(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 This week in our series, we continue the story of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Kennedy, a Democrat, defeated Republican Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in United States history. He took office in January nineteen sixty-one. After three months, Kennedy faced a major foreign policy failure. On April seventeenth, armed Cuban exiles tried to invade Cuba, less one hundred fifty kilometers from the American state of Florida. They had been trained by the Central Intelligence Agency. Their goal was to overthrow the island's communist leader, Fidel Castro. In nineteen fifty-nine he and his guerrilla forces had overthrown Fulgencio Batista, the president who was supported by the United States.
The exiles came ashore at Cuba's Bay of Pigs. Most were killed or captured. The last administration, under President Dwight Eisenhower, had planned the invasion. But Kennedy had approved it. After the failure, some Americans again wondered if the forty-three-year-old president had enough experience to lead the nation. In May nineteen sixty-one, Kennedy went to Paris and met with French President Charles de Gaulle. Kennedy visited France with his wife Jacqueline, who spoke French and had studied there. In June, Kennedy met in Vienna, Austria, with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Khrushchev did not want to compromise on any issue. He threatened to have the East Germans block all movement into and out of the Allied-controlled western half of Berlin. In November, the East Germans, with Soviet support, started building the Berlin Wall to separate east and west. President Kennedy quickly announced a large increase in American military forces in Germany. Less than a year later came the Cuban missile crisis. On October twenty-second, nineteen sixty-two, President Kennedy made an announcement to the American people.
"This government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the Soviet military buildup on the island of Cuba. Within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. The purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere. "Upon receiving the first preliminary hard information of this nature last Tuesday morning at nine a.m., I directed that our surveillance be stepped up. And having now confirmed and completed our evaluation of the evidence and our decision on a course of action, this government feels obliged to report this new crisis to you in fullest detail." "The characteristics of these new missile sites indicate two distinct types of installations. Several of them include medium range ballistic missiles, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead for a distance of more than one thousand nautical miles. Each of these missiles, in short, is capable of striking Washington, DC, the Panama Canal, Cape Canaveral, Mexico City, or any other city in the southeastern part of the United States, in Central America, or in the Caribbean area." Kennedy had a warning for the Soviets.
"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." Kennedy and his national security advisers debated what to do about the Soviet missiles in Cuba. Should the United States launch an air strike and try to destroy them? What if some of the nuclear missiles escaped the attack? Kennedy decided to use a naval blockade -- he called it a "quarantine" -- to prevent any more Soviet ships from reaching Cuba. There were tense negotiations with the Soviets. Khrushchev demanded a promise that the United States would not invade Cuba. Kennedy agreed, and did so publicly. Secretly he also agreed to another demand. He promised that the United States would remove its Jupiter missiles based in Turkey, after the crisis was over. The Cuban missile crisis lasted thirteen days. It raised fears of a nuclear war. But it ended peacefully when the Soviets agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba, and turned their ships around. But the Cold War continued.
In Asia, the Kennedy administration tried to fight communism in Vietnam by increasing the number of American military advisers there. The United States and the Soviet Union did make some progress on arms control. In nineteen sixty-three, the two countries agreed to ban tests of nuclear weapons except underground. Kennedy also had to deal with domestic issues, including discrimination against blacks. His brother Robert was attorney general, the nation's top law enforcement official. The Justice Department took legal action against states in the South that violated laws on voting rights. The administration also supported a voter registration campaign to sign up more black voters. Robert Kennedy repeatedly called on National Guard troops to protect blacks when they tried to register to vote or attend white schools. President Kennedy said the situation was causing a moral crisis in America. He decided it was time to propose a new civil rights law that would guarantee equal treatment for blacks in public places and jobs. Congress did not pass a wide-reaching civil rights bill until nineteen sixty-four. By then Kennedy was no longer president.
