VOA慢速英语2011--Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957: She Wro

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957: She Wrote Nine “Little House” Books About Pioneer Life

DOUG JOHNSON: I’m Doug Johnson.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English. Today, we tell about Laura Ingalls Wilder who wrote the “Little House” books for children.
(MUSIC)
MOTHER: “Daisy, it’s time!”
DAISY: “Mom !”
MOTHER: “Now, Daisy, that’s enough music for tonight. You have to go to sleep.”
DAISY: “But, Mom, it’s still early!”
MOTHER: “Young lady, you have school tomorrow. You need your rest.”
DAISY: “But I’m not sleepy! Besides, you promised to read me a story.”
MOTHER: “O.K. But just for a little while.”
DAISY: “Yeah! Please make it ‘The Little House on the Prairie.’ I love that book. Please, please, please!”
MOTHER: “Alright, here goes.”
“A long time ago, when all the grandfathers and grandmothers of today were little boys and girls or very small babies, or perhaps not even born, Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. They drove away and left it lonely and empty in the clearing among the big trees, and they never saw that little house again.”
DOUG JOHNSON: Since the nineteen thirties, children have gone to sleep listening to the words of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She wrote nine “Little House” books that take place in the mid¹ eighteen hundreds. They tell about a family who lived on the great flat land known as the prairie in the central part of the United States. They were known as pioneers.
The family moved from one small house to another. They carried all they owned in a wagon², pulled by a horse. They did not like to live and work in big cities. They enjoyed farming and raising animals. And they loved the open spaces of the prairie.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Laura Ingalls was born in eighteen sixty-seven in an area known as the “Big Woods” of Wisconsin. Her father was said to have a “restless spirit.” He did not like to live in one place very long. The family moved from Wisconsin to Kansas, then to Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota.
Laura’s father was always looking for a better job, or better land to settle on. Life for the Ingalls family was not easy. They were often cold and hungry. Laura remembered these times when she wrote her “Little House” books later in life.
DOUG JOHNSON: When she was about sixteen, Laura began teaching³ school. Two years later, she married Almanzo Wilder. A year and a half after that, Laura gave birth to a baby girl. They named her Rose. They hoped to settle on a nice farm and raise a large family. But they experienced⁴ a series of bad luck.
For several years there was no rain. Their crops failed. Then Almanzo became very sick. Their home and barn⁵ were destroyed by fire. They had almost no money. For many years they moved from place to place and worked at many different jobs. Finally, Rose urged her mother to try writing for a living. And that is when the idea for the “Little House” books was born.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Laura Ingalls Wilder’s first book is called “Little House in the Big Woods.” It was published in nineteen thirty-two. It tells of her life when she was about five years old. She calls her mother and father “Ma” and “Pa”. She also includes an older sister named Mary and a younger sister named Carrie in her stories. This first book tells how Laura helps her family on their small farm.
She learns how to grow crops and prepare for a cold winter. After working hard all day, Pa would play his fiddle⁶, and sometimes they would sing and dance. Life was simple, but good.
DOUG JOHNSON: The next book in the series is called “Farmer Boy.” It tells the story of Almanzo Wilder growing up on a farm in New York State. It is different from the other “Little House” books because it is only about Almanzo.
Then, in nineteen thirty-five, Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her most famous book, “Little House on the Prairie.” It tells stories that are exciting, and sometimes scary, like this one.
JIM TEDDER⁷: “One dark night after the family had gone to bed, Laura thought she heard a strange sound outside. Suddenly, Jack⁸, her dog, began to bark. He was afraid. And so was their horse, Patty. What could it be? Was someone trying to break in and rob them? They could not call for help. Their closest neighbors were far away. And then they heard a horrible sound.”
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Wolves were not the only problems the Ingalls family faced. In the next book, “On the Banks of Plum Creek,” something unusual happens.
JIM TEDDER: “Laura’s father had planted a large crop of wheat. The weather had been good. The wheat was tall, and ready to be cut and sold. The money from the crop would make them feel rich. One day, Laura was in their little house when she saw something strange. It looked like the sky was getting dark. Her mother said a storm was coming. They walked out the door a short distance to see the storm. But there was no wind, and no thunder or lightning. They saw a huge cloud go across the sun. The cloud was dark, but seemed to have little golden lights inside. What could it be? Then…they heard it.”
“One, two, then ten … a hundred … then thousands of grasshoppers⁹ began falling from the sky. Laura screamed as the insects landed on her clothes and crawled¹⁰ in her hair. The family quickly ran into the house. But the grasshoppers kept coming. They soon covered the roof of the house and the ground outside. Pa remembered the wheat crop and looked out the window. The grasshoppers were attacking the crops in the fields. He could even hear them as they chewed and chewed. Within a short time, there was nothing left. There would be no wheat crop this year. And there would be no money.”
DOUG JOHNSON: The next “Little House” book is called “By the Shores of Silver Lake.” In this book, the Ingalls family moves to South Dakota. Pa takes a job in a small store owned by the railroad¹¹. Once again he builds a house for his family, and they hope that their traveling days are over.
“The Long Winter” is the next book in the series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It tells about an old Native American man who warns that there will be seven months of heavy snow and wind.
The first blizzard¹² comes in the middle of October, much sooner than usual. One storm follows another. For weeks, the Ingalls have only potatoes and bread to eat. They run out of wood to burn for heat. The blizzards¹³ are so bad that the children cannot even walk to school.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The next book in the series, “Little Town on the Prairie” was published in nineteen forty-one. In this book, the Ingalls family continues to move from place to place in the central prairie land of America. Laura grows older and becomes a school teacher.
In the next book, “These Happy Golden Years,” Laura and Almanzo are married and move into their own home. The last book in the series is called “The First Four Years.” It tells about Laura and Almanzo as they begin their life together.
DOUG JOHNSON: The “Little House” books are all fiction. But they are closely¹⁴ based upon the memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder. When she was asked which parts of her stories were true, she often said: “I lived everything I wrote.”
The writer and her husband finally settled at Rocky Ridge¹⁵ Farm in Mansfield, Missouri. Almanzo was ninety-two when he died in nineteen forty-nine. Laura died in nineteen fifty-seven, just after her ninetieth birthday.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: The Wilder’s Rocky Ridge Farm is now a museum. Thousands of people from around the world come to visit each year. The can see many of Laura’s hand written pages for the “Little House” books. They can also see photographs of the family, and some of the clothes that Laura sewed while living on the prairie. Visitors can see tools and other things that Almanzo used to build their houses and farm the land. And they can see Pa’s fiddle.
DOUG JOHNSON: The “Little House” books continue to sell very well. They have been translated into forty-five languages. The books are written in a simple style that is easy for young people to understand. Many teachers in the United States and foreign countries use the books in their classrooms. They help students learn to read English, and to understand the history of pioneering life in America. And children around the world, just like Daisy, beg their parents for just one more story at bedtime.
MOTHER: “They were all happy that night. The fire was pleasant. Outside the sky was full of stars. Pa sat for a long time in the doorway¹⁶ and played his fiddle. He sang to Ma and Mary and Laura and to the starry¹⁷ night outside.”
MOTHER: “Daisy? Daisy?”
DAISY: “ ‘Night Mom.”
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written by Jim Tedder and produced by Dana Demange. The mother and daughter were Caty Weaver¹⁸ and Daisy Bracken. I’m Shirley Griffith.
DOUG JOHNSON: And I’m Doug Johnson. Our programs are online with transcripts¹⁹ and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. And you can find us on Facebook and YouTube at VOA Learning²⁰ English. Join us again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

