(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about photographer Margaret Bourke-White, (burk-white) one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century.
A young woman is sitting on her knees on top of a large metal statue. She is not in a park. She is outside an office building high above New York City. The young woman reached the statue by climbing through a window on the sixty-first floor. She wanted to get a better picture of the city below.
The woman is Margaret Bourke-White. She was one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century. But she did not write the news. She told her stories with a camera. She was a fearless woman of great energy and skill. Her work took her from America's Midwest to the Soviet Union. From Europe during World War Two to India, South Africa and Korea. Through her work, she helped create the modern art of photojournalism.
In some ways, Bourke-White was a woman ahead of her time. She often did things long before they became accepted in society. She was divorced. She worked in a world of influential men, and earned their praise and support. She wore trousers and colored her hair. Yet, in more important ways, she was a woman of and for her times. She became involved in the world around her and recorded it in pictures for the future.
Margaret Bourke-White was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-four. When Margaret was very young, the family moved to New Jersey. Her mother, Minnie Bourke, worked on publications for the blind. Her father, Joseph White, was an engineer and designer in the printing industry. He also liked to take pictures. Their home was filled with his photographs. Soon young Margaret was helping him take and develop his photographs. When she was eight years old, her father took her inside a factory to watch the manufacture of printing presses. In the foundry, she saw hot liquid iron being poured to make the machines. She remembered this for years to come.
Margaret attended several universities before completing her studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in nineteen twenty-seven. She studied engineering, biology and photography. She married while she was still a student. But the marriage only lasted one year.
Margaret took the name Bourke-White, the last names of her mother and father. In nineteen twenty-eight, she began working in the midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. It was then one of the centers of American industry. She became an industrial photographer at the Otis Steel Company. In the hot, noisy factories where steel was made, she saw beauty and a subject for her pictures.
She said: "Industry is alive. The beauty of industry lies in its truth and simpleness. Every line has a purpose, and so is beautiful. Whatever art will come out of this industrial age will come from the subjects of industry themselves…which are close to the heart of the people."
Throughout America and Europe, engineers and building designers found beauty in technology. Their machines and buildings had artistic forms. In New York, the Museum of Modern Art opened in nineteen twenty-nine. One of its goals was to study the use of art in industry. Bourke-White's photographic experiments began with the use of industry in art.
Bourke-White's first pictures inside the steel factory in Cleveland were a failure. The difference between the bright burning metal and the black factory walls was too extreme for her camera. She could not solve the problem until she got new equipment and discovered new techniques of photography. Then she was able to capture the sharp difference between light and dark. The movement and power of machines. The importance of industry.
Sometimes her pictures made you feel you were looking down from a great height, or up from far below. Sometimes they led you directly into the heart of the activity.
In New York, a wealthy and influential publisher named Henry Luce saw Bourke-White's pictures. Luce published a magazine called Time. He wanted to start a new magazine. It would be called Fortune, and would report about developments in industry. Luce sent a telegram to Bourke-White, asking her to come to New York immediately. She accepted a job as photographer for Fortune magazine. She worked there from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen thirty-three.
Margaret Bourke-White told stories in pictures, one image at a time. She used each small image to tell part of the bigger story. The technique became known as the photographic essay. Other magazines and photographers used the technique. But Bourke-White – more than most photographers – had unusual chances to develop it.
In the early nineteen thirties, she traveled to the Soviet Union three times. Later she wrote:
"Nothing invites me so much as a closed door. I cannot let my camera rest until I have opened that door. And I wanted to be first. I believed in machines as objects of beauty. So I felt the story of a nation trying to industrialize – almost overnight – was perfect for me."
On her first trip to the Soviet Union, Bourke-White traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway. She carried many cameras and examples of her work. When she arrived in Moscow, a Soviet official gave her a special travel permit, because he liked her industrial photographs. The permit ordered all Soviet citizens to help her while she was in the country.
Bourke-White spoke to groups of Soviet writers and photographers. They asked her about camera techniques, and also about her private life.
After one gathering, several men surrounded her and talked for a long time. They spoke Russian. Not knowing the language, Bourke-White smiled in agreement at each man as he spoke. Only later did she learn that she had agreed to marry each one of them. Her assistant explained the mistake and said to the men: "Miss Bourke-White loves nothing but her camera."
By the end of the trip, Margaret Bourke-White had traveled eight thousand kilometers throughout the Soviet Union. She took hundreds of pictures, and published some of them in her first book, "Eyes on Russia." She returned the next year to prepare for a series of stories for the New York Times newspaper. And she went back a third time to make an educational movie for the Kodak film company.
