(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 America's forty-second president, Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton took office in January of nineteen ninety-three. During his eight years as president, he appointed more women and minorities to the government than any president before him. He also appointed the second woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court. For the first two years of his presidency, Bill Clinton had a Congress controlled by members of his own party, the Democrats. Still, he failed in his efforts to pass legislation to reform the nation's health care system. During the presidential campaign, Bill Clinton had promised to help millions of Americans get health care coverage.
This health care system of ours is badly broken, and it is time to fix it. Despite the dedication of literally millions of talented health care professionals, our health care is too uncertain and too expensive, too bureaucratic, and too wasteful. It has too much fraud and too much greed. We must make this our most urgent priority – giving every American health security, health care that can never be taken away, health care that is always there." He appointed his wife, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, to lead a committee to develop the plan. Critics argued that the plan would lead to socialized medicine. In the end, lawmakers decided that the plan would cost too much and would be too difficult to administer. But President Clinton found support on other issues, including crime-fighting legislation. The measure included money for hiring more police officers and building more prisons. Congress also passed his budgets for nineteen ninety-three and ninety-four that reduced federal spending. But Clinton's relations with Congress became more difficult after the nineteen ninety-four congressional elections. The fight over health care and other issues had only led to greater dissatisfaction with Washington. The elections were a big defeat for the Democrats in Congress.
"A rising tide lifts all boats, or so they say, and Republicans are sailing right to victory in the House of Representatives, CNN estimating that the Republicans will take more than enough seats to take control of the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years, and here's what's interesting: It is cutting across all regions, it is cutting across all ages, it is cutting across literally all the candidates." CNN reporter Frank Sesno. Voters gave Republicans control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years. President Clinton supported welfare reform, to reduce spending on public assistance. But he blocked Republican efforts to cut what he believed was too much money from programs including health care for retirees and the poor. Budget fights with the Republican-led Congress resulted in two shutdowns of government operations. "The government is partially shutting down because Congress has failed to pass the straightforward legislation necessary to keep the government running without imposing sharp hikes in Medicare premiums and deep cuts in education and the environment. "It is particularly unfortunate that the Republican Congress has brought us to this juncture because, after all, we share a central goal -- balancing the federal budget. We must lift the burden of debt that threatens the future of our children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, Republican leaders in Washington have put ideology ahead of common sense and shared values."
The economy had suffered a recession during the previous administration of George H.W. Bush. After Bill Clinton became president, the economy grew slowly at first, but then recovered more quickly. One month into his presidency, Bill Clinton had to deal with a terrorist attack against the United States. "There's been an explosion deep below the one hundred-ten story towers of the World Trade Center in New York City." On February twenty-sixth, nineteen-ninety-three, members of al-Qaida attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. The terrorists left a truck loaded with explosives in an underground parking garage. "By early afternoon, Lower Manhattan looked like a war zone. Office workers, faces blackened with smoke and soot, hundreds gasping for breath, staggered into the frigid February air." The attack killed six people and injured more than one thousand others. The government later captured those responsible for the bombing. On April nineteenth, nineteen ninety-five, terrorists again struck the United States. Only this time, it was a case of homegrown terrorism. The target was the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. "It was an explosion, blowing off the entire north face of that building."
The bombing killed one hundred sixty-eight people. It was the deadliest terrorist attack ever on American soil, up to that time. The man behind the attack was Timothy McVeigh, a former soldier who hated the government. He was captured soon after the explosion. McVeigh was tried and, in two thousand one, executed for his crimes. A friend of his, another military veteran, was also involved in the plot and was sent to prison. President Clinton also had to deal with foreign and humanitarian crises. "A year ago, we all watched with horror as Somali children and their families lay dying by the tens of thousands, dying the slow, agonizing death of starvation, a starvation brought on not only by drought, but also by the anarchy that then prevailed in that country." President Bush had sent American troops to Somalia in nineteen ninety-two to assist the United Nations in feeding starving Somalis. Civil war was preventing the people from receiving aid during a drought. In October of nineteen ninety-three, eighteen American soldiers were killed in a battle in Mogadishu. It happened during a failed raid on a hotel to search for a militia leader.
