(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Mary Tillotson. And I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today, we begin a two-part story about songwriter and singer Woody Guthrie. He wrote songs about common people and social issues in the nineteen thirties. His music influenced many people.
Imagine you are in America in the nineteen thirties. A train passes through the countryside. It is night time. And the only sound that can be heard is the long, lonely whistle coming from the train's engine. Inside the train's boxcars are groups of men sitting or lying on the floors. The men are dirty and their clothing is torn. In one boxcar, a short man with long, curly brown hair is playing a guitar and singing. His name is Woody Guthrie. He is singing a song about men who look for work as they travel from town to town.
Woodrow Wilson Guthrie was born in nineteen twelve in the American state of Oklahoma. The Guthrie family lived in a small farming town called Okemah. Woody's father, Charles, was a businessman who bought and sold land. Woody's mother, Nora, was a school teacher. She also liked to play the piano and sing. When Woody was young, his mother sang him songs she had learned as a girl. These songs told stories about love and death and difficult times.
Woody's early years were happy ones. But his life began to change when he was only ten years old. One day, his sister, Clara, spilled oil on her dress and accidentally set herself on fire. She died the next day. Woody never forgot her death.
As time passed, Woody's mother began acting strangely. She lost control over her actions and speech. Many people thought she was insane. Because of this, the Guthrie family became more private as they attempted to hide Nora's problems.
The loss of his daughter and his wife's suffering ruined Charles Guthrie. He began drinking alcohol. His business soon failed. The Guthrie family left Okemah and lived in several towns in Oklahoma and Texas. Young Woody often had to work instead of attending school because his family was poor.
The first musical instrument Woody learned to play was the harmonica. He learned to play the harmonica by watching an old man play the instrument. Woody learned how to play the guitar by watching his father's brother play. In the nineteen twenties, Woody was living in the town of Pampa, Texas. Pampa was known as a "boom town" because it had grown quickly after oil was discovered nearby.
On weekends, Woody joined other young men to play music at dances in the town. Years later, Woody described what singing meant to him:
"When you sing a song, it reaches out and enters people's ears. It makes them jump up and down, and sing it with you. The best part about singing is that you can sing what you think. You can tell all kinds of stories in a song, and put your ideas across to another person."
Woody liked to communicate with other people through his music. Yet he did not like to say much about himself. One reason for this was that he did not want people to know that his mother was in a hospital for insane people. Nora Guthrie suffered from Huntington's Chorea, a disease that destroys the brain and nervous system. Woody knew that someday he also might develop the disease.
He was seventeen years old when his mother died, in nineteen twenty-nine. That was the year when the economy of the United States began to slow down. Over the next several years, many Americans lost their jobs. The period became known as the Great Depression.
In Pampa, the oil fields dried up. Farms in many areas failed because little or no rain fell for several years. The land became so dry that wind easily blew away the top soil. These areas of Texas, Oklahoma and other states became known as the Dust Bowl.
Like many other people, Woody Guthrie left Pampa to travel around Texas and the Southwest looking for work. He often made trips by train. But because he had no money, he would jump on the train's boxcars and ride for free. This was often dangerous, because guards on the train would throw the men off or arrest them. However, Woody found this life exciting. One of the first songs he wrote was about leaving home and fleeing the Dust Bowl.
Woody Guthrie married Mary Jennings in nineteen thirty-three. They had three children. Three years later, Woody left his family and traveled to California. He met many kinds of people during his travels. He also learned songs from many different parts of the country. Yet what affected him most was the suffering he saw. He said: "When I saw hard-working people suffering under debts, sickness and worries, I knew there was plenty to make up songs about."
In California, Woody earned money by playing his guitar and singing. Later, he began performing on a radio program with a friend, Maxine Crissman. She was called Lefty Lou. They had one of the most popular radio programs in Los Angeles. They sang songs Woody had written about social issues. His best songs were about the troubles Americans faced during the Depression. This song is about the dangers of coal mining. It is called "The Dying Miner."
In nineteen thirty-eight, Woody Guthrie left the radio program to travel around California. He found that conditions had become worse for many people who had lost their land and fled the Dust Bowl.
Most of these "Dust Bowl refugees" could only find seasonal farm work like gathering fruit from trees. Farm owners did not pay these workers much money. The workers lived in camps that were often dirty and had no running water. Hunger and sickness were widespread. The people in the camps seemed to have lost all hope of improving their lives. Woody wrote a song about them called "Dust Bowl Refugees."
The oppression and bad conditions in the workers' camps made Woody Guthrie angry. He began helping labor organizers establish unions to help the workers. Next week, we tell about how he traveled to New York City and became a well-known musician.
重点解析
1.because of因为
It is happening in this fashion because of the obstinacy of one woman.
事情会如此发展是因为一个女人的固执己见。
2.Instead of代替；而不是
Instead of taking me to the departure lounge they took me right to my seat on the plane.
他们没有带我去候机厅，而是直接领我上飞机到了我的座位上。
3.slow down放缓
The car slowed down as they passed Customs
过海关的时候，车速慢了下来。
4.make up构成；编造
North Africans make up the largest and poorest immigrant group in the country...
北非人构成了该国最大的、也是最贫困的移民群。
5.blow away吹走；使印象深刻
I was blown away by the tone and the quality of the story...
这个故事的基调和内容打动了我。
6.on fire着火
Some of the houses nearest the bridge were on fire.
