(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. On June fifth, nineteen forty-four, a huge Allied force waited for the order to invade German-occupied France. The invasion had been planned for the day before. But a storm forced a delay. At three-thirty in the morning, the Allied commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, was meeting with his aides. The storm still blew outside the building. General Eisenhower and the other generals were discussing whether they should attack the next day. A weatherman entered the room. He reported that the weather would soon improve. All eyes turned toward Eisenhower. The decision was his. His face was serious. And for a long time he was silent. Finally he spoke. "Okay," he said. "We will go." And so the largest military invasion ever known, D-Day, took place on June sixth, nineteen-forty-four.
The German leader, Adolph Hitler, had known the invasion was coming. But he did not know where the Allied force would strike. Most Germans expected the Allies would attack at Calais. But they were wrong. Eisenhower planned to strike along the French coast of Normandy, across the English Channel. The Second World War was then almost five years old. The Germans had won the early battles and gained control of most of Europe. But in nineteen forty-two and forty-three, the Allies slowly began to gain back land from the Germans in North Africa, Italy and Russia. And now, finally, the British, American, Canadian and other Allied forces felt strong enough to attack across the English Channel. Eisenhower had one hundred fifty thousand men and twelve thousand planes for the attack. But most importantly, he had surprise on his side. Even after the invasion began, General Erwin Rommel and other German military leaders could not believe that the Allies had really attacked at Normandy. But attack they did. On the night of June fifth, thousands of Allied soldiers parachuted behind German lines. Then Allied planes began dropping bombs on German defenses. And in the morning, thousands of ships approached the beaches, carrying men and supplies.
The battle quickly became fierce and bloody. The Germans had strong defenses. They were better protected than the Allied troops on the beaches. But the Allied soldiers had greater numbers. Slowly they moved forward on one part of the coast, then another. "People of Western Europe: a landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force." General Dwight Eisenhower "This landing is part of a concerted United Nations plan for the liberation of Europe. I have this message for all of you: Although the initial assault may not have been made in your own country, the hour of your liberation is approaching. All patriots -- men and women, young and old -- have a part to play in the achievement of final victory. "To members of resistance movements, whether led by nationals or by outside leaders, I say: Follow the instructions you have received. To patriots who are not members of organized resistance groups, I say: Continue your passive resistance, but do not needlessly endanger your lives. Wait until I give you the signal to rise and strike the enemy."
The Allies continued to build up their forces in France. Within one week they brought nearly ninety thousand vehicles and six hundred-thousand men into France. And they pushed ahead. Hitler was furious. He screamed at his generals for not blocking the invasion. And he ordered his troops from nearby areas to join the fight and stop the Allied force. But the Allies would not be stopped. In late August, the Allied forces liberated Paris from the Germans. People cheered wildly as General Charles de Gaulle and Free French troops marched into the center of the city. The Allies then moved east into Belgium. They captured the port of Antwerp. This made it easier for them to send supplies and fuel to their troops. Only when Allied troops tried to move into the Netherlands did the Germans succeed in stopping them. American forces won battles at Eindhoven and Nijmegen. But German forces defeated British "Red Devil" troops in a terrible fight at Arnhem. Germany's brief victory stopped the Allied invasion for the moment. But in less than four months, General Eisenhower and the Allied forces had regained almost all of France.
At the same time, in nineteen forty-four, the Soviets were attacking Germany from the east. Earlier, Soviet forces had succeeded in breaking German attacks at Stalingrad, Moscow and Leningrad. Soviet forces recaptured Russian cities and farms one by one. They entered Finland, Poland, and Romania. By the end of July, Soviet soldiers were just fifteen kilometers from the Polish capital, Warsaw. What happened next was one of the most terrible events of the war. Moscow radio called on the people of Poland to rise up against the German occupation forces. Nearly forty thousand men in the Polish underground army listened to the call. And they attacked the Germans. The citizens of Warsaw probably could have defeated the German occupation forces if the Soviet army had helped them. But Soviet leader Josef Stalin betrayed the Poles. He knew that many members of the Polish underground forces opposed Communism as much as they opposed the Germans. He feared they would block his efforts to establish a new Polish government that was friendly to Moscow. For this reason, Stalin held his forces outside Warsaw. He waited while the Germans and Poles killed each other in great numbers. The Germans finally forced the citizens of Warsaw to surrender. The real winner of the battle, however, was the Soviet Union. Both the Germans and the Poles suffered heavy losses during the fighting. The Soviet Army had little trouble taking over the city with the help of Polish Communists. And after the war, the free Polish forces were too weak to oppose a Communist government loyal to Moscow.
