(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 the presidency of George W. Bush. George W. Bush began his second term -- and fifth year in office -- in January two thousand five. Early in his first term, terrorists had carried out the worst attacks in United States history. President Bush declared a war on terror and led the country into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In his second inaugural address, he promised to continue fighting to defeat terrorism and increase democracy around the world. "So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world." He also talked about his goals at home and what he called America's ideal of freedom. "In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the GI Bill of Rights...
"We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings, and health insurance, preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal." The United States Constitution limits presidents to two terms. Presidential historian Russell Riley at the University of Virginia's Miller Center says presidents traditionally use their first term to focus on their major goals for the country. Second terms, he says, "tend to be unhappy times." During his second term, Richard Nixon resigned over the attempt to hide political wrongdoing in the Watergate case. Bill Clinton faced a trial in the Senate over his attempt to hide a relationship with a young aide. But the first major problem of George Bush's second term dropped from the sky. "You saw people on the rooftops. You saw people using claw hammers trying to break through their attic to get up onto their roof. That's why you had so many people who drowned." In August of two thousand five, Susan Bennett received a phone call from her daughter, a television reporter in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"She called, on a Friday, and said, 'I think you need to come pick up my son, because there's a really big storm coming.'" It was Hurricane Katrina -- one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Along the Gulf of Mexico the hardest hit states were Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Over one thousand eight hundred people died. Property damage totaled more than seventy-five billion dollars. But Katrina will be remembered mostly because of what happened in New Orleans. A day before the storm hit, officials had ordered everyone to leave the city. But thousands of people stayed. Some chose not to leave. Others were too poor, too old or too sick to go. Then, the levees broke. Those flood barriers were supposed to protect the city. Much of New Orleans was built on land that lies below sea level. As Katrina hit, more than eighty percent of the city flooded. In some areas, the water was six meters deep. Many people who stayed were caught in the floods. Officials struggled to get food, water and medicine to the survivors. The displaced included thousands of people who took shelter in the Superdome, a big sports arena. Out on the streets, lawless acts fed a sense of disorder and helplessness.
"It's disgusting and frustrating. And we are human beings, and they're treating us like we're criminals." "We want help! We want help! Help us!" Susan Bennett helped create an exhibit about Hurricane Katrina at the Newseum, a museum of news in Washington. "Not only in this country, but also in newspapers across the world, you saw the same headline. It ranged from 'Engulfed' to 'Our Tsunami.' 'Chaos.' And then it went to 'Anarchy,' 'National Disgrace.'" Congress later found that officials at every level of government -- local, state and federal -- had failed in doing their jobs. President Bush flew over New Orleans to inspect the damage. A photograph showed him looking out the window of Air Force One at the ground below. Russell Riley at the University of Virginia says the picture expressed what many people were thinking about the handling of the disaster. "Because of the ineffectiveness of the government response at the time, that image communicated to the American people that the president was remote. That he wasn't on the ground. That the best he could do was just look out the window of a passing plane." In two thousand five a different kind of storm was hitting Iraq. American and Iraqi officials were struggling to create a democratic government. Local militias were on the rise and attacking coalition forces and other Iraqis.
The violence also included al-Qaida suicide bombings in Iraq, which angered many Iraqis. And there was international anger as the result of photos that showed American troops abusing Iraqi prisoners. President Bush had declared the end of major combat operations on May first, two thousand three. That was less than two months after the invasion. But the numbers of civilian and military deaths were growing. And, in the United States, surveys were showing that a growing number of Americans thought going into Iraq was a mistake. "The bad news was we were uncomfortable with it, and we wanted to get out, and we could not understand how things could go so terribly wrong." Judith Yaphe joined the National Defense University after twenty years as a Middle East expert at the Central Intelligence Agency. "That's where the lack of strategy and the mismanagement come in. But I think it's also true that, you know, Americans just wanted to say, 'Why are we in Iraq? Why are we in any of these places?' Because, historically speaking, it's not a role we've been comfortable with."
