最新15篇文章贯通英语四级词汇MP3 Unit10-Part4（在线收听）

[00:00.00]The development of the country, 

[00:02.83]as we know it today, 

[00:04.47]was an evolutionary process 

[00:05.89]over more than eight decades. 

[00:08.63]Manitoba became a province 

[00:11.69]after some controversial events 

[00:13.88]involving the federal government 

[00:15.63]and the Metis,French speaking descendants 

[00:18.91]of French fur traders 

[00:20.66]who married American Indian girls. 

[00:23.29]This ethnic group settled 

[00:26.02]near Fort Gary, the city of Winnipeg, 

[00:28.65]Manitoba what is called today.

[00:31.39]John A. Macdonald, the new 

[00:35.80]and first Prime Minister 

[00:37.67]of the new nation, 

[00:38.98]made a deal with the western

[00:40.84]most colony in Vancouver guaranteeing 

[00:42.81]on the building of a railroad 

[00:45.43]from the east to the west 

[00:47.84]if that colony would 

[00:49.48]join Canadian Confederation. 

[00:51.78]The property of the Metis, to which 

[00:56.37]the latter felt legally entitled, 

[00:58.56]was in the path 

[00:59.98]of the new railway.

[01:01.19]The federal government essentially 

[01:04.47]took the land. The  Metis  

[01:07.43]were compelled to move further west, 

[01:09.72]but not without a fight. 

[01:11.04](The Metis and the federal government

[01:14.43] were on an inevitable collision course. 

[01:16.50]Twice, Metis revolts tested 

[01:19.46]the might of the federal government 

[01:21.97]and relationship between 

[01:23.51]French and Englishspeaking Canada). 

[01:26.03]The federal government was able 

[01:29.63]to defeat the Metis in both clashes.

[01:32.04]Louis Riel, the leader of 

[01:35.55]the Metis was hanged for 

[01:37.30]treason in 1885 for his leading role

[01:40.79] in resisting the federal government. 

[01:43.31]He became a martyr to 

[01:45.06]FrenchCanadians. His death 

[01:48.23]only added fuel to 

[01:49.55]the growing discontent between 

[01:51.29]French and English Canada.

[01:53.37]Throughout this whole period, 

[01:56.44]1869 to 1885, the federal 

[02:00.81](or central) government ignored the appeals 

[02:04.53]of the Metis. It appeared that, 

[02:06.83]according to Macdonald and his followers, 

[02:09.79]the creation of the new nation 

[02:11.87]was more important than 

[02:13.61]relieving the plight of 

[02:15.36]a relatively small minority group. 

[02:17.44]The Metis probably deserved 

[02:21.06]much better of the federal goverment. 

[02:23.02]Different versions of these events 

[02:26.75]are still debated 

[02:28.17]in Canadian classrooms today.

[02:30.24]Macdonald was also criticized 

[02:33.20]for concealing the fact that 

[02:35.39]he took some money illegally 

[02:37.25]to complete the railway. 

[02:39.21]In 1873 as “The Pacific Scandal” 

[02:42.93]became known, the construction 

[02:46.21]of the railway suspended temporarily. 

[02:49.07]The determined Macdonald and 

[02:51.79]his government, obsessed by the possibility 

[02:54.64]of the Americans moving in 

[02:56.50]and taking over the west, 

[02:58.91]boldly pushed railway 

[03:00.66]construction to completion.

[03:02.08]Manitoba became a province 

[03:05.91]in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, 

[03:09.41]Prince Edward Island in 1873, 

[03:12.47]Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905. 

[03:15.43]The admission of Newfoundland 

[03:21.88]into Confederation in 1949 

[03:24.07]completed the Canadian Confederation 

[03:27.03]of ten provinces from sea to sea, 

[03:29.54]as they exist today. The railway, 

[03:33.70]the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) 

[03:36.10]was completed before the agreed deadline.