In November nineteen sixty-three, he traveled to Texas. He hoped to settle a dispute in the Democratic Party in that state. The dispute might have affected his chances for re-election in nineteen sixty-four. Kennedy arrived in Dallas in the late morning of November twenty-second. The president and his wife were seated in the back of an open-topped car as his motorcade drove through the city. Suddenly, there were gunshots. "Here is a bulletin from CBS news. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting." The motorcade raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital. But doctors could do little to save his life. This was how television newsman Walter Cronkite reported the news: "From Dallas, Texas -- the flash apparently official -- President Kennedy died at one p.m., Central Standard Time." Police quickly arrested a suspect. Lee Harvey Oswald worked in a building near where Kennedy had been shot. People had seen him leave the building with a gun. Lee Harvey Oswald was a man with a strange past. He was a former United States Marine. He was also a communist. He had lived for a while in the Soviet Union and had tried to become a Soviet citizen. He worked for a committee that supported the communist government in Cuba.
Police questioned Oswald about the shooting of President Kennedy. He told them he did not do it. After two days, officials decided to move him to a different jail. Oswald was being led by two police officers. Suddenly, a man stepped forward. There was a shot. Oswald fell to the ground. Television cameras broadcast the events live. The man who killed Oswald was Jack Ruby. He was a nightclub owner in Dallas. He said he shot Oswald to prevent the Kennedy family from having to live through a trial. A commission investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The chief justice of the United States, Earl Warren, led the investigation. In its report, the Warren commission said that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. It said there was no plot to kill the president. Many Americans never accepted that finding. Some blamed Fidel Castro or the Central Intelligence Agency. Others blamed organized crime. President Kennedy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington. An Eternal Flame burns night and day by his grave.
重点解析
1.take office 上任；就任
The new president will take office in january.
新总统将于1月就职。
2.threaten to 威胁；威胁着要
Why would I lie to you when you threaten to kill me?
在你威胁要杀死我的情况下，我为什么要撒谎？
3.make an announcement 通知；宣布
Bush is expected to make an announcement in a televised address probably to public this week.
布什可能在本周就这一问题向公众做一个电视声明。
