VOASE0221_The Making of a Nation

21 February 2007

History: 1950s Popular Culture Helps Take Americans' Minds Off Fears of Nuclear War
It was also a time of growth in suburban living, rock and roll, and a rebellion in literature and art.

Download
Download
VOICE ONE:

This is Phil Murray.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

(MUSIC)

Today, we tell what life was like in American during the nineteen fifties.

VOICE ONE:

Imagine that you are visiting the United States. What would you expect to see?

In the nineteen fifties, America was a nation that believed it was on the edge of nuclear war. It was a nation where the popular culture of television was gaining strength. It was a nation whose population was growing as never before.

在上世纪五十年代，美国正被核战的阴云所笼罩着。而电视则正逐渐引领着当时的文化潮流。同时这个国家的人口也正经历着前所未有的增长高峰。

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Josef Stalin

After the terrible suffering of World War Two, Americans thought the world would be peaceful for awhile. By nineteen fifty, however, political tensions were high again. The United States and the Soviet Union, allies in war, had become enemies.

在逃离了第二次世界大战的浩劫之后，美国人民正期盼着和平年代的到来。但在进入五十年代之后，国际政坛再次出现了紧张的局面。原本在二战时作为盟友的美国和苏联在战后开始相互对峙。

The communists had taken control of one east European nation after another. And Soviet leader Josef Stalin made it clear that he wanted communists to rule the world.

苏联已先后将东欧各国纳入其共产主义阵营中，而其领导人约瑟夫·斯大林的目标则是要让共产主义掌管整个世界。

The Soviet Union had strengthened its armed forces after the war. The United States had taken many steps to disarm. Yet it still possessed the atomic bomb. America thought it, alone, had this terrible weapon.

苏联在战后扩充了国家的军备力量。而美国则在逐步削减兵力，但他们的手中依旧握有原子弹，并且他们认为这件可怕的武器只属于美国。

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen forty-nine, a United States Air Force plane discovered strange conditions in the atmosphere. What was causing them? The answer came quickly: the Soviet Union had exploded an atomic bomb.

1949年，一架美国空军的飞机注意到了大气层中所出现的奇怪现象。人们开始对这个问题产生质疑，但答案很快就浮出水面：苏联试射了一枚原子弹。

The race was on. The two nations competed to build weapons of mass destruction. Would these weapons ever be used?

这激发了两国之间的军备竞赛。双方都不断地努力制造大规模杀伤性武器。这些武器真的有一天会被使用吗？

The American publication, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, always showed a picture of a clock. By nineteen forty-nine, the time on the clock was three minutes before midnight. That meant the world was on the edge of nuclear destruction. The atomic scientists were afraid of what science had produced. They were even more afraid of what science could produce.

在美国出版的《原子能科学家公报》上经常可以看到一张时钟的图片。在1949年，钟上的时间离午夜只差三分钟，它的寓意是这个世界正处在核战崩溃的边缘。这些科学家们为科学所带来的这一切而深感忧虑，他们更不敢想象科学以后会给这个世界带来什么。

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen-fifty, North Korea invaded South Korea. The Korean conflict increased efforts in the United States to develop a weapon more deadly than an atomic bomb. That was the hydrogen bomb. The Soviets were developing such a weapon, too.

Many Americans were afraid. Some built what they hoped would be safe rooms in or near their homes. They planned to hide in these bomb shelters during a nuclear attack.

VOICE ONE:

Other Americans, however, grew tired of being afraid. In nineteen fifty-two, the military hero of World War Two, Dwight Eisenhower, was elected president. The economy improved. Americans looked to the future with hope.

Dwight Eisenhower

One sign of hope was the baby boom. This was the big increase in the number of babies born after the war. The number of young children in America jumped from twenty-four million to thirty-five million between nineteen fifty and nineteen sixty. The bigger families needed houses. In ninetee fifty alone, one million four hundred thousand houses were built in America.

Most new houses were in the suburbs, the areas around cities. People moved to the suburbs because they thought the schools there were better. They also liked having more space for their children to play.

VOICE TWO:

Many Americans remember the nineteen fifties as the fad years. A fad is something that is extremely popular for a very short time one fad from the nineteen fifties was the Hula Hoop. The Hula Hoop was a colorful plastic tube joined to form a big circle. To play with it, you moved your hips in a circular motion. This kept it spinning around your body. The motion was like one used by Polynesian people in their native dance, the hula.

Other fads in the nineteen fifties involved clothes or hair. Some women, for example, cut and fixed their hair to look like the fur of a poodle dog. Actress Mary Martin made the poodle cut famous when she appeared in the Broadway play, "South Pacific."

