(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 begin the story of President Lyndon Johnson. "From Dallas Texas, the flash, apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 PM Central Standard Time, two o'clock Eastern Standard Time. Lyndon Baines Johnson became America's thirty-sixth president suddenly. "Vice President Lyndon Johnson has left the hospital in Dallas. Presumably, he will be taking the oath of office shortly, and become the thirty-sixth President of the United States." On November twenty-second, nineteen sixty-three, President John Kennedy was murdered. Kennedy and Johnson, his vice president, were in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was shot as his open car drove through the city. Within a few hours, Johnson was sworn into office. The swearing-in took place on the presidential plane, Air Force One, at Dallas' Love Field.
The plane returned to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington carrying the new president and the body of the former president. At Andrews, President Johnson read a brief statement. He ended with these words: "I will do my best. That is all I can do. I ask for your help, and God's." Before he was vice president, LBJ had served for many years in the Senate and the House of Representatives. He grew up in small towns in Texas. He finished high school at age fifteen. He traveled and worked for a few years before he entered Southwest Texas State Teachers College. There he was a student leader and a political activist. In nineteen thirty-one a newly elected congressman asked Johnson to work for him as his secretary in Washington. Four years later, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed Johnson as Texas director of Roosevelt's National Youth Administration. Two years after that, in nineteen thirty-seven, Johnson won a special election for a seat in the House of Representatives. He served in the House for twelve years. When the United States entered World War Two, Johnson was the first member of Congress at that time to volunteer for active duty. After the war, he ran for the Senate, where he also served for twelve years.
Johnson loved politics and became an expert in the operations of government. He would need all of that knowledge as president of a nation facing problems near and far. When Johnson took office, communist forces were fighting South Vietnamese troops supported by the United States. Also there were continuing worries about nuclear war with the Soviet Union. At home, there was racial conflict. Many Americans were out of work, and there was the threat of a railroad strike. Johnson began his presidency by working hard for legislation that President Kennedy had proposed. Johnson had voted against civil rights legislation when he served in the Senate. But now he urged Congress to support the idea, and Congress agreed. The nineteen sixty-four Civil Rights Act barred discrimination against minorities in jobs and in restaurants and other businesses. "We believe that all men are created equal. Yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable rights. Yet many Americans do not enjoy those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty. Yet millions are being deprived of those blessings -- not because of their own failures -- but because of the color of their skin."
The president said that such a situation could not continue in America. To treat people unfairly because of their race, he said, violated the Constitution and the idea of democracy. Lyndon Johnson succeeded in getting Congress to pass more civil rights legislation in nineteen sixty-five and sixty-eight. "Many of the issues of civil rights are very complex and most difficult. But about this there can -- and should be -- no argument. Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote... There is no reason that can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right." Many southern states used so-called literacy tests as a way to deny blacks the right to vote. "The Negro citizen may go to register only to be told that the day is wrong, or the hour is late, or the official in charge is absent. And if he persists and, if he manages to present himself to the registrar, he may be disqualified because he did not spell out his middle name, or because he abbreviated a word on the application. "And if he manages to fill out an application, he is given a test. The registrar is the sole judge of whether he passes this test. He may be asked to recite the entire Constitution, or explain the most complex provisions of state law.
And even a college degree cannot be used to prove that he can read and write." The Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty-five said states could not prevent citizens from voting just because they could not read very well. The nineteen sixty-eight law barred discrimination against blacks in housing. Johnson was from the South. That -- and his ability to persuade people -- helped him get southern conservatives in Congress to support the civil rights legislation. He also had other ideas for a better America. He called his plan the Great Society. He talked about it in a speech at the University of Michigan: "The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning. The Great Society is a place where every child can find knowledge to enrich his mind and to enlarge his talents." Johnson launched the War on Poverty, a series of bills designed to help the poor. But his efforts to pay for social programs and a war overseas led to inflation.
Vietnam was not the only place where Johnson used military force. In nineteen sixty-five he sent more than twenty thousand troops to intervene in the Dominican Republic. He worried that a revolution could lead to a communist takeover of that Caribbean nation. Lyndon Johnson served the last fourteen months of President Kennedy's term. Then in nineteen sixty-four he ran for a full term. The Democratic Party strongly supported him and accepted his choice of Hubert Humphrey for vice president. Humphrey was a liberal senator from the state of Minnesota. Unlike the Democrats, the Republicans had a difficult time choosing their presidential candidate. Delegates at the party's nominating convention finally chose Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was a strongly conservative senator from Arizona. "Certainly, simple honesty is not too much to demand of men in government. And let our Republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels. I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."
