(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. In eighteen eighty, President Rutherford Hayes completed four successful years in the White House. He did not want to serve another term. Hayes was a Republican. His party had great hopes of electing another Republican in the election of eighteen eighty. This week in our series, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe report on that election. Many Republicans wanted to nominate former President Ulysses Grant. Grant had been out of office four years. People seemed to have forgotten the political problems that shook his administration. Other Republicans supported the powerful party leader, Senator James Blaine. A third candidate was John Sherman, the Secretary of the Treasury. The Republicans had great difficulty choosing among Grant, Blaine and Sherman. At their national convention, Republican delegates voted again and again. None of the three men received a majority.
The delegates voted ten times, twenty times, thirty times. Finally, on the thirty-fourth ballot, seventeen of the delegates voted for a compromise candidate. He was James Garfield, a Republican leader in Congress. Soon, both Sherman and Blaine asked all of their delegates to vote for Garfield. The compromise candidate won the nomination. James Garfield offered the vice presidential nomination to Chester Arthur of New York. Arthur's honesty had been questioned when President Hayes removed him as Collector of Taxes for the port of New York. But a powerful party leader there supported him. So delegates gave Arthur the vice presidential nomination to strengthen party unity. The Democratic Party chose for its presidential candidate a hero of the Civil War -- General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania. The election campaign of eighteen eighty was not exciting. Democrats charged that Republicans were dishonest. Republicans charged that a Democrat in the White House would make the south too powerful. Many people at that time still hated the south for starting the Civil War. They wanted to keep southern states weak. Nine million people voted in the election. James Garfield won. He got only ten thousand more popular votes than Winfield Scott Hancock. But he got a majority of votes in the electoral college. Garfield won two hundred fourteen electoral votes. Hancock got one hundred fifty-five.
The new president was forty-nine years old. He had served in the House of Representatives for seventeen years. He had been a teacher, a college president, and a general in the Union army during the Civil War. James Garfield became president of the United States on March fourth, eighteen eighty-one. His choices for a cabinet immediately re-opened the conflicts that had appeared during the party convention. The Republican Party had two powerful leaders. One was Senator Roscoe Conkling. The other was Senator James Blaine. Garfield won Blaine's support by naming him Secretary of State. He lost Conkling's support by refusing to name one of Conkling's supporters Secretary of the Treasury. Garfield denied he had promised anything to Conkling. Then he made Conkling even angrier by appointing one of Conkling's political enemies Collector of Taxes for the port of New York. That was the most important federal job in Conkling's home state. Conkling refused to accept the appointment. He began a struggle in the Senate to block it. Conkling charged that President Garfield had failed to observe the policy of "Senatorial Courtesy." Traditionally, the president does not fill federal jobs in a state until he discusses them with the senators from that state. This long-time policy gave senators firm control over local federal jobs. They were quick to attack any changes in the method.
But many senators were angry at Conkling. They did not like the way he gave orders to everyone. They did not like the way he threatened his opponents. They did not want to support him on this issue. After several weeks, it became clear that the Senate would approve President Garfield's choice for the tax collector's job. Conkling decided to resign in protest. He would ask the New York legislature to show its support by electing him again to the Senate. Before this could happen, something very unexpected took place. It happened in the train station in Washington, D.C., on July second, eighteen eighty-one. A man ran up to President Garfield, pulled out a gun, and fired twice. One bullet cut Garfield's arm. The other went into his back. The assassin was Charles Guiteau. When he fired the gun, he shouted that he supported Roscoe Conkling's political machine. Charles Guiteau was insane. He believed God had ordered him to kill the president. But the words he shouted caused many people to wonder if others might be involved. After all, the vice president -- Chester Arthur -- supported Roscoe Conkling, too. If James Garfield died, Chester Arthur would become president. History has provided no evidence that Roscoe Conkling, Chester Arthur, or any other political leader had a part in the shooting. Guiteau is believed to have acted on his own. Yet the situation did cause a great deal of tension while the nation waited to see if Garfield would survive.
The president was carried to the White House. A doctor tried to remove the bullet from his back. He could not find it. Days passed. The president's condition changed from day to day. Doctors pushed their instruments into the wound as they continued to look for the bullet. The wound became infected. Garfield grew worse. Then he grew better. He asked to be taken to the sea shore. Two months later, the doctors warned the Cabinet and Vice President Arthur that Garfield was dying. The end finally came on September nineteenth, eighteen eighty-one. The president's body was taken back to Washington. Memorial services were held there. And then the body was taken to his home state of Ohio for burial. Not until after Garfield's death did doctors find the bullet that killed him. It lay only a few centimeters from the wound. Tissue had grown around it. The bullet itself would not have killed the president. What killed him was the effort made by doctors to find the bullet. Their instruments had spread infection throughout his body. James Garfield had been president for six months. He was the second American President to be assassinated. The first -- Abraham Lincoln -- had been shot just sixteen years before. The man who shot James Garfield -- Charles Guiteau -- was tried by a court in Washington. He was found guilty of murder. Like those found guilty of plotting to kill Abraham Lincoln, he was hanged. Vice President Chester Arthur was in New York when he received news of President Garfield's death. He quickly sent for a judge to give him the oath of office as President. Arthur was in his early fifties. He would serve one term as leader of the United States.
重点解析
1.look for 寻找;探索
Look for software that's flexible enough for a range of abilities.
寻找功能多、适用性强的软件
2.again and again 反复地;一次又一次
The same changes took place again and again.
