美国英语听力80篇3 Lesson52

[00:07.94]The girl who became known as Phillis Wheatley was born about 1753 in Senegal, Africa.

[00:22.86]She was kidnapped and brought to the New England colonies 1 in North America on a ship that carried slaves.

[00:31.40]The ship's name was Phillis.

[00:34.48]The girl was between seven and eight years old.

[00:39.13]She was weak and sickly.

[00:41.61]So her price was not very high.

[00:44.90]She was sold in a Slave market in the city of Boston, Massachusetts in August, 1761.

[00:53.37]John Wheattey, an international Businessman,bought her to serve his wife, Susannah.

[01:01.41]Phillis came from a culture that was very different from that of The Wheatleys.

[01:07.87]She found the food, customs and beliefs to be new and strange.

[01:13.25]The other slaves in the house taught her many things about America.

[01:18.89]Phillis quickly learned 2 the rules of slavery.

[01:22.65]She learned that Slaves could not beat drums because slave owners

[01:27.95]feared that secret messages were being passed to slaves on other farms.

[01:33.44]She learned that in southern states it was a crime to teach a slave to read and (write).

[01:40.36]In northern states in the 1700s, black slaves were treated better than they were in the southern states.

[01:49.56]Restrictions against the education of slaves were not as severe as they were in the south.

[01:57.00]Many of the slaves in New England were even urged to learn to read, especially the Bible 3,

[02:05.00]the major book of the Christian 4 religion.

[02:08.18]Many people thought that slaves should read the Bible so they could become better believers of the Christian religion.

[02:16.88]In New England, blacks were free to meet with each other in groups,

[02:22.34]Many times male slaves were accepted as members of the Community for special projects.

[02:30.07]These included gatherings 5 to clean corn or to build a farmhouse 6.

[02:35.90]Female slaves cooked for the groups.

[02:39.35]From her earliest days as a slave, Phillis was a happy,busy person.

[02:45.72]She liked to keep busy.

[02:47.99]She especially liked to do things with her hands.

[02:51.70]She quickly learned how to clean around the Wheatley house and how to dry the dishes.

[02:58.91]But her mind seemed to move even faster than her hands.

[03:02.86]She wanted to do everything.

[03:05.55]Phillis's new family had unusual beliefs for the times.

[03:10.75]John Wheatley and his wife were educated people.

[03:14.69]Susannah Wheatley believed that all human beings, including African slaves, could learn if given the chance.

[03:23.26]She believed that all people, of any skin color, should love and respect each other.

[03:29.50]She treated Phillis more as a daughter than as a slave.

[03:34.00]Mrs. Wheatley said, "You're my black child. You're my Phillis."

[03:39.87]Susannah Wheatley soon recognized Phillis's intelligence and desire to learn.

[03:46.09]Mrs. Wheatley observed how Phillis loved books and the care she took with them.

[03:52.39]At times, Phillis would smell the pages of the Books and hold them close to her.

[03:59.44]One day, one of the slaves in the Wheatley home found Phillis writing on the wall of Mrs.Wheatley's room with a piece of coal.

[04:09.99]Phillis had been cleaning the dust from a book.

[04:14.41]She decided 7 to copy the letters from the cover of the book.

[04:18.80]The slave brought Mrs.Wheatley to inspect the marks on the wall.

[04:23.60]But Susannah Wheatley did not get angry.

[04:27.49]Instead,she smiled.

[04:30.52]Mrs.Wheatley gave Phillis a pencil and paper and a little table on which to write.

[04:37.19]She showed the writing on the wall to her daughter Mary.

[04:41.63]Mary was as surprised as her mother at how well Phillis had copied the letters.

[04:48.65]Mary told Phillis she would teach her to write--on paper, not on walls.

[04:55.39]Mary Wheatley began to teach Phillis to read and write English,She also taught Phillis the Christian religion.

[05:04.80]Phillis learned quickly.

[05:07.02]She learned the English alphabet in a few weeks.

[05:10.88]In a year and one-half after she arrived in America,Phillis could read English.

[05:17.36]And she could read and understand difficult parts of the Bible.

[05:22.09]Phillis loved to learn new words.

[05:26.03]She enjoyed the new feelings that went with the sounds.

[05:29.87]She especially liked writing and creating new ways of saying things.

[05:34.99]Mary taught Phillis about writings from other countries.

[05:39.80]America was a young nation.

[05:43.28]It had not yet produced writers and poets like older nations.

[05:48.37]So Phillis studied the writings of EuroPean Writers.

[05:52.60]She read the work of the Greek poet Homer,

[05:56.78]the English poets Keats and Pope 9 and the plays and poetry of Shakespeare.

[06:04.30]She read and re-read the Bible.

[06:08.17]Phillis was about twelve years old when she began to write poetry.

[06:13.94]One of her earliest poems was about her religious faith.

[06:18.91]It questioned how a person could not believe in God.

[06:23.24]"Thou who dost daily feel his hand, and rod 8.

[06:28.18]Darest thou deny the essence 10 of a God!