The Republican candidate for vice president was William Miller, a congressman from New York State. Americans voted in November of nineteen sixty-four. Lyndon Johnson won more than sixty percent of the popular vote. Still he had hoped for an even bigger victory. He wanted proof that Americans were voting for him, and not the shadow of John Kennedy. In his inaugural speech, Johnson said his Great Society would never be finished -- it would keep growing and improving. "I do not believe that the Great Society is the ordered, changeless and sterile battalion of the ants. It is the excitement of becoming -- always becoming, trying, probing, falling, resting and trying again -- but always trying and always gaining." In nineteen sixty-five, he won congressional approval of Medicare, a health insurance program for Americans age sixty-five and older. President Harry Truman had called for such a plan twenty years earlier. Johnson presented Truman and his wife, Bess, with Medicare cards numbers one and two. Under Johnson, Congress also approved Medicaid, a health care program for the poor and disabled. In nineteen sixty-seven, President Johnson appointed the nation's first black justice to the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall. "Hell no, we won't go!" Around the country, President Johnson faced growing opposition to the war in Vietnam. More and more American troops were dying. Lyndon Johnson may have wanted to be remembered as a great president, but the war came to redefine his presidency. That will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.swear in 宣誓就任；使宣誓就职
A ceremony to swear in a new government in Rome.
新政府的宣誓就职仪式在罗马举行。
2.run for 竞选；让……竞选
The Conservative Party's victory in April's general election persuaded him to run for President again.
四月保守党在大选中获胜促使他再次竞选总统。
3.out of work 失业的；没有工作
I was out of work at the time.
那时我失业了。
4.fill out 填表；填好
You must fill out this order form.
这个订货单你要填一下。
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。我们在本周的系列节目中，将开始讲述林登·约翰逊总统的故事。“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。”林登·贝恩斯·约翰逊突然成为美国第三十六任总统。“副总统林登·约翰逊已经离开达拉斯的医院，他很快就会宣誓就职，成为美国第三十六任总统。”1963年11月22日，约翰·肯尼迪总统遇害。肯尼迪及其副总统约翰逊，当时正在德克萨斯州的达拉斯。肯尼迪的敞篷车驶过这座城市时，遭遇枪击。几小时后，约翰逊宣誓就职。宣誓仪式在达拉斯爱田机场的总统专机空军一号上举行。
