VOA慢速英语2009年-PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Nina Simone, 1933-2003

VOICE ONE:

I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Today we tell about singer Nina Simone and play some of her music. She was also active in the civil rights movement of the nineteen sixties.

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VOICE ONE:
　
Nina Simone Silk and Soul Album

Nina Simone wrote and performed the song you just heard. It is called “Young, Gifted and Black. ”In the nineteen sixties, a major black civil rights group declared it the national song of black people in America.

Nina Simone was very young when her musical ability first appeared. She could play songs on the piano when she was three years old. She learned by listening to music and then searching for the correct piano keys.

In a book about her life, Nina Simone wrote that everything that happened to her as a child involved music. She said her first memory was of her mother singing. She said her mother always sang Christian¹ songs around the house. That influence shows up years later in the recording² of “If You Pray Right” on Miss Simone’s album “Baltimore.”

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VOICE TWO:

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in nineteen thirty-three in the southern town of Tryon, North Carolina. Her parents owned several businesses there. Her mother was also a Methodist minister. The family of ten lived in a big house and made good earnings³. However, difficult economic times in the United States hurt the family’s businesses. The family had to move to smaller homes as their finances⁴ continued to shrink.

VOICE ONE:

In time, Eunice’s mother went to work cleaning house for a white woman in the town. The woman knew about Nina’s piano playing. She suggested that Missus Waymon send her daughter to a piano teacher for lessons. When Missus Waymon said the family did not have the money, her employer said she would pay for the girl’s first year of lessons.

Nina Simone wrote that she grew to love her first piano teacher, a white woman from England. In fact, the teacher helped set up financial assistance for Nina’s lessons. Nina Simone also wrote about how much she liked her mother’s employer. She wrote that, as a child, she expected all white people to be as kind as they were.

VOICE TWO:

Eunice Waymon had her first public performance when she was eleven. Many people in the town had given money to help pay for lessons for the young pianist. Miss Simone wrote that it was expected she would perform to show them what their money had produced.

The performance was at the town hall. Eunice was at the piano. She looked at her parents just before she was to play. She saw them being forced from their seats in the front. A white family wanted to sit in their place. Her parents did not resist.

The young girl stood up and spoke⁵. She said no one would hear her play if her parents were not returned to their seats.They were and the concert began.

VOICE ONE:

Nina Simone wrote that her whole world changed in that moment. She said nothing was easy anymore. She wrote that racism⁶ became real for her like the turning on of a light. Nina Simone continued to stand up and speak out. One of her most famous songs expressed her anger about the treatment of black people in America.

“Mississippi Goddam” was released in nineteen sixty-three. Miss Simone wrote the song in reaction to extreme violence against black Americans. The incidents included the murder of a civil rights activist⁷ in Mississippi and the killings⁸ of four young girls in Alabama.

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VOICE TWO:

Eunice Waymon graduated from high school at the top of her class in nineteen fifty. She moved to New York City to attend the famous Juilliard School of Music. She had been awarded money to pay for one year at the school.

After that first year, Eunice had to support herself financially. For a while she worked as a piano player for people studying singing.Then she learned of summer jobs in Atlantic City, New Jersey⁹, that paid more money.

She went to Atlantic City and got a job playing piano at a drinking place. On her second night, she was told she had to sing also. Eunice had never sung in public before. Nina Simone later told a reporter that she decided¹⁰ just to try to sound like the famous singer Billie Holiday. She got the job.

Nina Simone recorded a number of songs made famous by Billie Holiday. Some of Miss Simone’s versions also became popular, like this song, “Don’t Explain.”

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VOICE ONE:

Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone because of the job at the drinking place. She said she changed her name because she did not want her parents to know what she was doing.

But she could not hide her career for very long. In nineteen fifty-eight, Nina Simone recorded her first album.It was called “Little Girl Blue.” One song became a top radio hit in America. It is “I Loves You, Porgy” from George Gershwin’s opera, “Porgy and Bess.”

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VOICE TWO:

Nina Simone became very active in the civil rights movement in the nineteen sixties. She came to be known as a protest singer. She was also called the “High Priestess of Soul.” But she did not like either description. Nina Simone often said she hated to be linked with any one kind of music or message. She sang it all – blues¹¹, jazz, Christian spirituals, rock and roll and pop.

Miss Simone was married two times. She had a daughter, Lisa, who is also a singer. Nina Simone left the United States in nineteen seventy-three. She said she was angry about the treatment of black people in America. She lived in the Caribbean and Africa before settling in France. She died there at the age of seventy in two thousand three.

One of Nina Simone’s most popular songs was “I Put a Spell On You.” She took the title for the book she wrote about her life, published in nineteen ninety-two.

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VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written and produced by Caty Weaver¹². I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

1 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

4 finances   

n.(pl.)财源，资产

参考例句：

• I need a professional to sort out my finances. 我需要专业人士为我管理财务。
• The company's finances are looking a bIt'shaky. 这个公司的财政情况看来有点不稳定。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

7 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• 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。

8 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

9 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• 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。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• 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。

11 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

12 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。