(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about the first western woman in modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of Elizabeth Blackwell on the VOA Special English program People in America.
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England in eighteen twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and Samuel Blackwell, believed strongly that all human beings are equal. Elizabeth's father owned a successful sugar company. He worked hard at his job. He also worked to support reforms in England. He opposed the slave trade. He tried to help improve low pay and poor living conditions of workers, and he wanted women to have the same chance for education as men. He carried this out in his own home. Elizabeth had three brothers and four sisters. All followed the same plan of education. They all studied history, mathematics, Latin and Greek. These subjects were normally taught only to boys. Friends asked Samuel Blackwell what he expected the girls to do with all that education. He answered: "They shall do what they please".
In eighteen thirty-two, Samuel Blackwell's sugar factory was destroyed by fire. He and his wife decided to move the family to the United States. Elizabeth was eleven years old.
The Blackwells settled in New York City. But Mister Blackwell's business there failed. The family moved west, to the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio River.
Samuel Blackwell was sick for much of the trip. He died soon after arriving in Ohio. To help support the family, Elizabeth and her two older sisters started a school for girls in their home. Two younger brothers found jobs.
In the next few years, Elizabeth's brothers became successful in business. The girls continued operating their school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did not like teaching.
Elizabeth began to visit a family friend who was suffering from cancer. The woman knew she was dying. She said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping sick people. The dying friend said that perhaps her sickness would have been better understood if she had been treated by a woman. And she suggested that Elizabeth study medicine.
Elizabeth knew that no woman had ever been permitted to study in a medical school. But she began to think about the idea seriously after the woman who had suggested it died.
Elizabeth discussed it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her family supported the idea. So Elizabeth took a teaching job in the southern state of North Carolina to earn money for medical school.
Another teacher there agreed to help her study the sciences she would need. The next year, she studied medicine privately with a doctor. He was also a medical school professor. He told Elizabeth that the best medical schools were in Philadelphia.
No medical school in Philadelphia would accept her. College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend to be a man if she wanted to become a doctor. Elizabeth refused. She wrote to other medical colleges -- Harvard, Yale, and other, less well-known ones. All rejected her, except Geneva Medical College in the state of New York.
She went there immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not until much later that she learned the reason: her acceptance was a joke. The teachers at the college decided not to admit a woman. But they did not want to insult the doctor who had written to support Elizabeth's desire to study medicine. So they let the medical students decide.
The male students thought it funny that a woman wanted to attend medical school. So, as a joke, they voted to accept her. They regretted their decision by the time Elizabeth arrived, but there was nothing they could do. She was there. She paid her money. She wanted to study.
Elizabeth Blackwell faced many problems in medical school. Some professors refused to teach her. Some students threatened her. But finally they accepted her. Elizabeth graduated with high honors from Geneva Medical School in eighteen forty-nine. She was the only woman in the western world to have completed medical school training.
Three months later, Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell went to Paris to learn to be a surgeon. She wanted to work in a hospital there to learn how to operate on patients. But no hospital wanted her. No one would recognize that she was a doctor.
A hospital for women and babies agreed to let her study there. But she had to do the tasks of a nursing student. At the hospital, Doctor Blackwell accidentally got a chemical liquid in her eye. It became infected. She became blind in that eye. So she was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a surgeon.
Instead, she went to London to study at Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she met the famous nurse Florence Nightingale.
Elizabeth returned to the United States in eighteen fifty-one. She opened a medical office in New York City. But no patients came. So doctor Blackwell opened an office in a poor part of the city to help people who lived under difficult conditions. And she decided to raise a young girl who had lost her parents.
Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to start a hospital for women and children. Another was to build a medical school to train women doctors. She was helped in these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily also had become a doctor, after a long struggle to be accepted in a medical school.
With the help of many people, the Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a hospital in a re-built house. The work of the two women doctors was accepted slowly in New York. They treated only three hundred people in their hospital in its first year. Ten times as many people were treated the second year.
Elizabeth Blackwell's work with the poor led her to believe that doctors could help people more effectively by preventing sickness. She started a program in which doctors visited patients in their homes. The doctors taught patients how to clean the houses and how to prepare food so sickness could be prevented.
News of Elizabeth's theories spread. Soon, she was asked to start a hospital in London. She spoke to groups in London about disease prevention. And she worked with her friend Florence Nightingale.
Elizabeth returned to the United States to start America's first training school for nurses. And in eighteen sixty-eight, she opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. It was the first time the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Soon other medical schools for women opened in Boston and Philadelphia.
