16 作家沃顿·伊迪丝的一生
DATE=3-18-01
TITLE=PEOPLE IN AMERICA #1813 - Edith Wharton
TYPE=Special English Feature
BYLINE=Richard Thorman
VOICE ONE:
I'm Doug Johnson.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Ray Freeman with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about writer, Edith Wharton.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
A (1)critic once (2)described American writer Edith Wharton as a "self-made man." She liked the comment and repeated it. Others said she was a product of New York City. But the New York she wrote about was different from the New York of those who came after her.
Edith Wharton was born in New York City in Eighteen-Sixty-Two. New York then was several different cities. One New York was made up of people who worked for a living. The other was much smaller. It was made up of families who were so rich they did not need to work.
Edith was born into the (3)wealthy New York. But there was a "right" wealthy New York and a "wrong" wealthy New York. Among the rich there were those who had been given money by parents or grandparents. Then there were those who (4)earned their own money, the newly rich.
Edith's family was from the "right" New Yorkers, people who had "old" money. It was a group that did not want its way of living changed. It also was a group without many ideas of its own. It was from this group that Edith Wharton created herself.
VOICE TWO:
Like many girls her age, Edith wrote stories. In one of her (5)childhood stories, a woman (6)apologizes for not having a completely clean house when another woman makes an unexpected visit. Edith's mother read the story. Her only (7)comment was that one's house was always clean and ready for visitors. Edith's house always was.
Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe. She was educated by special teachers, and not at schools.
If Edith's family feared anything, it was (8)sharp social, (9)cultural, and (10)economic change. Yet these were the things Edith would see in her lifetime.
The end of the Civil War in Eighteen-Sixty-Five marked the beginning of great changes in the United States. The country that had been mostly agricultural was becoming (11)industrial. Businessmen and workers increasingly were gaining political and economic power.
Edith Wharton saw these changes sooner than most people. And she rejected them. To her, the old America was a (12)victim of the new. She did not like the new values of money replacing the old (13)values of family.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
In Eighteen-Eighty-Five, she married Edward Wharton. He was her social equal. They lived together for twenty-eight years. But it was a marriage without much love.
In Nineteen-Thirteen, she sought to end the marriage. That she waited so long to do so, one critic said, was a sign of her ties to the idea of family and to (14)tradition.
Some critics think that Edith Wharton began to write because she found the people of her social group so uninteresting. Others say she began when her (15)husband became sick and she needed something to do.
The fact is that Wharton thought of herself as a writer from the time she was a child. Writing gave her a (16)sense of freedom from the restrictions of her social class.
VOICE TWO:
Writing was just one of a (17)series of things she did. And she did all of them well. She was interested in (18)designing and caring for gardens. She designed her own house. She had an international social life and left a large (19)collection of letters at her death. In her lifetime she published about fifty books on a number of subjects.
Many critics believe Edith Wharton should have written the story of her social group. To do this, however, she would have had to remove herself from the group to see it clearly. She could not do this, even intellectually. Her education and her traditions made it impossible.
The subject of Edith Wharton's writing became the story of the young and innocent in a dishonest world. She did not make a (20)connection between her work and her own life. What she had was the ability to speak plainly about (21)emotions that, until then, had been hidden.
She also was among the first American women writers to gain a sense of the world as an (22)evil place. "Life is the saddest thing," she wrote, "next to death."
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
To show that she could do more than just write stories, she wrote, with Ogden Codman, The Decoration of Houses. It was very successful. About the same time, her poems and stories also began to be (23)published in Scribner's (24)Magazine.
In Eighteen-Ninety-Nine her collection of stories, The Greater Inclination, appeared. It was an immediate success. When she was in London, she visited a (25)bookstore. The store owner, who did not know who she was, handed her the book. He said to her, "This is what everyone in London is talking about now. VOICE TWO:
Three years later her first novel, The Valley of Decision, was published. Three years after that she published her first great popular success, the novel, The House of Mirth.
The House of Mirth is the story of a young woman who lacks the money to continue her high social (26)position. As in so many stories by Edith Wharton, the main (27)character does not control what happens to her. She is a victim who is defeated by (28)forces she does not fight to (29)overcome.
This idea is central to much of Edith Wharton's best writing. The old families of New York are in conflict with the newly rich families. The major people in the stories are trapped in a hopeless struggle with social forces more powerful than they. And they struggle against people whose (30)beliefs and actions are not as (31)moral as theirs.
