(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. Abraham Lincoln did not live to see the final surrender of the armies of the Confederacy. A Confederate sympathizer shot the president at Ford's Theatre in Washington on April fourteenth, eighteen sixty-five. By that time, however, the American Civil War really was over. General Robert E. Lee surrendered in early April, bringing an end to four years of fighting. Several other Confederate armies were still in the field. But they were too small and too weak to continue the fight. This week in our series, Maurice Joyce and Leo Scully tell the story of the final surrender of the Confederate armies. One army was in North Carolina, commanded by General Joe Johnston. Five days after Lee's surrender, Johnston asked for a meeting with General William Sherman, the commander of Union forces in North Carolina. Sherman met with Johnston a few days later. He offered him the same surrender terms that General Lee had accepted. He said the Confederates must give up their weapons and promise to fight no more. Then they would be free to return to their homes.
Johnston said he could not accept these terms. Johnston said he had the power to surrender all the Confederate armies everywhere in the South he said he would do so if Sherman agreed on a political settlement. The two generals met again the next day. Sherman listened as Johnston explained his demands. Most of them, Sherman accepted. He believed that President Lincoln wanted to help the South as much as possible. He had heard Lincoln say that he wanted to make it easy for the southern states to return to the Union. When the agreement was completed, Sherman sent it immediately to Washington for approval by the new president, Andrew Johnson. The agreement seemed to give the South everything it wanted. Instead of surrendering to Sherman, the Confederate Armies would break up. The soldiers would return to their homes, taking their weapons with them. They would sign a promise not to fight again and to obey state and federal laws. In exchange for this, Sherman said the president would recognize state governments in the south which promised to support the Constitution. He said federal courts would be established in the south again. And he said the president -- as well as he could -- would protect the political rights promised to all people by the Constitution of the United States and the state constitutions.
And Sherman said the United States government would not interfere with any of the southern people, if they remained peaceful and obeyed the laws. President Johnson held a cabinet meeting to discuss the agreement Sherman had signed. War Secretary Stanton and the other members of the cabinet were violently opposed to it. They said Sherman had no power to make any kind of political settlement. President Johnson rejected the agreement. He said Johnston's army must surrender within forty-eight hours or be destroyed. He said the surrender terms could be no better than those given General Lee. Johnston decided to surrender. On April twenty-sixth, his army laid down its weapons. One by one, the remaining armies surrendered. The soldiers began returning home. Many of them were bitter. They wanted to continue to fight. They spoke of guerrilla war against the Yankees. But most of the Confederate commanders opposed this. Many, like cavalry General Nathan Bedford Forrest, urged their men to accept defeat. Said Forrest in a farewell speech to his men: "It is a clear fact that we are beaten. We would be foolish to try to fight further. The government which we tried to establish is at an end. Civil War -- such as you have just passed through -- naturally causes feelings of bitterness and hatred. We must put these feelings aside. Whatever your responsibilities may be, meet them like men. You have been good soldiers. You can be good citizens."
Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled south after the fall of his government. He hoped to get across the Mississippi River. He believed that he could form a new Confederate army. If this failed, he planned to escape to Mexico. President Lincoln had hoped that Davis would escape. He felt that punishing Davis would only create more bitterness and make reconstruction -- the rebuilding of the South -- more difficult. But President Johnson did not share Lincoln's feelings. He believed Davis had a part in the plot to kill Lincoln. He said Davis must be captured. On May tenth, Union forces found the Confederate president's camp in southern Georgia. They seized him and took him to Fort Monroe, Virginia. He remained there for many months under close guard. His trial was never held. And finally, in eighteen sixty-seven, he was freed. Late in May, one hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers, representing every one of the Union armies, came to Washington. They came to take part in a big parade -- a victory march through the city. For two days, the soldiers marched past the White House. Many of the marching men had fought at Bull Run, at Fredericksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Sherman's western army was there from battles at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Atlanta.
The soldiers marched proudly past the president and other government leaders. All along the way, from the Capitol building to the White House, were huge crowds of cheering people. Hour after hour, the soldiers passed. Never had the city seen such a celebration. Each group of soldiers had its band and carried its own battle flags. Some proudly carried flags that had been torn in fierce fighting. Finally, late on the second day, the final group of soldiers passed the White House. The grand parade was over. The battle flags were put away, and the marching bands fell silent. The war was ended. Now, men could look about them and count the cost of the war. Four years of bloody fighting had saved the Union of states. The northern victory had settled for all time the question of whether states could leave the Union. And it had put to rest the great problem of slavery, which had troubled the nation for so many years. But the costs were great. More than six hundred thousand men of the North and South lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands more were wounded. Many had lost their arms or legs. The war cost the North almost three-and-one-half thousand million dollars. It was almost as costly to the Confederates. Most of the war was fought in the southern states. And most of the war damage was there.