Elizabeth Blackwell felt her work in America was done. She returned to England. She started a medical school for women in London. She wrote books, and made speeches about preventing disease.
Doctor Blackwell talked of deaths that should never have happened, of sickness that should never have been suffered. She spoke about the dangers of working too hard, of eating poor food, of houses without light, of dirt and other causes of disease. And she told doctors that their true responsibility was to prevent pain and suffering from ever happening.
In eighteen seventy-one, she started the British National Health Society. It helped people learn how to stay healthy.
Elizabeth Blackwell never married. Neither did her sisters. They believed in treating men like equals. And they expected to be treated like equals themselves. Most men of that time did not accept such treatment. This belief caused problems for their brothers too. They had trouble finding wives who wanted to be considered as equals.
Two of Elizabeth's brothers did marry, however. Both their wives were famous workers for the cause of women's rights.
Elizabeth Blackwell died in England in nineteen ten. She was eighty-nine years old.
She was a very strong woman. She once wrote that she understood why no woman before her had done what she did. She said it was hard to continue against every kind of opposition. Yet she kept on because she felt the goal was very important. Toward the end of her life, she received many letters of thanks from young women. One wrote that doctor Blackwell had shown the way for women to move on.
重点解析
1.oppose 反对
His motion was opposed by most members.
他的提议遭到大多数成员的反对。
2.living condition 生活条件
Our living condition has more or less improved.
我们的生活水平或多或少提高了。
3.carry out 实施
You must carry out my orders.
你必须执行我的命令。
4.The Blackwells settled in New York City.
settle in 安顿
We only moved house last week and we haven't settled in yet.
我们上星期才搬的家, 还没安顿下来呢。
5.She said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping sick people.
permit to 允许
No one should be permitted to oppose these men of iron who rule the state.
而且任何人不能反对这管理国家的铁掌！
6.College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend to be a man.
pretend 假装
You pretend the female immortal, and I pretend Cinderella.
你装仙姑，我装灰姑娘。
参考译文
每周我们都会讲述美国历史上的一个重要人物。今天雪莉·格里菲斯和雷·弗里曼将为大家讲述，在近代，成为医生的第一位西方女性。现在伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔的故事在VOA慢速英语栏目《美国人物志》上演。