"This past weekend we all reacted with anger and horror as an armed Somali gang desecrated the bodies of our American soldiers and displayed a captured American pilot, all of them soldiers who were taking part in an international effort to end the starvation of the Somali people themselves. "These tragic events raise hard questions about our effort in Somalia. Why are we still there? What are we trying to accomplish? How did a humanitarian mission turn violent? And when will our people come home? "These questions deserve straight answers. Let's start by remembering why our troops went into Somalia in the first place. We went because only the United States could help stop one of the great human tragedies of this time. A third of a million people had died of starvation and disease. Twice that many more were at risk of dying. Meanwhile, tons of relief supplies piled up in the capital of Mogadishu because a small number of Somalis stopped food from reaching their own countrymen. "Our troops created a secure environment so that food and medicine could get through. We saved close to one million lives. And throughout most of Somalia, life began returning to normal. Nearly a million Somalis still depend completely on relief supplies, but at least the starvation is gone. And none of this would have happened without American leadership and America's troops.
"Let us demonstrate to the world, as generations of Americans have done before us, that when Americans take on a challenge, they do the job right." But members of Congress demanded a withdrawal. A few days after the battle, President Clinton ordered American troops to leave Somalia within six months. In nineteen ninety-four, President Clinton sent troops to Haiti to return that country's first democratically elected leader to office. Military officers had overthrown President Jean-Bertrand Aristide three years earlier. That crisis led thousands of Haitian refugees to try to flee to the United States by boat. In nineteen ninety-five, American diplomatic efforts -- as well as NATO airstrikes -- helped produce a peace agreement to end the long and bloody civil war in Bosnia. President Clinton sent American peacekeeping troops to the former Yugoslav republic. In November of nineteen ninety-three, Congress approved NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. The agreement ended most import taxes between the United States, Canada and Mexico. It lowered barriers to the flow of goods, services and investments.
President Bush had signed the agreement with Mexico and Canada. American labor unions and environmental groups opposed NAFTA. But Congress approved it, and President Clinton signed it into law. Personal issues from Bill Clinton's past in Arkansas became part of his future as president of the United States. In the late nineteen seventies, he and Hillary Clinton had invested in a land development company in Arkansas called Whitewater. Others involved with Whitewater were in legal trouble by the time Bill Clinton -- a former governor of Arkansas -- became president. A former judge who owned a savings and loan bank accused Clinton of pressuring him to make illegal loans to help the company. Clinton denied that. And there were questions and accusations about Hillary Clinton from the years when she worked as a lawyer in Little Rock, Arkansas. In January of nineteen ninety-four, after a year as a president, Bill Clinton asked Attorney General Janet Reno to appoint an independent investigator. The attorney general named a Republican, Robert Fiske, to look into the activities of the Clintons. But critics accused him of being too friendly to the administration. In August, three federal judges replaced him with another Republican lawyer, Kenneth Starr. Public opinion was divided about the situation. Some people thought the president and his wife were corrupt. Others thought any accusations of wrongdoing were nothing more than political attacks. Bill Clinton went on to win a second term in the elections in November of nineteen ninety-six. But new issues about his personal behavior would lead Republicans to try to remove him from office. Clinton's second term will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.millions of 数百万的；成百万的
He helped energize and mobilize millions of people around the nation.
他帮助激励和动员了全国数百万人。
2.take away 拿走；带走
Take away these teacups.
把这些茶杯拿走。
3.take control of 控制；掌管
He failed in his attempt to take control of the company.
他试图掌控公司，但以失败告终。
4.shut down 关机；停工
Smaller contractors had been forced to shut down.
