(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
"I think we're ready. Oh, I hope we're ready." "I just hear people's comments that that will be the day when we have a black man running our country." "I'm not sure. I'm really not sure." Candidate Obama gave a speech about race in America. "I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. "I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.
"I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible. "It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional of candidates. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one." Many political experts predicted that Barack Obama would lose the nomination. For one thing, he was still new to many Americans while almost everyone knew who Hillary Clinton was. Also, she had many wealthy supporters donating to her campaign. But political scientist Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia said those experts did not understand the country's mood. "They underestimated the power not just of Barack Obama, but also the yearning for change and the antipathy toward dynasty -- the idea that the Bushes and Clintons would essentially control the presidency from 1988 to potentially 2016."
"Hope" and "Change" became the messages of the Obama campaign. Barack Obama won enough delegates to secure his party's nomination, which he accepted in August, shortly after his forty-seventh birthday. His choice for vice president was Joe Biden, a longtime senator from Delaware. But Mr. Obama's nomination was not the biggest news story for long. The next day, John McCain had a big announcement of his own. His running mate would be Sarah Palin. The Democrats had once nominated a woman for vice president, Geraldine Ferraro, but never the Republicans. Neither party had ever nominated a woman for president. Sarah Palin was the forty-four-year-old governor of Alaska. Few Americans had ever heard of her until she spoke at the Republican nominating convention. She referred to herself as a "hockey mom." "I love those hockey moms. You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull. Lipstick." Some women said they admired her ability to balance work and family as the mother of five children. "I feel like she really speaks for me and represents me."
During the campaign, Barack Obama raised a record amount of money for a candidate -- about seven hundred forty-five million dollars. He became the first candidate to reject the modern system of public financing of presidential elections. Instead, he accepted smaller contributions from hundreds of thousands of supporters. His campaign made extensive use of the Internet to collect donations, connect with voters and organize volunteers. John McCain did not have as much money to spend. Something else also set him apart from the Democratic nominee. John McCain supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Barack Obama said he would bring the troops home from Iraq within two years of becoming president. But the top issue in the campaign was the economy. Again, Larry Sabato at the University of Virginia: "The fundamental issue in most presidential elections is the economy. It really is the economy, stupid — the old slogan from the 1992 Clinton campaign. When an administration has a positive, strong economy, they're tough to beat -- even if it's a non-incumbent running. But when the economy turns sour, they're halfway out the door." Barack Obama and John McCain agreed on at least one thing in dealing with the economy. They both supported President Bush's call for the government to bail out the financial industry. Many Americans disliked the idea of helping banks that had acted irresponsibly. But Congress agreed to let the government buy bad loans from banks and temporarily became part-owner of some rescued companies.
Supporters argued that the bailouts were needed to save the economy from collapse. In November of two thousand eight, Americans elected Barack Hussein Obama as their forty-fourth president. He received fifty-three percent of the popular vote. He won some states that had not chosen a Democrat in many years. A little more than sixty percent of voting-age Americans cast their ballots, the highest percentage since nineteen sixty-four. Support for Mr. Obama was especially strong among young people and African-Americans. Many voters were emotional on election night. "I'm speechless. I'm trying not to cry right now. I'm thinking of my great-grandfather, my grandmother. Man, this is amazing." "Because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America." But the election of two thousand eight was not the end of America's economic problems. What became known as the Great Recession would officially end in June of two thousand nine, six months into the new president's term. But its lasting effects would continue to be felt all the way into the twenty-twelve election season.
重点解析
1.with the help of 在……的帮助下；借助于
With the help of this machine, we can make a new product.
利用这台机器，我们能够生产一种新产品。
2.pass on to 传给；传递给
Any message that I can pass on to him?
要我传达什么消息吗？
3.more than 多于；超过
He supervised and trained more than 400 volunteers.
他指导和培训了400多名志愿者。
4.speak for 代表……讲话；为……辩护
I speak for all 7,000 members of our organization.
