VOA慢速英语2012 THE MAKING OF A NATION - American History: English Settlers Establish Colonies In the New World

 

THE MAKING OF A NATION - American History: English Settlers Establish Colonies In the New World

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

Last week in our series, we talked about the voyages to the New World by Christoper Columbus and other explorers sailing for Spain and Portugal. Today, we tell the story of the first permanent English settlements in North America.

(MUSIC)

England was the first country to compete with Spain for claims in the New World. Queen Elizabeth the First supported explorations as early as the fifteen seventies.

Sir Humphrey Gilbert led the first English settlement efforts, but he did not establish any lasting¹ settlement. He died as he was returning to England.

Gilbert's half-brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, continued the work. Raleigh sent a number of ships to explore the east coast of North America. He named the land Virginia in honor of Queen Elizabeth, who never married and was known as "the Virgin² Queen."

(MUSIC)

In fifteen eighty-five, about one hundred men settled on Roanoke Island, off the coast of the present-day state of North Carolina. These settlers returned to England a year later. Another group went to Roanoke the next year. This group included a number of women and children. But the supply ships that Raleigh sent to the colony failed to arrive. When help got there in fifteen-ninety, none of the settlers could be found. At least some of the settlers may have become part of the Indian tribe³ that lived in the area.

(MUSIC)

One reason for the delay in getting supplies to Roanoke was the attack of the Spanish Navy against England in fifteen eighty-eight. King Phillip of Spain had decided⁴ to invade England. But the small English ships combined with a fierce storm defeated the huge Spanish fleet. As a result, Spain was no longer able to block English exploration.

England discovered that supporting colonies so far away cost a lot of money. So Queen Elizabeth took no more action to do it. Not until after her death in sixteen three did England begin serious efforts to start colonies in America.

(MUSIC)

In sixteen six, the new English King, James the First, gave two business groups permission to establish colonies in Virginia, the area claimed by England. Companies were organized to carry out the move.

The London Company sent one hundred settlers to Virginia in sixteen six. The group landed there in May, sixteen seven and founded Jamestown. It was the first permanent English colony in the new world.

The colony seemed about to fail from the start. The settlers did not plant their crops in time so they soon had no food. Their leaders lacked the farming and building skills needed to survive on the land. More than half the settlers died during the first winter.

(MUSIC)

The businessmen controlling the colony from London knew nothing about living in such a wild place. They wanted the settlers to search for gold, and explore local rivers in hopes of finding a way to the East. One settler knew this was wrong. His name was Captain John Smith. He helped the colonists⁵ build houses and grow food by learning from the local Indians. Still, the Jamestown settlers continued to die each year from disease, starvation and Indian attacks.

The London Company sent six thousand settlers to Virginia between sixteen six and sixteen twenty-two. More than four thousand died during that time.

Historians⁶ say that all the settlers surely would have died without the help of the local Powhatan Indians. The Indians gave the settlers food. They taught them how to live in the forest. And the Powhatan Indians showed the settlers how to plant new crops and how to clear the land for building.

The settlers accepted the Indians' help. Then, however, the settlers took whatever else they wanted by force. In sixteen twenty-two, the local Indians attacked the settlers for interfering⁷ with Indian land. Three hundred forty settlers died. The colonists answered the attack by destroying the native tribes⁸ living along Virginia's coast.

(MUSIC)

The settlers recognized that they would have to grow their own food and survive on their own without help from England or anyone else. The Jamestown colony was clearly established by sixteen twenty-four. It was even beginning to earn money by growing and selling a new crop: tobacco.

The other early English settlements in North America were much to the north, in what is today the state of Massachusetts. The people who settled there left England for reasons different from those who settled in Jamestown. The Virginia settlers were looking for ways to earn money for English businesses. The settlers in Massachusetts were seeking religious freedom.

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King Henry the Eighth of England had separated from the Roman Catholic⁹ Church. His daughter, Queen Elizabeth, established the Protestant faith in England. It was called the Church of England, or the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church, however, was similar to the Roman Catholic Church.

Not all Protestants liked this idea. Some wanted to leave the Anglican Church and form religious groups of their own. In sixteen six, members of one group in the town of Scrooby did separate from the Anglican Church. About one hundred twenty-five people left England for Holland. They found problems there too, so they decided to move again -- to the New World.

These people were called pilgrims¹⁰. Pilgrams are people who travel for religious reasons.

