VOA慢速英语2009-People in America - Margaret Bourke-White: A Fea

VOICE ONE:

I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we tell about photographer Margaret Bourke-White, one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century.

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VOICE ONE:

A young woman is sitting on her knees on top of a large metal statue. She is not in a park. She is outside an office building high above New York City. The young woman reached the statue by climbing through a window on the sixty-first floor. She wanted to get a better picture of the city below.
　
A picture of Margaret Bourke-White taken by the photographer Ansel Adams

The woman is Margaret Bourke-White. She was one of the leading news reporters of the twentieth century. But she did not write the news. She told her stories with a camera. She was a fearless woman of great energy and skill. Her work took her from America's Midwest to the Soviet¹ Union. From Europe during World War Two to India, South Africa and Korea. Through her work, she helped create the modern art of photojournalism.

In some ways, Bourke-White was a woman ahead of her time. She often did things long before they became accepted in society. She was divorced². She worked in a world of influential³ men, and earned their praise and support. She wore trousers and colored her hair. Yet, in more important ways, she was a woman of and for her times. She became involved in the world around her and recorded it in pictures for the future.

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VOICE TWO:

Margaret Bourke-White was born in New York City in nineteen-oh-four. When Margaret was very young, the family moved to New Jersey⁴. Her mother, Minnie Bourke, worked on publications⁵ for the blind. Her father, Joseph White, was an engineer and designer in the printing industry. He also liked to take pictures. Their home was filled with his photographs. Soon young Margaret was helping⁶ him take and develop his photographs.

When she was eight years old, her father took her inside a factory to watch the manufacture⁷ of printing presses. In the foundry, she saw hot liquid iron being poured to make the machines. She remembered this for years to come.

Margaret attended several universities before completing her studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in nineteen twenty-seven. She studied engineering⁸, biology and photography. She married while she was still a student. But the marriage only lasted one year.

VOICE ONE:

Margaret took the name Bourke-White, the last names of her mother and father. In nineteen twenty-eight, she began working in the midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio. It was then one of the centers of American industry. She became an industrial photographer at the Otis Steel Company. In the hot, noisy factories where steel was made, she saw beauty and a subject for her pictures.

She said: "Industry is alive. The beauty of industry lies in its truth and simpleness. Every line has a purpose, and so is beautiful. Whatever art will come out of this industrial age will come from the subjects of industry themselves…which are close to the heart of the people."

Throughout America and Europe, engineers and building designers found beauty in technology. Their machines and buildings had artistic⁹ forms. In New York, the Museum of Modern Art opened in nineteen twenty-nine. One of its goals was to study the use of art in industry. Bourke-White's photographic experiments began with the use of industry in art.

VOICE TWO:

Bourke-White's first pictures inside the steel factory in Cleveland were a failure. The difference between the bright burning metal and the black factory walls was too extreme for her camera. She could not solve the problem until she got new equipment and discovered new techniques of photography. Then she was able to capture¹⁰ the sharp difference between light and dark. The movement and power of machines. The importance of industry.

Sometimes her pictures made you feel you were looking down from a great height, or up from far below. Sometimes they led you directly into the heart of the activity.

VOICE ONE:

In New York, a wealthy and influential publisher named Henry Luce saw Bourke-White's pictures. Luce published a magazine called Time. He wanted to start a new magazine. It would be called Fortune, and would report about developments in industry. Luce sent a telegram to Bourke-White, asking her to come to New York immediately. She accepted a job as photographer for Fortune magazine. She worked there from nineteen twenty-nine to nineteen thirty-three.

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VOICE TWO:
　
"Fort¹¹ Peck¹² Dam, Montana" taken by Margaret Bourke-White in 1936

Margaret Bourke-White told stories in pictures, one image at a time. She used each small image to tell part of the bigger story. The technique became known as the photographic essay. Other magazines and photographers used the technique. But Bourke-White – more than most photographers – had unusual chances to develop it.

VOICE ONE:

In the early nineteen thirties, she traveled to the Soviet Union three times. Later she wrote:

"Nothing invites me so much as a closed door. I cannot let my camera rest until I have opened that door. And I wanted to be first. I believed in machines as objects of beauty. So I felt the story of a nation trying to industrialize¹³ – almost overnight¹⁴ – was perfect for me."

VOICE TWO:

On her first trip to the Soviet Union, Bourke-White traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway. She carried many cameras and examples of her work. When she arrived in Moscow, a Soviet official gave her a special travel permit, because he liked her industrial photographs. The permit ordered all Soviet citizens to help her while she was in the country.

Bourke-White spoke¹⁵ to groups of Soviet writers and photographers. They asked her about camera techniques, and also about her private life.

