(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. The election of Herbert Hoover in nineteen twenty-eight made Americans more hopeful than ever about their future. Hoover seemed to have just the right experience to lead the nation to more economic progress. He was an engineer and businessman who had served in the government as commerce secretary. He understood economics and had faith in the future of private business. On a rainy day in March of nineteen twenty-nine, Hoover rode down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington to become the new president. I have no fears for the future of our country, he told the cheering crowd. It is bright with hope. This week in our series, Faith Lapidus and Bob Doughty tell more about the Republican administration of Herbert Hoover.
The clearest evidence of the public's faith in the economy is the stock market. And the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the new president with a wild increase in prices. During the months after Hoover's election, prices generally rose like a rocket. Stocks valued at one hundred dollars climbed to two hundred, then three hundred, four hundred. Men and women made huge amounts of money overnight. Publications and economic experts advised Americans to buy stocks before prices went even higher. Time and again, people heard how rich they could become if they found and bought stocks for companies growing into industrial giants. Never sell the United States short, said one publication. Another just said, Everybody ought to be rich. A number of economic experts worried about the sharp increase in stock prices that followed Hoover's election. The president himself urged stock market officials to make trading more honest and safe. And he approved a move by the Federal Reserve Board to increase the interest charged to banks.
However, both efforts failed to stop the growing number of Americans who were spending their money wildly on stocks. Some experts pointed to danger signs in the economy during the summer of nineteen twenty-nine. The number of houses being built was dropping. Industries were reducing the amount of products that they held in their factories. The rate of growth in spending by average Americans was falling sharply. And industrial production, employment, and prices were down. These experts warned that the American economy was just not strong enough to support such rapid growth in stock prices. They said there was no real value behind many of the high prices. They said a stock price could not increase four times while a company's sales stayed the same. They said the high prices were built on foolish dreams of wealth, not real value. But the prices went still higher. Buyers fought with each other to pay more and more for company stocks. The average price of all stocks almost doubled in just one year.
It seemed everybody was buying stocks, even people with little money or economic training. A clothing salesman got advice from a stock trader visiting his store and made two hundred thousand dollars. A nurse learned of a good company from someone in the hospital. She made thirty thousand dollars. There were thousands of such stories. By early September, the stock market reached its high point of the past eighteen months. Shares of the Westinghouse company had climbed from ninety-one dollars to three hundred thirteen. The Anaconda Copper company had risen from fifty-four dollars to one hundred sixty-two. Union Carbide jumped from one hundred forty-five to four hundred thirteen. Life was like a dream. But like any dream, it could not last forever. In September, nineteen twenty-nine, stock prices stopped rising. During the next month and a half, stock prices fell, but only slowly. Then suddenly, at the end of October, the market crashed. Prices dropped wildly. Leading stocks fell five, ten, twenty dollars in a single day. Everyone tried to sell their stocks. But no one was buying. Fear washed across the stock market. People were losing money even faster than they had made it.
The stock market collapsed on Thursday, October twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-nine. People remember the day as Black Thursday, the day the dreams ended. The day began with a wave of selling. People from across the country sent messages to their stock traders in New York. All the messages said the same thing Sell! Sell the stocks at any price possible! But no one was buying. And so down the prices came. The value of stock for the Montgomery Ward store dropped from eighty-three dollars to fifty in a single day. The RCA radio corporation fell from sixty-eight dollars to forty-four – down twenty-four dollars in just a few hours. Down the stocks fell, lower and lower. Several of the country's leading bankers met to discuss ways to stop the disaster. They agreed to buy stocks in large amounts to stop the wave of selling. The bankers moved quickly. And for two days, prices held steady. But then, like snow falling down the side of a mountain, the stocks dropped again. Prices went to amazingly low levels. One business newspaper said simply The present week has witnessed the greatest stock market disaster of all time.