About thirty-five pilgrims were among the one hundred and two passengers and crew on a ship called the Mayflower in sixteen twenty. The Mayflower set sail from England, headed for Virginia. But the ship never reached Virginia. It was blown far off its planned course. Instead, it reached land far to the north, on Cape¹¹ Cod¹² Bay. The group decided to stay there instead of trying to find Jamestown, far to the south in Virginia.

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They settled what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, They called the colony Plymouth, naming it after the harbor in England, from which they departed on their voyage to the New World.

The pilgrims and the others aboard the Mayflower believed they were not under English control since they did not land in Virginia. They saw the need for rules that would help them live together peacefully. They wrote a plan of government, which they called the Mayflower Compact¹³. It was the first such plan ever developed in the New World.

They elected William Bradford as the first governor of the Plymouth Colony. We know about the first thirty years of the colony as William Bradford described it in his book, "Of Plymouth Plantation¹⁴." It is also sometimes referred to as “William Bradford’s Journal.”

It actually tells the story of the Pilgrims from sixteen-eight, when they settled in the Netherlands through the Mayflower voyage, until the year sixteen forty-seven. It ends with a list, written in sixteen fifty, of Mayflower passengers and what happened to them.

(MUSIC)

As happened in Jamestown, about half the settlers in Plymouth died during the first winter. The survivors¹⁵ were surprised to find an Indian who spoke¹⁶ English. His name was Squanto. He had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and had lived in England before returning to his people.

The Pilgrims believed God had sent them Squanto. He made it possible for them to communicate with the native people. He showed them the best places to fish, what kind of crops to plant and how to grow them. He provided them with all kinds of information they needed to survive. The settlers invited the Indians to a feast¹⁷ in the month of November to celebrate their successes and to thank Squanto for his help. Americans remember this feast when they celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving Day in November.

(MUSIC)

Other English settlers began arriving in the area now called New England. One large group was the Puritans. Like the pilgrims, the Puritans disagreed with the Anglican Church. But they did not want to leave the church. The Puritans wanted to change it to make it more holy in their view. Their desire for this change made them unwelcome in England.

The first ship carrying Puritans left England for America in sixteen thirty. By the end of that summer, one thousand Puritans had landed in the Northeast. Charles, the new English King, had given permission for them to settle in the Massachusetts Bay area.

The Puritans began leaving England in large groups. Between sixteen thirty and sixteen forty, twenty thousand sailed for New England. They risked their lives on the dangerous trip. They wanted to live among people who believed as they did.

The Puritans and other Europeans, however, found a very different people already living in the New World. They were the native Americans, or Indians, as Columbus called them, after thinking he had reached the East. That will be our story next week.

You can find our series online with transcripts¹⁸, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at www.voanews.cn. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember, inviting¹⁹ you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.

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This was program #3

1 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

2 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

3 tribe   

n.部落，种族，一伙人

参考例句：

• This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
• Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 colonists   

n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 historians   

n.历史学家，史学工作者( historian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Historians seem to have confused the chronology of these events. 历史学家好像把这些事件发生的年代顺序搞混了。
• Historians have concurred with each other in this view. 历史学家在这个观点上已取得一致意见。

7 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

8 tribes   

n.部落( tribe的名词复数 )；（动、植物的）族；（一）帮；大群

参考例句：

• tribes living in remote areas of the Amazonian rainforest 居住在亚马孙河雨林偏远地区的部落
• In Africa the snake is still sacred with many tribes. 非洲许多部落仍认为蛇是不可冒犯的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 catholic   

adj.天主教的；n.天主教徒

参考例句：

• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。
• She was a devoutly Catholic.她是一个虔诚地天主教徒。

10 pilgrims   

香客，朝圣者( pilgrim的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca 前往麦加的穆斯林朝圣者
• Many pilgrims knelt piously at the shrine. 许多朝圣者心虔意诚地在神殿跪拜。

11 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

12 cod   

n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗

参考例句：

• They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
• Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。

13 compact   

adj.紧密的，简明的，紧凑的；v.使紧凑，压缩

参考例句：

• It was a compact package.这是个捆得很紧的包裹。
• The article is compact and well organized.文章严密，又很有章法。

14 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

15 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

16 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。

17 feast   

n.盛宴，筵席，节日

参考例句：

• After the feast she spent a week dieting to salve her conscience.大吃了一顿之后，她花了一周时间节食以安慰自己。
• You shouldn't have troubled yourself to prepare such a feast!你不该准备这样丰盛的饭菜，这样太麻烦你了！

18 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

19 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。