VOA慢速英语20060122a

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - F. Scott Fitzgerald Wrote About the Roaring¹ Twenties, the Greatest Party in American HistoryBy Richard Thorman

Broadcast: Sunday, January 22, 2006

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English program, People in America. Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United² States. Today we tell about writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.


F. Scott Fitzgerald

VOICE ONE:

Early in nineteen twenty, the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald was poor and unknown. He was twenty-four years old. The girl he wanted to marry had rejected him. Her family said he could not support her.

Later that same year, Fitzgerald's first novel, This Side of Paradise³, was accepted for publication⁴. He said that when the news arrived in the mail: I left my job. I paid my debts⁵, bought a suit of clothes and woke in the morning to a world of promise.

He quickly became rich and famous. That year before This Side of Paradise was published, he said he earned eight hundred dollars by writing. The following year, with his first book published, he earned eighteen thousand dollars by writing.

Yet by the time F. Scott Fitzgerald died in nineteen forty, at the age of forty-four, his money was gone, and so was his fame. Most people could not believe that he had not died years before.

The problem was that he was so much a part of the age he described, the Roaring Twenties. So when the period ended people thought he must have ended with it.

VOICE TWO:

The nineteen twenties began with high hopes. World War One, the War to End All Wars, was over. The twenties ended with a huge drop in stock⁷ market prices that began the Great Depression⁸. Fitzgerald was a representative⁹ of the years of fast living in between.

The nation's values had changed. Many Americans were concerned mainly with having a good time. People broke the law by drinking alcohol¹⁰. They danced to jazz music. Women wore short skirts.

Money differences between one group of Americans and another had become sharper at the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the nineteen twenties, many people believed that gaining the material things one desired could bring happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about the lives of people who lived as if that were true.

VOICE ONE:

There was more to Fitzgerald than a desire for material things. The test of a first-rate intelligence¹¹, he said, is the ability to hold two opposed¹² ideas in the mind at the same time, and still have the ability to act. His two opposing¹³ ideas involved seeking happiness from material things, and knowing that material things only brought unhappiness.

Of his own time, he said: There seemed no question about what was going to happen. America was going on the greatest party in its history and there was going to be plenty to tell about. Yet if he described only the party, his writings would have been forgotten when the party ended.

All the stories that came into my head, he said, had a touch of unhappiness in them. The lovely young women in my stories were ruined, the diamond mountains exploded. In life these things had not happened yet. But I was sure that living was not the careless business that people thought.

Fitzgerald was able to experience the wild living of the period yet write about its effect on people as though he were just an observer¹⁴. That is a major reason his writings still are popular.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in the Middle Western city of Saint¹⁵ Paul, Minnesota. He grew up there. In his mother's family there were southern landowners and politicians¹⁶. The member of the family for whom he was named had written the words to The Star- Spangled Banner¹⁷, America's national song.

His father was a businessman who did not do well. Scott went to free public schools and, when he was fifteen, a costly¹⁸ private school where he learned¹⁹ how the rich lived.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald was seventeen, he entered Princeton University.

VOICE ONE:

Fitzgerald was not a good student. He spent more time writing for school plays and magazines at Princeton than studying. His poor record troubled him less than the fact that he was not a good enough athlete to be on the university's football team.

University officials warned²⁰ him he had to do better in his studies or he would be expelled²¹. So he decided²² to leave the university after three years to join the United States Army. It was World War One, but the war ended before he saw active duty. He met his future wife while he was at one of the bases where he trained. The girl, Zelda Sayre, was a local beauty in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama. She and Fitzgerald agreed to marry. Then she rejected him when her family said that Fitzgerald could not give her the life she expected.

VOICE TWO:

Fitzgerald was crushed²³. He went to New York City in nineteen-nineteen with two goals. One was to make a lot of money. The other was to win the girl he loved.

He rewrote and completed a novel that he had started in college. The book, This Side of Paradise, was published in nineteen-twenty. It was an immediate²⁴ success.

Fitzgerald told his publisher that he did not expect more than twenty thousand copies of the book to be sold. The publisher laughed and said five thousand copies of a first novel would be very good. Within one week, however, twenty thousand copies of the book were sold.

At twenty-four, Fitzgerald was famous and rich. A week after the novel appeared, Scott and Zelda were married. F. Scott Fitzgerald had gained the two goals he had set for himself.


Fitzgerals and his wife, Zelda, after they were married

At this point the fairy tale should end with the expression: They lived happily ever after. But that was not to be the ending for the Fitzgeralds.

VOICE ONE:

Fitzgerald is reported to have said to his friend, the American writer Ernest Hemingway, The very rich are different from you and me. Hemingway is reported to have answered, Yes, they have more money. The exchange tells a great deal about each writer. Hemingway saw a democratic²⁵ world where people were measured by their ability, not by what they owned.

