在线英语听力室

VOA慢速英语2010年-THE MAKING OF A NATION - American Hist

时间:2010-02-01 03:19:03

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

President Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln did not live to see the final surrender of the armies of the Confederacy. A Confederate sympathizer shot the president at Ford's Theatre in Washington on April fourteenth, eighteen sixty-five.

By that time, however, the American Civil War really was over.

General Robert E. Lee surrendered in early April, bringing an end to four years of fighting. Several other Confederate armies were still in the field. But they were too small and too weak to continue the fight.

This week in our series, Maurice Joyce and Leo Scully tell the story of the final surrender of the Confederate armies.

VOICE ONE:

General William T. Sherman

One army was in North Carolina, commanded by General Joe Johnston. Five days after Lee's surrender, Johnston asked for a meeting with General William Sherman, the commander of Union forces in North Carolina.

Sherman met with Johnston a few days later. He offered him the same surrender terms that General Lee had accepted. He said the Confederates must give up their weapons and promise to fight no more. Then they would be free to return to their homes.

Johnston said he could not accept these terms. Johnston said he had the power to surrender all the Confederate armies everywhere in the South he said he would do so if Sherman agreed on a political settlement.

VOICE TWO:

The two generals met again the next day. Sherman listened as Johnston explained his demands. Most of them, Sherman accepted. He believed that President Lincoln wanted to help the South as much as possible. He had heard Lincoln say that he wanted to make it easy for the southern states to return to the Union.

When the agreement was completed, Sherman sent it immediately to Washington for approval by the new president, Andrew Johnson. The agreement seemed to give the South everything it wanted.

VOICE ONE:

General Joe Johnston

Instead of surrendering to Sherman, the Confederate Armies would break up. The soldiers would return to their homes, taking their weapons with them. They would sign a promise not to fight again and to obey state and federal laws.

In exchange for this, Sherman said the president would recognize state governments in the south which promised to support the Constitution. He said federal courts would be established in the south again. And he said the president -- as well as he could -- would protect the political rights promised to all people by the Constitution of the United States and the state constitutions.

And Sherman said the United States government would not interfere1 with any of the southern people, if they remained peaceful and obeyed the laws.

VOICE TWO:

President Johnson held a cabinet meeting to discuss the agreement Sherman had signed. War Secretary Stanton and the other members of the cabinet were violently opposed to it. They said Sherman had no power to make any kind of political settlement.

President Johnson rejected the agreement. He said Johnston's army must surrender within forty-eight hours or be destroyed. He said the surrender terms could be no better than those given General Lee.

VOICE ONE:

Johnston decided3 to surrender. On April twenty-sixth, his army laid down its weapons. One by one, the remaining armies surrendered. The soldiers began returning home.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest

Many of them were bitter. They wanted to continue to fight. They spoke4 of guerrilla war against the Yankees. But most of the Confederate commanders opposed this. Many, like cavalry5 General Nathan Bedford Forrest, urged their men to accept defeat.

Said Forrest in a farewell speech to his men:

"It is a clear fact that we are beaten. We would be foolish to try to fight further. The government which we tried to establish is at an end. Civil War -- such as you have just passed through -- naturally causes feelings of bitterness and hatred6. We must put these feelings aside. Whatever your responsibilities may be, meet them like men. You have been good soldiers. You can be good citizens."

VOICE TWO:

Confederate President Jefferson Davis fled south after the fall of his government. He hoped to get across the Mississippi River. He believed that he could form a new Confederate army. If this failed, he planned to escape to Mexico.

President Lincoln had hoped that Davis would escape. He felt that punishing Davis would only create more bitterness and make reconstruction7 -- the rebuilding of the South -- more difficult. But President Johnson did not share Lincoln's feelings. He believed Davis had a part in the plot to kill Lincoln. He said Davis must be captured.

On May tenth, Union forces found the Confederate president's camp in southern Georgia. They seized him and took him to Fort2 Monroe, Virginia. He remained there for many months under close guard. His trial was never held. And finally, in eighteen sixty-seven, he was freed.

VOICE ONE:

Union soldiers march in the Grand Review in Washington in May 1865

Late in May, one hundred fifty thousand Union soldiers, representing every one of the Union armies, came to Washington. They came to take part in a big parade -- a victory march through the city.

