最新15篇文章贯通英语四级词汇MP3(含lrc字幕)Unit10-Part4

[00:00.00]The development of the country,
[00:02.83]as we know it today,
[00:04.47]was an evolutionary process
[00:05.89]over more than eight decades.
[00:08.63]Manitoba became a province
[00:11.69]after some controversial events
[00:13.88]involving the federal government
[00:15.63]and the Metis,French speaking descendants
[00:18.91]of French fur traders
[00:20.66]who married American Indian girls.
[00:23.29]This ethnic group settled
[00:26.02]near Fort Gary, the city of Winnipeg,
[00:28.65]Manitoba what is called today.
[00:31.39]John A. Macdonald, the new
[00:35.80]and first Prime Minister
[00:37.67]of the new nation,
[00:38.98]made a deal with the western
[00:40.84]most colony in Vancouver guaranteeing
[00:42.81]on the building of a railroad
[00:45.43]from the east to the west
[00:47.84]if that colony would
[00:49.48]join Canadian Confederation.
[00:51.78]The property of the Metis, to which
[00:56.37]the latter felt legally entitled,
[00:58.56]was in the path
[00:59.98]of the new railway.
[01:01.19]The federal government essentially
[01:04.47]took the land. The  Metis 
[01:07.43]were compelled to move further west,
[01:09.72]but not without a fight.
[01:11.04](The Metis and the federal government
[01:14.43] were on an inevitable collision course.
[01:16.50]Twice, Metis revolts tested
[01:19.46]the might of the federal government
[01:21.97]and relationship between
[01:23.51]French and Englishspeaking Canada).
[01:26.03]The federal government was able
[01:29.63]to defeat the Metis in both clashes.
[01:32.04]Louis Riel, the leader of
[01:35.55]the Metis was hanged for
[01:37.30]treason in 1885 for his leading role
[01:40.79] in resisting the federal government.
[01:43.31]He became a martyr to
[01:45.06]FrenchCanadians. His death
[01:48.23]only added fuel to
[01:49.55]the growing discontent between
[01:51.29]French and English Canada.
[01:53.37]Throughout this whole period,
[01:56.44]1869 to 1885, the federal
[02:00.81](or central) government ignored the appeals
[02:04.53]of the Metis. It appeared that,
[02:06.83]according to Macdonald and his followers,
[02:09.79]the creation of the new nation
[02:11.87]was more important than
[02:13.61]relieving the plight of
[02:15.36]a relatively small minority group.
[02:17.44]The Metis probably deserved
[02:21.06]much better of the federal goverment.
[02:23.02]Different versions of these events
[02:26.75]are still debated
[02:28.17]in Canadian classrooms today.
[02:30.24]Macdonald was also criticized
[02:33.20]for concealing the fact that
[02:35.39]he took some money illegally
[02:37.25]to complete the railway.
[02:39.21]In 1873 as “The Pacific Scandal”
[02:42.93]became known, the construction
[02:46.21]of the railway suspended temporarily.
[02:49.07]The determined Macdonald and
[02:51.79]his government, obsessed by the possibility
[02:54.64]of the Americans moving in
[02:56.50]and taking over the west,
[02:58.91]boldly pushed railway
[03:00.66]construction to completion.
[03:02.08]Manitoba became a province
[03:05.91]in 1870, British Columbia in 1871,
[03:09.41]Prince Edward Island in 1873,
[03:12.47]Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905.
[03:15.43]The admission of Newfoundland
[03:21.88]into Confederation in 1949
[03:24.07]completed the Canadian Confederation
[03:27.03]of ten provinces from sea to sea,
[03:29.54]as they exist today. The railway,
[03:33.70]the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)
[03:36.10]was completed before the agreed deadline.