2 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。

3 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

4 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

5 barn   

n.谷仓，饲料仓，牲口棚

参考例句：

• That big building is a barn for keeping the grain.那幢大房子是存放粮食的谷仓。
• The cows were driven into the barn.牛被赶进了牲口棚。

6 fiddle   

n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动

参考例句：

• She plays the fiddle well.她小提琴拉得好。
• Don't fiddle with the typewriter.不要摆弄那架打字机了。

7 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

8 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

9 grasshoppers   

n.蚱蜢( grasshopper的名词复数 )；蝗虫；蚂蚱；（孩子）矮小的

参考例句：

• Grasshoppers die in fall. 蚱蜢在秋天死去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are usually a lot of grasshoppers in the rice fields. 稻田里通常有许多蚱蜢。 来自辞典例句

10 crawled   

v.爬( crawl的过去式和过去分词 )；（昆虫）爬行；缓慢行进；巴结

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• She crawled onto the river bank and lay there gulping in air. 她爬上河岸，躺在那里喘着粗气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 railroad   

n.铁路；vi.由铁路运输

参考例句：

• The railroad connects two cities,namely,New York and Chicago.这条铁路连接两个城市，即纽约与芝加哥。
• My brother is working on the railroad.我兄弟在铁路系统工作。

12 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

13 blizzards   

暴风雪( blizzard的名词复数 )； 暴风雪似的一阵，大量（或大批）

参考例句：

• Even in the summertime we might be struck by blizzards. 甚至在夏天，我们也可能受到暴风雪的袭击。
• Blizzards battered Britain for the third day. 大风雪袭击英国已进入第三天。

14 closely   

adv.紧密地；严密地，密切地

参考例句：

• We shall follow closely the development of the situation.我们将密切注意形势的发展。
• The two companies are closely tied up with each other.这两家公司之间有密切联系。

15 ridge   

n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭

参考例句：

• We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
• The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。

16 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

17 starry   

adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的

参考例句：

• He looked at the starry heavens.他瞧着布满星星的天空。
• I like the starry winter sky.我喜欢这满天星斗的冬夜。

18 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

19 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句

20 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。