最新15篇文章贯通英语四级词汇MP3 Unit10-Part4

[00:00.00]The development of the country,

[00:02.83]as we know it today,

[00:04.47]was an evolutionary 1 process

[00:05.89]over more than eight decades.

[00:08.63]Manitoba became a province

[00:11.69]after some controversial events

[00:13.88]involving the federal government

[00:15.63]and the Metis,French speaking descendants

[00:18.91]of French fur traders

[00:20.66]who married American Indian girls.

[00:23.29]This ethnic 2 group settled

[00:26.02]near Fort Gary, the city of Winnipeg,

[00:28.65]Manitoba what is called today.

[00:31.39]John A. Macdonald, the new

[00:35.80]and first Prime Minister

[00:37.67]of the new nation,

[00:38.98]made a deal with the western

[00:40.84]most colony in Vancouver guaranteeing

[00:42.81]on the building of a railroad

[00:45.43]from the east to the west

[00:47.84]if that colony would

[00:49.48]join Canadian Confederation.

[00:51.78]The property of the Metis, to which

[00:56.37]the latter felt legally entitled,

[00:58.56]was in the path

[00:59.98]of the new railway.

[01:01.19]The federal government essentially 3

[01:04.47]took the land. The  Metis 

[01:07.43]were compelled to move further west,

[01:09.72]but not without a fight.

[01:11.04](The Metis and the federal government

[01:14.43] were on an inevitable 4 collision course.

[01:16.50]Twice, Metis revolts tested

[01:19.46]the might of the federal government

[01:21.97]and relationship between

[01:23.51]French and Englishspeaking Canada).

[01:26.03]The federal government was able

[01:29.63]to defeat the Metis in both clashes.

[01:32.04]Louis Riel, the leader of

[01:35.55]the Metis was hanged for

[01:37.30]treason in 1885 for his leading role

[01:40.79] in resisting the federal government.

[01:43.31]He became a martyr 5 to

[01:45.06]FrenchCanadians. His death

[01:48.23]only added fuel to

[01:49.55]the growing discontent between

[01:51.29]French and English Canada.

[01:53.37]Throughout this whole period,

[01:56.44]1869 to 1885, the federal

[02:00.81](or central) government ignored the appeals

[02:04.53]of the Metis. It appeared that,

[02:06.83]according to Macdonald and his followers 6,

[02:09.79]the creation of the new nation

[02:11.87]was more important than

[02:13.61]relieving the plight 7 of

[02:15.36]a relatively 8 small minority group.

[02:17.44]The Metis probably deserved

[02:21.06]much better of the federal goverment.

[02:23.02]Different versions of these events

[02:26.75]are still debated

[02:28.17]in Canadian classrooms today.

[02:30.24]Macdonald was also criticized

[02:33.20]for concealing 9 the fact that

[02:35.39]he took some money illegally

[02:37.25]to complete the railway.

[02:39.21]In 1873 as “The Pacific Scandal”

[02:42.93]became known, the construction

[02:46.21]of the railway suspended temporarily.

[02:49.07]The determined 10 Macdonald and

[02:51.79]his government, obsessed 11 by the possibility

[02:54.64]of the Americans moving in

[02:56.50]and taking over the west,

[02:58.91]boldly pushed railway

[03:00.66]construction to completion.

[03:02.08]Manitoba became a province

[03:05.91]in 1870, British Columbia in 1871,

[03:09.41]Prince Edward Island in 1873,

[03:12.47]Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905.

[03:15.43]The admission of Newfoundland

[03:21.88]into Confederation in 1949

[03:24.07]completed the Canadian Confederation

[03:27.03]of ten provinces from sea to sea,

[03:29.54]as they exist today. The railway,

[03:33.70]the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)

[03:36.10]was completed before the agreed deadline