After one gathering¹⁶, several men surrounded her and talked for a long time. They spoke Russian. Not knowing the language, Bourke-White smiled in agreement at each man as he spoke. Only later did she learn that she had agreed to marry each one of them. Her assistant explained the mistake and said to the men: "Miss Bourke-White loves nothing but her camera."

VOICE ONE:

By the end of the trip, Margaret Bourke-White had traveled eight thousand kilometers throughout the Soviet Union. She took hundreds of pictures, and published some of them in her first book, "Eyes on Russia." She returned the next year to prepare for a series of stories for the New York Times newspaper. And she went back a third time to make an educational movie for the Kodak film company.

Bourke-White visited Soviet cities, farms and factories. She took pictures of workers using machines. She took pictures of peasant women, village children, and even the mother of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. She took pictures of the country's largest bridge, and the world's largest dam. She used her skill in mixing darkness and light to create works¹⁷ of art. She returned home with more than three thousand photographs – the first western documentary¹⁸ on the Soviet Union.

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VOICE TWO:

Margaret Bourke-White had seen a great deal for someone not yet thirty years old. But in nineteen thirty-four, she saw something that would change her idea of the world. Fortune magazine sent her on a trip through the central part of the United States. She was told to photograph farmers – from America's northern border with Canada to its southern border with Mexico.

Some of the farmers were victims of a terrible shortage¹⁹ of rain, and of their own poor farming methods. The good soil had turned to dust. And the wind blew the dust over everything. It got into machines and stopped them. It chased²⁰ the farmers from their land, although they had nowhere else to go.

VOICE ONE:

Bourke-White had never given much thought to human suffering. After her trip, she had a difficult time forgetting. She decided²¹ to use her skills to show all parts of life. She would continue taking industrial pictures of happy, healthy people enjoying their shiny new cars. But she would tell a different story in her photographic essays.

Under one picture she wrote: "While machines are making great progress in automobile²² factories, the workers might be under-paid. Pictures can be beautiful. But they must tell facts, too." We will continue the story of photographer Margaret Bourke-White next week.

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VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for People in America in VOA Special English.

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 divorced   

adj.离婚的；分开的；不相干的；脱离的v.与…离婚(divorce的过去式和过去分词)；分离；与某人离婚，判某人离婚

参考例句：

• Apparently they are getting divorced soon. 看样子，他们很快就要离婚。
• Many divorced men remarry and have second families. 许多离婚的男子再婚组成了新的家庭。

3 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

4 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。

5 publications   

n.发表( publication的名词复数 )；公布；出版；出版物

参考例句：

• The related publications are far too numerous to list individually. 相关出版物太多，没法一一列举。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request. 我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• 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。

7 manufacture   

n.产品，制造，制造业；vt.制造，加工；vi.参与制造

参考例句：

• The equipment is of our own manufacture.这设备是我们自己制造的。
• Plastic is an important manufacture.塑料是种重要产品。

8 engineering   

n.工程，工程学，管理，操纵

参考例句：

• The science of engineering began as soon as man learned to use tools. 人类一学会使用工具,工程科学就开始了。
• It was the first great engineering works in the world. 这是世界上第一家大型的工程工厂。

9 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

10 capture   

vt.捕获，俘获；占领，夺得；n.抓住，捕获

参考例句：

• The company is out to capture the European market.这家公司希望占据欧洲市场。
• With the capture of the escaped tiger,everyone felt relieved.逃出来的老虎被捕获后，大家都松了一口气。

11 fort   

n.要塞，堡垒，碉堡

参考例句：

• The fort can not be defended against an air attack.这座要塞遭到空袭时无法防御。
• No one can get into the fort without a pass.没有通行证，任何人不得进入要塞。

12 peck   

v.啄，啄食；n.啄痕，啄食，（口）轻吻；配克，（口）大量

参考例句：

• The cock gave me a peck.那只公鸡啄了我一下。
• She gave him a light peck of farewell.她给了他一个匆匆的吻道别。

13 industrialize   

vt.使工业化；vi.工业化

参考例句：

• They wanted to industrialize their nation.他们想使国家工业化。
• Africa needs to industrialize,to create both exports and jobs.非洲需要工业化，增加出口和就业岗位。

14 overnight   

ad.前一天晚上，一夜间 a.前一天晚上的

参考例句：

• She stayed overnight in the hotel. 她在旅馆过了一夜。
• Our success is not won overnight. 我们的成功不是一夜之间得来的。

15 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。

16 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

17 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

18 documentary   

adj.文献的；n.纪录片

参考例句：

• This case lacked documentary proof.本案缺少书面证据。
• I watched a documentary on the Civil War.我看了一部关于内战的纪录片。

19 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

20 chased   

vt.追捕（chase的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The boy chased his sister in and out among the bushes. 那个男孩在灌木丛里跟着他姐姐追过来追过去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy chased the decoys down to the place of ambush. 敌人将诱骗者一直追到伏兵所在地。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 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。

22 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。