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VOA慢速英语 2007 0425b

时间:2007-08-29 01:30:45

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(单词翻译)

VOICE ONE:

I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein with Explorations in VOA Special English.  Today, we tell about the Tuskegee Airmen who served in World War Two. They were the first group of 
The first class of Tuskegee cadets
African-Americans ever trained as fighter pilots.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

It was July second, nineteen forty-three.  It was foggy near the ground.  But the sky was clear. The airplanes flew upward, over the Mediterranean1 Sea.  The water was calm and very blue.  The planes were part of the United States Army Air Forces, the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron.  They were responsible for guarding bomber2 airplanes flying to Italy.

The pilots tested their guns.  When they were satisfied that their weapons were in firing condition, they flew the planes into position to guard the bombers3.  The bombers began to unload their cargo4 at the target area.  Clouds of smoke rose from the explosions on the ground.

VOICE TWO:

A group of enemy fighter planes immediately appeared.  The pilots of the Ninety-Ninth attacked them.  In the battle that followed, Lieutenant5 Charles Hall shot down a German plane.  It was the first time a pilot from the Ninety-Ninth defeated an enemy aircraft.  He was the first African-American fighter pilot in the United States armed forces to shoot down an enemy plane. Charles Hall and the other pilots of the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron had come a long way from Tuskegee, Alabama to fight for their country during World War Two.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen forty, African-Americans made up about one and one-half percent of the United States army and navy.  But they were not permitted to join the Army Air Forces and fly planes.  They had begun campaigning for the right to be accepted into military pilot training during World War One.  In nineteen seventeen, African-Americans who requested acceptance into military pilot training were told that black air groups were not being formed at the time.

Civil rights leaders denounced the belief expressed by many white people that black people could not fight.  In nineteen thirty-one, Walter White and Robert Moton requested that the War Department accept blacks in the Army Air Corps6 for pilot training. Mister White was an official of the National Association for the Advancement7 of Colored People, a civil rights organization.  Mister Moton was president of a respected college for black students, the Tuskegee Institute.

The War Department refused.  It said the Air Corps chose men with technical experience.  The department also said that blacks were not interested in flying.  And it said that so many educated white men wanted to enter the Air Corps that many of them had to be refused acceptance.

VOICE TWO:

The War Department’s refusal led many to feel that blacks would only be guaranteed acceptance into the Air Corps through legislation by Congress.  Black leaders used the United States‿preparation for entry into World War Two to pressure Congress.  They criticized the unfair treatment of African-Americans in the armed services.

In nineteen thirty-nine, Congress approved a bill guaranteeing blacks the right to be trained as military air pilots.  It was proposed that a pilot training camp for blacks be established in Tuskegee, Alabama.

VOICE ONE:

Black leaders praised the signs of change within the military.  Yet they continued to work against the military policy of racial separation.  The War Department answered these critics by making plans to form several new black fighting groups.

It also promoted a black colonel, Benjamin O. Davis, Senior, to Brigadier General.  And the War Department appointed a black judge, William Hastie, as civilian8 aide on African-American affairs.  Judge Hastie was the head of Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C.

Judge Hastie first opposed the establishment of a flight training school in Tuskegee.  He wanted blacks to be trained along with whites, not separated from them.  The Air Corps said there was no space in other programs.  And it said establishing a school at Tuskegee would be the fastest way to start the training.  So Judge Hastie withdrew his formal opposition9, although he was not satisfied with the plan.

Fred Patterson was the president of the Tuskegee Institute.  He also objected to separate training of black pilots.  He said it was necessary to denounce forced racial separation.  But he finally accepted the program at Tuskegee.  He recognized that blacks would be trained separately from whites any place in the United States.  He saw Tuskegee as a beginning.  At least blacks would now become military pilots.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The Civilian Pilot Training Program at Tuskegee trained black pilots for difficult and dangerous flying.  The first group of African-Americans completed the training as fighter pilots in March, nineteen forty-two.

General Davis’s son, Benjamin O. Davis, Junior, was among the first graduates.  Blacks finally had won the right to fly with the Army Air Corps, now known as the Army Air Forces.  After the war, the Army Air Forces would become the United States Air Force.

Many of the men trained at Tuskegee served in Europe with the Ninety-Ninth Pursuit Squadron.  It was organized in October, nineteen forty-two.  Its commander was Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Junior.