VOICE ONE:

In motion pictures, Marilyn Monroe was becoming famous. Not everyone thought she was a great actress. But she had shining golden hair. And she had what was considered a perfect body. Marilyn Monroe's success did not make her happy. She killed herself in the nineteen sixties, when she was thirty-six years old.

Another famous actor of those days was James Dean. To many Americans, he was the living representation of the rebellious spirit of the young. In fact, one of his films was called, "Rebel Without a Cause." James Dean died in a car accident in nineteen fifty-five. He was twenty-four.

VOICE TWO:

The nineteen fifties saw a rebellion in American literature. As part of society lived new lives in the suburbs, another part criticized this life. These were the writers and poets of the Beat generation, including Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. They said life was empty in nineteen-fifties America. They described the people as dead in brain and spirit.

Jackson Pollock's action painting method

Jackson Pollock represented the rebellion in art. Pollock did not paint things the way they looked. Instead, he dropped paint onto his pictures in any way he pleased. He was asked again and again: "What do your paintings mean?" He answered: "Do not worry about what they mean. They are just there ... like flowers."

VOICE ONE:

In music, the rebel was Elvis Presley. He was the king of rock-and-roll.

(MUSIC)

Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley was a twenty-one-year-old truck driver when he sang on television for the first time. He moved his body to the music in a way that many people thought was too sexual.

Parents and religious leaders criticized him. Young people screamed for more. They could not get enough rock-and-roll. They played it on records. They heard it on the radio. And they listened to it on the television program "American Bandstand."

(MUSIC)

This program became the most popular dance party in America. Every week, young men and women danced to the latest songs in front of the television cameras.

VOICE TWO:

During the nineteen forties, there were only a few television receivers in American homes. Some called television an invention for stupid people to watch. By the end of the nineteen fifties, however, television was here to stay. The average family watched six hours a day.

Americans especially liked games shows and funny shows with comedians such as Milton Berle and Lucille Ball. They also liked shows that offered a mix of entertainment, such as those presented by Arthur Godfrey and Ed Sullivan.

VOICE ONE:

People from other countries watching American television in the nineteen fifties might have thought that all Americans were white Christians. At that time, television failed to recognize that America was a great mix of races and religions.

Few members of racial or religious minorities were represented on television. Those who appeared usually were shown working for white people.

A movement for civil rights for black Americans was beginning to gather strength in the nineteen fifties. Many legal battles were fought to end racial separation, especially in America's schools. By the nineteen sixties, the civil rights movement would shake the nation.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Dwight Eisenhower was president for most of the nineteen fifties. He faced the problems of communism, the threat of nuclear war, and racial tensions. He had a calm way of speaking. And he always seemed to deal with problems in the same calm way. Some citizens felt he was like a father to the nation.

With Mister Eisenhower in the White House, they believed that even in a dark and dangerous world, everything would be all right.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Phil Murray.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Rich Kleinfeldt. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

中文翻译由Carl提供 PoEnglish感谢致敬！

VOASE0221_Education Report

21 February 2007

Once You Get Into a US College, Where Should You Live?
Advice about what to consider, and what questions to ask, in Part 25 of our Foreign Student Series.

Download
Download
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We continue our Foreign Student Series on higher education in the United States. We have talked all about the college admissions process. Now we move on to college life once you get accepted to a school. The first thing you need is a place to live. That is our subject this week.

Slusher Tower, a dormitory at Virginia Tech

Housing policies differ from school to school. Students might be able to choose whatever housing they can find. Or they might have to live in a dormitory, at least for the first year.

Dorms come in all sizes. A building may house a small number of students or many hundreds. Some have suites. Each suite has several bedrooms, a common living area and a bathroom. Six or more students may live in one suite.

Other dorms have many rooms along a common hallway, usually with two students in each room.

Many students say dormitories provide the best chance to get to know other students. Also, dorms generally cost less than apartments or other housing not owned by the school.

Most colleges and universities offer single-sex dorms, but usually males and females live in the same building. They might live on the same floors and share the same common bathrooms. But, in most cases, they may live in the same room only if they are married.

At many schools, male students can join fraternities and females can join sororities. These are mainly social organizations but members may also be able to live at their fraternity or sorority house.

Edward Spencer is the associate vice president for student affairs at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. He says it is important to understand the rules of the building in which you will live.

He advises students to ask questions before they decide about their housing. For example: If a student requires a special diet, will the school provide for it? How much privacy can a student expect? Will the school provide a single room if a student requests one?

And what about any other special needs that a student might have?

Virginia Tech, for example, had a ban against candles in dorms. But it changed that policy to let students light candles for religious purposes.

The university also has several dorms open all year so foreign students have a place to stay during vacation times.

Our Foreign Student Series continues next week. Transcripts and audio files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.