Bourke-White visited Soviet cities, farms and factories. She took pictures of workers using machines. She took pictures of peasant women, village children, and even the mother of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She took pictures of the country's largest bridge, and the world's largest dam. She used her skill in mixing darkness and light to create works of art. She returned home with more than three thousand photographs – the first western documentary on the Soviet Union.
Margaret Bourke-White had seen a great deal for someone not yet thirty years old. But in nineteen thirty-four, she saw something that would change her idea of the world. Fortune magazine sent her on a trip through the central part of the United States. She was told to photograph farmers – from America's northern border with Canada to its southern border with Mexico.
Some of the farmers were victims of a terrible shortage of rain, and of their own poor farming methods. The good soil had turned to dust. And the wind blew the dust over everything. It got into machines and stopped them. It chased the farmers from their land, although they had nowhere else to go.
Bourke-White had never given much thought to human suffering. After her trip, she had a difficult time forgetting. She decided to use her skills to show all parts of life. She would continue taking industrial pictures of happy, healthy people enjoying their shiny new cars. But she would tell a differentstory in her photographic essays.
Under one picture she wrote: "While machines are making great progress in automobile factories, the workers might be under-paid. Pictures can be beautiful. But they must tell facts, too."
We will continue the story of photographer Margaret Bourke-White next week.
重点解析
1.ahead of领先
She was always well ahead of the rest of the class.
她总是遥遥领先班上的同学。
2.involved in参与
They have been involved in a campaign of deceit.
他们参与了一系列的欺骗活动。
3.filled with充满
It was a room filled with sad, sober faces
房间里坐满了人，大家都一脸的忧伤和严肃。
4.begin with以...开始
First of all, could I begin with an apology for a mistake I made last week?
首先，请允许我为上周犯下的错误道歉。
5.agree to同意
The management is understood to be very unwilling to agree to this request
据了解，管理层很不乐意答应这项要求。
6.prepare for为...准备
Make sure you have ample time to prepare for the new day ahead
要保证你有足够的时间为即将开始的新的一天做好准备。
参考译文
我是芭芭拉·克莱因，我是史蒂夫·恩贝尔。这里是VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》。今天我们讲述摄影师玛格丽特·伯克·怀特的故事，她是20世纪最主要的新闻记者之一。