同样的变化一再发生 。
3.refuse to 不肯;拒绝
I refuse to honour your bill.
我拒绝兑现你的票据
。4.be angry at 因某人之言行而生气;对某事生气
You have to be angry at what's happening.
对发生的事你应该感到愤怒才对啊
。参考译文
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代表们投票10次、20次、30次 。最后,在第34轮投票中,17名代表为一名折衷候选人投票 。这个人就是国会共和党领袖詹姆斯·加菲尔德 。不久,谢尔曼和布莱恩要求他们所有的代表都给加菲尔德投票 。折衷候选人赢得了提名 。詹姆斯·加菲尔德向纽约的切斯特·亚瑟提出副总统提名,当总统海斯免去亚瑟在纽约港的税务员职务时,人们质疑起亚瑟的诚信度 。但是,那里有一位掌控权势的党内领袖支持他 。因此,代表们提名亚瑟为副总统,以加强党内团结 。民主党为其总统候选人挑选了一位内战英雄——宾夕法尼亚州的温菲尔德·斯科特·汉考克将军 。1880年的竞选活动并没有让人们感到兴奋,民主党人指责共和党人不诚实,共和党人指责白宫的民主党人会让南方变得太强大 。当时,许多人仍然憎恨南方发动内战 。他们想让南部各州维持脆弱的状态 。900万人参加了选举,詹姆斯·加菲尔德获胜 。他只比温菲尔德·斯科特·汉考克多获得一万张选票 。但是,他在总统选举团中获得了多数选票 。加菲尔德赢得214张选举团选票,汉考克获得155张选票 。
新总统49岁,他在众议院任职17年 。内战期间,他曾任教师、大学校长和联邦军将军 。1881年3月4日,詹姆斯加菲尔德成为美国总统 。他对内阁的选择立即重新开启了党代会期间出现的冲突 。共和党有两位强有力的领导人 。一位是参议员罗斯科·康克林,另一位是参议员詹姆斯·布莱恩 。加菲尔德任命布莱恩为国务卿,赢得了他的支持 。他拒绝提名康克林的一位支持者作为财政部长,从而失去了康克林的支持 。加菲尔德否认答应过康克林任何事 。后来,他任命康克林的一位政敌出任纽约港的税收工作,此举更加激怒了康克林 。这是康克林所在州中最重要的联邦公职 。康克林拒绝接受该任命,他在参议院中发起一场反对的斗争 。康克林指控总统加菲尔德没有遵循“参议员礼遇”的政策 。一直以来,总统在与来自该州的参议员讨论之前,不会去填补该州的联邦公职 。这项由来已久的政策使参议员们牢牢控制了当地的联邦工作 。他们很快就对该方法中的任何变化进行攻击 。
但是,许多参议员对康克林感到很生气 。他们不喜欢他命令大家的方式,不喜欢他威胁对手的方式,他们不想在这个问题上支持他 。几周后,局势越来越明朗,参议院将批准总统加菲尔德挑选的这位税务官员 。康克林决定辞职以示抗议,他将要求纽约立法机构再次选举他为参议院议员,以示支持 。在这一切发生之前,一件意想不到的事情发生了 。这件事发生在1881年7月2日,华盛顿的火车站 。一个人跑到总统加菲尔德面前,掏出枪,向他开了两枪 。一颗子弹打伤了加菲尔德的手臂,另一颗打入他的背部 。这名暗杀者是查尔斯·吉特,当他开枪时,他大声说他支持罗斯科·康克林的政治机器 。查尔斯·吉特是个疯子,他相信上帝命令他杀死总统 。但是,他喊出的话让很多人怀疑是否还有其他人参与其中 。毕竟,副总统切斯特·亚瑟也支持罗斯科·康克林 。如果詹姆斯·加菲尔德死了,切斯特·亚瑟将成为总统 。历史上没有任何证据证明罗斯科·康克林、切斯特·亚瑟或任何其他政治领导人参与了枪击事件 。据信,吉特是独自一人行动 。然而,在全国人民等待加菲尔德能否幸存的消息时,这种情况确实使局势变得紧张 。
总统被送到白宫,医生试图把子弹从他背部取出来,但却找不到子弹 。几天过去了,总统的病情每天都在变化 。医生们继续在寻找子弹时,把仪器推入伤口中 。伤口受到感染,加菲尔德的病情变得更糟 。后来,情况好转,他请求带他去海边 。两个月后,医生们警告内阁和副总统亚瑟,加菲尔德快不行了 。最终,在1881年9月19日,一切走到了终点 。总统的遗体被带回华盛顿,在那里举行了追悼会 。然后,尸体被送到他家乡俄亥俄州安葬 。直到加菲尔德死后,医生才找到杀死他的那颗子弹 。它离伤口只有几厘米远,周围已经长出组织 。子弹本身不会杀死总统,杀死总统的是医生为寻找子弹所做的努力 。他们的仪器把感染扩散到了他的全身 。詹姆斯·加菲尔德在任总统的时间是六个月,他是第二位被暗杀的美国总统 。第一位是,亚伯拉罕·林肯,他在16年前遭到枪杀 。枪杀詹姆斯·加菲尔德的人叫查尔斯·吉托,他在华盛顿一家法院受审,被判犯有谋杀罪 。像那些密谋杀害亚伯拉罕·林肯的人一样,他也被处以绞刑 。当副总统切斯特·亚瑟收到总统加菲尔德去世的消息时,他正在纽约 。他很快就派人请法官为他宣誓就任总统 。亚瑟当时50出头,他将出任一届美国总统 。
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