VOA常速英语2018--前美国第一夫人芭芭拉逝世

Barbara Pierce Bush was the US First Lady in the early 1990s, when her husband was the country’s 41st president. She also later become the mother of a president when one of her six children George W. Bush was elected in 2000.

I had trouble when I was married to the president. And now to see that same fella that I used to drive around in little league car pools and I used to yell at to please pick up his room just to see him as president. It’s truly amazing.

She’s known for her relentless loyalty. I hated it when anyone criticized my brilliant husband, and I furious when they criticized my son.

Often described as humble, her biggest legacy is how she’s advanced literacy, says professor of historian at Houston University Nancy Beck Young. Arguing the importance of reading and writing, and that everyone should be given those skills to read and write. She argued on numerous occasions in the White House that the ability to read and write would determine whether or not an individual suffered from other social ills.

Barbara Bush foundation for Family Literacy, she started nearly three decades ago, says it raised more than 110 million dollars to create or expand literacy programs throughout the US. She also published books. One while she was in the White House, Millie’s book was told from the perspective of her cocker spaniel Millie about life in the White House. And she donated the proceeds from that book around a million dollars to work on behalf of the Literacy.

The matriarch of the Bush family was born on June 8th 1925 and is currently the nation’s oldest living First Lady. She’s been married for 73 years to the man she got engaged to right before he left for the war. I would stand there and look out at the blackness of the sky. And I would think about friends I lost, a country I loved and about a girl named Barbara. She faced tragedy when one of her two daughters died of Leukemia at age 3.

One of her granddaughters said on Monday, the world is a better place because Barbara Bush is in it.

20世纪90初，芭芭拉 布什(Barbara Pierce Bush)是美国第一夫人，她的丈夫是美国的第41任总统。随后，她又成了美国总统的母亲，因为她六子中的一位，也即乔治 布什(George W. Bush)于2000年当选美国总统。

我嫁给布什的时候，挺困扰的。因为现在我依然看着的这个家伙，以前还经常跟我一起在小规模汽车联盟里开车兜风，经常要在我吼叫之后才能打扫房间，而现在他却成了美国总统。这挺让人不习惯的。

她因忠诚于家庭而闻名于世。我讨厌有人批评我杰出的丈夫，要是有人批评我的儿子，我更会怒不可遏。

经常以谦逊而为人称道的她最大的财富就是学富五车，休斯顿大学历史学教授南希 贝克 杨(Nancy Beck Young)如是说道。她认为，读书写字很重要，而且每个人都应该具备读写的技能。她曾在白宫的无数个场合里表示，读写能力会决定个人是否会因社会弊端而受到不公的待遇。

大概30年前，她创立了家庭扫盲基金会。她表示，该基金会筹集了1.1亿多美元，在美国全境范围内设立以及扩展扫盲项目。芭芭拉还出过书。其中有一本是她在白宫期间创作的，名作《米莉的书》。这本书是她从可卡犬米莉的视角讲述的白宫生活。她将这本书近100万美元的收益以扫盲的名义捐赠了出去。

出生于1925年6月8日的芭芭拉现在是美国最长寿的第一夫人。她与丈夫的婚龄长达73年之久，而她嫁给的那个男人在结婚后不久就奔赴战场。我经常站在那里，看着外面的漆黑一片。那一刻，我会想到我故去的朋友们，我热爱的国家以及一个叫芭芭拉的女孩。她曾经历悲剧：她两个女儿中的一个在年仅3岁的时候就因白血病离世了。

周一，她的一位孙女于表示，世界因芭芭拉 布什的存在而变得更加美好。