规模较小的承包商已被迫歇业。。
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。在本周的系列节目中，我们将继续讲述美国第42任总统比尔·克林顿的故事。克林顿于1993年1月就职。在他担任总统的八年里，他任命的女性和少数族裔成员比之前任何一位总统都多。他还任命了第二位在最高法院任职的女性。出任总统的最初两年，比尔·克林顿的国会由其政党民主党人控制。尽管如此，他未能通过改革国家医疗体系的立法。总统竞选期间，比尔·克林顿曾承诺帮助数百万美国人获得医疗保险。
我们的医疗保健系统已经严重损坏，是时候对它进行修复。尽管拥有数以百万计有才华的医疗保健专业人员的献身精神，但我们的医疗保健太不确定、太昂贵、太官僚主义、太浪费。它存在太多的欺诈和贪婪，我们必须把这一点作为需要处理的最紧迫的优先事项，给予每一个美国人健康保障，一个永远不会被剥离掉、永远都存在的健康保障。”他任命自己的妻子，第一夫人希拉里·克林顿领导一个委员会来制定这项计划。批评人士认为，该计划将使医疗社会化。最后，立法者认为这项计划成本太高，管理起来也太困难。但是，克林顿总统在其他问题上得到了支持，包括打击犯罪的立法。这项措施包括雇佣更多警察和建造更多监狱的资金。国会还通过了他在1993年和1994年的预算，减少了联邦开支。但是，克林顿与国会的关系在1994年国会选举后变得更加困难。围绕医疗保健和其他问题的斗争，只会导致让人们对华盛顿政府产生更多不满。这次选举对国会中的民主党人来说是一次巨大的失败。
“水涨船高，或者这样说，共和党人正在众议院朝着胜利行进。CNN估计，共和党人将在40年来，第一次占据足够的席位，控制众议院。有趣的是：它遍及所有地区，遍及各个年龄段，几乎涵盖了所有候选人。”CNN记者弗兰克·塞斯诺。选民们40年来首次让共和党控制参众两院。克林顿总统支持福利改革，以减少公共援助开支。但是，他阻止了共和党削减他认为花费太多资金的计划，包括退休人员和贫困者的医疗保健。与共和党领导的国会的预算之争，导致政府行动两次停摆。“政府之所以部分停摆，未能通过维持政府运转所必需的直接立法，没有强加医疗保险费，并大幅削减教育与环境费用。“尤其遗憾的是，共和党国会把我们带到了这个关头。毕竟，我们拥有一个核心目标，即平衡联邦预算。我们必须解除威胁子孙后代未来的债务负担。不幸的是，华盛顿的共和党领导人把意识形态置于常知和共同的价值观念之上。”
在布什任职的上届政府，美国经济曾遭遇衰退。比尔·克林顿当选总统后，美国经济起初增长缓慢，但后来恢复得更快。克林顿总统上任一个月后，就不得不应对一次针对美国的恐怖袭击。“110层的纽约市世贸中心塔楼下部发生爆炸。”1993年2月26日，基地组织成员袭击了纽约市的世界贸易中心。恐怖分子把一辆装满炸药的卡车停在地下停车场。下午早些时候，曼哈顿下城区看起来就像一个战区。上班族们的脸被烟灰熏黑，数百人喘着粗气，蹒跚着步入二月寒冷的空气中。”这次袭击造成6人死亡，一千多人受伤。政府后来抓获了引发爆炸的肇事者。1995年4月19日，恐怖分子再次袭击美国。只是这次是本土恐怖主义袭击，其目标是俄克拉荷马州俄克拉荷马市的穆拉联邦大厦。“那次爆炸把大楼的整个北面都炸飞了。”
