2006年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-John Kenneth Galbraith, In His Own Words

Don Gonyea: John Kenneth Galbraith, economist¹, diplomat², prolific³ author, Harvard professor, and iconoclast⁴, died yesterday in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 97 years old, born in Canada to a farming family, Galbraith became the country's leading exponent⁵ of liberal social economist. He served in the Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson administrations, shaping social policies from the New Deal to the Great Society. Unabashedly liberal, John Kenneth Galbraith felt Franklin Delano Roosevelt affected⁶ our lives more than any other public figure he knew. Galbraith reemphasized that point in a conversation 7 years ago with NPR's Howard Berkers.

John Kenneth Galbraith: Anybody on Social Security, getting unemployment compensation, anybody who feels that there's a certain public responsibility for the well-being⁷ of people has a major debt to the New Deal and to FDR.

Howard Berkers: You worked in the Roosevelt administration. Did you have much...

John Kenneth Galbraith: I worked in the Roosevelt administration, but in terms of power, my life has been downhill ever since. I was put in charge of, first, of price control and rationing⁸ and then price control in World War II. I started with a staff of seven and ended up with somewhere around 15 thousand. And you could lower a price without my permission, but you couldn't raise a price, and I have, had no such authority ever since, nor do I want it.

Howard Berkers: You spoke⁹ with President Kennedy over time, over the course of many years, from your earliest days, I guess, at Harvard, and then later on when he was president. Tell me about those conversations and how you saw him evolve over time, particularly during his years as president.

John Kenneth Galbraith: Well, the special feature of any conversation with JFK involved his enormous candor¹⁰. I remember the morning when I was leaving to be ambassador in India and we had breakfast together at the White House. And the New York Times had a front-page article on that day on the new ambassador to India, which was quite favorable, and Kennedy pointed¹¹ to it, and asked how I liked it. I said I did, and then I added, "But I don't see why they had to call me arrogant¹²". And Kennedy said, "I don't see why not, everybody else does."

Don Gonyea: Economist John Kenneth Galbraith died yesterday at the age of 97.

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Words in NPR
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iconoclast: someone who attacks established ideas and customs;提倡打破旧习的人
New Deal: a programme of economic and social changes that was introduced in the US by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, in order to help people who had lost their jobs or their property as a result of the Great Depression. It included money for farmers to borrow and an important programme of public works;新政(指美国罗斯福在20世纪30年代实施的内政纲领名称)
unemployment compensation: 失业补偿金
well-being: a feeling of being comfortable, healthy, and happy;康乐, 安宁, 福利

1 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

2 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

3 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

4 iconoclast   

n.反对崇拜偶像者

参考例句：

• Cage was an iconoclast.He refused to be bound by western musical traditions of harmony and structure.凯奇是个反传统的人，他拒绝接受西方有关和声和结构的音乐传统的束缚。
• But he shows little sign of being an iconoclast.但他表现出他是一个信念很强的人。

5 exponent   

n.倡导者，拥护者；代表人物；指数，幂

参考例句：

• She is an exponent of vegetarianism.她是一个素食主义的倡导者。
• He had been the principal exponent of the Gallipoli campaign.他曾为加里波利战役的主要代表人物。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

7 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

8 rationing   

n.定量供应

参考例句：

• Wartime austerities included food rationing and shortage of fuel. 战时的艰苦包括食物配给和燃料短缺。
• Food rationing was abolished in that country long ago. 那个国家早就取消了粮食配给制。

9 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。

10 candor   

n.坦白，率真

参考例句：

• He covered a wide range of topics with unusual candor.他极其坦率地谈了许多问题。
• He and his wife had avoided candor,and they had drained their marriage.他们夫妻间不坦率，已使婚姻奄奄一息。

11 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

12 arrogant   

adj.傲慢的，自大的

参考例句：

• You've got to get rid of your arrogant ways.你这骄傲劲儿得好好改改。
• People are waking up that he is arrogant.人们开始认识到他很傲慢。