新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第四册 课文 te-08a_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！Slavery Gave Me Nothing to Lose
[00:-1.00]I remember the very day that I became black.
[00:-2.00]Up to my thirteenth year I lived in the little Negro town of Eatonville,
[00:-3.00]Florida.
[00:-4.00]It is exclusively a black town.
[00:-5.00]The only white people
[00:-6.00]I knew passed through the town going to or coming from Orlando, Florida.
[00:-7.00]The native whites rode dusty horses,
[00:-8.00]and the northern tourists traveled down the sandy village road in automobiles.
[00:-9.00]The town knew the Southerners
[00:10.00]and never stopped chewing sugar cane when they passed.
[00:11.00]But the Northerners were something else again.
[00:12.00]They were peered at cautiously from behind curtains by the timid.
[00:13.00]The bold would come outside to watch them go past
[00:14.00]and got just as much pleasure out
[00:15.00]of the tourists as the tourists got out of the village.
[00:16.00]The front deck might seem a frightening place for the rest of the town,
[00:17.00]but it was a front row seat for me.
[00:18.00]My favorite place was on top of the gatepost.
[00:19.00] Not only did I enjoy the show,
[00:20.00]but I didn't mind the actors knowing that I liked it.
[00:21.00]I usually spoke to them in passing.
[00:22.00]I'd wave at them and when they returned my wave,
[00:23.00]I would say a few words of greeting.
[00:24.00]Usually the automobile or the horse paused at this,
[00:25.00]and after a strange exchange of greetings,
[00:26.00]I would probably "go a piece of the way" with them,
[00:27.00]as we say in farthest Florida, and follow them down the road a bit.
[00:28.00]If one of my family happened to come to the front of the house in time to see me,
[00:29.00]of course the conversation would be rudely broken off.
[00:30.00]During this period, white people differed
[00:31.00]from black to me only in that they rode through town and never lived there.
[00:32.00]They liked to hear me "speak pieces" and sing and wanted to see me dance,
[00:33.00]and gave me generously of their small silver for doing these things,
[00:34.00]which seemed strange to me for I wanted to do them
[00:35.00]so much that I needed bribing to stop. Only they didn't know it.
[00:36.00]The colored people gave no coins.
[00:37.00]They disapproved of any joyful tendencies in me,
[00:38.00] but I was their Zora nevertheless.
[00:39.00]I belonged to them, to the nearby hotels, to the country — everybody's Zora.
[00:40.00]But changes came to the family when I was thirteen,
[00:41.00]and I was sent to school in Jacksonville. I left Eatonville as Zora.
[00:42.00]When I got off the riverboat at Jacksonville, she was no more.
[00:43.00]It seemed that I had suffered a huge change.
[00:44.00]I was not Zora of Eatonville any more; I was now a little black girl.
[00:45.00]I found it out in certain ways.
[00:46.00]In my heart as well as in the mirror,
[00:47.00]I became a permanent brown — like the best shoe polish,
[00:48.00]guaranteed not to rub nor run.
[00:49.00]Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves.
[00:50.00]It fails to register depression with me.
[00:51.00]Slavery is something sixty years in the past.
[00:52.00]The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you.
[00:53.00]The terrible war that made me an American instead of a slave said "On the line!"
[00:54.00]The period following the Civil War said "Get set!";
[00:55.00] and the generation before me said "Go!" Like a foot race,
[00:56.00]I am off to a flying start
[00:57.00]and I must not halt in the middle to look behind and weep.
[00:58.00]Slavery is the price I paid for civilization,
[00:59.00]and the choice was not with me.
[-1:00.00]No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory.
[-1:-1.00]The world to be won and nothing to be lost.
[-1:-2.00]It is thrilling to think, to know, that for any act of mine,
[-1:-3.00]I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame.
[-1:-4.00]It is quite exciting to hold the center of the national stage,
[-1:-5.00]with the audience not knowing whether to laugh or to weep.