爆炸造成168人死亡，这是迄今为止，在美国本土发生的最致命的恐怖袭击。这次袭击的幕后黑手是蒂莫西·麦克维，他曾是一位士兵，憎恨美国政府。爆炸发生后不久，他就被抓获了。2001年，麦克维因犯罪被审判，并遭到处决。他的一个朋友，另一位退伍军人，也参与了这一阴谋，也被送进监狱。克林顿总统还必须处理外交和人道主义危机。“一年前，我们都惊恐地看着成千上万的索马里儿童及其家人死去。他们因饥饿而缓慢痛苦地死去，这种饥饿不仅是由干旱造成的，而且是由当时该国普遍存在的无政府状态所致。”布什总统曾在1992年派遣美国军队进驻索马里，协助联合国为饥饿的索马里人提供食物。国内战争使人们无法在干旱期间得到援助。1993年10月，18名美国士兵在摩加迪沙的一场战斗中丧生。这是在对一家酒店的突袭失败时发生的，当时他们正在搜寻一名民兵头目。
“在上个周末，一个索马里武装团伙亵渎美国士兵的尸体，并炫耀抓获一名美国飞行员时，我们都感到愤怒和恐惧，所有士兵都参加了一项旨在结束索马里人民饥饿的国际行动。“这些悲剧给我们在索马里的军事行动提出了严峻的问题。为什么我们还在那里？我们要达成什么目标？人道主义行动如何演变成了暴力？我们的士兵什么时候能回家？这些问题应该得到直截了当的回答。让我们先回忆一下，为什么我们的军队进驻索马里。我们去到那里，是因为只有美国才能阻止这一次的人类悲剧。一百万人中有三分之一的人死于饥饿和疾病，有两倍多的人面临死亡。与此同时，在首都摩加迪沙，由于少数索马里人阻止食物到达同胞手中，成吨的救援物资堆积在首都摩加迪沙。“我们的部队创造出一个安全的环境，使食品和药品能够通过。我们拯救了将近一百万人的生命。在索马里大部分地区，生活开始恢复正常。将近一百万索马里人仍然完全依赖救济物资生活，但至少饥荒已经过去。如果没有美国的领导和美国军队，这一切都不会发生。
“让我们像几代美国人所做的那样，向全世界证明，当美国人接受挑战时，他们所做的是正确的事情。”但国会议员要求撤军。战斗几天后，克林顿总统下令美军在六个月内撤离索马里。1994年，克林顿总统派遣军队前往海地，让海地第一位民选领导人重返政府。三年前，军官们推翻了让·贝特朗·阿里斯蒂德总统，那场危机导致数千名海地难民试图乘船逃往美国。1995年，美国的外交努力以及北约的空袭，帮助达成了一项和平协议，结束了波斯尼亚漫长而血腥的内战。克林顿总统向前南斯拉夫共和国派遣出美国维和部队。1993年11月，国会批准了《北美自由贸易协定》。该协议结束了美国、加拿大和墨西哥之间的大部分进口税，降低了商品、服务和投资流动的障碍。
布什总统已经与墨西哥和加拿大签署了协议，美国工会和环保组织反对《北美自由贸易协定》。但是国会批准了这项法案，克林顿总统进行了签署。比尔·克林顿过去在阿肯色州的个人问题，成为他未来担任美国总统的一部分故事。在20世纪70年代末，他和希拉里·克林顿在阿肯色州投资了一家名为白水（Whitewater）的土地开发公司。前阿肯色州州长比尔·克林顿成为总统时，其他涉及白水事件者都陷入了法律困境。一位拥有一家储蓄和贷款银行的前法官指控克林顿向他施压，要求他提供非法贷款，以帮助公司。克林顿对此予以否认。希拉里·克林顿在阿肯色州小石城当律师时，人们对她提出了质疑和指责。1994年1月，比尔·克林顿出任总统一年后，要求司法部长珍妮特·雷诺任命一名独立调查员。司法部长任命一位共和党人罗伯特·菲斯克调查克林顿夫妇的活动。但批评者指责他对政府过于友好。今年8月，三名联邦法官用另一名共和党律师肯尼斯·斯塔尔替换了他。公众舆论对这一情况看法不一，有些人认为总统夫妇腐败。其他人则认为，任何对不法行为的指控都不过是政治攻击。比尔·克林顿在1996年11月的选举中赢得了第二个任期，但有关他个人行为的新问题将导致共和党人试图将他免职。克林顿的第二个任期将是我们下期节目要讲述的故事。
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