镇,人们都列队在铁路两侧 。火车缓缓驶过时,他们静默地站立,眼里擎着泪水 。在田地里劳作的农民看见火车,便跪下来祈祷 。因为那位带领联邦经历四年血腥内战的智者亚伯拉罕·林肯去世了 。全国各地的教堂都举行追悼仪式,部长们告诉人民,上帝之所以带走林肯,是因为总统完成了上帝交付给他的工作 。他给联邦带来和平,给所有人带来自由 。
最后的安葬仪式在斯普林菲尔德郊外的墓地举行,仪式以林肯第二次就职演说中的话语结束 。 “对任何人毫无歹意,对所有人满怀爱心,伸张正义矢志不渝,因为上帝让我们看到正义 。让我们继续完成未竟之业 。让我们治愈国家的创伤,让我们尽一切可能在我们自己与所有国家之间获得并保持公正与持久的和平 。”全国哀悼林肯去世之际,联邦官员调查了他的暗杀事件 。在福特剧院枪杀林肯的那个人是个演员,名叫约翰·威尔克斯·布思 。他在谋杀案发生后逃离了剧院 。政府悬赏十万美元,抓捕布思及其帮凶 。调查发现了布思几个朋友的名字,一个是约翰·苏拉特 。像布思一样,他在内战期间支持南方联盟国 。另一个人是大卫·赫罗德,这是一个在华盛顿一家商店工作的年轻人 。其他人分别是乔治·阿特泽洛特、刘易斯·潘恩、山姆·阿诺德和迈克尔·奥劳克林 。这些人中大多数都住在约翰·苏拉特母亲玛丽的房子里 。
在林肯去世的几天里,这些人一个接一个地被逮捕 。任何可能参与暗杀的人都被抓获 。很快,数百名嫌疑犯被关押到华盛顿及周边的监狱里 。一周结束时,只有两名策划者仍然在逃:大卫·希罗德和约翰·威尔克斯·布思 。布思从总统包厢跳到福特剧院的舞台上时摔断了腿 。几小时后,他和希罗德在塞缪尔·穆德医生家中停留 。据报道,他们向医生报的是假名字 。他们要求医生医治布思摔断的腿 。穆德医生同意了 。他让这两个人在他家中留宿 。追捕暗杀者的联邦部队逮捕了医生,他们指控他参与暗杀 。约翰·威尔克斯·布思和大卫·希罗德逃跑后藏匿了六天 。他们穿过波托马克河从马里兰州进入弗吉尼亚州 。最后,在林肯遇刺十二天后,士兵们找到了这两个人 。他们藏在罗亚尔港附近的一个烟草谷仓里 。希律同意投降,他双手举在空中走出谷仓 。他一次又一次地喊着,自己是无辜的 。
布思不肯出来,士兵们放火烧了谷仓 。大火把布思逼到了谷仓靠近门的地方,士兵们现在可以看到他 。布思用枪瞄准士兵,而士兵们奉命活捉他 。但其中一名士兵举起枪,射中了布思的脖子 。这名演员摔倒在地,一些士兵跑到燃烧的谷仓,把他拉了出来 。他们把他带到附近的一所房子里 。两小时后他死了 。约翰·威尔克斯·布思随身携带一个笔记本 。他每天都在里面记东西 。在林肯被杀的那天,他写道:“六个月来,我们一直在努力绑架林肯 。但联盟国濒临灭亡,必须采取果断、伟大的行动 。我大胆出击 。”布思描述了他是如何,以及为什么要枪杀总统 。布思写道,“我们国家遭遇的所有麻烦都归咎于他 。上帝命我来惩罚他 。”布思的尸体被送回华盛顿,认识他的人证实这是约翰·威尔克斯·布思的尸体 。尸体埋在华盛顿监狱的石头地板下 。几年后,他的家人获准将尸体转移到巴尔的摩市的一个公墓 。
有证据表明,实际上只有少数人参与了暗杀总统的阴谋行动 。大多数人都同意和布思合作,因为他们相信他计划绑架林肯,而不是杀害他 。在被逮捕的数百人中,只有八人被绳之以法 。作战部长决定由军事法庭进行审判 。他认为林肯是所有军队的总司令,于作战期间被谋杀 。审讯在暗杀事件发生近两个月后开始 。囚犯们的状况似乎很糟糕,他们的胳膊和腿上都戴着沉重的锁链 。他们被迫在头上戴上厚布 。官员们说,需要用这些布防止他们互相交谈 。作战部长宣布囚犯们不能私下会见他们的辩护律师,只能在法庭上见面 。警卫可以听到他们的谈话内容 。一名辩护律师承认根本毫无希望 。他说,审判是辩护律师和整个美国之间的较量,军事法庭将做出的决定,一点悬念也没有
政府试图证明林肯的暗杀是联盟国策划的阴谋 。据目击者称,南方邦联的支持者计划在北方制造麻烦 。但没有人能证明南方联盟国总统杰斐逊·戴维斯或其他南方领导人参与了布思谋杀林肯的阴谋 。共有四百名目击者出庭,许多关键人物被作为嫌犯遭到逮捕 。如果政府放弃对他们的指控,他们则同意提供证据 。六周来,法庭听取了八名囚犯的证词 。囚犯们只能听,自己也无法辩解 。1865年6月下旬,对林肯刺客的审判结束 。担任法官的军官秘密会面两天 。随后,他们宣布了决定 。八名囚犯都被判有罪,其中一人判处入狱六年,三人被判终身监禁,四人为死刑 。辩护律师请求从轻定罪,上诉被驳回 。7月7日,大卫·赫罗德、刘易斯·潘恩、乔治·阿特泽洛特和玛丽·苏拉特因谋杀亚伯拉罕·林肯而被处以绞刑 。
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