VOICE ONE:
This is the situation in one of Wharton's most (32)popular book, Ethan Frome, published in Nineteen-Eleven. Unlike her other novels, it is set on a farm in the northeastern state of (33)Massachusetts. It is the story of a man and woman whose lives are controlled, and finally (34)destroyed, by custom. They are the victims of society. They die honorably instead of fighting back.
If they were to reject (35)custom, however, they would not be the people they are. And they would not mean as much to each other.
In Nineteen-Thirteen, Wharton's marriage ended. It was the same year that she published another novel that was highly praised, The Custom of the Country. In it she discusses the effects of new wealth in the late Nineteenth Century on a beautiful young woman.
VOICE TWO:
Most critics agree that most of Edith Wharton's writing after Nineteen-Thirteen is not as good as before that time. It was as if she needed the difficulties of her marriage to write well. Much of her best work seems to have been written under the (36)pressure of great personal crisis. After her marriage ended her work was not as sharp as her earlier writing.
In Nineteen-Twenty, however, she produced, The Age of Innocence. Many critics think this is her best novel. In it she (37)deals with the lack of honesty that lies behind the (38)apparent (39)innocence of the New York social world. A man and woman see their lives ruined because they have duties they cannot (40)escape.
Edith Wharton received America's top writing (41)award, the Pulitzer Prize, for The Age of Innocence. A recent movie of The Age of Innocence created new interest in her work.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
In the later years of her life, Wharton gave more and more of her time to an important group of (42)diplomats, artists, and thinkers. Among her friends was the American writer Henry James. She liked James as a man and as a writer. She often used her car and driver to take him on short trips.
At one time, Henry James was hoping that his publisher would bring out a collection of his many novels and stories. Wharton knew of this wish. And she knew that the publisher thought he would lose money if he brought out such a collection. She wrote to the publisher. She agreed to secretly pay the publisher to print the collection of her friend's (43)writings.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Thirty, the American National Institute of Arts and Letters gave Wharton a gold medal. She was the first woman to be so honored. Four years later she wrote the story of her life, A Backward Glance. Edith Wharton died in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven at one of the two homes she owned in France. (THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Doug Johnson.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.
(1) critic[ ??????? ]n.批评家, 评论家, 吹毛求疵者
(2) describe[ ????????? ]vt.描写, 记述, 形容, 形容v.描述
(3) wealthy[ ?????? ]adj.富有的, 丰裕的, 充分的n.富人, 有钱人
(4) earn[???? ]vt.赚, 挣得, 获得v.赚得, 获得
(5) childhood[ ?????????? ]n.孩童时期
(6) apologize[???????????? ]vi.道歉, 辩白
(7) comment[ ??????? ]n.注释, 评论, 意见vi.注释, 评论
(8) sharp[ ???? ]n.高调, 内行, 利刃, 骗子adj.锐利的, 锋利的, 明显的, 强烈的, 刺耳的, 急
(9) cultural[????????????]adj.文化的
(10) economic[ ????????????]adj.经济(上)的, 产供销的, 经济学的
(11) industrial[???????????? ]adj.工业的, 产业的, 实业的, 从事工业的victim
(12) [???????? ]n.受害人, 牺牲者, 牺牲品
(13) value[ ???????????? ]n.价值, 估价, 评价, 价格, [数]值, 确切涵义vt.估价, 评价, 重视
(14) tradition[ ????????? ]n.传统, 惯例
(15) husband[ ???????? ]n.丈夫
(16) sense[ ???? ]n.官能, 感觉, 判断力, 见识, ...感, 意义, 理性vt.感到, 理解, 认识
(17) series[ ???????? ]n.连续, 系列, 丛书, 级数
(18) designing[ ????????? ]n.设计, 阴谋adj.有计划的
(19) collection[ ????????? ]n.收藏, 征收, 搜集品, 捐款
(20) connection[ ????????? ]n.连接, 关系, 接线, 线路, 亲戚
(21) emotion[??????????]n.情绪, 情感, 感情
(22) evil[?????? ]adj.邪恶的, 带来麻烦的, 不幸的, 有害的, 诽谤的n.邪恶, 不幸, 罪恶
(23) publish[ ??????? ]v.出版, 刊印vt.公布, 发表
(24) magazine[ ?????????? ]n.杂志, 期刊, 军火库, 弹药库, (枪、炮的)弹仓, 胶卷盒
