VOA常速英语2018--全美纪念民权运动偶像路德金逝世五十周年

US Marks 50 Years Since Civil Rights Icon¹ King’s Assassination²

April 9th 1968, the final march of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior.Just a few days earlier on the 4th of April,James Earl Ray-the man later convicted of the shooting assassinated³ King on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee.More than 100,000 people lined the streets of Atlanta-the place of King’s birth as two mules⁴ pulled a simple farm wagon⁵ carrying his body.King’s funeral drew famous faces of the era, including Senator Robert Kennedy, future US President-Richard Nixon and fellow civil rights activist-the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

1968年4月9日，马丁·路德·金牧师的最后一次游行。就在4月4日早些时候，詹姆斯·艾尔·雷在田纳西州孟菲斯暗杀了洛林汽车旅馆阳台上的路德·金，其暗杀罪名成立。十多万人在亚特兰大的街道排队，也就是路德·金出生的地方，他们把金的遗体放在一个简单的农用货车上，用两个骡子拉着。金的葬礼吸引了很多当时有名的人物参加，其中包括参议员罗伯特·肯尼迪，未来的美国总统理查德·尼克松和同胞维权活动家杰西·杰克逊牧师。

Jackson spoke⁶ with VOA in August 2011 during the dedication⁷ of King’s Memorial in Washington.“He’s really as a symbol of power and justice and peace and reconciliation⁸, but we had to win some mighty⁹ battles to get the reconciliation. I mean the Battle of Montgomery involved confrontation¹⁰ and endurance through a later one-day struggle.”The battles of Alabama were for the voting rights denied blacks in many parts of the American South.It was followed by more police violence against civilians¹¹ in the city of Selma in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday”.Congressman¹² John Lewis was one of the leaders of the student protests.“They came toward us, beating us with nightsticks, trampling¹³ us with horses, releasing tear gas. Was hit in the head by a trooper with a night stick. I had a concussion¹⁴ at the brain.”“I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death.”The televised violence sparked a national outcry.

2011年8月，杰克逊在华盛顿的路德·金纪念堂献礼上与美国之音节目这样说。“他真的是权力与正义，和平与和解的象征，但我们必须先打赢一些大的战斗才能实现和解。我的意思是，通过一天的战斗，蒙哥马利之战中包含着对抗也有忍耐。”阿拉巴马州的战斗是为了帮助美国南部许多地区的黑人赢得投票权。不久后，更多的警察在塞尔玛市暴力对抗平民，人们称之为“血色星期日”。众议员约翰·刘易斯是学生抗议活动的领导人之一。“他们走向我们，用夜槌击打我们，用马践踏我们，释放催泪瓦斯。我被一名夜班骑兵击中头部，脑部震荡。”“我以为我会死。我以为我看到了死亡。”暴力事件被报道后引发了全国范围的强烈抗议。

A few days later, a court order gave king permission to lead tens of thousands of demonstrators to march from Selma to Alabama’s capital Montgomery.“King junior came back to visit me in my hospital room and said, ‘John, don’t worry. We will make it from Stallman to Montgomery, and the Voting Rights Act will be passed.” A year after US President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, King’s strategy of peaceful protests led to the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.“Well, he believed in the legal process, he taught litigation alone was too slow. You need in litigation, demonstration¹⁵ and legislation. He believed in mass action is to transform the mass is marching and the change of culture that, that drove us for the march.”The most famous was the 1963 march on Washington.