The stock market crash ruined thousands of Americans. In a few short weeks, traders lost thirty billion dollars, an amount almost as great as all the money the United States had spent in World War One. Some businessmen could not accept what had happened. They jumped from the tops of buildings and killed themselves. In fact, one popular joke of the time said that hotel owners had to ask people if they wanted rooms for sleeping or jumping. But the stock market crash was nothing to laugh about. It destroyed much of the money that Americans had saved. Even worse, it caused millions of people to worry and lose faith in the economy. They were not sure what to expect tomorrow. Business owners would not spend money for new factories or business operations. Instead, they decided to wait and see what would happen. This reduced production and caused more workers to lose their jobs. Fewer workers meant fewer people with money to buy goods. And fewer people buying goods meant less need for factories to produce. So it went. In short, economic disaster.
Why did the stock market crash? One reason, people had been paying too much for stocks. Everyone believed that prices would go higher and higher forever. People paid more for stocks than the stocks were worth. They hoped to sell the stocks at even higher prices. It was like a children's balloon that expands with air, blowing bigger and bigger until it bursts. But there were other important reasons. Industrial profits were too high and wages too low. Five percent of the population owned one-third of all personal income. The average worker simply did not have enough money to buy enough of all the new goods that factories were producing. Another problem was that companies were not investing enough money in new factories and supplies. There were also problems with the rules of the stock market itself. People were allowed to buy stocks when they did not have the money to do so. Several government economic policies also helped cause the stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine. Government tax policies made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And the government did little to control the national money supply, even when the economy faced disaster. The stock market crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression -- a long, slow, painful fall to the worst economic crisis in American history. The Depression would bring suffering to millions of people. It would cause major political changes. And it would be a major force in creating the conditions that led to World War Two. We will look at the beginning of the Great Depression in our next program.
重点解析
1.react to 对……作出反应；对……反应