(25) bookstore[???????????]n.书店
(26) position[????????? ]n.位置, 职位, 立场, 形势, 阵地vt.安置, 决定...的位置
(27) character[????????? ]n.(事物的)特性, 性质, 特征(的总和), (人的)品质, 字符, 性格,
(28) force[ ???? ]n.力量, 武力, 精力, 魄力, 势力, 暴力, [复]军队, 影响力vt.强制, 强加,
(29) overcome[ ????????? ]vt.战胜, 克服, 胜过, 征服vi.得胜
(30) belief[ ????????]n.信任, 信心, 信仰
(31) moral[ ?????? ]adj.道德(上)的, 精神的n.道德
(32) popular[????????? ]adj.通俗的, 流行的, 受欢迎的
(33) Massachusetts[????????????????]n.麻萨诸塞州
(34) destroy[ ???????? ]vt.破坏, 毁坏, 消灭v.消灭, 摧毁
(35) custom[ ??????? ]n.习惯, 风俗, <动词单用>海关, (封建制度下)定期服劳役,
(36) pressure[?????????]n.压, 压力, 电压, 压迫, 强制, 紧迫
(37) deal[ ???? ]n.交易, (政治上的)密约, 待遇, 份量, <口>买卖vi.处理, 应付, , 分给(out),
(38) apparent[ ???????? ]adj.显然的, 外观上的
(39) innocence[ ??????? ]n.清白
(40) escape[ ??????? ]n.逃, 逃亡, 溢出设备, 出口, 逃跑, [植]野生vi.逃脱, 避开,
(41) award[??????? ]n.奖, 奖品vt.授予, 判给
(42) diplomat[ ????????? ]n.外交官, 有外交手腕的人, 有权谋的人
(43) writing[???????? ]n.笔迹, 作品, 著述
17 令人激动的奥斯卡颁奖晚会
DATE=3/19/2001
TITLE=THIS IS AMERICA #1056 - (1)Academy Awards
BYLINE= Jerilyn Watson
VOICE ONE:
On March Twenty-Fifth, (2)actors, directors and other (3)filmmakers will gather in Los Angeles, California, for the yearly Academy Awards ceremonies. It is a night of (4)excitement for people who make movies and for people who watch them. I'm Sarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Shirley Griffith. The Academy Awards is our report today on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
((CUT ONE: MUSIC FROM "GLADIATOR" AS BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
Next Sunday will be the most important day of the year for hundreds of people in the film industry. The Academy Awards will be presented in Los Angeles. More than fifty people will receive awards for the best acting, directing and other work on films (5)released last year.
They will receive an award called an (6)Oscar. It is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. It is only about thirty-four (7)centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But to the person who receives an Oscar, the statue can be priceless. Winning an Oscar can mean becoming much more famous. It can mean getting offers to work in the best movies. And it can mean earning much more money.
VOICE TWO:
Films from the United States and several other countries are (8)competing for awards. International interest in the awards has increased. For example, forty-six countries entered movies to be considered for the best foreign-language film. That is the largest number ever. The five movies that were (9)nominated are from Mexico, Taiwan, the (10)Czech Republic, (11)Belgium and France.
VOICE ONE:
An American movie about (12)ancient Rome called "Gladiator" received the most nominations. It is competing for twelve Oscars, including best film. Its director, Ridley Scott, is nominated for best director. Russell Crowe is nominated for best actor. He plays a former Roman general who is (13)captured and forced to fight for his life against other slaves.
A Mandarin-language film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won ten nominations. That is the most nominations ever received by a foreign film. It is competing for best movie and best foreign-language movie. Taiwanese director Ang Lee directed this beautiful and unusual film. He was nominated for best director. "Crouching Tiger" tells a (14)magical story about female Chinese (15)warriors who can fly through the air. It has earned more money from ticket sales in American theaters than any other foreign film in history.
VOICE TWO:
"(16)Traffic" is an American film about the (17)illegal drug trade and how it affects young people in the United States. It received five Oscar nominations, including best picture. Benicio Del Toro was nominated for best supporting actor in "Traffic." He plays a policeman in Mexico who fights the illegal drug trade. He speaks most of his lines in (18)Spanish. Steven Soderbergh was nominated for best director of "Traffic."