飞机载着新总统和前总统的遗体，返回华盛顿附近的安德鲁斯空军基地。在安德鲁斯，约翰逊总统宣读了一份简短的声明。他最后说：“我会竭尽全力，这就是我所能做的事情。我请求你们和上帝的帮助。”约翰逊担任副总统之前，曾在参议院和众议院任职多年。他在得克萨斯州的小城镇长大，十五岁高中毕业。他在进入西南德克萨斯州立师范学院之前，曾旅行并工作数年。他在那是一名学生领袖，还是一位政治活动家。1931年，一位新当选的国会议员请约翰逊，到华盛顿给他做秘书工作。四年后，富兰克林·罗斯福总统任命约翰逊为德克萨斯州罗斯福国家青年管理局局长。两年后，在1937年，约翰逊赢得了众议院席位的特别选举。他在众议员任职十二年。当美国卷入二战时，约翰逊是当时第一个志愿服现役职务的国会议员。他在战后竞选参议员，并在参议院任职十二年。
约翰逊酷爱政治，成为了政府运作方面的专家。当国家遭遇内忧外患时，作为总统，他需要所有这些知识。约翰逊上任时，共产党军队正在与美国支持的南越军队作战。此外，人们对与苏联的核战争仍心存忧虑。在美国国内，存在种族冲突。许多美国人失业了，铁路罢工也构成了威胁。约翰逊在总统任期开始时，就为肯尼迪总统提出的立法而努力工作。约翰逊在参议院任职时，曾投票反对民权法案。但现在，他敦促国会支持这一想法，国会也表示同意。1964年的《公民权利法》中规定，禁止在工作场所、餐馆和其他企业中歧视少数民族。“我们相信，人人生而平等。然而，许多人被剥夺了平等待遇。我们相信，所有人都拥有某些不可剥夺的权利。然而，许多美国人并不享有这些权利。我们相信，所有人都有权获得自由的祝福。然而，数以百万计的人被剥夺了这些幸福，不是因为他们自己的失败，而是因为他们的肤色。”
总统表示，这种情况不能在美国继续下去了。他说，因为种族而不公平地对待人民，违反宪法和民主理念。林登·约翰逊成功地使国会在1965年和1968年，通过了更多的民权立法。“许多公民权利问题，都非常复杂、棘手。但关于这一点而言，可以而且应该不存在争论。每位美国公民都必须拥有平等的投票权。没有任何理由，可以为剥夺这项权利辩解。确保这一权利的责任，是重中之重。”许多南部州采用所谓的读写测试，来剥夺黑人的选举权。“黑人公民去登记时，可能会被告知日期不对，或时间晚了，或主管官员不在。如果他坚持投票，如果他设法向书记官长表明自己的身份，他可能会因为没有拼出中间名，或因为在申请书上把一个词进行了缩写，而被取消资格。“如果他成功填写完申请表，会进行一项测试。登记员是判断他是否通过这项考试的唯一评判人。他可能要求这位黑人背诵整部宪法，或者解释州法律中最复杂的条款。
即使拥有大学文凭，也无法证明黑人能够读写。”1965年的民权法案中规定，各州不能仅因为公民无法很好地阅读，就阻止他们投票。1968年的法律，禁止在住房方面歧视黑人。约翰逊来自南部。这一点，以及他说服人们的能力，帮助他在国会争取南方保守派支持民权立法。他还对建设更美好的美国，抱有其他想法。他把自己的计划称为伟大的社会，他在密歇根大学的演讲中谈到了这一点：“伟大的社会依赖于所有人的富裕和自由，它要求终结贫穷和种族不公，我们在这个时代完全致力于此。而这只是个开始。伟大的社会，是每个孩子都能找寻知识来充实自己的思想，和扩展自己才能的地方。”约翰逊发起了反贫困战争，这是一系列旨在帮助穷人的法案。但是，他为社会项目和海外战争买单，导致了通货膨胀。
越南并不是约翰逊动用武力的唯一地方。在1965年，他派遣两万多军队干预多米尼加共和国，他担心革命会导致共产党接管这个加勒比国家。林登·约翰逊在肯尼迪总统任期的最后十四个月里任职。1964年，他参加了总统完整任期的竞选。民主党大力支持他，并接受他选择休伯特·汉弗莱为副总统。汉弗莱是明尼苏达州的自由派参议员。与民主党人不同，共和党人在选择他们的总统候选人方面遇到了困难。参加该党提名大会的代表们，最终选择巴里·戈德沃特。戈德沃特，是来自亚利桑那州的一位非常保守的参议员。“当然，诚实对在政府中任职的人来说并不过分。让目标明确、具有专门用途的共和制，不要因为不加思考和愚蠢的标签，而被曲解，变得无益。我要提醒你们，捍卫自由的极端主义并非罪恶。我还要提醒你们，在追求正义时适度并非美德。”
共和党副总统候选人是来自纽约州的众议员威廉·米勒。美国人在1964年11月投票，林登·约翰逊赢得了超过60%的普选。尽管如此，他还是希望能取得更大的胜利。他想要证明，美国人投票支持的是他，而不是作为跟随约翰· 肯尼迪的人。约翰逊在就职演说中表示，他描述的伟大的社会永远不会终结，它将不断成长和进步。“我认为，伟大的社会不是有秩序、一成不变、缺乏新意的蚂蚁大军。它是，一直都是成为、尝试、探索、失败、休憩、再尝试——总是尝试、获取的兴奋感。”1965年，他赢得了国会对联邦医疗保险的批准。这是一项针对65岁及以上美国人的健康保险计划。20年前，哈里·杜鲁门总统曾呼吁制定这样一项计划。约翰逊向杜鲁门及其妻子贝丝赠送了一号和二号医疗保险卡。在约翰逊的领导下，国会还批准了医疗补助计划，这是一项针对穷人和残疾人士的医疗保健项目。在1967年，约翰逊总统任命美国最高法院第一位黑人法官，瑟古德·马歇尔。“不，我们不去！”在全国范围内，约翰逊总统面临着越来越多反对越南战争的呼声，更多的美军部队在战争中牺牲。林登·约翰逊可能想让人们将他铭记为一位伟大的总统，但这场战争重新界定了他的总统任期，这将是我们下期节目中要讲述的故事。
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