一个年轻女子跪在一尊巨大的金属雕像上。她不在公园里。她在纽约市上空的一座办公室大楼外。那位年轻的妇女从61楼的一扇窗户爬了出去，到达了那座雕像。她想拍到下面城市的好照片。
这名女性就是玛格丽特·伯克·怀特。她是20世纪最主要的新闻记者之一但是她不写新闻。她用她的相机讲故事。她是一名无所畏惧的充满能量和技巧的女性。她因工作从美国的中西部去到苏联。二战时从欧洲去到印度，南非和韩国。她通过自己的工作帮助创造了现代新闻摄影艺术。
从某种程度上说，伯克·怀特是一位超前于她的时代的女性。她经常做很久以后社会才会接受的事情。她离过婚。她在一群有影响力的男人的世界里工作，并且得到了他们的称赞和支持。她穿西裤而且染发。然而，更重要的是，她是她那个时代的一名女性。她融入了她周围的世界，并且用照片记录了下来。
玛格丽特·伯克-怀特于1904年出生于纽约市。玛格丽特很小的时候，全家搬到了新泽西。她的母亲米妮·伯克为盲人出版物工作。她的父亲约瑟夫·怀特是印刷行业的工程师和设计师。他也喜欢拍照。他们家到处都是他的照片。不久，年轻的玛格丽特就帮他照相并冲洗照片。玛格丽特八岁的时候，她的父亲带她去一家工厂看印刷机的制造。在铸造厂，她看到热的液体铁用来浇筑机器。多年以后她都记得这个场景。
1927年，玛格丽特在完成在纽约州伊萨卡的康奈尔大学的学业，在那之前，她上过几所大学。她学习了工程学、生物学和摄影。她还是学生时就结婚了。但这段婚姻只持续了一年。
玛格丽特的名字伯克·怀特分别取自父母亲的姓氏。1928年，她开始在中西部城市俄亥俄州的克利夫兰工作。克利夫兰当时是美国工业中心之一。她成为了奥的斯钢铁公司的一名工业摄影师。在炎热、喧闹的炼钢工厂里，她看到了美，也看到了她照片的主题。
她说：“工业是充满生机的。工业之美在于它的真实和简约。每条线都有作用，因此很漂亮。在这个工业时代，不管什么艺术都会来自工业这个主体...它和人的心很接近。”
在美国和欧洲，工程师和建筑设计师在技术中发现了美。他们的机器和建筑具有艺术形式。纽约现代艺术博物馆于1929年开放。它的目标之一就是研究工业中艺术的使用。伯克·怀特的摄影实验始于将工业应用于艺术。
伯克·怀特第一次在克利夫兰的钢厂拍摄的照片失败了。明亮燃烧的金属和黑色的工厂墙壁之间的差异对她的相机来说太极端了。直到她得到了新的设备，发现了新的摄影技术，她才解决了这个问题。然后她才能捕捉光明和黑暗的强烈对比。机器的运动和能量。工业的重要性。
有时她的照片让你觉得你是在从一个很高的地方往下看，或从很低的地方往上看。有时它们会直接把你带入活动的中心。
在纽约，一位富有而有影响力的出版商亨利·卢斯看到了伯克·怀特的照片。卢斯出版了一本叫《时代》的杂志。他想创办一本新的杂志。杂志的名字将会叫做《财富》，杂志将报道工业的发展。卢斯给伯克·怀特发了一封电报，请她立即去纽约。她接受了一份《财富》杂志摄影师的工作。她从1929年至1933年在那里工作。
玛格丽特·伯克·怀特用照片讲故事，一次一张照片。她用每张小照片来讲述一个更大的故事的一部分。这项手法后来被称为摄影随笔。其他杂志和摄影师使用了这种手法。但伯克·怀特比大多数摄影师有更多的机会来发展它。
在20世纪30年代早期，她去苏联旅行了三次。后来她写道：
“没有什么比一扇关着的门更吸引我了。在我打开那扇门之前我不能让摄影机休息。我想做第一个。我认为机器是美丽的东西。所以我觉得一个想实现工业化的国家的故事-几乎是一夜之间-非常适合我。”
伯克·怀特乘坐了西伯利亚大铁路的火车进行了第一次苏联之旅。她带了很多相机和自己的作品。当怀特到了莫斯科的时候，一位苏联官员给了她特别旅游许可，因为他喜欢她拍的工业照片。这份许可使所有的苏联公民为在苏联的怀特提供帮助。
伯克·怀特和很多苏联作家和摄影师进行了交流。他们问了她有关相机的技术，也问了她的私人生活。
一次聚会后，几个男人围着她，谈了很长时间。他们说俄语。由于不懂他们的语言，伯克·怀特对每个人都笑了笑，表示同意。后来她才知道自己同意嫁给他们当中的一个人。她的助手解释了错误，并对这些男人们说：“伯克-怀特小姐只喜欢她的照相机。”
旅行结束时，玛格丽特·伯克·怀特已经在苏联旅行了8000公里。她拍摄了数百张照片，并将其中一些照片发表在她的第一本书《我眼中的俄罗斯》中。第二年，她回到纽约，为《纽约时报》的一系列报道做准备。她第三次回去为柯达电影公司拍摄教育片。
伯克·怀特参观了苏联的城市、农场和工厂。她拍下了工人使用机器的照片。她拍摄了农民妇女、农村儿童，甚至苏联领导人约瑟夫·斯大林的母亲。她拍摄了这个国家最大的桥梁和世界上最大的大坝。她使用了自己混合黑暗和光线的技术来创作照片艺术。她带了超过三千张照片回家-第一部关于苏联的西方纪录片。
不到30岁的玛格丽特·伯克·怀特已经见识了太多东西。但在1934年，她看到了一些改变自己对于世界看法的东西。《财富》杂志派她去穿越美国中部。他们让她去拍摄农民-从美国与加拿大的北部边境到美国与墨西哥的南部边境。
有些农民是严重降雨短缺和自身糟糕的耕作方式的受害者。好的土壤已经变成了尘土。风把土吹的到处都是。土吹到了机器里，机器都不运转了。它把农民赶出了他们的土地，尽管他们无处可去。
伯克·怀特以前从没过多想过人类的苦痛。旅行结束后，她难以忘记自己看到的事情。她决定使用她的技巧来展示生活的全部。她会继续拍摄快乐、健康的人们享受他们闪亮新车的工业照片。但在她的摄影散文中，她会讲述一个不同的故事。
她在一张照片下写道：“尽管机器在汽车工厂里取得了巨大的进步，但是工人可能薪水低下。照片可以是美丽的。但它们也必须讲出事实。”
下周我们将继续讲述摄影师玛格丽特·伯克·怀特的故事。
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