Mister Soderbergh was also nominated for directing another film, "Erin Brockovich." This film is based on a true story about a woman in the state of (19)California who becomes an (20)environmental activist. "Erin Brockovich" is competing for the best picture Oscar. Its famous star, Julia Roberts, is competing for best (21)actress.
VOICE ONE:
The fifth movie nominated for best picture is "Chocolat." It is about a woman who owns a chocolate shop in a small village in France. She changes the lives of everyone in the village. French actress Juliette Binoche was nominated for best actress for "Chocolat."
Three other women were nominated for best actress. Joan Allen plays a vice (22)presidential candidate in "The Contender." Ellen Burstyn plays a woman who becomes dependent on drugs in "Requiem for a Dream." And Laura Linney plays a woman who has problems with her brother in "You Can Count on Me."
((CUT TWO: MUSIC BRIDGE FROM "CHOCOLAT"))
VOICE TWO:
A famous Spanish actor, Javier Bardem, was among the five men nominated for best actor. He plays the real-life Cuban poet and writer Reinaldo (23)Arenas in the movie "Before Night Falls." It tells the story of how Mister Arenas was jailed by the Cuban government for his writing and for being a (24)homosexual. "Before Night Falls" is presented in both English and Spanish.
Three others are competing for best actor. Tom Hanks plays a man who must survive alone on an island after a plane crash in "Cast Away." Ed Harris plays the famous modern American painter Jackson (25)Pollock in "Pollock." And Geoffrey Rush plays the eighteenth century writer, the Marquis de Sade, in the movie "Quills."
Academy Awards also are given to the best song and the best music from a movie. This year (26)composer John Williams received his thirty-ninth Oscar nomination. He was nominated for writing the music for the movie "The Patriot."
((CUT THREE: MUSIC BRIDGE FROM "THE (27)PATRIOT "))
VOICE ONE:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. About six-thousand film workers belong to the (28)organization. It was established in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven to support the movie industry.
The Academy began presenting awards in Nineteen-Twenty-Nine. At that time, films were just starting to have sound. The awards were not called Oscars until much later. In Nineteen-Fifty-One, the woman who worked in the Academy library said the (29)statue looked like a family member -- her Uncle Oscar. A reporter heard this story and wrote about it. Some people said the reporter and the (30)librarian named the statue.
But actress and former Academy president Bette Davis (31)disputed this. She (32)claimed she named the Oscars in (33)honor of her first husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson.
VOICE TWO:
The process of choosing award winners begins with Academy members. These people work in thirteen different professions. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards. They choose among filmmakers doing their kind of work. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. (34)Designers nominate designers. All Academy members (35)vote among those nominated to choose the final winners.
The awards are presented every spring in Los Angeles. Important people in the film industry are invited to the (36)ceremonies. The (37)presentation is called Oscar Night.
On this night, crowds of people line the streets. They watch the famous movie stars as they arrive for the ceremony at the Shrine (38)Auditorium. Camera lights flash. Actors and actresses smile for the photographers and television cameras. Some popular movie stars make statements to waiting reporters. Others hurry inside.
VOICE ONE:
Only a few hundred invited guests can attend the awards presentation. But millions of people in the United States and around the world watch the Academy Awards on television. As many as eighty-million people in the United States watch the show. As many as one-thousand-million people watch it in one-hundred foreign countries.
During the ceremony, famous actors and actresses announce the names of the winners. Then the winners walk to the stage to receive their Oscars. Their big, (39)dramatic moment has arrived. They cry. They laugh. They act surprised. They thank all the people who helped them win the award.
VOICE TWO:
The Academy Awards show often includes surprises. For example, in Nineteen-Seventy-Four, a man ran across the stage wearing no clothes. In Nineteen-Ninety-Two, actor Jack Palance (PAL-ance) did push-up exercises on the floor in reaction to being named best supporting actor. Two years ago, Italian director and actor Roberto Benigni (Beh-NEE-nee) jumped on a chair to show his surprise and happiness at winning the award for best actor.
VOICE ONE:
National crises and bad weather have (40)delayed the Academy Award ceremonies three times over the years. But the Academy Awards have never been canceled. Sunday will mark the seventy-third awards presentation. On that night, we will watch as some of the world's best filmmakers are honored by the film industry. These lucky people will go home with a golden Oscar.
