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PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Edith Wharton

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(单词翻译)

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Edith Wharton
By Richard Thoman

Broadcast: Sunday, April 25, 2004

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about a person who was important in the history of the United States. Today, we tell about writer Edith Wharton.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

A critic once described American writer Edith Wharton as a "self-made man." She liked the comment and repeated it. Others said she was a product of New York City. But the New York she wrote about was different from the New York of those who came after her.

Edith Wharton was born in New York City in Eighteen-Sixty-Two. New York then was several different cities. One New York was made up of people who worked for a living. The other was much smaller. It was made up of families who were so rich they did not need to work.

Edith was born into the wealthy New York. But there was a "right" wealthy New York and a "wrong" wealthy New York. Among the rich there were those who had been given money by parents or grandparents. Then there were those who earned their own money, the newly1 rich. Edith's family was from the "right" New Yorkers, people who had 'old' money. It was a group that did not want its way of living changed. It also was a group without many ideas of its own. It was from this group that Edith Wharton created herself.

 
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VOICE TWO:

Like many girls her age, Edith wrote stories. In one of her childhood stories, a woman apologizes for not having a completely clean house when another woman makes an unexpected3 visit. Edith's mother read the story. Her only comment was that one's house was always clean and ready for visitors. Edith's house always was.

Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe. She was educated by special teachers, and not at schools.

If Edith's family feared anything, it was sharp social, cultural, and economic change. Yet these were the things Edith would see in her lifetime.

The end of the Civil War in Eighteen-Sixty-Five marked the beginning of great changes in the United States. The country that had been mostly agricultural was becoming industrial. Businessmen and workers increasingly4 were gaining political and economic power.

Edith Wharton saw these changes sooner than most people. And she rejected them. To her, the old America was a victim of the new. She did not like the new values of money replacing the old values of family.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In Eighteen-Eighty-Five, she married Edward Wharton. He was her social equal. They lived together for twenty-eight years. But it was a marriage without much love.

In Nineteen-Thirteen, she sought to end the marriage. That she waited so long to do so, one critic said, was a sign of her ties to the idea of family and to tradition.

Some critics think that Edith Wharton began to write because she found the people of her social group so uninteresting. Others say she began when her husband became sick and she needed something to do.

The fact is that Wharton thought of herself as a writer from the time she was a child. Writing gave her a sense of freedom from the restrictions5 of her social class.

VOICE TWO:

 
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Writing was just one of a series of things she did. And she did all of them well. She was interested in designing and caring for gardens. She designed her own house. She had an international social life and left a large collection of letters. In her lifetime she published about fifty books on a number of subjects.

Many critics believe Edith Wharton should have written the story of her social group. To do this, however, she would have had to remove herself from the group to see it clearly. She could not do this, even intellectually6. Her education and her traditions made it impossible.

The subject of Edith Wharton's writing became the story of the young and innocent7 in a dishonest world. She did not make a connection between her work and her own life. What she had was the ability to speak plainly about emotions that, until then, had been hidden.

She also was among the first American women writers to gain a sense of the world as an evil8 place. "Life is the saddest thing," she wrote, "next to death."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

To show that she could do more than just write stories, she Wrote a book with Ogden Codman, "The Decoration of Houses." It was very successful. About the same time, her poems and stories also began to be published in Scribner's Magazine.

In Eighteen-Ninety-Nine her collection of stories, "The Greater Inclination," appeared. It was an immediate9 success. When she was in London, she visited a bookstore. The store owner, who did not know who she was, handed her the book. He said to her, "This is what everyone in London is talking about now.

VOICE TWO:

Three years later her first novel, "The Valley of Decision," was published. Three years after that she published her first great popular success, the novel, "The House of Mirth."

"The House of Mirth" is the story of a young woman who lacks the money to continue her high social position. As in so many stories by Edith Wharton, the main character does not control what happens to her. She is a victim who is defeated by forces she does not fight to overcome. This idea is central to much of Edith Wharton's best writing. The old families of New York are in conflict with the newly rich families. The major people in the stories are trapped in a hopeless struggle with social forces more powerful than they. And they struggle against people whose beliefs and actions are not as moral10 as theirs.

VOICE ONE:

This is the situation in one of Wharton's most popular books, "Ethan Frome," published in Nineteen-Eleven. Unlike her other novels, it is set on a farm in the northeastern state of Massachusetts. It is the story of a man and woman whose lives are controlled, and finally destroyed, by custom. They are the victims of society. They die honorably instead of fighting back. If they were to reject custom, however, they would not be the people they are. And they would not mean as much to each other.

In Nineteen-Thirteen, Wharton's marriage ended. It was the same year that she published another novel that was highly11 praised, "The Custom of the Country." In it she discusses the effects of new wealth in the late Nineteenth Century on a beautiful young woman.

VOICE TWO:

Most critics agree that most of Edith Wharton's writing after Nineteen-Thirteen is not as good as before that time. It was as if she needed the difficulties of her marriage to write well. Much of her best work seems to have been written under the pressure of great personal crisis12. After her marriage ended, her work was not as sharp as her earlier writing.

