PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Oppenheimer and Fermi

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Oppenheimer and Fermi
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Sunday, November 14, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today we report about two scientists, J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi, who helped lead the world into the nuclear age.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

It is July Sixteenth, Nineteen-Forty-Five. All is quiet in an American desert at Alamogordo, New Mexico. Suddenly there is a terrible explosion. A huge cloud rises from the Earth. The sky turns purple and yellow.

The first atomic bomb has been exploded. It is a test of the most deadly weapon ever known. American officials are considering using this weapon to try to end World War Two.

 
J. Robert Oppenheimer
J. Robert Oppenheimer is the head of the Los Alamos laboratory. It is the creative center of the secret Manhattan Project, which made the explosion possible. As the cloud rises, Mister Oppenheimer remembers words from the Hindu holy book, the Baghavad Gita. He says: "For I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."

VOICE TWO:

Less than one month after the test at Alamogordo, the United States dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. President Harry¹ Truman announced to the world about the first bomb:

ACT ONE: TRUMAN READING ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DROPPING OF THE BOMB AT HIROSHIMA. (15 secs)

The Japanese soon surrendered. World War Two ended.

VOICE ONE:

Enrico Fermi had been the first to use a neutron² to produce the radioactive change of one element to another. He was a refugee from Fascist³ Italy. He and other refugee scientists were worried that Germany was working to develop an atomic bomb. They urged the United States government to pay for a secret scientific effort, called the Manhattan Project, to create the bomb. Mister Fermi helped Mister Oppenheimer prepare the Alamogordo bomb test.

Yet later both Mister Oppenheimer and Mister Fermi spoke⁴ against further development of nuclear weapons. Both men opposed the hydrogen bomb.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April Twenty-Second, Nineteen-Oh-Four. Even as a boy, he showed he had unusual intelligence. As a young man he attended Harvard University, in the eastern United States, and Cambridge University in England.He earned his doctorate⁵ in physics at Gottingen University, Germany, in Nineteen-Twenty-Seven. There he worked with the famous scientist, Max Born. By Nineteen-Thirty, Mister Oppenheimer was teaching at two top universities on the American West Coast. His fame as a teacher spread. Soon he was teaching the best students of physics in the United States.

VOICE ONE:

In Nineteen-Forty-Two, Mister Oppenheimer joined the American government's project to develop the atomic bomb. He was appointed head of the Los Alamos Laboratory. Many of his former students worked for him on the project.

One year after the bombs were dropped on Japan, he received the Presidential Medal of Merit for his work . In Nineteen-Forty-Seven, he began to direct the Institute of Advanced Studies at Princeton University on the East Coast.

VOICE TWO:

At the same time, Mister Oppenheimer became chairman of the advisory⁶ committee to the United States Atomic Energy Commission. He used the position to try to make the public recognize the dangers of nuclear power as well as its possibilities for good.

He regretted that work was being done to develop the hydrogen bomb. He felt it was bad for both scientific and humanitarian⁷ reasons. However, extreme tension existed between the United States and the Soviet⁸ Union at the time. So in Nineteen-Forty-Nine President Truman decided⁹ that work on nuclear weapons should continue.

VOICE ONE:

J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and work were affected¹⁰ deeply by Americans intense fear of Communism in the Nineteen-Fifties.

Mister Oppenheimer made an easy target for suspicious critics. His wife had once been a Communist. Some of his friends were former Communists. Years earlier he had suggested sharing nuclear secrets with the Soviets¹¹. He opposed developing the hydrogen bomb.

In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, the Atomic Energy Commission and a special security committee moved against Mister Oppenheimer. They did not question his loyalty¹² to the United States. However, they said his personal life made him a threat to national security.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Oppenheimer had directed one of America's most important secret scientific projects. Now this famous physicist¹³ was barred from secret work for the government.

He published several books during this difficult period of his life. One of the best known was "The Open Mind." The books contained his thoughts about science. He continued teaching at Princeton University. Again he taught many of the most important scientists of our century.

VOICE ONE:

In time Mister Oppenheimer's work in science and teaching made people forget the accusations¹⁴ against him. The government decided to give him the highest award of the Atomic Energy Commission for his work on atomic energy. President Lyndon Johnson presented the honor in late Nineteen-Sixty-Three. It was called the Enrico Fermi Award.