Hundreds of cities and towns suffered damage. Some -- like Atlanta -- were completely destroyed by Union forces. The damage outside the populated areas was almost as great. Union armies had marched across the South leaving behind them widespread destruction. Farm houses and buildings had been burned; animals and crops seized or destroyed. Transport in the South was especially hard hit. Union soldiers had destroyed most of the railroads. The few Confederate trains that escaped capture were worn out from heavy use. River boats had been destroyed. And roads and bridges were in terrible condition. The South had no money to rebuild. Businessmen and rich landowners had put their money in Confederate bonds, now completely worthless. Confederate war debts would never be paid. There was also the question of the four million former slaves. They were free now. But few could take care of themselves. They needed jobs and training. The people of the South faced a difficult future. They had been defeated in battle. Their economy was destroyed. In many areas, there was little food and the people were hungry. Farmers could not plant crops, because they had no seed and no animals to break the ground. There was no money for rebuilding. To add to all these problems, radical Republicans in Washington were demanding severe punishment for the South. Instead of offering aid, they demanded that the government sell the property of southerners to pay Union war debts. President Andrew Johnson, himself a southerner from Tennessee, opposed the radical plans. He had his own program of reconstruction for the South.
重点解析
1.ask for 请求；要求
You cannot ask for your money back before the agreed date.
约定的日期没到，你不能把钱要回去。
2.instead of 替代；取代
We did the logo in lower-case letters instead of capitals.
我们的徽标用了小写字母，没用大写。
3.one by one 一个一个；一个接一个地
The students entered the classroom one by one.
学生们一个挨一个地走进教室。
4.take care of 照顾；照料
You have to learn to take care of your possessions.
你得学会保管好自己的财物。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。亚伯拉罕·林肯生前没能亲眼目睹同盟国军队最后投降。1865年4月14日，一名同盟国的支持者在华盛顿福特剧院枪杀了林肯总统。然而此时，美国内战已经结束。罗伯特·E·李将军在四月初投降，由此结束了长达四年的战争。其他几支同盟国军队仍在战场上厮杀。但他们军力过弱，无法继续作战。在本周的系列节目中，莫里斯·乔伊斯和利奥·斯库利将讲述同盟国军队最终投降的故事。一支由乔·约翰斯顿将军指挥的军队部署在北卡罗来纳州，在李将军投降五天后，约翰斯顿请求与北卡罗莱纳州联邦部队指挥官威廉·谢尔曼将军会面。几天后谢尔曼和约翰斯顿见面了，谢尔曼向约翰斯提出了李将军曾接受过的同样的投降条件。他说，同盟国必须放弃武器，承诺不再战斗，那样他们就可以自由地返回家乡。