She says by President Bush's second term, few Iraqis wanted to cooperate with the Americans to make the country more secure. But President Bush said American troops could not leave until Iraqi forces replaced them. In two thousand six, an Iraqi court sentenced the country's former leader to death. Saddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity. But nothing else seemed to change -- violence and insurgent attacks continued. Early the next year, President Bush announced that he was sending more troops to Iraq. He thought it would help stop the violence. "These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations. Our troops will have a well-defined mission – to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs." The temporary increase of about thirty thousand troops came to be called "the surge." In September of two thousand seven, the top commander in Iraq reported to Congress that the violence was decreasing. The surge may have helped create the conditions for this change but there were other reasons as well. Middle East expert Judith Yaphe says many Iraqis decided to work with the Americans to defeat the insurgency.
"The real truth is – and it's a good news story – that the Iraqis themselves saw that this was a greater danger to them, that there was nothing to be gained, the Sunnis of Iraq in particular, saw that al-Qaida was hurting them, that it was a danger to them, that there was much more to be gained by aligning with the US forces." By the time President Bush was finishing his second term, Iraqi and American officials had agreed on a withdrawal date to end the war. The last American forces would leave Iraq by the end of twenty-eleven. Russell Riley at the University of Virginia says it is too soon to know how history will judge the United States' actions in Iraq. "If Iraq proves to be a policy success, then the surge will be a critical turning point and a terrific exercise of presidential leadership." He also points out that the war is not the only measure by which the forty-third president will be judged. Professor Riley put it this way: "The great debate among historians will not be whether Bush was a powerful president or consequential president, but whether he directed those powers in the most fruitful way that he could have."
So, what else was going on in the United States during this period? Millions of people were voting for which singer should get a recording contract on "American Idol." Year after year it was the most popular show on television. "Oh, Robert, I think you just killed my favorite song of all time." "Killed in a good way or a bad way?" "Killing is never good. There's never a happy killing." "I'm sorry to hear that." "No, that was first degree on that one." But the biggest story in music was not what people were listening to, but how. Sales of CDs in stores fell as more and more people downloaded songs from the Internet. On iTunes, Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" was the most downloaded song of two thousand seven. For the first half of the decade, there seemed to be nothing to cry about in the American housing market. Home prices were going up and up, which made sellers happy. And lenders were offering bigger and bigger loans at easy terms and low interest rates, which made buyers happy. The government supported the easing of lending rules as a form of social policy, a way to help more people buy homes. Rates of home ownership -- a part of the American Dream -- reached record highs. In two thousand five nearly seven out of ten Americans owned their own home.
But many home buyers had been given mortgage loans that they could not afford to pay back. And that was not the only problem. Banks had been selling those loans as securities to investors around the world. Everyone thought they were getting a good deal -- the banks, the borrowers, the investors. But then the price bubble burst and the housing market collapsed. Many borrowers lost their homes because they were unable to make their monthly loan payments. That was the situation Karen Lucas and her husband, of Cleveland, Ohio, found themselves in. "I've done my crying. I've made my peace, and I put it in God's hands." As home values fell, many people found themselves "underwater," meaning they owed more on their mortgage than their house was worth. Suddenly there was a lot to cry about. By the end of two thousand seven, the economy was sliding into the Great Recession. That -- and the election of two thousand eight -- will be our story next week.
重点解析
1.promise to 许诺做；承诺
Claire had made me promise to tell her the truth.
克莱尔要我保证把真相告诉她。
2.tend to 去接某人；学会
We drove to the airport the next morning to pick up Susan.
我们第二天早晨开车去机场接苏姗。
3.pick up 成长；长大成人
She grew up in Tokyo.
她在东京长大。
4.on the rise 在上升；在增加
This may change: inflation is on the rise.
