VOA慢速英语2012 THIS IS AMERICA - Texas School Tragedy Remembered 75 Years Later

THIS IS AMERICA - Texas School Tragedy Remembered 75 Years Later

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise. This week on our program, we tell you about the seventy-fifth anniversary of a tragedy in Texas. It led to new safety requirements for natural gas around the world. Yet the tragedy itself is not very well remembered today. A gas explosion at a school killed nearly three hundred children and adults.

And, later, we hear about a group that provides jobs through the Internet for people in the some of the world's poorest places.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: People in East Texas call March eighteenth, nineteen thirty-seven, the day a generation died. This week, people in New London and surrounding communities are honoring the victims of that day.

Seventy-five years ago, the community of New London had one of the wealthiest school systems in the country. That was because oil had recently been discovered in the area. People in the community were proud of their newly built school. It cost one million dollars. The building had separate areas for the lower grades and for a high school. London High School -- that was its name -- was for students in grades five through eleven.

The London School at New London, Texas before the 1937 explosion 

School officials had decided¹ to heat the new school with natural gas. At that time oil companies considered it waste gas. It came out of the ground when they drilled for oil.

Oil companies burned it off into the atmosphere. But people were allowed to tap into pipelines³ carrying the waste gas and use it for fuel in homes and buildings. By using the free gas, the school was able to save about three hundred dollars a month in heating costs.

Miles Toler is the director of the local museum.

MILES TOLER: "You get the mindset of people who, even though you were a very rich school district, we're in the thirties, we've just come out of the Depression and we're saving money any way we can."

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: On the afternoon of March eighteenth, nineteen thirty-seven, students in the lower grades had already been dismissed. The high school students were nearly finished for the day.

London High School had an estimated eight hundred fifty students. Many of them were preparing for a big sports event and were not in the building. Several parents had gathered in a nearby building for a meeting.

At three-seventeen that afternoon, a machine shop teacher turned on a piece of electrical equipment, causing a spark. That spark ignited gas that had been leaking from the school's pipeline². No one knew about the leak because the gas had no smell.

The explosion that followed blew the roof off the school. Miles Toler says the roof crushed the front of the building as it crashed back to the ground.

MILES TOLER: "The blast literally⁴ eliminates the front half of the school."

Mr. Toler says there were about five hundred students in the building, in addition to teachers and visitors, at the time of the explosion. There are different estimates of the number of people killed. He says the museum has been able to confirm the deaths of two hundred ninety-three children, teachers and visitors.

In the hours that followed, thousands of people came to the school from all around. They came to search for their children and to help in the rescue effort. Today people on YouTube can watch an old newsreel report about the explosion.

ANNOUNCER (UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL): "There was no warning. Before the eyes of persons in the vicinity -- including scores of parents assembled for a meeting in a nearby building -- the schoolhouse, one of the finest rural structures in the country, suddenly burst asunder⁵ and collapsed⁶. In the remaining hours of daylight and the through the long, terrible night, the scenes of the disaster were indescribable, harrowing. A wild confusion of feverish⁷ rescue work by floodlights with their gruesome, ghostly shadows, and everywhere, sobbing⁸, hysterical⁹ parents."

A nurse cares for a young victim of the 1937 London School explosion 

FAITH LAPIDUS: News of the explosion spread across the country and throughout the world. In part that was because of a young reporter named Walter Cronkite. He was working for United Press in Dallas, Texas, at the time. He quickly traveled to the school, two hours away, and began reporting on the explosion. It was his first major story.

Walter Cronkite went on to cover wars and other major events. He become the nation's leading nightly news anchorman. But he would later write that nothing could have prepared him for what he witnessed that day in New London, and no other story ever equaled it.

Several lawsuits¹⁰ were brought after the explosion. However, no one was found legally responsible for the accident.

But one of the most important results of the disaster was the passage of a new state law in Texas. It required gas suppliers to add an odor to natural gas so people would know if there was a leak. That requirement was quickly adopted throughout the country and around the world.

Today millions of people recognize the danger of a gas leak when they smell an odor like rotten eggs.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Miles Toler at the museum in New London says classes restarted within two to three weeks of the explosion.

MILES TOLER: "I don't know how you walk past it where everybody was killed in the explosion, but you do and you go to the gym and other buildings on the campus and you finish the school year out."

Mr. Toler was born two years after the explosion. He says the community had an extremely difficult time dealing¹¹ with the tragedy. He says no one ever discussed it while he was growing up and attending the very same school.

Local citizens rebuilt the school over the next two years, replacing the natural gas with steam heat. And in nineteen thirty-nine a large stone memorial was placed nearby. But Mr. Toler says the first memorial gathering¹² was not held until nineteen seventy-seven.

MILES TOLER: "So there's a forty-year span that nobody talks about anything that went on."

He believes the people of the rural community just could not deal with so great a loss.