Fitzgerald saw the deep differences between groups of people that money creates. He decided to be among the rich.

To do this he sold short stories to magazines and, when he had time, continued to write novels. He also continued to live as though his life was one long party.

For several years he was successful at everything. Editors paid more for a story by Fitzgerald than by any other writer. And he sold everything he wrote. Some stories were very good. He wrote very fast, though. So some stories were bad. Even the bad ones, however, had a spirit and a life that belonged to Fitzgerald. As soon as he had enough good stories, he collected them in a book.

VOICE TWO:

Fitzgerald quickly learned that a life of partying all the time did not help him write his best. But he could not give up the fun.

Scott and Zelda lived in New York City. He drank too much. She spent too much money. He promised himself to live a less costly life. Always, however, he spent more than he earned from writing.

In addition to the individual stories, two collections of his stories, Flappers and Philosophers²⁶, and Tales of the Jazz Age, appeared in nineteen twenty and nineteen twenty-two. A second novel, The Beautiful and Damned²⁷, also was published in nineteen twenty-two.

VOICE ONE:

The novel was well received, but it was nothing like the success of his first novel.

Fitzgerald was unhappy with the critics²⁸ and unhappy with the money the book earned. He and his wife moved to France with their baby daughter. They made many friends among the Americans who had fled²⁹ to Paris. But they failed to cut their living costs.

Fitzgerald was always in debt⁶. He owed³⁰ money to his publisher and the man who helped to sell his writings. In his stories he says repeatedly³¹ that no one can have everything. He seemed to try, though. It looked for a brief time like he might succeed.

VOICE TWO:

Fitzgerald continued to be affected³² by the problems that would finally kill him -- the drinking and the debts. Yet by nineteen twenty-five his best novel, The Great Gatsby, was published.

It is the story of a young man's search for his idea of love. It also is a story of what the young man must do to win that love before he discovers that it is not worth having.

Next week we shall discuss this important novel. And we shall tell you about the rest of Fitzgerald's short life.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This People in America program was written by Richard Thorman and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week as we conclude³³ the story of the life of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 roaring   

n.吼声；咆哮；怒号；轰鸣adj.兴旺的；喧哗的；风哮雨嚎的adv.非常地v.怒吼，咆哮，大声喊出( roar的现在分词)

参考例句：

• juggernauts roaring through country villages 隆隆驶过村庄的重型卡车
• All we could hear was the sound of roaring water. 我们只能听到汹涌澎湃的涛声。

2 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

3 paradise   

n.伊甸乐园，天堂

参考例句：

• My house had a small backyard,the paradise of children.我那幢房子有一个小后院，那是孩子们玩耍的乐园。
• On a hot day a dip in the sea is sheer paradise.热天洗个海水澡是十分令人惬意的事。

4 publication   

n.出版，发行；出版；公布，发表

参考例句：

• They don't think this article is suitable for publication.他们认为这篇文章不宜发表。
• The government has delayed publication of the trade figures.政府已将贸易统计数字延后公布。

5 debts   

债( debt的名词复数 )； 负债情况； 人情债； 情义

参考例句：

• They were behindhand in settling their debts. 他们没有及时还清债务。
• I need to pay off all my debts before I leave the country. 我得在离开该国前偿清所有债务。

6 debt   

n.债务，义务，负债状态，罪，过失

参考例句：

• The man was pressed to pay off his debt.那人被逼还债。
• The firm had to charge off the debt as hopeless.公司只得把那笔没希望要回的债务注销。

7 stock   

n.存货，储备；树干；血统；股份；家畜；adj.存货的；平凡的，惯用的；股票的；畜牧的；vt.进货，采购；储存；供给；vi.出新芽；进货

参考例句：

• The shop takes stock every week on Friday mornings.这家商店每星期五早晨盘点存货。
• Experts have forecast an upturn in the stock market.专家已预测股票市场价格有上升趋势。

8 depression   

n.压抑，抑制，沮丧；萧条，衰退

参考例句：

• During a depression money circulates slowly.在商业萧条时期，货币流通滞缓。
• He suffers from acute depression.他患有严重的忧郁症。

9 representative   

n.代表，众议员，典型；adj.描写的，表现的，代理的，代表性的，代议制的，典型的

参考例句：

• He is a representative for a large steel company.他是一家大型钢铁公司的代理人。
• We have a representative sample.我们有一个代表性的样品。

10 alcohol   

n.酒精，乙醇；含酒精的饮料

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors.法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。
• The alcohol is industrial.这些酒精是供工业用的。

11 intelligence   

n.智力，聪明，智能；情报

参考例句：

• He was a man of intelligence and of firmness of will.他是个聪明而又意志坚定的人。
• He equals me in strength but not in intelligence.他和我力气相等，但智力不同。