这种情况可能会改变：通胀仍在上升。
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。我们在本期系列节目中，将继续讲述乔治·W·布什总统的故事。2005年1月，乔治·W·布什开始了他的第二个任期，也就是任职的第五年。布什总统第一个任期初期，恐怖分子发动了美国历史上最严重的袭击。布什总统宣布了一场反恐战争，并带领美国参与阿富汗和伊拉克的战争。在他的第二次就职演说中，他承诺将继续在全世界打击恐怖主义，提升民主。“因此，美国的政策是在每一个国家和文化中寻求并支持民主运动和民主制度的发展，最终目标是结束世界上的暴政。”他还谈到自己在美国国内的目标，以及他所说的美国的自由理想。“在美国的自由理想中，公民们找到了经济独立的尊严和安全，而不是为了生存辛苦劳作。这是自由更广泛的定义，推动出台《宅地法案》、《社会保障法》和《退伍军人权利法》。
“我们将扩大对房屋和企业、退休储蓄和医疗保险的所有权，使人民做好准备，迎接自由社会的生活挑战。让每位公民掌握自己的命运，我们将使美国同胞免于贫困和恐惧，使我们的社会更加繁荣、公正和平等。”《美国宪法》规定总统只能连任两届。弗吉尼亚大学米勒中心的总统历史学家拉塞尔·莱利说，传统上，总统在第一个任期内都会专注于国家的主要目标。第二个任期，他说，“往往不太愉快。”在第二个任期内，理查德·尼克松因试图掩盖水门事件中的政治错误而辞职。比尔·克林顿因试图隐瞒与一名年轻助手的关系而面临参议院的审判。但布什第二任期的第一个主要问题却从天而降。“你看到有人在屋顶上，看到人们用羊角锤试图冲破阁楼爬上屋顶。所以，才有那么多人溺水身亡。”2005年8月，苏珊·本尼特接到女儿打来的电话，苏珊是路易斯安那州新奥尔良的一名电视记者。
“她周五打电话来说，‘我想你应该来接我儿子，因为有一场大风暴要来了。’”那是卡特里娜飓风，美国历史上最严重的自然灾害之一。墨西哥湾沿岸受灾最严重的州是路易斯安那州、密西西比州和阿拉巴马州。一千八百人死亡，财产损失总计超过750亿美元。但卡特里娜飓风之所以会被人们记住，主要是因为在新奥尔良发生的事情。风暴来袭的前一天，官员们已经命令所有人离开城市。但成千上万的人留下来了，有些人选择不离开。其他人要么太穷、要么年纪太大或病得太重无法离开。然后，堤坝决堤了。那些防洪堤本来是用来保护城市的，新奥尔良大部分都建在海平面以下的陆地上。随着卡特里娜飓风的袭击，该市80%以上的地区被海水淹没。在一些地区，水深至六米。许多留下来的人被洪水困住了。官员们努力向幸存者们提供食物、水和药品。数千人流离失所，他们在一个大型运动场Superdome体育会展中心避难。在街上，不法行为滋生出一种混乱和无助感。“这既让人感到不快又令人沮丧，我们是人，而他们把我们当作罪犯对待。”“我们需要帮助！我们需要帮助！帮帮我们！”
苏珊·本尼特在华盛顿的新闻博物馆纽瑟姆的展览中，创作了一场关于卡特里娜飓风的展览。 “不仅在美国，而且在世界各地的报纸上，都看到了同样的标题。从‘吞噬’到‘我们的海啸’、‘混乱’，再到‘无政府状态’、‘国耻’。”国会后来发现，地方、州、联邦各级政府官员，都没能做好本职工作。布什总统飞过新奥尔良，视察损失情况。一张照片显示，他从空军一号的窗口望向下面的地面。弗吉尼亚大学的拉塞尔·莱利说，这张照片表达了许多人对灾难处理的想法。“由于当时政府的反应不及时，这种形象向美国人民传达出总统遥不可及。他没有在地面上，他所能做的就是从一架经过的飞机的窗户往外看。”2005年，另一种风暴袭击了伊拉克。美国和伊拉克官员正在努力建立一个民主政府，当地民兵数量正在增加，他们攻击联军和其他伊拉克人。