4.be capable of 有能力；有能力做
They will be capable of speedier, more accurate diagnoses.
他们将能作出更快、更准确的诊断。
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。本周，我们将继续讲述约翰·菲茨杰拉德·肯尼迪总统的故事。民主党人肯尼迪在美国历史上投票票数最接近的一次选举中，击败了共和党副总统尼克松，他于1961年1月就职。三个月后，肯尼迪面临重大外交政策的失败。4月17日，古巴流亡武装分子试图入侵古巴，位置距离美国佛罗里达州不到150公里。这些武装分子接受过中央情报局的训练，其目标是推翻该岛的共产党领导人菲德尔·卡斯特罗。1959年，他与其游击队推翻了受到美国支持的总统富尔根西奥·巴蒂斯塔。
流亡者在古巴的猪湾登陆，大多数人被杀害或俘虏。德怀特·艾森豪威尔总统领导的上一届政府，策划了此次入侵。但它得到了肯尼迪的批准。行动失败后，一些美国人再次怀疑这位43岁的总统是否有足够的经验领导国家。1961年5月，肯尼迪前往巴黎，会见了法国总统戴高乐。肯尼迪与妻子杰奎琳一起出访法国，杰奎琳会说法语，并曾在法国学习。六月，肯尼迪在奥地利维也纳会见了苏联总理赫鲁晓夫。赫鲁晓夫不想在任何问题上妥协，他威胁说，要让东德人封锁所有由盟军控制的进出西柏林的行动。十一月，东德人在苏联的支持下开始修建柏林墙，将东西柏林分开。肯尼迪总统很快宣布美国在德国的军事力量大幅增加。不到一年后，古巴导弹危机爆发。1962年10月22日，肯尼迪总统向美国人民发表了一项声明。
“正如所承诺的那样，这届政府对苏联在古巴岛的军事集结保持着最密切的监视。在过去的一周里，确凿的证据证实了这样一个事实：在这个被囚禁的岛屿上，一系列进攻性导弹基地正在筹备之中。这些基地的目的只能是提供对西半球的核打击能力。“上周二上午九点，我收到了第一份这种性质的初步确凿情报，指示我们加强监视。现在，我们已经确认并完成了对证据的评估和我们对行动方案的决定，政府感到有义务向你们详细报告这场新危机。”“这些新导弹发射场点的特点表明，有两种不同类型的设施。其中一些包括中程弹道导弹，能够携带核弹头飞行1000海里以上。简而言之，每一枚导弹都能够攻击华盛顿特区、巴拿马运河、卡纳维拉尔角、墨西哥城或美国东南部、中美洲或加勒比地区的任何其他城市。”肯尼迪曾警告过苏联。
“从古巴向西半球任何国家发射的核导弹，都应视为苏联对美国的攻击，需要对苏联作出全面的报复性反应，这是我们国家的政策。”肯尼迪及其国家安全顾问，就如何处理苏联在古巴的导弹问题进行辩论。美国应该发动空袭并试图摧毁他们吗？如果一些核导弹脱离了攻击呢？肯尼迪决定采用他称之为的“隔离”手段，即海军封锁，以防止更多的苏联船只抵达古巴。与苏联进行了紧张的谈判。赫鲁晓夫要求承诺美国不会入侵古巴，肯尼迪表示同意，并公开表态。他私下里也同意了另一个要求。他承诺，在危机结束后，美国将拆除设在土耳其的木星导弹。古巴导弹危机持续了13天，这引起了人们对核战争的恐慌。但是，当苏联同意从古巴撤走导弹，并调转其船只时，战争以和平方式结束了。但冷战仍在继续。
在亚洲，肯尼迪政府试图通过增加在越南的美国军事顾问人数，来打击共产主义。美国和苏联在军备控制方面确实取得了一些进展。1963年，两国同意禁止进行核武器试验，但秘密实施的试验除外。肯尼迪还必须处理国内问题，包括对黑人的歧视。他的兄弟罗伯特是司法部长，国家最高执法官员。司法部对南部各州违反选举权法的行为采取了法律行动。政府还支持一项选民登记运动，以使更多的黑人选民能够进行登记。罗伯特·肯尼迪多次呼吁，在黑人试图登记投票或到白人学校上学时，国民警卫队要对他们加以保护。肯尼迪总统说，这种情况正在美国引发一场道德危机。他决定现在应该提出一项新的民权法，保证黑人在公共场所和工作岗位上获得平等待遇。国会直到1964年才通过一项影响广泛的民权法案。那时，肯尼迪已经不再是总统。
1963年11月，他前往德克萨斯州，希望能解决该州民主党人的一场争端。这场争论可能影响他在1964年连任的机会。肯尼迪于11月22日上午抵达达拉斯，总统与妻子坐在一辆敞篷车的后座上，他的车队驶过这座城市。突然，一声枪响。“现在是哥伦比亚广播公司新闻简报时间。在得克萨斯州达拉斯市，肯尼迪总统的车队驶到达拉斯市中心时，遭到三枪袭击。第一批报道说，肯尼迪总统在这次枪击事件中受了重伤。”车队迅速开往帕克兰纪念医院，但医生无法挽救其生命。以下是电视新闻记者沃尔特·克朗凯特的报道：“来自德克萨斯州达拉斯的消息，肯尼迪总统在美国中央标准时间下午一点去世，这显然是官方消息。”
警方很快逮捕了一名嫌疑人。李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德，在肯尼迪遇害附近的一栋大楼里工作。人们看到他持枪离开了大楼。李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德的过往经历比较离奇，他曾是美国海军陆战队队员，也是共产主义者。他曾在苏联生活了一段时间，并试图成为苏联公民，他在一个支持古巴共产党政府的委员会工作。警察就肯尼迪总统遭遇枪击一事询问奥斯瓦尔德，他告诉他们，他没有这样做。两天后，警方决定把他转移到另一所监狱。两名警察带走了奥斯瓦尔德。突然，一个人走上前去，一声枪响，奥斯瓦尔德应声倒地。电视对此事进行了直播。杀死奥斯瓦尔德的人是杰克·鲁比，他是达拉斯一家夜总会的老板。他说，他开枪射杀奥斯瓦尔德是不想让肯尼迪一家经历审判。一个委员会调查了肯尼迪遇刺案事件，美国首席大法官厄尔·沃伦是这项调查的负责人。沃伦委员会在报告中说，李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德是单独行动的。它说没有谋杀总统的阴谋。许多美国人从未认同这一发现，一些人指责菲德尔·卡斯特罗或中央情报局，其他人则指责这是有组织的犯罪。肯尼迪总统葬在阿灵顿国家公墓，与华盛顿波托马克河相望。永恒的火焰日夜在他的坟墓旁燃烧。
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