约翰斯顿说他不能接受这些条件，他表示如果谢尔曼同意一项政治解决方案，他能够让南方各地的所有同盟国军队投降。第二天，两位将军又一次会面。谢尔曼听约翰斯顿解释他的要求，谢尔曼接受了大多数条件。他认为，林肯总统希望尽可能地帮助南方。他听说林肯提到过，想让南部各州不受阻挠地回到联邦。协议达成后，谢尔曼立即将其送交华盛顿，由新总统安德鲁·约翰逊批准。这项协议似乎给与了南方想要的一切。南部同盟国的军队并没有向谢尔曼投降，而是将部队解散。士兵们会带着武器回家。他们将签署一项保证不再参战的承诺，并遵守州和联邦的法律。作为交换，谢尔曼说，总统将承认南方承诺支持《宪法》的州政府。他说，南方将再次建立联邦法院。他还说，总统将尽其所能保护《美国宪法》和州宪法所承诺的所有人民的政治权利。
谢尔曼说，如果南方人民保持和平并遵守法律，美国政府不会干涉他们。约翰逊总统举行了一次内阁会议，讨论谢尔曼签署的协议。作战部长斯坦顿和其他内阁成员强烈反对。他们说，谢尔曼无权作出任何形式的政治裁决。约翰逊总统拒绝了这项协议。他说，约翰斯顿的军队必须在四十八小时内投降或被摧毁，投降条件不可能比曾给予李将军的条件更好。约翰斯顿决定投降。4月26日，他的军队放下武器，剩余的部队一支接一支地投降。士兵们开始返家。他们中的许多人都很痛苦，他们想继续战斗。他们谈到采用游击战对付北方佬。但是，大多数的同盟国指挥官反对这一点。骑兵部队将官内森·贝德福德·福雷斯特等许多人，都敦促他们的士兵接受战败的事实。福雷斯特在对部下的告别演说中说道：“很显然，我们战败了。我们继续作战，是很愚蠢的。我们试图建立的政府已经走到了尽头。比如你们刚刚经历的内战，自然会让你们感到痛苦和仇恨。我们必须把这些感情放在一边。无论你的职责是什么，都要像男人一样去面对。你们一直都是好士兵，也会成为好公民。”
同盟国总统杰斐逊·戴维斯在政府倒台后逃到南方，他希望能跨过密西西比河。他相信，他能组建一支新的邦联军队。如果这个计划失败，他打算逃到墨西哥。林肯总统曾希望戴维斯能逃脱，他认为惩罚戴维斯只会造成更多的痛苦，使重建南方更加困难。但约翰逊总统并没有认同林肯的想法，他认为戴维斯参与了谋杀林肯的阴谋。他说，必须抓获戴维斯。5月10日，联邦军在乔治亚州南部发现了同盟国总统的营地。他们抓住他，把他带到弗吉尼亚州的门罗堡。他被拘留于此，好几个月都受到严密监守。没有对他进行过审判，最终在1867年，他被释放了。五月下旬，代表联邦军队的15万名联邦士兵来到华盛顿。他们参加了一个大型游行，在城里庆祝战争胜利。两天来，士兵们游行经过白宫。许多参加游行的人都曾在布尔朗、弗雷德里克斯堡、安提坦、葛底斯堡、彼得堡和阿波马托克斯作战。谢尔曼的西翼部队参与过希洛、维克斯堡、穆弗里斯博罗、奇卡马加和亚特兰大的战役。
士兵们自豪地从总统和其他政府领导人面前走过。一路上，从国会大厦到白宫，都挤满了欢呼的人群。士兵们的游行持续了几个小时。这座城市从未举行过这样的庆典，每一队士兵都有自己的乐队，他们高举自己的作战旗帜。有些人骄傲地举着在激战中被撕破的旗帜。最后，在第二天晚些时候，最后一批士兵经过了白宫。大游行结束了，士兵把战旗收好，行军乐队也安静下来。战争结束了。现在，人们开始反思这场战争，计算着为它付出的代价。四年的血战拯救了美国联邦，北方的胜利解决了一直存在的问题，即各州是否可以离开联邦。它还解决了困扰国家多年的奴隶制这一大问题。但其代价颇高，北方和南方有六十多万人丧生。数十万人受伤，许多人失去了手臂或腿。这场战争花费了北方大约35亿美元。对同盟国来说，花销同样昂贵。大部分战争是在南部各州进行的，战争的大部分损失都发生在那里。
数百座城镇遭到破坏。有些人，比如亚特兰大，完全被联邦部队摧毁。人口密集地区以外的区域遭到的破坏几乎同样严重。联邦军队在整个南方行军，留下了大面积的废墟。农舍和建筑物被烧毁；缴获并毁坏牲畜和农作物。南部的交通运输受到了特别严重的打击，联邦士兵摧毁了大部分铁路。少数逃过抓捕的同盟国列车因过度使用而磨损。河上的船只被毁，道路和桥梁状况极其糟糕。南方没有钱重建，商人和富有的地主用钱购买同盟国债券，现在这些债券一文不值。同盟国将永远无法偿还战争造成的债务。还有关于四百万原有奴隶的问题，他们现在自由了。但很少有人能照顾好自己，他们需要工作和培训。南方人民面临着艰难的未来，他们是战败方，经济遭到破坏。在许多地区，食物很少，人们都很饿。农民不能种植庄稼，因为他们没有种子，也没有牲畜来犁地，他们也没有钱重建家园。除此之外，华盛顿激进的共和党人还要求严惩南方。他们没有提供援助，而是要求政府出售南方人的财产来偿还联邦战争的债务。总统安德鲁·约翰逊是来自田纳西州的南方人，他反对这项激进的计划。他有自己重建南方的计划。
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