VOA慢速英语2014 美国前总统卡特90诞辰

 

AS IT IS 2014-10-01 Former US President Jimmy Carter Turns 90 美国前总统卡特90诞辰

Today -- October 1st, 2014 -- is the 90th birthday of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. On this program, we look at his very active and interesting life.

“There can be no nobler, nor more ambitious, task for America to undertake on this day of a new beginning."

Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer, naval¹ officer, state senator and governor of the southern state of Georgia before becoming the 39th president of the United States.

VOA reporter Kane Farabaugh met with Mr. Carter many times after he left the White House. The former president spoke² with Kane about his years as the nation’s leader. He also talked about his career as head of the Carter Center, a non-profit organization in Atlanta, Georgia. The Center works for peace, and tries to improve the health of people around the world.

This program is based on Kane Farabaugh’s discussions with, and research about, Mr. Carter.

Jimmy Carter was sworn-in as president on January 20, 1977. In a speech to the American people, he promised “a government as good as its people.”

“There can be no nobler, nor more ambitious, task for America to undertake on this day of a new beginning than to help shape a just and peaceful world.”

Mr. Carter was concerned about human rights during his presidency³.

The four years he spent in office were very busy, and a large number of issues affected⁴ his presidency. Inflation, rising unemployment and an oil shortage hurt the economy. The Soviet⁵ Union invaded Afghanistan in late 1979. In answer to the invasion, Mr. Carter ordered a boycott⁶ of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

Mr. Carter won foreign policy victories with the Panama Canal Treaty and a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. But his presidency is most-remembered for the Iran hostage crisis, which happened in his final year in the White House. He lost in his effort to win re-election, and left office on January 20th, 1981.

Mr. Carter said the end of his presidency was the beginning of a new life of “fighting disease, building hope, and waging peace” as head of the Carter Center.

“I look upon the Carter Center work as an extension of what I tried to do as president. You know, we brought peace between Israel and Egypt. We opened up a harmonious⁷ relationship with Latin America with the Panama Canal Treaty. We opened up diplomatic relations with China and things of that kind. And so what I have done since then has been kind of an extension. But I don’t think there’s any doubt that when I won the Nobel Peace Prize, for instance, it was because of the work of the Carter Center. So, I would be perfectly⁸ satisfied to have a legacy⁹ based on peace and human rights. I mean, who wouldn’t?”

Jimmy Carter was born 90 years ago in the small southern town of Plains, Georgia.

He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, helping¹⁰ to develop nuclear submarines. In 1953, he returned to Plains to operate his family’s peanut farm, after the death of his father.

Jimmy Carter entered Georgia politics in the 1960s. He served two terms as a state senator and then was elected the state’s 76th governor. He served one term -- from 1971 to 1975.

Mr. Carter had no experience as a Washington politician. But he knew Americans were angry with Washington after the presidency of Richard Nixon. Nixon had resigned from office in 1974 because of the Watergate crisis. Still, most political experts believed the former Georgia governor had little chance of success.

But in the general election of 1976, he defeated President Gerald Ford¹¹, winning 50.1 percent of the popular vote to Mr. Ford’s 48 percent. President Ford had not been elected president or even vice-president. He had only taken office after Mr. Nixon resigned.

Jimmy Carter gave credit to his family and his life in Georgia for the success of his presidential campaign.   

The most successful event in Mr. Carter’s presidency was the end of hostilities¹² between Egypt and Israel. The president met with Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David in Maryland. Those meetings led to the Camp David agreement and, later, a peace treaty between the two countries.

“There had been four wars between Arabs and Israelis in the previous 25 years, with the Egyptians in the leadership supported by the Soviet Union. They were the only country that could really challenge Israel militarily. And we had success in getting a treaty between Israel and Egypt, not a word of which has ever been violated.”

President Carter also negotiated a treaty that gave control of the Panama Canal to Panama. And he established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.

In 1979, a revolution in Iran ousted¹³ Shah Reza Pehlavi, who fled to the United States. The U.S. government had strongly supported the shah for many years. In November, militants¹⁴ attacked the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage. The militants were supporters of an Islamic religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In April 1980, President Carter approved a military operation to free the hostages. It failed when several military aircraft crashed in the Iranian desert. Eight American service members died. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance -- who had opposed the rescue operation -- resigned in protest.

The crisis led in part to Mr. Carter’s defeat in the 1980 presidential election. He lost to former movie actor and California Governor Ronald Reagan. The day Mr. Reagan became president, the hostages were released. 

“With the now-liberated Americans who were held hostage…”

In 1981, Mr. Carter returned to Plains. He was deeply in debt and unsure about what he should do next. During his time in office, his businesses had been poorly-managed. He wrote a book about his presidency and sold some of those businesses to pay his debts. And he made plans for a small library and presidential museum to house papers related to his White House years.

“I envisioned it to be a tiny thing, where I would have an office and some nice buildings in Atlanta, and that anyone in the world that had an ongoing¹⁵ conflict or potential conflict could come to me and I would help them mediate¹⁶ the dispute and stop a war.”

But The Carter Center became much more. It has sent representatives to help monitor, or watch, more than 90 troubled elections. It also has helped end many international disagreements, including a nuclear dispute with North Korea in 1994. It also helped negotiate a peace agreement between Uganda and Sudan. The Center also works to improve health and fight diseases in the poorest parts of the world.

Mr. Carter has spoken many times with the Voice of America. In one of those interviews, he said he is most pleased with the center’s work in reducing the threat of Guinea Worm disease.

“There’s only been one disease in the history of humankind ever eradicated¹⁷, and that was smallpox¹⁸, more than 30 years ago. So Guinea Worm is going to soon be the second disease in history to be wiped off the face of the earth.”

Partly because of the work of The Carter Center, there are fewer than 100 cases of Guinea Worm, almost all of them in Africa.

In 2002, because of his work at the Carter Center, Jimmy Carter was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

The former president has written 26 books and is writing at least two more, including one about life in his 90s. His books include his autobiography¹⁹ and three books on the Middle East conflict. Some of his books have angered people who support Israel. Much of the money from the book sales is given to the Carter Center. 

Mr. Carter has lived longer after leaving the White House than any other former president. And Mr. Carter and his vice-president Walter Mondale have the longest post-presidential partnership²⁰ in American history. He has been active after his presidency for a longer time than any former American president.

1 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

2 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。

3 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

4 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。

5 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

6 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

7 harmonious   

adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的

参考例句：

• Their harmonious relationship resulted in part from their similar goals.他们关系融洽的部分原因是他们有着相似的目标。
• The room was painted in harmonious colors.房间油漆得色彩调和。

8 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

9 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

12 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

13 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

14 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

15 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

16 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

17 eradicated   

画着根的

参考例句：

• Polio has been virtually eradicated in Brazil. 在巴西脊髓灰质炎实际上已经根除。
• The disease has been eradicated from the world. 这种疾病已在全世界得到根除。

18 smallpox   

n.天花

参考例句：

• In 1742 he suffered a fatal attack of smallpox.1742年，他染上了致命的天花。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child?你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

19 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

20 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。