Someone allergic to milk is likely to react to cheese.
对牛奶过敏的人可能对奶酪也有不良反应。
2.time and again 一次又一次；一再
Time and again political parties have failed to tackle this issue.
各个政党处理这个问题时都屡屡失败。
3.ought to 理应；应然
I think I ought to get back to work.
我想我该回去工作了。
4.fall down 摔倒；倒塌
You are likely to fall down on your research project if you don't go to the experts for advice.
如果你不去向专家们请教，你的研究项目很可能夭折。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目。1928年赫伯特·胡佛当选为总统使美国人民比以往任何时候都对自己的未来充满希望。胡佛似乎拥有正确的经验，能够带领国家在经济方面取得更多的进步。他是一名工程师和商人，曾在政府担任商务部长。他懂得经济学，对私营企业的未来充满信心。1929年3月的一个雨天，胡佛乘车沿着华盛顿的宾夕法尼亚大道前行，成为新的总统。他对欢呼的人群说：“我不担心国家的未来。它充满希望。”在本周的系列报道中，菲斯·拉皮德斯和鲍勃·多尔蒂将讲述赫伯特·胡佛的共和党政府。
公众对经济方面的信心最明显的是体现在是股票市场。纽约证交所对这位新总统的反应是价格狂涨。在胡佛当选后的几个月里，物价普遍像火箭一样上涨。价值100美元的股票攀升到200美元，然后是300、400美元。人们一夜之间赚暴富。刊物和经济专家建议美国人在股价上涨之前买进股票，人们一次又一次地听到，如果他们发现将成长为工业巨头的公司，并购买其股票，他们会变得非常富有。一份刊物提到，永远不要卖空美国。另一份刊物则说，每个人都应该富有。一些经济专家担心胡佛当选后，股价大幅上涨。总统本人敦促股市官员能够更加诚实，并安全地交易。他还批准了美联储增加银行利息的提议。
然而，这两项努力都未能阻止越来越多的美国人疯狂地购买股票。一些专家指出，1929年夏天的经济表现出危险的迹象。正在建造的房屋数量在下降，工业界正在减少他们在工厂里的产品数量。普通美国人的消费增长率正在急剧下降，工业生产、就业和物价都下降了。这些专家警告说，美国经济还不足以支撑如此快速的股价增长。他们说，许多高价背后没有实际价值。当一家公司的销售额保持不变时，股价不可能上涨四倍。高价是建立在愚蠢的财富之梦上的，而不是建立在真正的价值之上。但价格仍然走高，买家们为了购买公司股票而互相争斗。所有股票的平均价格在短短一年内几乎翻了一番。
似乎每个人都在购买股票，即使是那些没有钱或没接受过经济方面培训的人。一个服装销售员从到他店里买衣服的股票商人那里得到建议，赚了20万美元。一位护士从医院里的某个人那里得知一家经营得不错的公司，她赚了三万美元。有成千上万这样的故事。到9月初，股市达到了过去18个月的高点。西屋电器公司的股票从91美元涨到313美元，阿纳康达铜业公司的股票从54美元涨到162美元，联合碳化物公司从145美元涨到413美元。生活就像一场梦，但就像任何梦一样，它不可能永远持续下去。1929年9月，股票价格停止上涨。在接下来的一个半月里，股票价格下跌，但速度很慢。然后突然在10月底，市场暴跌，价格狂跌。主要股票在一天之内下跌了5元、10元、20美元。每个人都想卖掉自己的股票，但是没人购买。恐惧席卷整个股市，人们赔钱的速度甚至比他们赚的还快。
1929年10月24日，星期四，股市暴跌。人们把这一天记做黑色星期四，即梦想结束的那一天。这一天以一波抛售开始，来自全国各地的人们给他们在纽约的股票交易者发信息。所有的留言说的都是同样的内容，出售！以任何可能的价格出售股票！但没人购买，所以价格下降了。蒙哥马利·沃德百货公司的存货价值在一天之内从83美元降到50美元，RCA广播公司从68美元降到44美元，短短几个小时就降了24美元。股票下跌，价格越来越低。该国几位主要银行家开会讨论如何阻止这场灾难。他们同意大量买进股票，以阻止抛售的浪潮。银行家们行动迅速，在两天的时间里，让价格保持了稳定。但随后，就像雪从山坡上飘落，股票再次下跌，价格低得惊人。一家商业报纸简单地表述为，本周见证了有史以来最严重的股市灾难。
股市崩盘毁掉了成千上万的美国人。在短短的几周内，交易商损失了300亿美元，几乎相当于美国在第一次世界大战中花费的全部资金。一些商人不能接受所发生的一切，他们跳楼自杀了。事实上，当时一个流行的笑话说，酒店老板不得不询问人们想要房间是为了睡觉，还是为了跳楼。但股市崩盘，不是让人觉得好笑的事情。它摧毁了美国人攒下的大部分钱财。更糟糕的是，它让数百万人对经济状况表示担心，并失去信心。他们不知道明天会发生什么，企业主不会把钱花费在新工厂或新业务上。相反，他们决定等着看将会发生什么。这减少了生产，导致更多的工人失业。更少的工人，意味着更少人有钱购买商品。购买商品的人减少，意味着对工厂生产的需求也减少了。情况就是这样了，简而言之，就是经济灾难。
为什么股市崩盘？一个原因是，人们花费了太多的钱款购买股票。每个人都认为，物价会永远上涨。人们购买股票的价格比股票的实际价值要高。他们希望，以更高的价格出售这些股票。这就像是儿童的气球，随着空气膨胀，吹得越来越大，直到爆炸。但还有其他重要的原因。工业利润过高，工资过低。5%的人口拥有三分之一的个人收入。普通工人根本没有足够的钱购买工厂生产的所有新产品。另一个问题是，企业没有在新工厂和新用品上投入足够的资金。股市本身的规则也存在问题，当人们没有钱购买股票时，他们就被允许购买股票。政府的几项经济政策也促成了1929年的股市崩盘，政府的税收政策使富人更富，穷人更穷。即使在经济面临灾难的时候，政府也很少控制国家的货币供应。股市崩盘标志着大萧条的开始——一段漫长、缓慢、痛苦的跌落，它成为美国历史上最严重的经济危机。大萧条给数百万人带来痛苦，导致重大的政治变革。它将成为引发第二次世界大战的主要力量。我们将在下期节目中，探讨大萧条的开端。
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