MILES TOLER: "Some lost as many as three kids, some lost the only children they had, and, you know, it's one of those things, if you don't talk about it, maybe it's going to go away. Of course, we know it doesn't."

FAITH LAPIDUS: The museum opened across the street from the school campus in nineteen ninety-eight. Mr. Toler says people donated things their families had saved, including clothing that their surviving children were wearing that day. Other items include telegrams of sympathy sent from throughout the world. There are twenty-five cards that students in Switzerland sent at the time of the explosion. And there is even a telegram sent by Adolf Hitler, then the chancellor¹³ of Germany.

Today, Mr. Toler says more than two thousand people visit the London Museum each year.

MILES TOLER: "A lot of students come through with field trips so that they can learn about the explosion, about the fact that natural gas has a smell to it because of the explosion at London."

The school in East Texas still operates. In nineteen sixty-six the name was changed to West Rusk County Consolidated¹⁴ High School.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: The State Department in Washington has recognized the work of a nongovernmental organization called Samasource. Samasource connects workers to jobs through the Internet. The group received an Innovation Award for the Empowerment of Women and Girls.

Its founder¹⁵, Leila Janah, says helping¹⁶ people get jobs is a better way to end poverty than simply giving them money as charity.

LEILA JANAH: "I really don't like charity. I think charity does a disservice to the people that it tries to help."

Samasource uses the Internet to employ hundreds of people living in poverty around the world.

Ms. Janah graduated from Harvard University. She has spent much of the past ten years working in development and visiting poor countries.

FAITH LAPIDUS: She was seventeen when she made her first trip to Ghana. She says she was surprised to discover that many of the poor children she met were smart and spoke¹⁷ English.

LEILA JANAH: "I really flipped¹⁸ my understanding of economic development and poverty on its head and I realized that we don't live in a global meritocracy."

In a meritocracy, people are recognized and rewarded with advancement¹⁹ based on their skills.

The idea for Samasource was born when Ms. Janah was working for a management firm. She visited an outsourcing center in India. If people could use the Internet to work for that company, she thought, so could others living in rural areas.

Samasource has its headquarters in San Francisco, California. It negotiates contracts for projects with big technical organizations. Then it breaks down large projects into "microwork." This can include creating content for websites and working with data. Samasource workers can complete this work anywhere they have a computer and an Internet connection.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Samasource began in two thousand eight. It works with sixteen work centers in Africa, South Asia and Haiti. Ms. Janah says Samasource has paid more than one million dollars to more than one thousand five hundred people, many of them women.

She says violence against women often results from their inability to earn an independent income. But when women are given work with computers, she says, they are helped not just financially.

LEILA JANAH: "They start getting respected for their brains rather than their bodies."

Some critics question the idea of sending work outside the country. The Great Recession increased the number of Americans living in poverty. Ms. Janah says Samasource is looking for ways to use its technology to help them. But she says anti-poverty efforts need a more globalized point of view.

LEILA JANAH: "I think it's important to remember that a person is a person, whether it's a poor person in Bangladesh or a poor person in rural Mississippi. Each deserves our consideration."

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Our program was written and produced by Brianna Blake. We also had reporting by Monaliza Noormohammadi. I'm Faith Lapidus.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I'm Christopher Cruise. 

1 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。

2 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

3 pipelines   

管道( pipeline的名词复数 )； 输油管道； 在考虑（或规划、准备） 中； 在酿中

参考例句：

• The oil is carried to the oil refinery by pipelines. 石油通过输油管输送到炼油厂。
• The oil carried in pipelines. 石油用管道输送。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 asunder   

adj.分离的，化为碎片

参考例句：

• The curtains had been drawn asunder.窗帘被拉向两边。
• Your conscience,conviction,integrity,and loyalties were torn asunder.你的良心、信念、正直和忠诚都被扯得粉碎了。

6 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

7 feverish   

adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的

参考例句：

• He is too feverish to rest.他兴奋得安静不下来。
• They worked with feverish haste to finish the job.为了完成此事他们以狂热的速度工作着。

8 sobbing   

<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的

参考例句：

• I heard a child sobbing loudly. 我听见有个孩子在呜呜地哭。
• Her eyes were red with recent sobbing. 她的眼睛因刚哭过而发红。

9 hysterical   

adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的

参考例句：

• He is hysterical at the sight of the photo.他一看到那张照片就异常激动。
• His hysterical laughter made everybody stunned.他那歇斯底里的笑声使所有的人不知所措。

10 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

11 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

12 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

13 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

14 consolidated   

a.联合的

参考例句：

• With this new movie he has consolidated his position as the country's leading director. 他新执导的影片巩固了他作为全国最佳导演的地位。
• Those two banks have consolidated and formed a single large bank. 那两家银行已合并成一家大银行。

15 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

16 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

17 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。

18 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

19 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。