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45 女飞行员杰奎琳·考可然
DATE=7-11-01
TITLE=EXPLORATIONS #1960 - Jacqueline Cochran
BYLINE=Marilyn Christiano
ANNCR:
Now, the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS.
Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of American (1) pilot Jacqueline Cochran.
VOICE ONE:
Some people's paths in life seem to be straight and true. From an early age, they are set on one goal. Other people's paths turn this way and that. The events of their lives are a surprise.
Jacqueline Cochran was one of these people. No event in her early life was a sign of what she was to become -- one of the best fliers in the world.
Jacqueline Cochran was known as Jackie. She said she was born in Nineteen-Ten. She did not really know. Her parents died when she was a baby. Another man and woman (2) adopted her. They became her (3) legal parents.
These people were very poor. They lived in several towns in (4) Florida and (5) Georgia. Jackie went to school for just two years. Then she began work in a cotton factory. She was eight years old. She earned six cents an hour.
VOICE TWO:
Later, Jackie studied to be a nurse. But, she decided to be a (6) beautician, a person who cuts and fixes other people's hair. She went to a special school and worked in several beauty shops in the South. Then, she decided to move to New York City. There she worked in a very fine beauty shop. On a business trip, she met wealthy (7) financial expert, Floyd Odlum.
Floyd Odlum (8) urged Jackie to learn to fly. He also helped her (9) establish what was to become a very successful business.
Jackie had dreamed of selling her own beauty products. At that time, the United States was in severe economic trouble, the (10) Great Depression. Floyd told Jackie it would be very difficult to sell enough beauty products to make her company successful. She would have to sell them all across America.
To cover the (11) territory, he said, she would need wings. She thought it was a great idea.
VOICE ONE:
Years later, Jackie Cochran remembered how she talked with her friends about learning to fly. They all warned her how difficult it would be. She did not think so. So she went to Roosevelt Field on New York's Long Island to learn how.
After two-and-a-half weeks of lessons, she received her official pilot's (12) license. She immediately flew to (13) Montreal, Canada. The year was Nineteen-Thirty-Two.
Three years later, she competed in the Bendix Trophy Race from (14) Los Angeles to (15) Cleveland.
The race was an important competition for both men and women pilots. In her first try, Cochran had trouble with her plane. She failed to finish. Another young female pilot, Amelia Earhart, finished fifth.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, Jackie and Floyd were married. She continued to operate her company, Jacqueline Cochran (16) Cosmetics. And he continued to support her flying activities.
In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Amelia Earhart attempted to fly around the world. She disappeared during that flight. A group of female pilots held a (17) memorial ceremony to honor her. Jackie Cochran spoke at the ceremony. "We can mourn her loss," Cochran said, "but not regret her effort. We will carry on her goals."
VOICE ONE:
A month after Earhart was declared lost at sea, Cochran flew again in the Bendix Trophy Race. She was the only female pilot. She finished in third place, ahead of several of America's toughest male pilots.
The winner of that race flew a new kind of (18) military plane. It was designed by Alexander de Seversky. He had come to the United States from Russia.
Seversky wanted to sell his new long-distance plane to the United States Army Air Corps. He thought the army would notice his plane if a female pilot flew it in a race and did well. So he asked Cochran to fly it in the next Bendix race. She accepted immediately.
VOICE TWO:
Seversky added (19) extra fuel (20) containers in the wings. He wanted to show that the plane could fly long distances without stopping. Cochran would be the first pilot to use the new system.
Twenty-one pilots flew a test course before the race. Only ten completed it successfully. Nine men and Jackie Cochran.
The race began in Burbank, California, in the middle of the night. Forty-thousand persons were there to watch. Seversky's plane, with Cochran at the controls, speeded down the runway. Its silver wings and body shone in the lights around the (21) airfield. The plane lifted off the runway, climbed up and disappeared into the darkness.
VOICE ONE:
Another crowd was waiting in Cleveland, (22) Ohio. They (23) cheered as the first plane landed and crossed the finish line. It was the silver plane flown by Jackie Cochran. She had won the race.
Cochran had flown three-thousand two-hundred-seventy kilometers in eight hours and ten minutes. She had done it without stopping. But only she knew there was enough fuel left to fly just a few more minutes.
Jackie Cochran won something else that year - (24) recognition. She received the Harmon Trophy, the highest award given to a pilot in America. She would win the Harmon Trophy thirteen more times.
VOICE TWO:
The next year, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, World War Two started in Europe. Cochran believed female pilots could help in the war effort. She thought they should be permitted to fly military transport planes. In that way, she said, more male pilots would be free to fly (25) combat planes.
In Nineteen-Forty, she tried to get the United States Army Air Forces to support her idea. Cochran wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt's wife, Eleanor. She said the real problem in wartime was likely to be a lack of trained pilots. Many women, she noted, already were trained.
VOICE ONE:
Cochran received (26) permission to go to England to observe female pilots in the newly-formed British Air Transport (27) Auxiliary. She stayed there several years.