J. Robert Oppenheimer died of throat cancer on February Eighteenth, Nineteen-Sixty-Seven. He was sixty-two years old.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

 
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi had worked with Robert Oppenheimer and other top scientists to develop the atom bomb. He won an award for his work in atomic energy from the Atomic Energy Commission in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. It was the first time the award was presented. Later, the honor was named for him. It recognized Mister Fermi as one of the greatest physicists¹⁵ of the Twentieth Century.

VOICE ONE:

Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy, on September Twenty-Ninth, Nineteen-Oh-One. After his education in Italy, he studied with Max Born in Germany, just as Robert Oppenheimer had.

Enrico Fermi returned to Italy in Nineteen-Twenty-Four. He became that nation's first professor of theory of physics. At the time there was almost no physics education offered in Italy

He married Laura Capon, who also was a scientist, in Nineteen-Twenty-Eight. Laura was Jewish. Later the Fermis decided to leave Italy, because the Fascist government had begun oppressing Jews.

VOICE TWO:

Enrico Fermi went to Stockholm, Sweden, to accept a Nobel Prize in Nineteen-Thirty-Eight. He won for producing new radioactive elements beyond uranium. Without knowing it, he had split the atom. However, that fact was not recognized until later.

He and his family sailed directly from Stockholm to the United States. If he stayed in Europe, he might have been forced to work for Nazi¹⁶ Germany.

VOICE ONE:

Mister Fermi taught at Columbia University in New York City. He also was part of the American research team for the top secret Manhattan Project

Mister Fermi led the team that created the world's first controlled, continued nuclear-fission reaction. It happened on December Second, Nineteen-Forty-Two, at the University of Chicago.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Fermi directed the building of the first atomic reactor¹⁷ that made the reaction possible. He had invented the method with another scientist, Leo Szilard. The reactor was put together in a squash court under the seats of the university sports center. It contained natural uranium placed in graphite and controlled by pieces of cadmium and boron rods.

By, Nineteen-Forty-Four, Enrico Fermi had become a citizen of the United States. He was asked to help Robert Oppenheimer with the atomic bomb test at Alamogordo.

Mister Fermi returned to the University of Chicago after the war. There he headed the Institute for Nuclear Studies, now known as the Enrico Fermi Institute.

VOICE ONE:

Like Mister Oppenheimer, Mister Fermi recognized the dangers of atomic energy. They both worried about the possible use of a hydrogen bomb. With another scientist Mister Fermi wrote a Nineteen-Forty-Seven report to the Atomic Energy Commission. The report opposed creation of the bomb for humane¹⁸ reasons.

Enrico Fermi died of cancer in Chicago in Nineteen-Fifty-Four. He was fifty-three years old.

VOICE TWO:

J. Robert Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi were two of the greatest scientists of the century. They were both concerned about the results of their discoveries that led the world into the Nuclear Age.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced by Paul Thompson. I'm Sarah Long.

VOICE TWO:

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

1 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

2 neutron   

n.中子

参考例句：

• Neutron is neutral and slightly heavier than the proton.中子是中性的，比质子略重。
• Based on the neutron energy,the value of weighting factor was given.根据中子能量给出了相应的辐射权重因子的数值。

3 fascist   

adj.法西斯主义的；法西斯党的；n.法西斯主义者，法西斯分子

参考例句：

• The strikers were roughed up by the fascist cops.罢工工人遭到法西斯警察的殴打。
• They succeeded in overthrowing the fascist dictatorship.他们成功推翻了法西斯独裁统治。

4 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。

5 doctorate   

n.(大学授予的)博士学位

参考例句：

• He hasn't enough credits to get his doctorate.他的学分不够取得博士学位。
• Where did she do her doctorate?她在哪里攻读博士？

6 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

8 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。

9 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。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

12 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

13 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

14 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

15 physicists   

物理学家( physicist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• For many particle physicists, however, it was a year of frustration. 对于许多粒子物理学家来说，这是受挫折的一年。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技
• Physicists seek rules or patterns to provide a framework. 物理学家寻求用法则或图式来构成一个框架。

16 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

17 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

18 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。