2007年VOA标准英语-Marshall Plan 60th Anniversary Approaches

By George Lewinski
Washington
01 June 2007
 

On June 5th, 1947, U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall told the graduating class at Harvard University that Europe and the world were in a perilous¹ state.  World War II had devastated² the continent and he said the U.S. must do everything it could to return Europe to economic health. Marshall's Harvard speech was the foundation of the so-called Marhsall Plan, a four year, $13 billion foreign aid program. George Lewinski reports.

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Western Europe needed help after the end of World War II

It was 1947, two years after the guns fell silent. Europe's great cities were in ruins. There was hunger. The worst winter in memory brought the worst harvest of the century. Liberated³ from the Nazis⁴, western Europe was in danger of sliding into chaos.

Dr. Larry Bland⁶, a historian at the George C. Marshall Foundation, spoke⁷ about the Marshall Plan. "The prime motivation for launching the Marshall Plan was fear of chaos in Western Europe. You saw this if you went to the movies every weekend.  On the beginning of the feature they would show problems in Europe on the newsreels.  Starving women and children affect American hearts. So that there's the aspect of women and children in Western Europe. But also the strength of the communist party in countries like France and Italy was very worrisome.

Communist parties were powerful in France and Italy.  Eastern Europe was occupied by the Soviet⁸ Army.  There was massive unemployment. Europe's industry was at a standstill.

Immediately after providing emergency supplies of food and clothing, the U.S. Marshall plan focused on economic chokepoints.  Coal mines were the first to benefit.

Without coal to fuel factories and mills, Europe's economy would never recover.

Mr. Bland says, "The problem is much of the coal in Western Europe comes from German mines which are flooded and the surface effectively bombed. The Germans have no means of opening these mines and the U.S. is going to provide certain key equipment. The Germans are going to mine all the coal, but we're going to pump out the mines and rebuild workers' housing and vaccinate⁹ them against TB and other things that will allow them to work very hard."

And the U.S. insisted the Europeans co-operate to move that German coal to the other nations on the continent to heat homes and get the factories moving again.

The United States authorized¹⁰ $13 billion over four years -- the equivalent of a $100 billion today spread over 16 countries.

But perhaps the most important part of the Marhsall Plan was its effect on the morale¹¹ of Western Europeans.  Even former enemies -- Italians and Germans -- were included.

Karsten Voight

German diplomat¹² Karsten Voight was a boy during the late 1940s.  He says the American generosity¹³ provided a huge psycyhological boost. "Money alone would not have done it. Together with the Berlin Airlift it was a changing attitude. The Americans who were better perceived than the Russians from the very outset, even before the end of the war, were now seen as no longer as primarily occupiers, but as friends."

Winston Churchill called the Marshall Plan the 'most unsordid act' in history.  The recovery from the most destructive war in history was dramatic.

Western Europe's gross national product went up 32 percent in the 4 years of the Marshall Plan's existence, sparked a generation-long economic boom and provided the framework for what eventually became the European union.

1 perilous   

adj.危险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• The journey through the jungle was perilous.穿过丛林的旅行充满了危险。
• We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis.历经一连串危机，我们如今已安然无恙。

2 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

3 liberated   

a.无拘束的，放纵的

参考例句：

• The city was liberated by the advancing army. 军队向前挺进，解放了那座城市。
• The heat brings about a chemical reaction, and oxygen is liberated. 热量引起化学反应，释放出氧气。

4 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

6 bland   

adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的

参考例句：

• He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
• This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。

7 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。

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 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

10 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

11 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

12 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

13 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。