VOA慢速英语2009年-People in America - Clara Barton,1821-1912
时间:2018-12-15 作者:英语课 分类:VOA慢速英语2009年(七)月
VOICE ONE:
I'm Ray Freeman.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Shirley Griffith 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 a woman who spent her life caring for others, Clara Barton.
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VOICE ONE:
Clara Barton was a small woman. Yet she made a big difference in many lives. Today her work continues to be important to thousands of people in trouble.
Clara Barton was an unusual woman for her time. She was born on Christmas day, December twenty-fifth, eighteen twenty-one. In those days, most women were expected to marry, have children and stay home to take care of them. Barton, however, became deeply involved in the world.
By the time of her death in nineteen twelve, she had begun a revolution that led to the right of women to do responsible work for society. As a nurse, she cared for thousands of Wounded soldiers. She began the American Red Cross. And, she successfully urged the American government to accept the Geneva Convention 1. That treaty 2 established standards for conditions for soldiers injured or captured 3 during wartime.
VOICE TWO:
Clara Barton
Clara Barton really began her life of caring for the sick when she was only eleven years old. She lived with her family on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. One of her brothers, David, was seriously injured while helping 4 build a barn 5. For two years, Clara Barton took care of David until he was healed 6.
Most eleven-year-old girls would have found the job impossible. But Clara felt a great need to help. And she was very good at it. She also seemed to feel most safe when she was at home with her mother and father, or riding a horse on her family's land.
As a young child, Clara had great difficulty studying and making friends at school. Her four brothers and sisters were much older than she. Several of them were teachers. For most of Clara's early years, she was taught at home. She finished school at age fifteen. Then she went to work in her brother David's clothing factory. The factory soon burned, leaving her without a job.
VOICE ONE:
Clara Barton decided 8 to teach school. In eighteen thirty-six, she passed the teacher's test and began teaching 9 near her home in North Oxford 10, Massachusetts. She became an extremely popular and respected teacher.
After sixteen years of teaching, she realized she did not know all she wanted to know. She wanted more education. Very few universities accepted women in those days. So Clara went to a special school for girls in Massachusetts. While in that school, she became interested in public education.
VOICE TWO:
After she graduated, a friend suggested she try to establish the first public school in the state of New Jersey 11. Officials there seemed to think that education was only for children whose parents had enough money to pay for private schools.
The officials did not want Barton to start a school for poor people. But she offered to teach without pay for three months. She told the officials that they could decide after that if she had been successful. They gave her an old building with poor equipment. And they gave her six very active little boys to teach.
At the end of five weeks, the school was too small for the number of children who wanted to attend. By the end of the year, the town built her a bigger, better school. They had to give her more space. She then had six hundred students in the school.
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VOICE ONE:
This photo of Clara Barton -- taken around 1865 by Mathew Brady -- is the most famous and widely circulated 12 image of the founder 13 of the American Red Cross.
Within a year, Clara Barton had lost her voice. She had to give up teaching. She moved to Washington, D.C. to begin a new job writing documents for the United States government.
Clara Barton started her life as a nurse during the early days of the Civil War in eighteen sixty-one. One day, she went to the train center in Washington to meet a group of soldiers from Massachusetts. Many of them had been her friends. She began taking care of their wounds.
Not long after, she left her office job. She became a full-time 14 nurse for the wounded on their way from the fields of battle to the hospital.
Soon, Barton recognized that many more lives could be saved if the men had medical help immediately after they were hurt. Army rules would not permit anyone except male soldiers to be on the battlefield. But Barton took her plans for helping the wounded to a high army official. He approved her plans.
VOICE TWO:
Barton and a few other women worked in the battle areas around Washington. She heard about the second fierce battle at Bull 15 Run in the nearby state of Virginia. She got into a railroad 16 car and traveled there.
Bull Run must have been a fearful 17 sight. Northern forces were losing a major battle there. Everywhere Barton looked lay wounded and dying 7 men.
Day and night she worked to help the suffering. When the last soldier had been placed on a train, Barton finally left. She was just in time to escape the southern army. She escaped by riding a horse, a skill she gained as a young girl.
