[00:04.78]Lesson 49
[00:08.15]2 Dialogue Two friends are talking about a new movie.
[00:14.81]What's on at the cinema this week?
[00:18.57]"Fight for Freedom".
[00:21.81]What's it about?
[00:24.74]It's about a time when there were black slaves in North America.
[00:30.51]It's about their fight for freedom.
[00:34.59]That sounds interesting.That was a hundred years ago,wasn't it?
[00:40.44]No,more,about 130 years ago.
[00:46.11]Most of the slave owners were rich farmers who lived in the south.
[00:51.96]They wanted to keep their slaves.
[00:55.72]How do you know so much about it? Have you seen the movie?
[01:01.47]No,I haven't.I read about it in the newspaper.
[01:07.34]It's also about the man who wanted to end slavery--Abraham Lincoln.
[01:13.82]Lesson 50 Reading
[01:21.08]Read this passage to find answers to these questions:
[01:26.54]1.What was Lincoln's greatest work?
[01:31.30]2.Why was he killed?
[01:35.56]ABRAHAM LINCOLN
[01:38.90] Abraham Lincoln,the son of a poor family,
[01:43.86]was born in Kentucky,USA,on February 12th,1809.
[01:51.31]As a child he used to work hard
[01:55.38]and help his father on the small farm where they lived.
[01:59.43]His mother,who loved him very much,died in 1818.
[02:05.99]Happily for him,his father's second sife was kind to him too.
[02:12.05]When she saw that Abraham liked reading,
[02:16.20]she did all she could to help him.
[02:20.17]But the family was so poor that the boy could not get many books.
[02:26.02]he spent very little time at school,
[02:30.49]perhaps no more than a year in all.
[02:34.44] As a young man he worked in a store and later in a post office.
[02:40.39]He studied law in his spare time and became a lawyer.
[02:45.36]This was a time when there were still slaves in the USA.
[02:50.50]Lincoln became very interested in politics.
[02:55.05]He was a gainst slavery.
[02:58.49]In all his political life,he worked hard
[03:02.86]to build a free state for all the people.
[03:07.22] In 1860,Abraham Lincoln became President of the United States.
[03:13.99]Then he worked still harder for the freedom of the slaves.
[03:18.84]But the Southern states wanted to set up a country of their own,
[03:23.99]where they would be free to keep black slaves.
[03:28.54]Lincoln said that it was not right for the South to break away from the Union.
[03:34.78]Fighting broke out between the two.
[03:38.62]This was the American Civil War,which lasted four years.
[03:44.68]In the end the North won.
[03:48.52]Northern and Sothern states joined up again as one country and the slaves were set free.
[03:56.46]In 1864,Lincoln became President of the United States for the second time.
[04:03.59]But he had many enemies--slave owners in the South
[04:09.26]and rich people in big cities who had grown rich on the work of slaves.
[04:15.82]They hated Lincoln because he fought for the freedom of all people.
[04:21.88]On April 14th,1865 Lincoln was shot at a theatre in Washington,D.C.
[04:30.71]He died early the next morning.
[04:34.23]The whole country was very sad at the news of his death;
[04:39.59]the people had considered him to be a great leader,
[04:43.95]and a wise,kind and honest man.
[04:49.38]Today,Abraham Lincoln is considerewd as one of the greatest of all American presidents.
[04:57.53]Lesson 52 1 Dialogue
[05:06.60]The year is 1860.Tom Grade (T.G) who writes for a newspaper,
[05:15.98]is asking Abraham Lincoln (A.L) some questions.
[05:21.83]People are calling for the freedom of all slaves.
[05:26.69]What is your answer to that?
[05:29.93]I will give you an honest answer.
[05:34.00]I am fighting for an end to slavery and for the freedom of all slaves.
[05:41.45]What about the famers in the South?
[05:45.21]They will have a lot of difficulties if the slaves are set free.
[05:50.28]Who will pick the cotton?
[05:53.44]I agree that the farmers might have some problems.
[05:58.40]But the freedom of all people in the world is more important than that.
[06:04.46]I know that you have made a lot of enemies
[06:08.72]Some white people will lose money if you are successful.
[06:13.89]Are you afraid of your enemies?
[06:17.23]No.I will not stop my fight against slavery until all slaves are free.
[06:24.99]There will be an end to slavery.
[06:28.83]Slaves will have their freedom |