12 opposed   

vt.和…起冲突；和敌军起冲突；反抗，抗拒；相对：放在某事物对面以对比或平衡vi.对抗，对立adj.强烈反对某事物的；（表示对比）而，相对于；相反的；敌对的

参考例句：

• The development was bitterly opposed by the local community. 这一开发项目遭到了当地社区的愤怒抵制。
• We hold diametrically opposed views. 我们的观点大相径庭。

13 opposing   

adj.反作用的；反向的；相反的；对立的v.反对

参考例句：

• The two opposing armies faced each other across the battlefield. 敌对两军在战场上严阵对峙。
• She earned a black mark for opposing company policy. 她因反对公司政策而得到考绩不良评语。

14 observer   

n.观察家，观察的人，观察员

参考例句：

• I can see you're a careful reader as well as a careful observer.我能看出你既是一位细心的读者，又是一位观察者。
• I want to attend the conference only as an observer.本人只作为观察员身份参加会议。

15 saint   

n.圣徒；基督教徒；vt.成为圣徒，把...视为圣徒

参考例句：

• He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
• The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。

16 politicians   

政治家( politician的名词复数 )； 政客，玩弄权术者

参考例句：

• Politicians are ultimately accountable to the voters. 从政者最终是向选民负责。
• backstairs deals between politicians 政客之间的幕后交易

17 banner   

n.旗，旗帜，横幅

参考例句：

• The new government came to power under the banner of fighting poverty.新政府是在对贫穷开战的名义下上台的。
• A white banner was hanging out of the window.一面白旗挂在窗子外面。

18 costly   

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。

19 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

20 warned   

v.警告( warn的过去式和过去分词 )；提醒；告诫；预先通知

参考例句：

• Motorists have been warned to beware of icy roads. 已经提醒开车的人当心冰封的路面。
• I've warned her countless times. 我警告过她无数次了。

21 expelled   

驱逐( expel的过去式和过去分词 )； 赶走； 把…除名； 排出

参考例句：

• She was expelled from school at 15. 她15岁时被学校开除了。
• After the outbreak of fighting,all foreign journalists were expelled. 战斗开始后，所有的外国记者都被驱逐出境。

22 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。

23 crushed   

a.压碎的，倒碎的

参考例句：

• The car was completely crushed under the truck. 小轿车被卡车压得完全变形了。
• The box was crushed when the car ran over it. 汽车辗过箱子时把它给压碎了。

24 immediate   

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。

25 democratic   

adj.民主的；民主主义的，有民主精神的

参考例句：

• Their country has democratic government.他们国家实行民主政体。
• He has a democratic work-style.他作风民主。

26 philosophers   

n.哲学家( philosopher的名词复数 )；豁达的人

参考例句：

• Philosophers sometimes overweight their negativism. 哲学家往往偏重于否定态度。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Strictly speaking, they shouldn't be called philosophers, but rather 'philophilosophers.' 严格讲起来，他们不该叫哲学家Philophilosophers,该叫‘哲学家学家’philophilosophers.” 来自汉英文学 - 围城

27 damned   

a.该死的;打入地狱的

参考例句：

• The play was damned by the reviewers. 这部戏被评论家们批评得一无是处。
• She damned herself with one stupid remark. 她被自己的一句蠢话毁了。

28 critics   

n.批评家( critic的名词复数 )；评论员；批评者；挑剔的人

参考例句：

• He felt no animosity towards his critics. 他对批评他的人并不心怀怨恨。
• The move was widely seen as an attempt to appease critics of the regime. 普遍认为，这一举措是试图安抚批评政权的人。

29 fled   

v.逃走，逃掉( flee的过去式和过去分词 )；逃离，逃避

参考例句：

• The robbers fled empty-handed. 抢劫犯一无所获地逃走了。
• He had fled from France at the time of the persecution. 他在大迫害时期逃离了法国。 来自《简明英汉词典》

30 owed   

v.感激( owe的过去式和过去分词 )；应把…归功于；欠…债；（对位高权重者）忠诚

参考例句：

• I'd completely forgotten about the money he owed me. 我完全记不得他欠我的钱了。
• He gave me a lot of help.I owed much to him. 他给我许多帮助，我非常感激他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

31 repeatedly   

adv.重复地，再三地

参考例句：

• The loudspeakers blared the speech repeatedly.扬声器里反复大声地播送那篇演讲。
• He repeatedly beat his foot upon the floor.他反复用脚敲着地板。

32 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。

33 conclude   

vt.结束时说；（经推理）相信；达成；vi.结束，终结

参考例句：

• From the evidence I must conclude that you are wrong.从证据看，我敢断定你错了。
• I would like to conclude with a few points.我想用几点来做个结论。