For two days, the soldiers marched past the White House. Many of the marching men had fought at Bull8 Run, at Fredericksburg, Antietam, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Appomattox. Sherman's western army was there from battles at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga and Atlanta.

The soldiers marched proudly past the president and other government leaders.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

All along the way, from the Capitol building to the White House, were huge crowds of cheering people. Hour after hour, the soldiers passed. Never had the city seen such a celebration. Each group of soldiers had its band and carried its own battle flags. Some proudly carried flags that had been torn in fierce fighting.

Finally, late on the second day, the final group of soldiers passed the White House. The grand parade was over. The battle flags were put away, and the marching bands fell silent. The war was ended. Now, men could look about them and count the cost of the war.

VOICE ONE:

Four years of bloody9 fighting had saved the Union of states. The northern victory had settled for all time the question of whether states could leave the Union. And it had put to rest the great problem of slavery, which had troubled the nation for so many years.

But the costs were great. More than six hundred thousand men of the North and South lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands more were wounded. Many had lost their arms or legs.

VOICE TWO:

The war cost the North almost three-and-one-half thousand million dollars. It was almost as costly10 to the Confederates. Most of the war was fought in the southern states. And most of the war damage was there.

Hundreds of cities and towns suffered damage. Some -- like Atlanta -- were completely destroyed by Union forces. The damage outside the populated areas was almost as great. Union armies had marched across the South leaving behind them widespread destruction. Farm houses and buildings had been burned; animals and crops seized or destroyed.

VOICE ONE:

Transport in the South was especially hard hit. Union soldiers had destroyed most of the railroads. The few Confederate trains that escaped capture were worn out from heavy use. River boats had been destroyed. And roads and bridges were in terrible condition.

The South had no money to rebuild. Businessmen and rich landowners had put their money in Confederate bonds, now completely worthless. Confederate war debts would never be paid.

There was also the question of the four million former slaves. They were free now. But few could take care of themselves. They needed jobs and training.

VOICE TWO:

The people of the South faced a difficult future. They had been defeated in battle. Their economy was destroyed. In many areas, there was little food and the people were hungry. Farmers could not plant crops, because they had no seed and no animals to break the ground. There was no money for rebuilding.

President Andrew Johnson

To add to all these problems, radical11 Republicans12 in Washington were demanding severe punishment for the South. Instead of offering aid, they demanded that the government sell the property of southerners to pay Union war debts.

VOICE ONE:

President Andrew Johnson, himself a southerner from Tennessee, opposed the radical plans. He had his own program of reconstruction for the South.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Maurice Joyce and Leo Scully. Transcripts13, podcasts and historical images from our series are at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also comment on our programs. And we invite you to follow us on Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.
___

This is program #119 of THE MAKING OF A NATION


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 interfere b5lx0     
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰
参考例句:
  • If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话,可能弊多利少。
  • When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件,棘手的事情就来了。
2 fort pi3x4     
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。
3 decided lvqzZd     
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。
4 spoke XryyC     
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 cavalry Yr3zb     
n.骑兵;轻装甲部队
参考例句:
  • We were taken in flank by a troop of cavalry. 我们翼侧受到一队骑兵的袭击。
  • The enemy cavalry rode our men down. 敌人的骑兵撞倒了我们的人。
6 hatred T5Gyg     
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨
参考例句:
  • He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
  • The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。
7 reconstruction 3U6xb     
n.重建,再现,复原
参考例句:
  • The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后,该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
  • In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期,技术决定一切。
8 bull jshzd     
n.公牛,买进证券投机图利者,看涨的人
参考例句:
  • It's only a hair off a bull's back to them.这对他们来说,不过九牛一毛。
  • Many dogs closed around the bull.很多狗渐渐地把那只牛围了起来。
9 bloody kWHza     
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染
参考例句:
  • He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
  • He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。
10 costly 7zXxh     
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的
参考例句:
  • It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
  • This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用,左不过贵了些。
11 radical hA8zu     
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的
参考例句:
  • The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
  • She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
12 republicans 060358f4c6087ad76e0fb6fca649bd02     
拥护共和政体者,共和主义者( republican的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The Republicans got shellacked in the elections. 共和党在选举中一败涂地。
  • The latest poll gives the Republicans a 5% lead. 最近的民意调查结果表明共和党领先了五个百分点。
13 transcripts 525c0b10bb61e5ddfdd47d7faa92db26     
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
参考例句:
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。