((MUSIC FROM "CHOCOLAT" INSTEAD OF CLOSING THEME))
VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Dave Bodington. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another report about life in the United States on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
(1) academy[ ???????? ]n.(高等)专科院校, 研究院, 学会, 学术团体, 学院
(2) actor[?????? ]n.男演员, 行动者, 参与者
(3) filmmaker[??????????????]n.电影摄制者
(4) excitement[???????????]n.刺激, 兴奋, 激动, 搔动
(5) release[???????? ]n.释放, 让渡, 豁免, 发行的书, 释放证书vt.释放, 解放, 放弃, 让与,
(6) Oscar[?????? ]n.奥斯卡
(7) centimeter[???????????????]n.厘米
(8) compete[????????? ]vi.比赛, 竞争
(9) nominate[ ????????? ]vt.提名, 推荐, 任命, 命名
(10) Czech[????]n.捷克人[语]adj.捷克斯洛伐克的, 捷克斯洛伐克人[语]的
(11) Belgium[ ?????????]n.比利时(西欧国家,首都布鲁塞尔Brussels)
(12) ancient[????????? ]adj.远古的, 旧的
(13) capture[???????? ]n.捕获, 战利品vt.俘获, 捕获, 夺取
(14) magical[ ????????? ]adj.不可思议的
(15) warrior[ ?????? ]n.战士, 勇士, 武士, 战斗, 尚武, 鼓吹战争的人adj.战斗的, 尚武的
(16) traffic[ ??????? ]n.交通, 通行, 运输, 贸易, 交通量, 交易, 交往, 通信量vi.交易,
(17) illegal[????????? ]adj.违法的, 不合规定的
(18) Spanish[???????? ]adj.西班牙的, 西班牙人的, 西班牙语的n.西班牙人, 西班牙语
(19) California[ ??????????? ]n.加利福尼亚, 加州
(20) environmental[??????????????????]adj.周围的, 环境的n.环境论
(21) actress[ ??????? ]n.女演员
(22) presidential[?????????????? ]adj.总统的
(23) arena[ ??????? ]n.竞技场, 舞台
(24) homosexual[ ???????????????? ]adj.同性恋的n.同性恋
(25) pollock[??????? ]n.[动]鳕鱼类
(26) composer[???????????]n.作家, 作曲家, 设计者, 著作者
(27) patriot[ ???????????????? ]n.爱国者
(28) organization[ ??????????????? ]n.组织, 机构, 团体
(29) statue[ ???????? ]vt.以雕像装饰n.雕像
(30) librarian[ ???????????? ]n.图书馆员, 图书管理员
(31) dispute.[ ????????? ] v.争论, 辩论, 怀疑, 抗拒, 阻止, 争夺(土地,胜利等)n.争论, 辩论,
(32) claim[ ????? ]n.(根据权利提出)要求, 要求权, 主张, 要求而得到的东西vt
(33) honor[ ???? ]n.尊敬, 敬意, 荣誉, 光荣vt.尊敬, 给以荣誉
(34) designer[ ???????? ]n.阴谋家,设计家,制图师
(35) vote[????]n.投票, 选票,表决, 得票数vi.投票vt.投票,投票决定, 公认, <口>建议,
(36) ceremony[?????????? ]n.典礼, 仪式, 礼节, 报幕员
(37) presentation[ ?????????????? ]n.介绍, 陈述, 赠送, 表达
(38) auditorium[?????????????? ]n.听众席, 观众席, <美>会堂, 礼堂
(39) dramatic[ ????????? ]adj.戏剧性的, 生动的
(40) delay[????????]v.耽搁, 延迟, 延期, 迟滞n.耽搁, 延迟, 迟滞
18 物理学家、火箭专家戈达德?罗伯特
DATE=3-21-01
TITLE=EXPLORATIONS #1944 - Robert Goddard
BYLINE=Staff
VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we report on some of the early research in the development of rockets. We tell the story of American physicist and rocket scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
Robert Goddard once said that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the (1)reality of tomorrow. It was his scientific work that gave hope to many of our dreams about space...and then turned them into reality.
Robert Goddard's many studies and tests in the early Nineteen-Hundreds led to the first rocket. Then he developed rockets with more than one (2)engine. Each engine pushed the rocket higher and higher out of Earth's (3)atmosphere. His ideas are still used today. So, in a way, every (4)rocket that flies today is a Goddard rocket.