Adolf Hitler was in serious trouble. Allied forces were attacking from the west. Soviet troops were passing through Poland and moving in from the east. And at home, several German military officials tried to assassinate him. The German leader narrowly escaped death when a bomb exploded in a meeting room. But Hitler refused to surrender. Instead, he planned a surprise attack in December nineteen-forty-four. He ordered his forces to move quietly through the Ardennes Forest and attack the center of the Allied line. He hoped to break through the line, separate the Allied forces, and regain control of the war. The Germans attacked American troops tired from recent fighting in another battle. It was winter. The weather was so bad that Allied planes could not drop bombs on the German forces. The Germans quickly broke through the American line. But the German success did not last long. Allied forces from nearby areas raced to the battle front to help. And good weather allowed Allied planes to begin attacking the Germans. The battle ended by the middle of the following month in a great defeat for Hitler and the Germans. The German army lost more than one hundred thousand men and great amounts of supplies.
The end of the war in Europe was now in sight. By late February, nineteen forty-five, the Germans were forced to retreat across the Rhine River. American forces led by General Patton drove deep into the German heartland. To the east, Soviet forces also were marching into Germany. It did not take long for the American and Soviet forces to meet in victory. The war in Europe was ending. Adolf Hitler waited until Russian troops were destroying Berlin. Bombs and shells were falling everywhere. In his underground bunker, Hitler took his own life by shooting himself in the head. Several of his closest aides also chose to die in the "Fuhrerbunker." One week later, the German army surrendered to Eisenhower and the Allies. "Yesterday morning at two forty-one a.m. at General Eisenhower's headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command and of Grand Admiral Doenitz, the designated head of the German state, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Forces, and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command." "Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday, the eighth of May. We may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing. Today is Victory in Europe Day. Long live the cause of freedom." The defeat of Germany was cause for great celebration in Britain, the United States and other Allied nations. But two facts made the celebrations less joyful than they might have been. One was the discovery by Allied troops of the German death camps. Only at the end of the war did most of the world learn that the Nazis had murdered millions of innocent Jews and other people. The second fact was that the Pacific War had not ended. Japanese and American forces were still fighting bitterly. The war in the Pacific will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.take place 发生；举行