几天后，法院允许金带领成千上万的示威者从阿拉巴马州的首都蒙哥马利游行到塞尔玛。“金到我的病房看望我说，约翰，别担心。我们将从斯托曼游行到到蒙哥马利，《投票权法案》也会通过的。”《民权法案》签署的第二年，迫于金的和平示威压力，美国总统林登·约翰逊不得不签署了《投票权法案》。“嗯，金相信法律程序，他说纯粹依靠诉讼耗时太长了。你需要诉讼，需要示威游行，也需要立法。他相信大规模行动是去促进人们现在努力去完成的事情，是去改变驱使人们去游行的那种文化。其中最有名的算得上1963年华盛顿的游行了。

An estimated quarter of a million people gathered at the National Mall to hear King’s iconic speech.It was a dream of freedom and equality in a country that was built on the backs of the enslaved.New York Times reporter Earl Caldwell was sent to Memphis to shadow King.“What was on King’s mind and what he wanted to talk to me about was what he called the Poor People’s Campaign. He said he was gonna gather poor people from all around the country, bring them to Washington, and he was going to stop the business of the government of the United States until it dealt with the issue of poverty particularly pertaining¹⁶ to black people.”

据估计，约有25万人聚集在国家广场聆听金标志性的演讲。这是一个国家有关自由和平等的梦想，这是建立在奴役背后的梦想。纽约时报记者厄尔·考德威尔被送到孟菲斯市去跟踪金。“金脑里想的和他想要和我说的都是‘穷人运动’”。他说他要把全国的穷人都召集起来，带他们到华盛顿去。而且他会阻止美国政府处理事务，直到政府解决和黑人有关的贫困问题。”

Passage of the Civil Rights Act forced legal change in the 1960s, but activists¹⁷ say real change is often slow.“We are a different but a better nation today in the sense that the barbaric laws and in some civil laws of racial apartheid have ended, so that the social gaps have closed but the economic gaps, they’re free but less equal.”King’s legacy¹⁸ of peaceful protest lives on most recently at the March for our lives rally in Washington.Organizers of the gun-control march on Washington estimated crowds of about 800,000, among them King’s granddaughter.My grandfather had dream that his four little children will not be judged by the color, their skin but by the content of their character.Before his assassination in 1968 King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign for equality.Today more than 100 schools and over 900 streets in the United States bear his name.

在20世纪60年代《民权法案》就已经带来了法律上的改变，但是活动家认为真正的改变往往是缓慢的。“如今，我们国家变得更好了，野蛮的法律和民法中的一些种族隔离制度已经不存在了，所以人们社会地位上平等了，但经济地位上虽自由却仍然不平等。”金和平抗议的成果在最近华盛顿的游行中也有体现，这个游行旨在提高人们的生活安全水平。据估计，华盛顿的枪支管制游行运动越有80万人，其中就有金的孙女。我的祖父有一个梦想，希望人们评判他的四个孩子的时候，不是通过肤色，而是通过他们的品质。在1968年金被暗杀前，因为他领导的非暴力的平等运动，他被授予诺贝尔和平奖。如今，美国100多所学校、900多条街道都以他的名字命名。

1 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

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。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

2 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

3 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

4 mules   

骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者

参考例句：

• The cart was pulled by two mules. 两匹骡子拉这辆大车。
• She wore tight trousers and high-heeled mules. 她穿紧身裤和拖鞋式高跟鞋。

5 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

6 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。

7 dedication   

n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞

参考例句：

• We admire her courage,compassion and dedication.我们钦佩她的勇气、爱心和奉献精神。
• Her dedication to her work was admirable.她对工作的奉献精神可钦可佩。

8 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

9 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

10 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

11 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

12 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

13 trampling   

踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯

参考例句：

• Diplomats denounced the leaders for trampling their citizens' civil rights. 外交官谴责这些领导人践踏其公民的公民权。
• They don't want people trampling the grass, pitching tents or building fires. 他们不希望人们踩踏草坪、支帐篷或生火。

14 concussion   

n.脑震荡；震动

参考例句：

• He was carried off the field with slight concussion.他因轻微脑震荡给抬离了现场。
• She suffers from brain concussion.她得了脑震荡。

15 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

16 pertaining   

与…有关系的，附属…的，为…固有的(to)

参考例句：

• Living conditions are vastly different from those pertaining in their country of origin. 生活条件与他们祖国大不相同。
• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school. 视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。

17 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。