VOICE ONE:

The Ninety-Ninth was sent to the Mediterranean area in April, nineteen forty-three.  The pilots gained fighting experience flying over Sicily and Italy.  In June of that year, the fighter pilots successfully attacked the Sicilian island of Pantelleria.  It was the first time air power alone completely destroyed all enemy resistance.

The Tuskegee Airmen took part in the most famous battles in Italy.  These included  the battles over the Monte Cassino monastery10 between Rome and Naples and the invasions of Salerno and Anzio.  At Anzio, in the first months of nineteen forty-four, the pilots of the Ninety-Ninth shot down eighteen enemy airplanes. Later, in July, they shot down thirty-six enemy planes. Their record led the Army Air Forces to decide to use more black pilots in the war.

VOICE TWO:

 
Pilots with the 332nd Fighter Group in Ramitelli, Italy
In September, nineteen forty-three, Colonel Davis became commander of the Three Hundred Thirty-Second Fighter Group.  The Ninety-Ninth Squadron became a part of that group.  Four hundred fifty black pilots were in the group.  They flew more than fifteen thousand five hundred flights in Europe.

The Tuskegee Airmen guarded bomber airplanes.  They destroyed more than one hundred enemy airplanes in the air, including German fighter planes.  And two of the Tuskegee Airmen each shot down four enemy planes.

VOICE ONE:

Nine hundred ninety-six black pilots were trained at Tuskegee Airfield11 before World War Two ended.  For black Americans during World War Two, the Tuskegee Airmen represented both honor and inequality.  Members of the group received almost one thousand military awards during the war.  Yet their separation from white troops was a powerful sign of the military’s racial policy.

History experts say the Tuskegee airmen proved that black men could fly military airplanes in highly successful combat operations.  And the group’s success helped end the separate racial policy of the American military.  In nineteen forty-eight, President Harry12 Truman ordered the armed forces to provide equal treatment for black servicemen.  The next year, the Air Force announced that black and white airmen no longer would be separated.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In civilian life, many of the Tuskegee airmen became lawyers, doctors, judges, congressmen and mayors.  Their fighting spirit had helped them survive battles and unequal treatment.  At home, their spirit helped lead the way to civil rights progress in the United States.

In March, two thousand seven, the United States Congress honored the Tuskegee Airmen at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. The group received the country's highest civilian honor, the Congressional Gold Medal.

 
President Bush with Tuskegee airmen Roscoe Brown, center, and Alexander Jefferson during the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony
President Bush spoke13 to the surviving airmen and their families.  He praised their bravery to fight in the face of the unequal treatment they suffered at home.  Retired14 Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell also spoke to the group. He thanked them for leading the way to equal racial treatment in the United States.  He said the Tuskegee Airmen showed America that there was nothing a black person could not do.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach.  It was produced by Mario Ritter.  I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein.  You can read and listen to this program on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.  Join us again next week for Explorations in VOA Special English.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 Mediterranean ezuzT     
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的
参考例句:
  • The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
  • Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。
2 bomber vWwz7     
n.轰炸机,投弹手,投掷炸弹者
参考例句:
  • He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
  • Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。
3 bombers 38202cf84a1722d1f7273ea32117f60d     
n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 );投弹手;安非他明胶囊;大麻叶香烟
参考例句:
  • Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
4 cargo 6TcyG     
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物
参考例句:
  • The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
  • A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。
5 lieutenant X3GyG     
n.陆军中尉,海军上尉;代理官员,副职官员
参考例句:
  • He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
  • He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官,递上了一张简短的便条进去。
6 corps pzzxv     
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组
参考例句:
  • The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
  • When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时,他自愿参加了海军陆战队。
7 advancement tzgziL     
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。
8 civilian uqbzl     
adj.平民的,民用的,民众的
参考例句:
  • There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
  • He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。
9 opposition eIUxU     
n.反对,敌对
参考例句:
  • The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
  • The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
10 monastery 2EOxe     
n.修道院,僧院,寺院
参考例句:
  • They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
  • She was appointed the superior of the monastery two years ago.两年前她被任命为这个修道院的院长。
11 airfield cz9z9Z     
n.飞机场
参考例句:
  • The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
  • The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。
12 harry heBxS     
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼
参考例句:
  • Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天,人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
  • Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。
13 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。
14 retired Njhzyv     
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
参考例句:
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

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