VOICE TWO:
Robert Goddard was far ahead of his time. Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first controlled airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in Nineteen-Oh-Three. Other scientists and (5)inventors after that experimented with planes. But Robert Goddard wanted to make a machine that flew in a different way from a plane. He called his first two designs, "rocket (6)apparatus."
Goddard developed and flew many rockets that got their power from solid fuels -(7)chemicals made hard. Then, in Nineteen-Twenty-Five, he made and tested the first rocket engine using a soft chemical fuel. In Nineteen-Twenty-Six, he successfully fired the world's first liquid-fuel rocket.
Many (8)historians consider that rocket flight as important as the first airplane flight by the Wright brothers. Goddard's work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE ONE:
Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in Worcester, in the state of Massachusetts, in Eighteen-Eighty-Two. His father knew a lot about machines. When Robert was a child, his family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. There his father became a part owner of a business that made knives for different machines.
Robert was the only child. His mother (9)suffered from the lung disease (10)tuberculosis. She was sick and weak, because at that time, there were no medicines to treat tuberculosis successfully.
Robert, too, was often sick. He could not keep up with his school work. His family moved back to Worcester when he was seventeen. He was almost too old to remain in high school. Yet he was behind other children his age. He was not a good student. He hated (11)mathematics. This subject, of course, was what would help make him famous later.
VOICE TWO:
One beautiful autumn day, Robert was sitting in a tree in the back of his house. He was reading a book by British (12)author H. G. Wells. The book was called War of the Worlds. Something strange happened to him. He later thought that perhaps Wells' book had something to do with it.
"As I looked toward the fields in the east," he said, "I (13)imagined how wonderful it would be to make something that could rise to the planet Mars. I imagined how this thing, in a small size, would look if sent up from the ground at my feet. I was a different boy when I came down from that tree. For, at last, my life seemed to have some (14)purpose."
VOICE ONE:
Robert Goddard never talked much about what happened to him up in the tree on that day, October Nineteenth. But he (15)celebrated October Nineteenth as a holiday for the rest of his life. On that day, he had formed the idea of making something that would go higher then anything had ever gone before.
He felt this was the whole purpose of his life. He was sure he could do it. "I know," he said, "the first thing I must do is to get an education, especially in mathematics. Yes, I must become an expert in mathematics, even if I hate it."
VOICE TWO:
Two years passed before Robert was healthy enough to go back to school. He entered South High School in Worcester. He worked and worked until he no longer hated mathematics.
Robert's father spent all his money to care for his sick wife. He did not have enough to pay for Robert's education after high school. Robert got (16)financial help from others so he could go to a (17)technical school in (18)Worcester.
There he had very good teachers. They helped him become an expert in mathematics and physics.
VOICE ONE:
Robert completed his studies at the Worcester (19)Polytechnic Institute and became a teacher of physics there. He also continued his studies at Clark University.
He began to develop the idea of multiple-stage rockets. These were (20)rockets with more than one engine. Each engine would push the rocket higher and higher. The power for the rockets would come from burning two gases, hydrogen and (21)oxygen.
After one year at Clark University, Robert went to (22)Princeton College in New Jersey to do more studies on rockets.
VOICE TWO:
"Often," he said, "I worked all through the night. At last I learned how to send a rocket higher than anything had ever gone before. But the work was too much for me. I was feeling sick again. I had to stop my work and go to a doctor.
"X-rays showed that, like my mother, I was very sick with tuberculosis. The doctor said I had just two weeks to live. He put me in bed for a long rest. But I meant to live. I told myself I could not die. I had work to do."
VOICE ONE:
At the end of two weeks, Robert Goddard was still alive. In time, he started to work again.
In October, Nineteen-Thirteen, Goddard completed plans for his first rocket. In May of the next year, he completed plans for another rocket. These two plans are the first ever made for a rocket that would carry people into space. In Nineteen-Fourteen, he received two patents from the United States government to (23)protect his rights to his inventions.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Robert Goddard received money from the Smithsonian Institution to help him continue his work. In Nineteen-Nineteen, the Smithsonian published several of his reports explaining his research. The publication was called "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes." It told about his search for methods of raising weather recording (24)instruments higher than (25)balloons could go. It told about how he developed the mathematical theories of rockets.
In the report, Goddard also noted the possibility of a rocket reaching the moon. There was a big (26)dispute in the press about the possibility of this. Many people thought he was foolish for suggesting such an impossible thing. VOICE ONE:
Goddard continued to need money to continue his research. The world famous (27)pilot Charles Lindbergh helped him get money from the Guggenheim Foundation.