1821年，伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔出生于英格兰的布里斯托尔。她的父母，汉娜和塞缪尔·布莱克威尔坚定地相信所有人类都是平等的。伊丽莎白的父亲经营一家成功的糖果公司。他工作非常努力，并且他还致力支持英国的改革。他反对奴隶贸易，并试图帮助提高低工资和改善工人的恶劣生活环境，他想让女性也和男性一样接受同样的教育。他在家中进行着这件事。伊丽莎白有七个兄弟姐妹。他们都接受同样的教育计划。他们都学习历史、数学、拉丁语和希腊语。通常只有男孩能够学这些课程。朋友问塞缪尔·布莱克威尔，他希望这些女孩学习这些课程后从事什么工作。他回答：“做她们喜欢做的事”。
1832年，塞缪尔·布莱克威尔的糖厂被大火摧毁。他和妻子决定搬到美国，那时伊丽莎白11岁。布莱克威尔一家定居纽约城。但是布莱克威尔在那里的事业失败了。一家人搬到了西边俄亥俄河边的辛辛那提市。由于旅途劳累，塞缪尔·布莱克威尔病倒了，在抵达俄亥俄州后，他便去世了。为了帮助支撑家庭，伊丽莎白和她的两个姐姐在家中开办女孩学校。两个弟弟找到了工作。在接下来的几年里，伊丽莎白的兄弟在事业上取得成功。女孩们继续开办学校。但是伊丽莎白却不开心，她不喜欢教书。
伊丽莎白开始去拜访一位患癌症的氏族朋友。这位女士知道自己快要死了。她说应该允许女性成为医生，因为她们擅长帮助病人。这位临死的朋友说，如果治疗她的是一名女医生，那么医生会更了解她的病情。并且她还建议伊丽莎白学医。伊丽莎白知道从来没有女性被允许去医学院读书。但是她开始认真考虑这位女士临终前的建议。伊丽莎白和家庭医生讨论了这个问题，医生表示反对，但是她的家人却支持她的想法。所以伊丽莎白在北卡罗来纳州的南部找了一份教书工作以挣取医学院的学费。那里的另一名老师同意帮助她学习科学。第二年，她私下和一名医生学习，这位医生也是医学院的教授。他告诉伊丽莎白最好的医学院在费城。但是费城没有一所医学院愿意收她。大学领导告诉她，如果她想成为一名医生的话，就必须去巴黎并装成一名男士。伊丽莎白拒绝了。她给其他医学院写信—哈佛、耶鲁和其他没那么知名的学校。所有学校都回绝了她，除了纽约州的日内瓦医学院。她立即去到那所学校，但却感觉没人欢迎她的到来。很快她就知道了原因：接纳她只不过是个玩笑。学院的老师决定不让女性入学。但是他们不愿侮辱支持伊丽莎白学医意愿的医生，所以他们让医学院的学生们决定。男性学生认为女人想进医学院是件搞笑的事，所以他们把这个当成笑话一样，投票决定。
伊丽莎白到学校的时候，他们就后悔自己的决定，但是却什么也做不了。她到了学校，付了学费，她想学习。在医学院里，伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔面临很多问题，一些教授拒绝教她，一些学生威胁她。但是最终，他们接受了她。1849年，伊丽莎白以最高荣誉从日内瓦医学院毕业。在西方世界中，她是唯一一名完成医学院教育的女性。三个月后，伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔前往巴黎学习成为一名外科医生。她想在那边的医院里工作学习如何对病人进行手术，但是没有医院要她。没人承认她是一名医生。一所母婴医院同意让她在医院学习，但是她需要做一名护士生的活。在医院里，布莱克威尔医生意外将一种化学液体滴入眼睛，眼睛因而受到感染并致盲。所以她被迫放弃了成为一名外科医生的梦想。相反她前往伦敦在圣巴多罗买医院学习。在那里，她遇见了著名护士弗洛伦斯·南丁格尔。
1851年，伊丽莎白返回美国，她在纽约城开了一间诊所，但是没有病人来看病。因此，伊丽莎白医生在城市的贫困区开了一家办公室帮助生活在困难条件下的人。并且她决定收养一个失去双亲的小女孩。
伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔有很多梦想，其中一个就是为女性和儿童开一家医院。另一个梦想是建一所医学院教授女性医生，她的小姐姐艾米丽帮助了她。在多次争取医学院的努力后，艾米丽也成为了一名医生。在众多人的帮助下，布莱克威尔姐妹筹到了钱在一所重建房里开了一家医院。两名女医生的工作终于慢慢在纽约被接受。在头一年里，她们的医院仅治疗了三百名患者。第二年，增加了十倍。
伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔和穷人在一起的工作让她相信医生可以靠抵御疾病更有效的帮助他们。她开展了一个项目，医生拜访病人的家。医生告诉病人如何清理房子，以及如何制作预防疾病的食物。伊丽莎白的理论得以传播，很快，她被邀请去伦敦开设医院。她在伦敦做了一场关于疾病预防的讲话，并和她的朋友弗洛伦斯·南丁格尔合作。
伊丽莎白返回美国开设了美国第一所护士培训学校。1868年，她开设了自己的女性医学院，她教授疾病预防。这是医学院首次教授预防疾病的想法。很快其他女性医学院在波士顿和费城开设。伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔感觉自己在美国的工作已经完成。她回到了英格兰，在伦敦也开设了女性医学院。她写书并做关于疾病预防的演讲。布莱克威尔医生说死亡绝不应发生，人们绝不应遭受疾病的痛苦。她谈到了过度工作、饮食不良、房中没有阳光、灰尘的危险性和其他疾病的起因。她还告诉医生他们真正的职责是阻止疼痛和痛苦的发生。
1971年，她开设了英国国家健康学会，帮助人们了解如何保持健康。伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔一生未结婚，她的姐妹也没有。她们相信性别平等。她们也希望自己被平等对待。那时的多数男性并不接受。这种信仰也为她们的兄弟制造了很多麻烦。他们找不到信仰人人平等的女性做妻子。但伊丽莎白的两个兄弟还是结婚了。他们的妻子是著名的女权工作者。1910年，伊丽莎白·布莱克威尔死于伦敦，享年89岁。她是一位非常坚强的女性。她曾写到，她理解为什么在她之前没有女性愿意做她所做的一切。她说，坚持反抗是艰难的，但是她坚持下去了，因为她觉得这个目标非常重要。到她生命的终结，她收到了很多年轻女性的感谢信。一封信中写到，布莱克威尔医生为女性们指明了前进的道路。
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