暴力事件还包括基地组织在伊拉克的自杀式爆炸，这激怒了许多伊拉克人。国际社会对美国军队虐待伊拉克囚犯的照片感到愤怒。布什总统于2003年5月1日宣布主要作战行动结束。那时入侵后还不到两个月。但是，平民和军人的死亡人数在增加。在美国，调查显示越来越多的美国人认为入侵伊拉克是个错误。“坏消息是我们对此感到不安，我们想离开，但我们不明白事情怎么会这么糟糕。”朱迪思·亚菲在中央情报局担任中东问题专家20年后，加入国防大学。“这就是缺乏战略和管理不善的原因。但我认为，这也是事实。美国人只是想说，‘为什么我们在伊拉克？我们为什么要去这些地方？’因为，从历史上看，这不是一个我们乐于接受的角色。”
她说，在布什总统的第二个任期内，很少有伊拉克人愿意与美国人合作，使国家更加安全。但布什总统说，在伊拉克军队撤军之前，美军不能撤离。2006年，伊拉克法院判处该国前领导人死刑。萨达姆·侯赛因因反人类罪被处以绞刑。但其他一切似乎都没有改变，暴力和叛乱袭击仍在继续。第二年年初，布什总统宣布他将向伊拉克增派军队。他认为，这有助于制止暴力。“这些部队将与伊拉克部队并肩作战，并归入其编队中。我们的部队任务明确，即帮助伊拉克人清理和保护社区，帮助他们保护当地居民，并帮助确保留下的伊拉克部队能够提供巴格达所需的安全。”临时增加的大约三万名士兵被称为“增兵”。2007年9月，伊拉克最高指挥官向国会报告说，暴力事件正在减少。增兵可能有助于为这种变化创造条件，但也有其他原因。中东问题专家朱迪斯·亚菲说，许多伊拉克人决定与美国人合作，以击败叛乱。
“真相是伊拉克人自己看到，这对他们来说是一个更大的危险，没有任何收获，这是一个好消息。特别是伊拉克的逊尼派，看到基地组织正在伤害他们，这对他们来说是一种危险，而与美军结盟可以获得更多好处。”布什总统结束他的第二个任期时，伊拉克和美国官员已经商定出一个结束战争的撤军日期。最后一批美军将在2011年底离开伊拉克。弗吉尼亚大学的拉塞尔·莱利说，现在要知道历史将如何评判美国入侵伊拉克的行动还为时过早。“如果证明入侵伊拉克在政策上的成功，那么增兵将是一个关键的转折点，也是一次出色的总统领导行为。”他还指出，战争并不是评判第43任总统的唯一标准。莱利教授这样说：“历史学家之间的大争论不是布什是一位有权势的总统，还是一位有影响力的总统，而是他是否以他所能拥有的最富有成效的方式来运用这些权力。”
在这期间美国还发生了什么？数以百万计的人投票决定哪位歌手应该获得《美国偶像》的录制合同，每年这都是电视上最受欢迎的节目。“哦，罗伯特，我觉得你刚才把我最喜欢的歌给毁了。”“是好还是坏？”“毁了从来不是好事，从来没有快乐的摧毁。”“听你这么说我很难过。”“不，这只是初级程度。”但音乐界最重要的不是人们在听什么，而是如何听。越来越多的人从互联网下载更多的歌曲，商店中CD的销量下降了。在iTunes上，菲姬的《女孩别哭》是2007年下载量最高的歌曲。新千年的第一个五年中，美国房地产市场似乎没有什么可让人抱怨的。房价一涨再涨，这让卖方很高兴。贷款机构以宽松的条件和低利率提供越来越多的贷款，这让买家很开心。政府支持放宽贷款规定，作为一种社会政策，帮助更多人买房。作为美国梦的一部分，住房拥有率创下历史新高。2005年，将近70%的美国人拥有自己的房子。
但许多购房者得到了他们无力偿还的抵押贷款，这并不是唯一的问题。银行一直将这些贷款作为证券出售给世界各地的投资者。银行、借款人、投资者，所有人都认为他们得到了一笔好买卖。但随后价格泡沫爆裂，房地产市场崩溃。许多借贷者失去了他们的房子，因为他们无法支付每月的贷款。这就是俄亥俄州克利夫兰的凯伦·卢卡斯和丈夫的遭遇。“我哭过了，我让自己心情平静了，我听天由命了。”随着房价下跌，许多人发现自己“被拖入水下”，这意味着他们欠下的抵押贷款超过了房子的价值。突然之间，有很多事情会让你哭泣。到2007年底，美国经济陷入大萧条。这种情况以及2008年的选举，将是我们下期节目要讲述的故事。
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