离桥最近的一些房屋着火了。
参考译文
我是玛丽·蒂洛森，我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔，这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们讲述词曲作家和歌手伍迪·格思里的故事的上半部分。在20世纪30年代，伍迪创作了关于普通人和社会问题的歌曲。他的音乐影响了很多人。
想象你在20世纪30年代的美国。一趟火车穿过乡下。现在是晚上。你能听到的唯一的声音是火车引擎发出的孤独的长笛声。火车的棚车里面有一群人坐在或者躺在地板上。这些人很脏，衣服也破了。在一个棚车里，一个留着长而卷的棕色头发的小个子男人正在弹奏吉他歌唱。他就是伍迪·格思里。他正在唱一首关于一群在镇子间穿梭寻找工作的男人的歌曲。
伍德罗·威尔逊·格思里于1912年出生于美国俄克拉荷马州。格思里一家住在一个叫奥克玛的农业小镇上。伍迪的父亲查尔斯是一位买卖土地的商人。伍迪的母亲诺拉是一名教师。她还喜欢弹钢琴和唱歌。伍迪小的时候，他的母亲给他唱自己小时候学的歌曲。这些歌曲讲述了爱情、死亡和艰难时期的故事。
伍迪早些年过的很快乐。但是他年仅十岁时生活就开始变化。一天，他的妹妹克拉拉把油洒在衣服上，不小心把自己点着了。第二天她就死了。伍迪从未忘记她的死亡。
随着时间推移，伍迪的母亲开始表现异常。她不能控制自己的言行。很多人认为她疯了。因为这件事，格思里一家更加隐秘，因为他们试图掩盖诺拉的问题。
失去女儿和妻子遭受的痛苦毁了查尔斯·格思里。他开始喝酒。他的生意不久就失败了。格思里一家离开了奥基马，生活在俄克拉荷马和德克萨斯的几个镇子。年轻的伍迪不得不经常工作，而不是上学，因为家里很贫困。
伍迪学的第一个乐器是口琴。他通过看一个老人吹口琴来学习。伍迪通过看他叔叔弹吉他学会了弹这个乐器。20世纪20年代，伍迪住在德克萨斯州的彭巴镇。彭巴镇被称为“新兴城市”，因为在彭巴镇附近发现石油后。这里就发展迅速。
周末，伍迪和其他年轻人在城里的舞会上演奏音乐。多年后，伍迪描述了歌唱对自己意味着什么：
“在你唱一首歌的时候，歌曲会让人们听到。这会让他们翩翩起舞，和你一块唱。唱歌最棒的地方在于你可以唱出你所想的东西。你可以在一首歌里讲述各种各样的故事，并把你的想法传达给另一个人。”
伍迪喜欢通过音乐和其他人交流。但是他不喜欢讲很多关于他自己的事情。一个原因就是，他不想让别人知道他母亲住在一家精神病院里。诺拉·格思里患有亨汀顿氏舞蹈症，这是一种破坏大脑和神经系统的疾病。伍迪知道有一天他也可能会患上这种疾病。
1929年，他17岁的时候母亲去世。那是美国经济开始变缓的一年。在接下来的七年里，很多美国人失去了他们的工作。这段时期被称为大萧条时期。
在彭巴镇，油田都干了。很多地方的农场都没有收成，因为好几年都降雨很少或者不降雨。土地变得很干燥，风很容易就吹走表层土壤。德克萨斯州、俄克拉荷马州和其他州的这些地区被称为尘暴区。
像很多人一样，伍迪·格思里也离开彭巴去到德克萨斯州和西南部找工作。他经常坐火车旅行。但是因为他没有钱，他会跳到火车的棚车上免费乘车。这通常是危险的，因为火车上的警卫会把他们扔下去或逮捕他们。然而，伍迪觉得这种生活很刺激。他最早写的歌曲之一就是关于离开家、逃离风暴区的。
伍迪·格思里于1933年与玛丽·詹宁斯结婚。他们有三个孩子。三年后，伍迪离开家去了加利福尼亚。他在旅行中遇到了各种各样的人。他也学习国家不同地域的很多歌曲。但是对他影响最大的是他看到的痛苦。他说：“当我看到那些在债务、疾病和忧虑下辛勤工作的人们时，我就知道有很多东西可以用来创作歌曲。”
在加利福尼亚，伍迪通过弹奏吉他和唱歌赚钱。后来，他开始和一个朋友玛克辛·克里斯曼在一个电台节目表演。人们叫她阿佐罗。他们有洛杉矶最受欢迎的电台节目之一。他们演唱伍迪创作的关于社会问题的歌曲。他最好的歌曲讲述的是美国人在大萧条事情面临的困难。这首歌讲述的是煤矿开采的危险。歌曲名为《将死的矿工》。
1938年，伍迪·格思里离开了电台节目去加州游历。他发现很多失去土地逃离尘暴区的人的情况变得更糟了。
很多的“尘暴区难民”只能找到像摘果子这样的季节性农场工作。农场主没有付给这些工人多少钱。工人们住在营地里，那里通常很脏，也没有自来水。饥饿和疾病在蔓延。营地的人们似乎失去了所有改善他们生活的希望。伍迪为他们写了一首名为《尘暴区难民》的歌曲。
工人营地的压迫和恶劣条件让伍迪·格思里感到愤怒。他开始帮助劳工组织建立工会帮助工人。下周，我们讲述他是怎样去到纽约，成为一名知名的音乐家。
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