In Nineteen-Twenty, however, she produced, "The Age of Innocence13." Many critics think this is her best novel. In it she deals with the lack of honesty that lies behind the apparent14 innocence of the New York social world. A man and woman see their lives ruined because they have duties they cannot escape.

Edith Wharton received America's top writing award, the Pulitzer Prize, for "The Age of Innocence." In Nineteen-Ninety-Three, the movie of "The Age of Innocence" created new interest in her work.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In the later years of her life, Wharton gave more and more of her time to an important group of diplomats15, artists, and thinkers. Among her friends was the American writer Henry James. She liked James as a man and as a writer. She often used her car and driver to take him on short trips.

At one time, Henry James was hoping that his publisher would print a collection of his many novels and stories. Wharton knew of this wish. And she knew that the publisher thought he would lose money if he published such a collection. She wrote to the publisher. She agreed to secretly pay the publisher to print the collection of her friend's writings.

VOICE TWO:

In Nineteen-Thirty, the American National Institute of Arts and Letters gave Wharton a gold medal. She was the first woman to be so honored16. Four years later she wrote the story of her life, "A Backward Glance." Edith Wharton died in Nineteen-Thirty-Seven at one of the two homes she owned in France.

(THEME)

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Richard Thorman. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 newly cG7xE     
adv.新近,最近;重新,再度;以新的方式
参考例句:
  • Have you reviewed for this newly published novel?你给这本新出版的小说写书评了吗?
  • It is a newly planted tree and it has not established yet.这是一颗新栽的树,还没有扎下根来。
2 graphic Aedz7     
adj.生动的,形象的,绘画的,文字的,图表的
参考例句:
  • The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
  • Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。
3 unexpected Qkpw8     
adj.想不到的,意外的
参考例句:
  • I always keep some good wine in for unexpected guests.我总保存些好酒,用来招待不速之客。
  • His promotion was unexpected.他的升迁出人意料。
4 increasingly z8ix8     
adv.逐渐地,日益地,逐渐增加地
参考例句:
  • Rivers are being increasingly made use of by man. 河流正在日益为人类所利用。
  • I find it increasingly difficult to live within my income.我发现靠收入过日子越来越难了。
5 restrictions 81e12dac658cfd4c590486dd6f7523cf     
约束( restriction的名词复数 ); 管制; 制约因素; 带限制性的条件(或规则)
参考例句:
  • I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
  • a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制
6 intellectually e7cc8cbc3c4e96fbd5bb7b7af93471f5     
adv.知性上,智力上
参考例句:
  • The child is developing in every way, morally, intellectually and physically. 这孩子德、智、体样样都好。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • He had never learned that a person might be emotionally--instead of intellectually--great. 他从来就不知道一个人可能会在感情上很伟大,而不是在知识上。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
7 innocent J68xs     
adj.无罪的,清白的;无害的;天真的,单纯的
参考例句:
  • I'm not quite so innocent as to believe that.我还不至于简单到相信那种事的地步。
  • I was very young,and very innocent.我那时非常年轻,幼稚无知。
8 evil KiHzS     
n.邪恶,不幸,罪恶;adj.邪恶的,不幸的,有害的,诽谤的
参考例句:
  • We pray to God to deliver us from evil.我们祈求上帝把我们从罪恶中拯救出来。
  • Love of money is the root of all evil.爱钱是邪恶的根源。
9 immediate aapxh     
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的
参考例句:
  • His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
  • We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。
10 moral 36oz9     
adj.道德(上)的,有道德的;n.品行,寓意,道德
参考例句:
  • Moral beauty ought to be ranked above all other beauty.品德之美应列于其他美之上。
  • He deceived us into believing that he could give us moral support.他骗得我们相信他能给我们道义上的支持。
11 highly XdFxR     
adv.高度地,极,非常;非常赞许地
参考例句:
  • It is highly important to provide for the future.预先做好准备非常重要。
  • The teacher speaks very highly of the boy's behaviour.老师称赞这个男孩的表现。
12 crisis pzJxT     
n.危机,危急关头,决定性时刻,关键阶段
参考例句:
  • He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明,在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
  • The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。
13 innocence ZbizC     
n.无罪;天真;无害
参考例句:
  • There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
  • The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。
14 apparent FMsyP     
adj.表面上的,貌似真实的,显然的,明明白白的
参考例句:
  • The apparent truth was really a lie.表面上看似实话,实际上是个谎言。
  • His guilt is apparent to all.他的罪恶尽人皆知。
15 diplomats ccde388e31f0f3bd6f4704d76a1c3319     
n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 );有手腕的人,善于交际的人
参考例句:
  • These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
  • The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》
16 honored honored     
adj.光荣的:荣幸的v.尊敬,给以荣誉( honor的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • I hope to be honored with further orders. 如蒙惠顾,不胜荣幸。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • This is a time-honored custom. 这是一个古老的习俗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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