A total solar eclipse is due to take place some time tomorrow.
明天某个时刻会发生日全食。
2.thousands of 成千上万的；数以千计的
Thousands of people attended the funeral.
数千人参加了葬礼。。
3.march into 进驻；走进
Napoleon I. gives a command, and soldiers march into Russia.
拿破仑一世颁布一道命令，于是一支军队进入了俄国。
4.by the end of 到……为止；在……尽头
By the end of the holiday I had spent all my money.
到假期结束时，我已经花光了自己所有的钱。
参考译文
欢迎收听VOA慢速英语之建国史话节目，我是史蒂夫·恩伯。1944年6月5日，一支庞大的盟军等待入侵德国占领的法国地区的命令。入侵是前一天计划好的，但是一场暴风雨迫使计划推迟。凌晨三点半，盟军指挥官德怀特·艾森豪威尔将军正在会见他的助手。大楼外依然暴风肆虐。艾森豪威尔将军和其他将军正在讨论他们在第二天是否应该发动进攻。一个气象员走进房间，他报告说天气很快就会好转，所有的目光都转向艾森豪威尔。这是他要做出的决定。他一脸严肃的神情，沉默许久。最后他说，“好吧，我们进攻。”这就是有史以来最大规模的军事入侵，诺曼第之役，该战役发生于1944年6月6日。
德国领导人阿道夫·希特勒知道入侵即将到来，但他不知道盟军将在哪里发动进攻。德方大多数人预计盟军会攻击加莱，但他们错了。艾森豪威尔计划沿法国诺曼底海岸，横穿英吉利海峡发动攻击。当时，第二次世界大战已开战近五年。德方在早期的战争中获胜，控制了欧洲大部分地区。但在1942年和1943年，盟军慢慢地开始从德军手中夺回其攻占的北非、意大利和俄国的土地。最后，英国、美国、加拿大和其他盟军感到军备强大，可以跨过英吉利海峡发起进攻。艾森豪威尔的军队拥有15万将士和1.2万架飞机准备进攻。但最重要的是，他还有杀手锏。即使在入侵开始后，埃尔文·隆美尔将军和其他德国军事领导人也无法相信，盟军真的会袭击诺曼底。但他们攻击了。6月5日晚，数千名盟军士兵空降到德军后方。随后，盟军的飞机开始向德国的防御工事投掷炸弹。清晨时分，数以千计的船只靠近海滩，运送人员和物资。
激烈的战斗很快变得血腥起来。德军防御能力很强，他们的掩护比在海滩上的盟军好。但盟军士兵人数更多，他们慢慢地从一片海岸前进到另一片海岸。“西欧人民：盟军远征军今天上午在法国海岸登陆。”德怀特·艾森豪威尔将军“这次登陆是联合国欧洲解放计划的一部分，我要向所有人传达这个信息：尽管最初的袭击可能并非发生于你们所在国家，但你们获得解放的时刻已经临近。所有的爱国者——无论男女老少——都可以为取得最后胜利贡献力量。 “对于抵抗运动的成员，无论是由国民还是由外部领导人领导，我都要说：听从你们接到的指示。对于非组织性抵抗团体成员的爱国者，我要说：继续消极式抵抗，但不要无谓地牺牲生命。等我给你们发出信号，叫你一起来攻击敌人。”
盟军继续在法国增兵，一周之内，他们把将近9万辆汽车和60万军队带到法国，他们奋力前行。希特勒大发雷霆，他因将军们未能阻止入侵而大喊大叫。他命令附近地区的军队加入战斗，阻止盟军。但他们已经无法阻挠盟军前进的步伐。八月下旬，盟军从德军手中解放了巴黎。当戴高乐将军和自由法国部队进入市中心时，人们疯狂地欢呼。盟军随后向东进入比利时，占领了安特卫普港，这样他们更容易向部队运送补给和燃料。只是当盟军试图进入荷兰时，德军才成功阻止了他们。美国军队在埃因霍温和尼梅根战役中获胜，但德军在阿纳姆的一场可怕战斗中击败了英国的“红魔”部队。德国短暂的胜利暂时阻止了盟军的入侵，但在不到四个月的时间里，艾森豪威尔将军和盟军几乎夺回了整个法国。
同时，在1944年，苏联人从东侧进攻德国。早些时候，苏联军队成功地击溃了德国对斯大林格勒、莫斯科和列宁格勒的进攻。苏联军队一个接一个地夺回了俄罗斯的城市和农场。他们进入芬兰、波兰和罗马尼亚。到7月底，苏联士兵距离波兰首都华沙只有15公里。接下来发生的是战争中最可怕的事件之一。莫斯科电台呼吁波兰人民反对德国占领军，波兰地下部队近四万人听从这一号召，他们袭击了德军。如果苏联军队帮助华沙市民，华沙市民有可能打败德国占领军。但是苏联领导人斯大林背叛了波兰，他知道波兰地下部队的许多成员反对共产主义，正如他们反对德国人一样。他担心他们会阻碍他建立对莫斯科友好的波兰新政府的努力。出于这个原因，斯大林在华沙以外驻军，他等待着德国人和波兰人大范围的杀戮。德军最终迫使华沙市民投降。然而，这场战争的真正赢家是苏联。德军和波兰人在战斗中都遭受了重大损失。苏联军队在波兰共产党的帮助下接管了这座城市。战后，获得自由后的波兰军队军力太弱，无法反对忠于莫斯科的共产主义政府。
阿道夫·希特勒遇到了严重的麻烦。盟军正从西侧进攻，苏联军队正在经过波兰，从侧部进驻。在德国境内，几名德国军事官员试图暗杀他。当一枚炸弹在会议室爆炸时，这位德国领导人侥幸逃脱了死亡。但希特勒拒绝投降，而是计划在1944年12月发动突袭。他命令部队悄悄地穿过阿登森林，攻击盟军防线的中心。他希望突破这条线，分离盟军，重新控制战争。德军在另一场战斗中袭击了因最近战斗而疲惫不堪的美军。当时正值冬天，天气极其恶劣，盟军飞机无法向德军投掷炸弹，德军很快突破了美军防线。但德军的胜利并未持续太久，来自附近地区的盟军冲向前线提供帮助。天气转好，这让盟军的飞机能够开始向德军发动进攻。战斗于次月中旬结束，希特勒领导的德军大败。德军损失了十几万人，还消耗了大量的给养。
欧洲战争即将结束。到1945年2月下旬，德军被迫越过莱茵河撤退。巴顿将军率领的美军深入德国腹地。在东侧，苏联军队也在进军德国。美军和苏军不久就胜利会师，欧洲战争即将结束。阿道夫·希特勒一直等到俄国军队摧毁柏林，炸弹和弹片遍布各处。在他的地下掩体里，希特勒用枪杀了自己的头。他的几个最亲密的助手也选择了死在“元首地堡”。一周后，德军向艾森豪威尔和盟军投降。“昨天上午2点41分，在艾森豪威尔将军的总部，德国高级司令部代表乔德尔将军和指派的德国国家元首多尼茨上将，签署了无条件向盟军远征军，以及苏联最高司令部交出德国在欧洲的所有陆海空部队的法案。”“敌对行动将于今晚午夜过后一分钟正式结束，即5月8日星期二。我们可以给自己一段短暂的欢乐时光。今天是欧洲胜利日，自由事业万岁。”德国的失败在英国、美国和其他盟国引起了热烈的庆祝。但有两个事实使庆祝活动没有他们想象的那么快乐。一个是盟军发现了德国的死亡集中营。直到战争结束，世界上大多数人才知道纳粹杀害了数百万无辜的犹太人和其他人。第二件事是太平洋战争并未结束，日美军队仍在激烈战斗。太平洋战争将是我们下期将要讲述的故事。
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