【英语语言学习】纪念尼古拉斯.温顿爵士

ERIC WESTERVELT, HOST: Many people around the world are mourning the death of Sir Nicholas Winton this week at the age of 106. Winton is credited with saving the lives of 669 children, most of them Jews, by organizing their escape from what was then Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. In 1938, Nicholas Winton was a 29-year-old British stockbroker¹. He was preparing to take a skiing vacation, but a friend who was aiding Jewish refugees² convinced Winton to join him. He flew to Czechoslovakia and later described that moment to CBS News's "60 Minutes."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "60 MINUTES")

SIR NICHOLAS WINTON: I went out into the camps where the people who had been displaced³ were put, and it was winter and it was cold.

WESTERVELT: Jews in Czechoslovakia then were facing increased hostility⁴ and danger. So Winton helped to organize eight trains full of Jewish children that would head to England. All but one train made it through. Winton told very few people about his humanitarian⁵ work, not even his wife knew. But 50 years later, she discovered a scrapbook of the names and photos of children, and she let the world know his story. Joining us to speak about Nicholas Winton's legacy⁶ is Alice Masters, one of the hundreds he helped to escape. Alice Masters, welcome to the program. Thanks for joining us.

ALICE MASTERS: Thank you. Thank you.

WESTERVELT: I understand you were just 14 years old when your parents decided⁷ to send you and your two sisters away from then Czechoslovakia aboard one of the trains organized by Winton. Tell us how they came to that decision.

MASTERS: Well, it was really a miracle that it happened because my parents would not have heard of Winton if it hadn't been for my mother's younger brother, who lived in Berlin during the '30s and was a representative of a Slovak spa. And when things got very bad, he was transferred to England, and he heard about Winton. My uncle wrote to my parents and urged them to get out if possible, but if they cannot get out, he told them to at least send the children away. We lived in a very small village in the eastern part of Slovakia, and people didn't expect that anything would happen there. And all my parents' friends told them you are making a terrible mistake. Nothing is going to happen here, tut my parents listened to what my uncle said and sent us on the transport.

WESTERVELT: What did your parents tell you about the trip you'd be making?

MASTERS: Well, first of all, Czechoslovakia was occupied in March 1939, so we lived under the occupation for a few months. So we knew exactly what was going on and we also saw the fear in our friends' and neighbors' faces. They were panicked. They didn't know what was going to happen to them. So we saw - as children we understood what was going on, but our parents decided that they are going to send us away, and they called us and told us we are going to London until it blows over.

WESTERVELT: And your parents didn't make it out.

MASTERS: No, none of them. My parents, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, cousins, friends, none of them survived.

WESTERVELT: How did you first hear about Nicholas Winton?

MASTERS: It took 50 years before we found out about Winton. After the war nobody wanted to hear about the Holocaust⁸. And nobody wanted to talk about it or - he apparently⁹ wanted to give his papers to an institution or somewhere and nobody wanted them. So he put them away and then he didn't talk about it and he didn't tell his wife. And after 50 years, one of the Kindertransports - children - arranged a reunion in London. Five hundred children turned up for this reunion and that's where we met Winton. He came to the reunion and this is the first time any of us knew about his existence.

WESTERVELT: Miss Masters, what was it like meeting Winton at this Kindertransport reunion?

MASTERS: It was just marvelous. We were all just thrilled to see him and he was just very happy to see us also. And ever since then we have been in close contact with him. We had many get-togethers, and I have many letters that he has written to me.

WESTERVELT: The children Winton saved and their descendants¹⁰ now number more than 6,000. What do you tell your family about Winton and this chapter in your life?

MASTERS: My sisters and I have several children and we have a lot of grandchildren and we owe their lives to Winton.

WESTERVELT: Alice Masters, one of the children Nicholas Winton saved. He died this week at the age of 106. Ms. Masters, thank you so much for speaking with us.

MASTERS: Thank you.

1 stockbroker   

n.股票（或证券），经纪人（或机构）

参考例句：

• The main business of stockbroker is to help clients buy and sell shares.股票经纪人的主要业务是帮客户买卖股票。
• My stockbroker manages my portfolio for me.我的证券经纪人替我管理投资组合。

2 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

3 displaced   

移动( displace的过去式和过去分词 )； 替换； 移走； 撤职

参考例句：

• Gradually factory workers have been displaced by machines. 工厂的工人已逐渐被机器取代。
• He was displaced by another young man. 他已被另一个年轻人顶替。

4 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 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。

7 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。

8 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

9 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

10 descendants   

n. 后代，后裔 名词descendant的复数形式

参考例句：

• They were the direct descendants of the Dutch settlers. 他们是荷兰移民的直系后裔。
• They are the descendants of Queen Victoria. 他们是维多利亚女王的后裔。