我代表本组织的7,000名成员发言。
参考译文
“我认为，我们准备好了。哦，我希望我们准备好了。”“我刚听到人们的评论说，我们将由一位黑人来统治国家。”“我不确定。我真的不太确定。”候选人奥巴马发表了一篇关于美国种族问题的演讲。“我是一位肯尼亚黑人和一位堪萨斯白人女性的儿子。我在一位白人祖父的帮助下长大，他在大萧条中幸存下来，二战期间曾在巴顿的军队中服役。我还有一位白人祖母，祖父在海外时，她在利文沃斯堡的轰炸机装配线上工作。我就读于美国最好的学校，在世界上最贫穷的国家之一居住过。我娶了一位美国黑人，她身上流淌着奴隶和奴隶主的鲜血——我们把这一遗产传递给两个宝贝女儿。
“我有兄弟姐妹、侄女、侄子、叔叔和同辈表亲，他们来自不同的种族，拥有不同的肤色，生活在三大洲。只要我活着，我就永远不会忘记，我的故事不可能发生在地球上的其他国家。“这个故事并未使我成为最传统的候选人。但是，这个故事使我的遗传构成更加根深蒂固，认为美国不仅是各个部分的总和。在众多国家中，我们确实是独一无二的那个。”许多政治专家预测奥巴马将失去提名。首先，他对许多美国人来说还是个新人，而几乎所有人都知道希拉里·克林顿。此外，还有许多富有的支持者为她的竞选捐款。但是，弗吉尼亚大学的政治学家拉里·萨巴托说，这些专家并不理解美国人的情绪。“他们不仅低估了巴拉克·奥巴马的能力，还低估了人们对变革的渴望和对政权的反感，即布什和克林顿夫妇将基本上控制了1988年至2016年的总统任期。”
“希望”和“改变”成为奥巴马竞选班子传递的信息。奥巴马在47岁生日后不久，很快获得了党内提名。他选择的副总统是乔·拜登，一位来自特拉华州的任期较长的参议员。但奥巴马获得提名的这个大新闻并没有持续很久。第二天，约翰·麦凯恩宣布了他的一项重大声明，他的竞选搭档将是莎拉·佩林。民主党曾提名一名女性杰拉尔丁·费拉罗为副总统，但共和党从未这样做过。这两个政党都从未提名过一位女性担任总统。44岁的莎拉·佩林是阿拉斯加州长。她在共和党提名大会上发言之前，很少有美国人听说过她。她称自己为“曲棍球妈妈”“我喜欢那些曲棍球妈妈，他们说曲棍球妈妈和斗牛士的区别。是口红。”一些女性说，她们很钦佩她作为五个孩子的母亲，平衡工作和家庭的能力。“我觉得她真的在为我说话，代表了我。”
在竞选期间，巴拉克·奥巴马为一位候选人筹集了创纪录的资金，大约7.45亿美元。他成为第一个拒绝现代总统选举公共资助制度的候选人。相反，他接受数十万支持者的小额捐款。他的竞选活动广泛利用互联网收集捐款，与选民联系，组织志愿者。约翰·麦凯恩没有那么多钱款可花。其他一些因素也使他有别于民主党候选人。约翰·麦凯恩支持伊拉克和阿富汗战争。巴拉克·奥巴马说，他将在就任总统后的两年内，从伊拉克撤军。但竞选的首要问题是经济问题。弗吉尼亚大学的拉里·萨巴托说：“大多数总统选举的根本问题是经济问题。其实问题就在于经济，这是一种愚蠢的看法——这是1992年克林顿竞选时的老口号。政府拥有积极、强劲的经济时，他们很难被击败，即使不是竞选时期。但经济形势恶化时，他们已经失利了。”巴拉克·奥巴马和约翰·麦凯恩在处理经济问题上至少达成了一个共识，他们都支持布什总统要求政府救助金融业的呼吁。许多美国人不喜欢帮助那些不负责任的银行。但国会同意让政府从银行购买不良贷款，并暂时成为一些获救公司的部分所有者。
支持者认为，拯救经济免于崩溃需要这种救助。2008年11月，美国人选举巴拉克·侯赛因·奥巴马为他们的第44任总统。他得到了53%的民意支持。他赢得了一些多年来没有选择民主党人的州。略高于60%的处于投票年龄的美国人投票，这是自1964年以来的最高比例。年轻人和非裔美国人对奥巴马的支持尤其强烈。许多选民在选举之夜情绪激动。“我说不出话来，我尽量不让自己哭。我在想我的曾祖父，我的祖母。嘿，这太棒了。”“因为我们今天在这次选举中，在这个决定性时刻的所作所为，使美国发生了变化。”然而，2008年的选举并不是美国经济问题的终结。被称为“大衰退”的事件将于2009年6月正式结束，也就是新总统任期的6个月。但其持续性影响将一直延续到2012年大选季。
译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！