Goddard quickly began to work on plans for bigger rockets. During the Nineteen-Thirties, he tested his rockets at a research center in Roswell, New Mexico. He tested the first rocket controlled by (28)electricity. The control equipment was three-hundred meters from the place of (29)launching. He also tested the first rocket controlled by a gyroscope. Gyroscopes help keep rockets (30)aimed in the right direction.
VOICE TWO:
Goddard did all his work in the United States, yet his work became known around the world. Scientists in (31)Germany used his ideas to help build the V-Two rocket that was used in World War Two.
During World War Two, Goddard helped the United States Navy develop some rocket motors and ways to launch (32)jet planes. He continued work he had begun at the end of World War One that led to the (33)bazooka, a weapon that fires small rockets.
VOICE ONE:
Robert Goddard died in Ninety-Forty-Five of cancer. He was sixty-three years old. He had been sick most of his life, but he died a happy man. He received many (34)honors for his work. He believed his life had been a full one. He felt lucky that the great dream that came to him, out of nowhere, when he was only seventeen years old had become real.
VOICE TWO:
Robert Goddard received a special honor many years after his death. In Nineteen-Fifty-Nine, the United States (35)established the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, near Washington, D-C. It was the government's first major (36)scientific laboratory used completely for space science.
The Goddard Space Flight Center honors the man whose work proved that machines could travel out of Earth's atmosphere, into space.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week at this time to the Special English program, EXPLORATIONS, on the Voice of America.
(1) reality[ ??????????? ]n.真实, 事实, 本体, 逼真
(2) engine[ ??????? ]n.发动机, 机车, 火车头
(3) atmosphere[?????????? ]n.大气, 空气, 气氛
(4) rocket[ ?????? ]n.火箭v.飞速上升
(5) inventor[???????????]n.发明家
(6) apparatus[ ????????????]n.器械, 设备, 仪器
(7) chemical[ ???????? ]adj.化学的n.化学制品, 化学药品n.化学药品
(8) historian[???????????? ]n.历史学家, 史家
(9) suffer[ ??????]vt.遭受, 经历, 忍受vi.受痛苦, 受损害
(10) tuberculosis[ ????????????????? ]n.肺结核
(11) mathematics[ ???????????? ]n.数学
(12) author[ ????? ]n.作家, 创造者
(13) imagine[ ???????? ]vt.想象, 设想
(14) purpose[ ????????]n.目的, 意图, 用途, 效果, 决心, 意志vt.打算, 企图, 决心
(15) celebrated[ ???????????? ]adj.著名的
(16) financial[ ???????????????? ]adj.财政的, 金融的
(17) technical[?????????? ]adj.技术的, 技术上的, 技巧方面的
(18) Worcester[ ?????? ]伍斯特(①姓氏 ②英国城市 ③美国城市)
(19) polytechnic[ ???????????k ]adj.工艺的n.工艺学校
(20) rocket[ ?????? ]n.火箭v.飞速上升
(21) oxygen[ ????????? ]n.[化]氧
(22) Princeton[?????????? ]n.普林斯顿
(23) protect[ ???????? ]vt.保护
(24) instrument[ ??????????? ]n.工具, 手段, 器械, 器具, 手段
(25) balloon[ ??????? ]n.气球
(26) dispute[?????????? ]v.争论, 辩论, 怀疑, 抗拒, 阻止, 争夺(土地,胜利等)n.争论, 辩论,
(27) pilot[ ??????? ]n.飞行员, 领航员, 引水员vt.驾驶(飞机等), 领航, 引水v.驾驶
(28) electricity[????????????]n.电流, 电, 电学
(29) launching[ ???????????????????? ]n.下水
(30) aim[ ??? ]n.目标, 目的, 瞄准v.对...瞄准, 打算
(31) Germany[ ????????? ]n.德国
(32) jet[ ???? ]n.喷射, 黑玉v.喷射adj.黑玉色的, 墨黑的喷气机
(33) bazooka[ ???????? ]n.(一种射击战车的)火箭筒
(34) honor[ ???? ]n.尊敬, 敬意, 荣誉, 光荣vt.尊敬, 给以荣誉
(35) establish[ ????????? ]vt.建立, 设立, 安置, 使定居, 使人民接受, 确定v.建立
(36) scientific[???????????? ]adj.科学的
