新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第二册 unit03a_new

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Marriage Across the Nations
[00:04.39]Gail and I imagined a quiet wedding.
[00:10.84]During our two years together we had experienced the usual ups and downs
[00:19.80]of a couple learning to know,understand,and respect each other.
[00:28.33]But through it all we had honestly confronted the weaknesses
[00:35.10]and strengths of each other's characters.
[00:40.43]Our racial and cultural differences enhanced our relationship
[00:48.38]and taught us a great deal about tolerance,
[00:53.64]compromise,and being open with each other.
[01:00.30]Gail sometimes wondered why I and other blacks
[01:08.04]were so involved with the racial issue,
[01:13.19]and I was surprised that she seemed to forget
[01:19.06]the subtler forms of racial hatred in American society.
[01:26.40]Gail and I had no illusions about what the future held for us as a married,
[01:35.58]mixed couple in America.
[01:40.04]The continual source of our strength was our mutual trust and respect.
[01:49.12]We wanted to avoid the mistake
[01:54.44]made by many couples of marrying for the wrong reasons,
[02:01.28]and only finding out ten,twenty,or thirty years later
[02:08.52]that they were incompatible,
[02:12.98]that they hardly took the time to know each other,
[02:18.53]that they overlooked serious personality conflicts
[02:25.69]in the expectation that marriage was an automatic way
[02:32.06]to make everything work out right.
[02:36.71]That point was emphasized by the fact that Gail's parents,
[02:45.17]after thirty-five years of marriage,
[02:49.92]were going through a bitter and painful divorce,
[02:56.36]which had destroyed Gail
[03:01.22]and for a time had a negative effect on our budding relationship.
[03:08.78]When Gail spread the news of our wedding plans to her family
[03:16.34]she met with some resistance.
[03:21.10]Her mother,Deborah,all along had been supportive of our relationship,
[03:29.74]and even joked about when we were going to get married
[03:35.60]so she could have grandchildren.
[03:40.07]Instead of congratulations upon hearing our news,
[03:47.20]Deborah counseled Gail to be really sure she was doing the right thing.
[03:55.26]"So it was all right for me to date him,
[04:01.13]but it's wrong for me to marry him.
[04:05.59]Is his color the problem,Mom?"
[04:10.06]Gail subsequently told me she had asked her mother.
[04:15.82]"To start with I must admit that at first
[04:21.97]I harbored reservations about a mixed marriage,
[04:27.66]prejudices you might even call them.
[04:32.30]But when I met Mark I found him a charming and intelligent young guy.
[04:40.76]Any mother would be proud to have him for a son-in-law.
[04:47.03]So, color has nothing to do with it.
[04:52.79]Yes, my friends talk.
[04:57.25]Some even express shock at what you're doing.
[05:03.12]But they live in a different world.
[05:07.66]So you see, Mark's color is not the problem.
[05:14.10]My biggest worry
[05:18.17]is that you may be marrying Mark for the same wrong reasons
[05:24.72]that I married your father.
[05:28.79]When we met I saw him as my beloved,intelligent, charming, and caring.
[05:39.62]It was all so new, all so exciting,
[05:46.39]and we both thought, on the surface at least,
[05:52.15]that ours was an ideal marriage with every indication that it would last forever.
[06:01.01]I realized only later that I didn't know my beloved,
[06:09.18]your father,very well when we married."
[06:14.83]"But Mark and I have been together more than two years,"Gail railed.
[06:23.18]"We've been through so much together.
[06:28.15]We've seen each other at our worst many times.
[06:34.09]I'm sure that time will only confirm what we feel deeply about each other."
[06:42.55]"You may be right.
[06:47.20]But I still think that waiting won't hurt.
[06:52.88]You're only twenty-five."
[06:57.13]Gail's father,David,whom I had not yet met personally,
[07:04.30]approached our decision with a father-knows-best attitude.
[07:11.68]He basically asked the same questions as Gail's mother:
[07:18.12]"Why the haste? Who is this Mark?