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VOICE ONE:
For four years, Clara Barton was at the front lines of the bloodiest 18 battles in the war between the North and the South. She was there at Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Charleston. She was there at Spotsylvania, Petersburg, and Richmond. She cleaned the wounds of badly injured soldiers. She eased 19 the pain of the dying. And she fed those who survived.
When she returned to Washington, Clara Barton found she was a hero. She had proved that women could work in terrible conditions. She made people understand that women could provide good medical care. She also showed that nursing was an honorable
profession.
After the war ended, Barton's doctor sent her to Europe to rest. Instead of resting, she met with representatives of the International Red Cross. The organization had been established
in eighteen sixty-three to offer better treatment for people wounded or captured during wars. She was told that the United States was the only major nation that refused to join.
VOICE TWO:
Clara Barton monument at Antietam
Barton began planning a campaign to create an American Red Cross. Before she could go home, though, the war between France and Prussia began in eighteen seventy.
Again, Clara Barton went to the fields of battle to nurse the wounded. After a while her eyes became infected. The woman of action was ordered to remain quiet for months in a dark room, or become blind.
When she returned to the United States she again suffered a serious sickness. She used the time in a hospital to write letters in support of an American Red Cross organization.
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VOICE ONE:
In eighteen eighty-one, Barton's campaign proved successful. The United States Congress 20 signed the World's Treaty of the International Red Cross. This established the American Chapter of the Red Cross. Clara Barton had reached one of her major goals in life.
The next year she successfully urged Congress to accept the Geneva Convention. This treaty set the international rules for treatment of soldiers wounded or captured in war.
For twenty-five years, Clara Barton continued as the president of the American Red Cross. Under her guidance, the organization helped people in all kinds of trouble. She directed the aid efforts for victims of floods in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and Galveston, Texas. She led Red Cross workers in Florida during an outbreak of the disease 21 yellow fever. And she helped during periods when people were starving in Russia and Armenia.
VOICE TWO:
Clara Barton retired 22 when she was in her middle eighties. For her last home, she chose a huge old building near Washington, D.C. The building had been used for keeping Red Cross equipment and then as her office. It was made with material saved from aid centers built after the flood in Johnstown.
In that house on the Potomac River, Clara Barton lived her remaining days. She died after a life of service to others in April, nineteen twelve, at age ninety.
She often said: "You must never so much as think if you like it or not, if it is bearable or not. You must never think of anything except the need --- and how to meet it."
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Ray Freeman.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.
- How many delegates have checked in at the convention?大会已有多少代表报到?
- He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。
- Hungary has indicated its readiness to sign the treaty.匈牙利已表示愿意签订该条约。
- I believe this treaty will pave the way to peace in Europe. 我相信这个条约将为欧洲的和平铺平道路。
- Allied troops captured over 300 enemy soldiers. 盟军俘虏了300多名敌方士兵。
- Most of the rebels were captured and disarmed. 大部分叛乱分子被俘获并解除了武装。
- The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
- By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
- That big building is a barn for keeping the grain.那幢大房子是存放粮食的谷仓。
- The cows were driven into the barn.牛被赶进了牲口棚。
- The surgeon healed the soldier's bullet wound in the leg. 医生治好了那位士兵腿部的枪伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The doctor applied an unguent to the wound,which speedily healed it. 医生给伤口涂了些油膏,伤口很快就愈合了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He was put in charge of the group by the dying leader.他被临终的领导人任命为集团负责人。
- She was shown into a small room,where there was a dying man.她被领进了一间小屋子,那里有一个垂死的人。
- 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。
- We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
- He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。
- At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
- This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
- He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
- They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
- The paper is largely circulated in the rural regions. 这家报纸主要在农村地区发行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The document is being circulated among the committee members. 文件正在委员中传阅。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
- He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
- According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
- A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
- I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作,我不知道她是如何对付的。
- It's only a hair off a bull's back to them.这对他们来说,不过九牛一毛。
- Many dogs closed around the bull.很多狗渐渐地把那只牛围了起来。
- The railroad connects two cities,namely,New York and Chicago.这条铁路连接两个城市,即纽约与芝加哥。
- My brother is working on the railroad.我兄弟在铁路系统工作。
- What a fearful waste of time!简直太浪费时间了!
- They are fearful of another business depression.他们担心会再次发生商业萧条。
- The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
- It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网
- There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
- After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后,他打算告老还乡。