VOA标准英语2011--Pioneering Reporter Helped Change Face o
时间：2019-01-14 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2011年(七月)
Pioneering Reporter Helped Change Face of US TV News
Through the first half of the 20th century, as television became a fixture 1 in U.S. homes, the reporters Americans saw on TV were white, and almost all men. That began to change in the 1960s. African-American Belva Davis was at the forefront of that shift.
For thousands of TV viewers in the San Francisco Bay Area, Davis is a trusted, familiar face on the evening news. But, she recalls, while growing up, there were few black faces on TV.
"When I was a kid at home, we used to yell, 'Come look, come look. There's a colored man on television.' And the whole family would stop and we'd come to get a little glimpse of whoever that person of color was," says Davis. "Well, my goodness, if you did that now, you'd be exhausted 2 by the end of the day."
Early years
Davis is one of the reasons American television now reflects the racial and ethnic 3 diversity of the country. She grew up in a poor Louisiana family in the 1930s, a place and a time in which segregation 4 and discrimination were rampant 5.
Things weren't much different when her family moved west, when Davis was still in school.
"We arrived in California expecting milk and honey, was not at all so," she recalls. "Just being disliked by so many people who didn't like our accents, didn't like our names, just didn't like very much about us because we were so different."
Challenging times
Davis began her career writing for Jet, a black magazine, before moving on to radio. She remembers the early years as pretty tough.
"All my experience, the majority of it was working in totally segregated 6 media. I could only work at stations that were programmed especially for black people. I could only write for newspapers that were published for a black audience. And no one else would give me even a decent (job) interview for many years."
But Davis persevered 7. She was among the first to break the color barrier when she was hired by a San Francisco TV station in 1967. As the first woman of color in the newsroom, Davis was seen as an oddball and many of her colleagues thought she wouldn't last.
At that time, Davis says, society at large wasn't ready for a black female TV reporter. She recalls encountering hostility 8 and skepticism.
Breaking in
"I was working, doing the City Hall beat, and I wasn't allowed in the press room. I couldn't even put a telephone in the press room. And when I was asked to leave news conferences, because they'd say 'This is for reporters.' No one could believe that I was a reporter," she says. "Or a couple of times in hotels, being mistaken for the ironing person or the cleaning person. Those were all parts of growing in the business."
Determined 9 to prove the skeptics wrong, Davis worked long hours and eventually reported on some of the most explosive stories in the headlines; Vietnam war protests, the Al Qaeda bombings in Africa that preceded 9/11 and the assassinations 10 of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and gay activist 11 Harvey Milk.
In addition to the headline news, Davis sought out stories that would otherwise go untold 12. In the 70s and 80s, she was among the first in the nation to report on breast cancer, dyslexia and the mysterious new disease that was killing 13 gay men - AIDS.
"The very first live interview with someone diagnosed with AIDS was a guy named Bobbi Campbell. Our technicians didn't understand the disease and it moved so swift and was killing so fast, that there was a lot of hysteria around it," she says.
According to Davis, the technicians refusd to set up the microphone because they didn't want Campbell touching 14 any of the equipment.
"It was one of those real demonstrations 15 of women power. They decided 16 that the medical reporter would put the mic on him and the producer would go ahead and crank it up upstairs and we recorded that program and it made history of a sort," she says, "and were rewarded greatly by the fact that some lives were saved because of those early stories."
Today, Davis is still telling important stories. Now in her 70s, she remains 17 active in journalism 18 as host of a weekly current affairs show on public television.
Off the air, she continues to promote the hiring of minorities in the media, and serves as a role model for young journalists who will tell the important stories of the future.
- Lighting fixture must be installed at once.必须立即安装照明设备。
- The cordless kettle may now be a fixture in most kitchens.无绳电热水壶现在可能是多数厨房的固定设备。
- It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
- Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。
- This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
- The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。
- Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
- They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。
- Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
- You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。
- a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
- The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。
- She persevered with her violin lessons. 她孜孜不倦地学习小提琴。
- Hard as the conditions were, he persevered in his studies. 虽然条件艰苦，但他仍坚持学习。 来自辞典例句
- There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
- His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。
- I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
- He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
- Most anarchist assassinations were bungled because of haste or spontaneity, in his view. 在他看来，无政府主义者搞的许多刺杀都没成功就是因为匆忙和自发行动。 来自辞典例句
- Assassinations by Israelis of alleged terrorists habitually kill nearby women and children. 在以色列，自称恐怖分子的炸弹自杀者杀害靠近自己的以色列妇女和儿童。 来自互联网
- He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
- He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。
- She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
- They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。
- Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
- Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。
- Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
- The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
- The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
- He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
- He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。