By Nineteen-Forty-Three, the United States realized that it did need more pilots. The commander of America's Army Air Forces, General Henry Arnold, visited England. He asked Cochran to come home and organize a program for female pilots. The group would be known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
The group existed for two years. During that brief time, the women learned to fly seventy-seven kinds of military planes.
One-thousand seventy-four women served as WASPs. They flew almost one-hundred-million kilometers. They were never officially part of the Army Air Forces. They were considered (28) civilian employees.
VOICE TWO:
At the end of World War Two, the American government gave Jackie Cochran the (29) Distinguished Service Medal for organizing the WASPs. She was the first civilian to receive the honor.
After the war, she worked with General Arnold. She helped write a bill that created America's Air Force (30) Reserve. She became the first female member. She was finally a member of the military.
VOICE ONE:
In the late Nineteen-Forties, Cochran started racing again. She set many more flying records. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, she entered the (31) jet age. The Canadian government agreed to let her test its new (32) fighter plane. In it, she became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound.
In the early Nineteen-Sixties, she became a test pilot for the Lockheed Company. She flew a fighter plane two-thousand two-hundred-eighty-six kilometers an hour. More than two times the speed of sound.
It was the fastest speed ever reached by a female pilot.
VOICE TWO:
Jackie Cochran sold her beauty products company in Nineteen-Sixty-Four. She died of a (33) heart attack in Nineteen-Eighty. At the time of her death, she held more speed, distance and (34) altitude records than any other pilot -- man or woman -- in (35) aviation history.
She had risen from a lowly beginning to the heights of business and flight.
Jackie Cochran is not as well-known as some of the other great pilots. One history expert said people respected her, but did not really like her. She led the way for other female pilots. But she did not seek their company as friends.
Jackie Cochran felt very much at home in the sky. She once (36) described her feelings about flying. This is what she said:
"Earth-bound souls know only that underside of the atmosphere in which they live. But go up higher, and the sky turns dark. High up enough, and one can see the stars at noon. I have. I have traveled with the wind and the stars."
(THEME)
ANNOUNCER:
This Special English program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. This is Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on VOA.
(1) pilot [ 5pailEt ] n.飞行员
(2) adopt [ E5dCpt ] vt.采用, 收养
(3) legal [ 5li:^El ] adj.法律的, 法定的, 合法
(4) Florida [ 5flCridE ] n.佛罗里达(美国州名)
(5) Georgia [ 5dVC:dVjE ] n.乔治亚州
(6) beautician [ bju:5tiFEn ] n.美容师
(7) financial [ fai5nAnFEl] adj.财政的, 金融的
(8) urge [ E:dV ] vt.催促, 力劝
(9) establish [ is5tAbliF ] vt.建立, 设立, 确定 v.建立
(10) great depression 大萧条
(11) territory [ 5teritEri ] n.领土, 版图, 地域
(12) license [5laIsEns] n.许可(证), 执照
(13) Montreal [ 7mCntri5C:l ] n. 蒙特利尔（加拿大）
(14) Los Angeles [lRs5AndVElEs] n.洛杉矶
(15) Cleveland [ 5kli:vlEnd ] 美国城市
(16) cosmetic [ kCz5metik ] n.化妆品 adj.化妆用的
(17) memorial [ mi5mC:riEl ] n.纪念物, 纪念馆, 纪念议事, 请愿书 adj.记念的, 记忆的
(18) military [ 5militEri ] adj.军事的, 军用的
(19) extra [ 5ekstrE ] adj.额外的,特大的, 特佳的 adv.特别地, 非常, 另外
(20) container [ kEn5teinE ] n.容器(箱,盆,罐,壶,桶,坛子), 集装箱
(21) airfield [5eEfi:ld] n.飞机场
(22) Ohio [ Eu5haiEu ] n.俄亥俄州
(23) cheer [ tFiE ] n.愉快, 欢呼 v.(使)快活, (对)欢呼
(24) recognition [ 7rekE^5niFEn ] n.赞誉, 承认, 重视, 公认
(25) combat [ 5kCmbEt ] n.战斗, 格斗 v.战斗, 搏斗, 抗击
(26) permission [ pE(:)5miFEn ] n.许可, 允许
(27) auxiliary [ C:^5ziljEri ] adj.辅助的, 补助的
(28) civilian [ si5viljEn ] n.平民adj.民间的, 民用的
(29) distinguished [ dis5tiN^wiFt ] adj.卓著的, 著名的, 高贵的
(30) reserve [ ri5zE:v ] n.预备队
(31) jet age n.喷气机时代
(32) fighter plane n.战斗机, 歼击机
(33) heart attack n.心脏病发作
(34) altitude [ 5Altitju:d ] n.(尤指海拔)高度, 高处(海拔甚高的地方)
(35) aviation [ 7eivi5eiFEn ] n.飞行, 航空, 航空学
(36) describe [ dis5kraib ] vt.描写, 记述, 形容, 形容 v.描述
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